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https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/texts/tafur.html
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Pero Tafur
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THE TRAVELS OF PERO TAFUR
(1435-1439)
Digitized from The Broadway Travellers series, edited by Sir E. Denison Ross and Eileen Power, Pero Tafur: Travels and Adventures (1435-1439), translated and edited with an introduction by Malcolm Letts (New York, London: Harper & brothers 1926)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER I: Departure from San Lucar.-The Count of Niebla.-The attack on Gibraltar.-Gibraltar.-Return to San Lucar.-Cadiz.-The Barbary Coast.-Ceuta. Malaga.-Cartagena.-The Balearic Isles.-Gulf of Lyons.-_A great storm.-The Riviera.-Genoa.
CHAPTER II: Genoa.-Litigation with certain merchants.-San Lorenzo.- Genoese possessions abroad.-The inhabitants-.A rising.-Sestri Levante. -Portavenere.-Spezia.-Lerici.-Pietrasanta.-Leghorn.-The vessel taken by the Count of Modica.-Niccolo Piccinino.-Pisa. Florence.-Pistoia. Bologna.-Pope Eugenius.-Ferrara.-Bills of Exchange.-Venice.
CHAPTER III: Rome.-Pope Gregory and the Faithful.-The walls.-The Tiber.-Castle of St. Angela.-The Vatican.-Old St. Peter's.-St. John Lateran.-Right of Sanctuary.-Sancta Sanctorum.-Statue of Marcus Aurelius.-The Colosseum.-Imperial buildings on the Palatine.-S. Maria Nuova.-S.Croce in Geruralemme.-S. Silvestro in Capite.-S. Maria Rotonda.-Trajan's column.-Triumphal arches.-S. Maria in Ara Coeli.-S. Maria Maggiore.-S. Prassede.-S. Pietro in Vincoli.-S..Anastasio alle Tre Fontane.-The miserable condition of the city.-The inhabitants.-Wild beasts within the walls.
CHAPTER IV: Rome to Viterbo.-Perugia.-~Assisi.-Gubbio.-Meeting with Count of Urbino.-Rimini.-Ravenna.-Venice.-Arrangementa far the voyage.
CHAPTER V: Departure from Vevice.-Parenzo.-Zara.-Ragusa.-Corfu.-Gulf of Patras. Isthmus of Corinth.-A monastery of Greek monks.-Modone.-Island of Cythera.-Crete.-Rhodes.-The Knights Hospitaller,-Arrival at Jaffa.
CHAPTER VI: The landing at Jaffa.- Jerusalem.-The Holy Sepulchre.--The holy places. -Bethlehem. - Return to Jerusalem. - Jericho. - The Jordan.-The pilgrims bathe and one is drowned.-Visit to Dead Sea.-Mount Quarantana.-A French squire falls off the mountain. -Trouble with an official.-Judgment and execution. Bethany.- Mount Tabor.-Tafur penetrates into the Mosque of Omar.-Second visit to the Holy Sepulchre.-Three pilgrims dubbed knights.
CHAPTER VII: Departure for Cyprus.-Rama.-Jaffa.-Beyrout.-Colchis.-Cyprus. -Nicosia.-Mosen Suarez and the late King's captivity.-Tafur is appointed ambassador to the Sultan of Egypt.
CHAPTER VIII: Departure from Cyprus.-Damietta.-Weasels and carrier pigeons.- A narrow escape.-The Nile.-Crocodiles.-Hippopotami.- Journey up the Nile to Babylonia (Cairo).-The Mamelukes.- Reception by the Sultan of Egypt.-La Matarea.-The Pyramids.- Elephants.-A Girafe.-A game of Polo
CHAPTER IX: The journey to Mount Sinai.-Trade in mummy.-The Monastery.- Tafur proposes to visit India.-Arrival of a caravan.-Nicolo de' Conti.-He relates the story of his life.-The Red Sea.
CHAPTER X: The return journey from Mount Sinai.- Nicolo de' Conti continues his relation- Prester John.
CHAPTER XI: Arrival in Cairo.-The gory of Pedro de la Randa.-.Administration of Justice.-Life in the streets of Cairo.
CHAPTER XII: Departure from Cairo.-Alexandria.-The voyage to Cyprus.-Nicosia. -.A Rising.-The King's person. Departure for Rhodes.-,A narrow escape from the Turks.-A great storm.-Arrival at Rhodes.-Death of the Grand Master.-Election of his successor.
CHAPTER XIII: Voyage to Constantinople.-Shipwreck.-Tafur is almost drowned.- A fight between Catalans and Genoese.-Two embassies arrive for the Emperor of the East.-Chios.-Troy.-The Dardanelles.- Pera.
CHAPTER XIV: Constantinople.-The EmperorJohn Palaeologus.-Tafur's family tree.-The story of the Fourth Crusade.-Tafur's reception at Court.-Departure of the Emperor for Europe.
CHAPTER XV: Adrianople.-Description of the Grand Turk.-The Black Sea.- Arrival at Trebizond.
CHAPTER XVI: Trebizond. The Usurper. Kaffa. The slave-market. Tafur purchases three slaves.-The Don.-The trade in caviare.-The Grand Khan.-The Tartars.
CHAPTER XVII: Return to Constantinople.-St. Sophia.-The Relics.-Statue of Constantine (Justinian).-.A Holy Picture.----The Hippodrome.-The Serpent Column.- A statue called The Just..-The Palace.-The Library: -The miserable condition of the city.-Summary Justice.-A feint by the Turks.-They are bought off.
CHAPTER XVIII: Brusa.-Pera.-Departure from Constantinople.-Tafur rescues some Christian slaves and is wounded.- Mytilene.-Salonica.-A great storm.-Ragusa.-Ancona.-Spalato-A sea monster.
CHAPTER XIX: Parenzo.-Return to Venice,-The fresh pilgrims.-Tafur's goods are seized and released by order of the Doge.-The ceremony of the Marriage of the Sea.-St. Mark's. treasure.-The Emperor Bar barossa and the Pope.
CHAPTER XX: Description of Venice.-The Gondolas.-St. Mark's.-The Campanile.-The government.-Provisions and trade.-Wealth of the common people. - Sanitary arrangements.- Rigorous administration of justice.-The Asenal.- A hospital for foundlings.-Scrupulous regard for money matters.-The possessions abroad.
CHAPTER XXI: Departure from Venice.-An engagement between the Venetians and the Milanese.-Ferrara.-Pope Eugenius and the Emperor of the East.-A meeting of the Council.-The Marquis Niccolo.-Parma.-Piacenza.-Milan.-Duke Filippo Maria Visconti.-The government.
CHAPTER XXII: The route for Germany.-Crossing the Alps.-The St. Gothard Pass.-Basle.-The Baths.-Schaffhausen.-Washing for gold.-Strassburg.-Precautions against fire.-Mainz.-The Rhine.- Coblenz. -Arrival at Cologne.
CHAPTER XXIII: Cologne.-The Inns.-Archbishop Dietrich von Murs.-The Cathedral.-A miracle in the Chapel of the Three Kings.-The Fair.-Journey down the Rhine.-The Duke of Cleves. -Nymegen.-Bois-le-duc.- Lila.-Malines.- Brussels.-Duke Philip the Good. -A hospitable Abbess.
CHAPTER XXIV: Bruges.-Arras.-Ghent.- Antwerp.
CHAPTER XXV: Louvain. -Bois-le-duc.-Nymegen.-Frankfurt.-Cologne.-Mainz.-The travellers are kidnapped and released.-Tafur loses his sword.-Basle.-A tourney at Schaffhausen.- Constance.-Ulm.-Nordlingen. - Kastpar Schlick. -Nuremberg. -Prague. -The Margrave.- Meissen.
CHAPTER XXVI: Breslau.-The Emperor Albert ll.-Life at court.- The King of Poland. -Breslau in winter.
CHAPTER XXVII: Departure from Breslau.-,Journey to Vienna.-Tafur is attacked by the way.-Yienna.-The Empress Elizabeth..-Buda.-Neuladt. -Duke Frederick of Austria.-The Carnic Alps.-Friuli, Treviso.-Padua.
CHAPTER XXVIII: Ferrara.-The Pope leaves for Florence.-Venice.-A great engineering feat. Vicenza.- Verona.-Florence.-The Pope and the Emperor. -Pisa.-Bologna.-Venice.
CHAPTER XXIX: The homeward journey.-Ravenna.-Brindisi.-The Straits of Messina. -The Sirens. Lipari Inlands.-Palermo.-Syracuse.-Moune Etna.-Tunis.-Sardinia.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INTRODUCTION
TAFUR's travels were first printed in Madrid in 1874, and were edited by D. Marcos Jimenez de la Espada. The full title is: Andancas é Viajes de Pero Tafur por diversas partes del mundo avidos (1435-1439), and the work appeared as vol. 8 of the Coleccion de Libros Españoles raros ó curiosos. The editor used the only known manuscript from the library of the Colegio mayor de S. Bartolomé de Cuenca in Salamanca, now in the Biblioteca Patrimonial (sala 2a. J. pl. 4). This appears to be an early 18th century copy of an earlier manuscript. It is written on 911/2 folios, and preserves the spelling, the irregular punctuation, as well as the turns of speech current in the middle of the 15th century. It also shows the condition of the earlier manuscript, indicating by dots the blanks due to omissions of words or lines, or to damage due to careless handling or age. It may be inferred that this earlier manuscript was written in two columns, that about a third of a page was missing at the top of p. 1, which contained on one side the title of the book and half the prologue, and on the other the rest of the prologue, that a few lines of the text at the beginning were illegible and that the last page of the manuscript was missing, since the narrative breaks off abruptly. Calculating the missing portion by the space given in Clavijo's Embassy to the Court of Timour, 1403-1406, to the return journey from Sicily to Spain, Tafur's account of his voyage from Sardinia to the coast of Spain would not fill more than a page. No further manuscript has since been discovered, but much interesting information concerning Tafur himself has come to light since the original introduction was written. In an article published in 1902 in the Boletin de la Real academia de la Historia (vol, xli, pt. iv) D. Rafael Ramirez de Arellano has collected facts and documents which clear up a number of obscurities. He shows that Tafur was born in Cordova, not in Seville as he told the Sultan's chief interpreter at Cairo (see p. 72), and that he was the son of Juan Diaz Tafur, a native of Cordova. He seems to have been born about1410, so that he would be 25 years old, more or less, when he set out on his travels. Returning to Spain in 1439, Tafur settled down, and some time before 1452 he married Doña Juana de Horozco, but the exact date of the marriage is not known. There was issue of the marriage, a son, who appears to have predeceased his father, and three daughters. Doña Juana's will, executed in 1490, is printed in the article above referred to, and from that document it seems clear that Tafur died about 1484. He must have spent some time revising his narrative, and there are several indications in the document itself that he was busy with it between 1453 and 1457, but he also took a prominent part in local affairs and in the political disturbances of the period. He and his son both held office as aldermen in 1479. The earlier registers of the corporation of Cordova are not in existence, but Tafur's name appears regularly in the records for that year. He seems to have taken his duties very seriously and did not miss a single session. His name does not appear after 1479, but the registers are very incomplete. His signature from a document in the city archives is reproduced at the end of the article already mentioned, a fine specimen of character and flourish.
So much for the traveller. Before dealing with his experiences in Europe and the Near East, and tracing his itinerary, it may be well to note the period in which he was travelling, for he belongs for all practical purposes to the Middle Ages. When he was abroad the art of printing was still unknown. The New World was undiscovered, and scarcely a hint of the new learning was to be observed even in Italy. It was an age of disorder and darkness, of warfare and private feuds, of poverty of mind and expression which it is not now easy to realize. It is doubtful if any thought of change was in men's minds, although the world was changing steadily before their eyes. The Eastern Empire was rocking to its fall. Tafur had barely reached Constantinople when the Emperor and the Patriarch set sail upon their last desperate effort to reconcile the Churches, and obtain men and assistance in the struggle against the Turk. The history of their undertaking can be read in Gibbon, their portraits are preserved in Benozzo Gozzoli's frescoes in the Riccardi Palace, and some account of their life and state in Ferrara can be read in Tafur's later pages; but the Patriarch found a grave in Europe, and the Emperor returned to his decaying empire with empty hands to meet the angry denunciations of his people. In Europe the Church, which was just recovering from the Great Schism, was torn in sunder by the dissensions of the Council at Basle. The Pope was an exile. Italy was harassed and at cross-purposes, a prey to petty jealousies and selfish scheming. As for the Empire, it was in the greatest fate of confusion. The Emperor Sigismund had died without heirs before Tafur returned to Europe, and Albert of Hapsburg, his son-in-law, had succeeded to his dominions. Albert was a man of ability and character, and he made a great impression on Tafur, who was his guest at Breslau, but a year later he, too, was dead, and everything was once more in disorder. Tafur was prevented, by the plague which was raging, from visiting France; had he done so he would have found the country in a state of demoralization, and sadly devastated- by the wars of the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Joan of Arc had been dead seven years; the English, having been deprived of the Burgundian alliance, had lost Paris and were shortly to be driven out of Rouen. In Tafur's own country affairs were such that they might well have kept him at home fighting with the King, his master. The prosperity and magnificence of the Court of Burgundy must have stood out in striking contrast to the misery and unrest elsewhere. Philip the Good was rising to the apex of his power, and had already laid the foundations of what was later to become the mightiest and wealthiest monarchy known to the West in the fifteenth century. Of the splendour of Philip's Court, and of the wealth and prosperity of Bruges, Antwerp and Ghent, there is ample evidence in Tafur's pages. Here, indeed, was a land of promise, but elsewhere the impression left on the reader is one of disorder, violence, suffering and unrest.
Tafur left Spain in the latter part of 1435 with at least two squires. His first undertaking was to join his kinsman, Don Enrique de Guzman, Count of Niebla, in an attack on the Moorish stronghold of Gibraltar. The attempt, which was unsuccessful, cost Don Enrique his life, and the traveller was obliged to return with the discomfited troops to San Lucar. Tafur then embarked in a ship-one of a convoy of three-which was bound for Genoa, and after visiting Ceuta he sailed for Malaga which was then in the hands of the Moors. In the Gulf of Lyons a violent storm arose which carried two of the ships far out to sea, but Tafur's vessel managed to keep to its course, and on Christmas Day 1435 he reached Nice. When the traveller arrived at Genoa he was thoroughly worn out. He seems to have had some kind of mystical experience during the storm, or it may have been the result of sheer terror, but he certainly reached land in a very devout and chastened frame of mind. He became involved almost at once in litigation with certain merchants who refused to honour his bills of exchange, but he had powerful friends, and the defaulters were brought to book. Tafur describes Genoa in considerable detail with not a few historical touches. He was there during the rising against the Duke of Milan which took place at the end of December 1435, but he was able to pass out in safety. The condottiere Niccolo Piccinino sent him into Portovenere where he took ship for Leghorn, passing on by way of Pisa to Florence and Bologna. Here he found the exiled Pope Eugenius IV, who blessed him and gave him leave to proceed to the Holy Land. We next find our traveller at Venice, but as no pilgrim ships were available until Ascension, Tafur filled up the interval of waiting by visiting other parts of Italy.
During Lent he was in Rome, an experience which must have been something of a penance in itself, for Rome in 1436 cannot have been a very pleasant place. The buildings and houses had fallen into decay: the streets, reduced in some cases to marshes or filled with rubbish, were hardly passable. A show of greatness was attempted by means of empty ceremonies and celebrations, but some idea of the actual condition of the city may be gathered from the fact that when Tafur was there wild beasts were breeding in the caves and waste spaces. The traveller picked his way through the narrow streets and busied himself with the churches and relics; he has left us, within limits, an interesting description of Old St. Peter's, but as for the antiquities, irreparable damage had been done, he tells us, by foreign kings who had sacked the city, and by Pope Gregory the Great who, seeing that the pilgrims coming to Rome for the good of their souls had their pious thoughts disturbed by the sight of so much magnificence, took upon himself to throw down what time and the hand of man had spared-a story which impressed Tafur to such an extent that he repeats it three times. Tafur now passed on to Viterbo, Perugia and Assisi. At Gubbio he resorted to an extraordinary subterfuge (the need for which I am at a loss to understand) in order to obtain an audience with Count Guid' Antonio da Montefeltro, a pious man, who treated him with great kindness, and on Ascension Day 14.36 he sailed for the East.
Life at Jerusalem at this time must have been an extremely profitable business for the infidel, as most Christians found to their cost. Like other pilgrims, Tafur paid the fees due from one of his rank, and gazed with the eye of faith upon the innumerable holy places, the Sepulchre itself, the spot called Compas, which Our Lord signified as the centre of the earth, the houses of the Virgin Mary, of Pilate and Caiaphas, the palace of David, the place where the Apostles composed the Creed, and Christ the Lord's Prayer, the tree on which Judas hanged himself, and the place of Peter's denial.: (the very stone on which the cock stood to crow was shown, although Tafur does not mention it). He visited Bethlehem, and inspected the well into which the star of the Magi fell; from Jericho he reached the Jordan, where he bathed, and where a German gentleman of the party unfortunately got.drowned, and on the shores of the Dead Sea he sampled the pleasant-looking but bitter Dead Sea fruit. When the travellers were ascending the mountain Quarantana, where Our Lord was tempted of the devil, a second mishap befell them, for a squire of France, going to the assistance of a lady, lost his foothold and, falling from a great height, was dashed in pieces on the rock below. Further trouble awaited them at the church on the site where Lazarus was raised from the dead, for here a quarrel arose with the officer in charge, who demanded tribute. This was refused, whereupon the officer and his men attacked the party and wounded some of them. The pilgrims and their guard retaliated and, capturing their assailants, carried them to a place not far off, where they found the Governor of Jerusalem, who chopped off the upstart officer's head without more ado. These events cannot be said to have damped the ardour of the pilgrims, or even to have affected their spirits. A dead squire, a decapitated soldier, or a drowned German gentleman were matters for comment possibly, but not for concern. Tafur relates the circumstances with complete detachment, and then placidly resumes his sightseeing. Job's dunghill, a considerable attraction in earlier days, seems by this time to have disappeared, for the pilgrims did not continue their journey to the Land of Uz, but returned at once to Jerusalem.
Not content with his previous adventures, Tafur now disguised himself as a Moor and penetrated into the Mosque of Omar, an extremely foolish proceeding which might well have cost him his life, for any Jew or Gentile found therein would certainly have been killed at sight. He was also anxious to visit the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, a very perilous undertaking, but a caravan had just departed and he was advised to return to Cyprus and obtain a safe-conduct to Cairo, from which place he could make the journey. Cyprus at this time was almost at the end of its greatness. Famagusta was in the possession of Genoa, and the island was under the rule of the weak and vicious Janus III, whose father had been for fifteen months a prisoner in Egypt, and whose main business in life seemed to be the raising of the heavy tribute payable to the Sultan which was his inheritance. Any one travelling from Cyprus to Cairo might be pre- sumed to be carrying treasure for the Sultan, and was therefore not likely to be molested, and Tafur had no difficulty in obtaining a commission from the King, armed with which he set out for Cairo. At Damietta he found the place overrun with weasels, and preserving contact with the court at Cairo by means of carrier pigeons. Here he had an experience which nearly cost him his life, for certain Moors accused him of being a spy, and it was probably the recollection of this escape which made him anxious on one or two occasions afterwards to conceal his identity. He gives us a remarkably accurate description of the habits of the crocodile, which he calls cocatriz, and from hearsay a less satisfactory account of the hippopotamus.
At Cairo he made friends at once with the Sultan's chief interpreter, a renegade Jew of Seville, and it seems clear that in order to secure this highly-placed official's good-will, Tafur claimed to be his fellow citizen, although there is little doubt that he was born in Cordova. In any event, he obtained a very valuable friend who received him in his house and showered kindnesses upon him. Tafur had audience with the Sultan and carried through successfully the business with which he was entrusted. Then, after seeing the sights of Cairo and visiting the Pyramids, he set off for Mount Sinai. It was a terrible experience: the travellers were gievously afflicted by sand and heat, and the journey occupied fifteen days. While there Tafur conceived the idea of journeying on to India. He discussed the project with the Prior, who told him that a caravan from the East was due in a few days and advised him to await its arrival before making any plans. When it came it brought with it a very famous traveller, Nicolo de' Conti, whose fame in after years was second only to that of Marco Polo. Here again Tafur thought it necessary to descend to subterfuge, for when they met he told de' Conti that he was an Italian. De Conti quite obviously did not believe him, whereupon Tafur, perceiving him to be a grave and discreet person, allowed the truth to be known. De' Conti persuaded Tafur to desist from his proposal and entertained him with the story of his adventures. Not being on oath, as he was later when he was beguiling the Papal Secretary, Poggio, he added a number of highly coloured details which Tafur swallowed with the greatest relish. Tafur returned with the caravan to Cairo, the trials of the journey being entirely forgotten in the delight of listening to de' Conti's narrative, and from Cairo Tafur visited Alexandria. He then returned to Cyprus to give an account of his stewardship. He was extremely well received, and had the climate been better, it is probable that he would have taken service there, and we should have lost the rest of a very valuable narrative of travel. Tafur now sailed for Rhodes and very nearly lost his life. His ship was attacked by Moors, who sank the cargo boat which was following and drowned the crew. Tafur's vessel slipped away in the darkness, but it was a near thing. At Rhodes he found the Grand Master dying and was able to witness the election of his successor. The ceremony is described in detail and should be of great value to any future historian of the Order. Another adventure awaited the traveller in the island of Chios, for here he suffered shipwreck and was left for some time in the water, clinging to a piece of wreckage, and it was only with great difficulty that he could be rescued. He then visited the site of Troy, and finally reached Contantinople some time in November 1437. Tafur believed himself to have been descended from the Emperors of the East; and immediately on arrival he sought audience with the Emperor, John VIII Palaeologus, and endeavoured to unravel the mysteries of the family tree; but the Emperor, who was reigning in something like subjection to the Turks, had other things to think of. He was just setting out for Europe on an attempt to, unite the Churches and to obtain supplies, and he endeavoured to persuade Tafur to accompany him. But this was not at all what the traveller had in mind, and he set out at once for the Turkish headquarters, to see the Grand Turk, Amurath II, himself. He was well received, and took careful note of the Potentate's state and person. He describes him as serious in aspect, about forty-five years of age, of a goodly stature and handsome - a description which contrasts oddly with that of another traveller, who calls him a little, short, thick man, with the physiognomy of a Tartar! We next find the traveller at Trebizond as the guest of John IV Comnenus, who had only recently murdered his father and buried him with great pomp. He had further taken an infidel to wife, and was altogether not the kind of person to appeal to an orthodox Spaniard; so Tafur left him to his fate and sailed for Kaffa, the chief base of Genoese trade in the Black Sea, and the greatest Catholic colony in partibus infidelium. It was a busy, bustling place, larger than Seville, and full of strange sights. Here were merchants bartering with strangers from the Far East, for silks and spices, gold and jewels, furs, skins, and queer, unfamiliar beasts from the unknown; for Kaffa was on the great commercial route from the Bosphorus to the Don and the Volga, and was thus in direct communication with China and Central Asia. In the slave market Tafur purchased a man and two girls, whom he carried back with him to Spain. He visited the headquarters of the Grand Khan and seems to have entertained the idea of penetrating farther into Tartary; but wiser counsels prevailed, and he returned to Contantinople and civilization.
The picture of Contantinople preserved in Tafur's pages is a very sad one. The streets were dirty and neglected. The Imperial Palace was half ruined, and the people were vicious, badly clothed and poverty-stricken. Continuously threatened by the Turks, neglected by the West, its majesty decayed and its life eaten up with corruption, the city's greatness was nothing but a memory. Tafur visited and described the churches and holy places, but without much enthusiasm. Even the serpent column failed to move him. Possibly he did not know its history. Had he done so he might well have paused before a monument which, alone amidst disruption and decay, seemed still to hold some fading memories of the glory that was passed, and which was so soon to witness another as in the age-long struggle between East and West. Even while Tafur was there the Turks made a feint of attacking, and had to be bought off with presents, but the time for presents was almost over. Twenty years later this city of the Caesars and the Church, most gallantly but hopelessly defended, passed into the hands of the infidel. Tafur now sailed for Venice and turned his attention to Europe. During the voyage he persuaded the ship's captain to land a boat in the Dardanelles to rescue some Christian slaves, and in the fighting which ensued he was wounded. Nor was his wound healed until he reached Basle. Once more he was nearly wrecked, and there is a very human touch in his remark that had he reached the mainland instead of an island, nothing would have induced him to put to sea again. He landed safely in Venice on Ascension Day 1438, just two years after he had set out. Here he encountered other Spanish pilgrims who were sailing for the Holy Land, and after a dispute with the Customs authorities, who had confiscated his goods and slaves, he settled down to explore the city. Most of us would give a good deal to have seen Venice in the fifteenth century, and Tafur's enthusiasm is very catching. He witnessed the "Marriage of the Sea," informed himself on matters of government and history, and was delighted with the gondolas. The city, he tells us, was as clean and pleasant as a large room. It was well paved and bricked, so that in winter there was no mud, and in summer no dust. The sanitary arrangements were primitive in the extreme, but spices and sweet-smelling scents could be purchased everywhere, and the people carried them constantly in their hands to counteract the evil odours. Tafur visited the arsenal, and saw ten galleys completely fitted out while they were being towed past the windows of the storehouses. Every article was handed out of its special window and stowed away, and by the time the boats had reached the end of the dock they had on board their full complement of men and stores, and were equipped from end to end and ready for the sea. It is not claiming too much to say that Tafur's description of Venice is one of the most important that has come down to us. Tafur now left his goods at Venice and set off in earnest upon his European travels. At Ferrara he encountered the Pope and the Emperor of the East (the latter was suffering from a bad attack of gout). He attended a sitting of the Council, shaved off his beard, dined at the Emperor's table and relates in distressing detail the tragic domestic upheaval which deprived the reigning Marquis at once of his wife and heir. At Milan he contrived to have speech with Filippo Maria Visconti, who as a rule denied himself to every stranger. Then, crossing by the St. Gothard Pass, he reached Basle, where the remnant of the Council was still sitting. At the Baths he was healed of his wound and watched the ladies disporting themselves in the water, as Poggio had done before him. He then passed down the Rhine, which he describes as the most beautiful stretch of river in the world, to Cologne. Here he was received by the Archbishop, Dietrich von Mors, who showed him the sights, the castles, monasteries, and churches, and introduced him to the great people of the city. The cathedral, still unfinished, must have looked much as it does in Memlinc's shrine of St. Ursula, but every- one was talking of a wonderful miracle which had happened a few days previously in the chapel of the Three Kings. A large stone had fallen, whilst it was being lifted, directly over the spot where the bodies were lying, whereupon the whole chapel took one step to the right, and the stone fell upon the ground, leaving the sacred bodies uninjured. From Cologne the traveller passed on to the Low Countries, visiting Malines and Brussels, where he was most graciously received by Duke Philip the Good. The small boy running to and fro was Charles the Bold, whose ex- travagant schemes of conquest and whose tragic death were later to break up his dominions, and throw his people into the arms of Austria and Spain. Tafur gives an interesting picture of the magnificence of the Court of Burgundy. He was received by the Bastard of St. Pol, one of the foremost soldiers of his day, and such grandeur and pomp Tafur had never seen before. The town was filled with great folk. Every day there were pageants, tourneys and feats of skill. The Duchess was beautiful and gracious beyond compare, and as for the Duke, he was a most noble prince, of great virtue, very handsome of face and. figure, and, moreover, as gallant of manner as might be. Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp all greatly impressed the traveller. Indeed, his descriptions of Bruges, still almost at the height of its prosperity, and of its harbour at Sluys, are by far the most detailed and valuable which have so far been discovered.
A curious adventure now befell the traveller. He was journeying along the Rhine, in company with a number of prelates who were returning to the Council at Basle, when in the neighbourhood of Mainz they were seized by a nobleman, who had his own views of the proceedings of the Council, and all were carried off to an adjoining castle. Here they suffered the closest confinement for fourteen days, although the hospitality shown them was lavish. Indeed, we gather that Tafur had to sit up night after night, drinking and carousing with his captors, until his digestion was seriously impaired. At last the prisoners were set at liberty, but now came the crowning scandal. Tafur had been disarmed by a knight specially imported for the occasion, and the base fellow had mislaid his sword. The outraged nobleman blazed and thundered, invoked the heavens, and poured forth his wrath upon his captor and all his household. Finally, as he was shaking off the dust from his feet preparatory, it would seem, to returning to Spain to fetch an army and lay waste the lands of the miscreant Duke, a retainer rode up with the trusty sword, and all was well once more. Tafur now made his way in the direction of Prague to pay his respects to Albert II, the King of the Romans. He was not there, but was found eventually at Breslau, on the very outskirts of civilization, where the travellers arrived at Christmas, 1438. Tafur was received with great respect. Albert paid him every attention, finding partners for him at the Court ball and holding the candle to him on several occasions, and eventually investing him with the Order of the Dragon. It was not without difficulty that Tafur could obtain licence to depart; but at last he was suffered to do so, and, carrying with him a silver bowl as a present, he set out for Vienna in company with a party of knights. The journey was a very trying one, and the cold was so intense that Tafur's teeth almost fell out of his mouth. At a short distance from Vienna Tafur left the main party and proceeded alone with his servants. They were attacked almost at once by two noblemen, with intent to rob if not to murder, and it was only due to their excellent horses that the travellers contrived to escape. Later that day, while Tafur was supping at his inn, who should ride up but the selfsame marauding noble men. Tafur at once demanded an explanation, which was readily given. They were loth to have caused him any inconvenience, they said, but they were poor noble men, and how could they exit if not by violence and robbery ? Tafur pointed out that he, too, was a noble man and poor, and was, moreover, a stranger in the midst of them. The gentlemen of the road thereupon humbled themselves and craved pardon, suggesting, very naively, that they should depart and rob someone else in order to pay the expenses of Tafur's entertain- ment at the inn! It says much for our traveller's good nature, and his views of the sacred obligations of knight- hood, that attackers and attacked were soon seated at the same table eating their meal together at the charge of the latter. At Vienna Tafur paid his respects to Albert's con- sort, Elizabeth, the daughter of the Emperor Sigis- mund. She instructed certain of her gentlemen to entertain him, and once more invested him with the Order of the Dragon, stating that the Order was at her disposal alone, as the daughter of the Emperor, and that her husband had no authority to bestow it, a nice point of domestic precedence which was no doubt hotly debated between the spouses. A lady of Eliza- beth's force of character, who, a year later, widowed and desolate, could steal the sacred crown of Hungary and cause it to be set on the head of her newly born son, was not likely to give up readily any dignity which attached to her in right of her house. Travelling now by way of Buda and Neustadt, where he encountered the future Emperor and father of Maximilian, Frederick III, Tafur crossed the Carnic Alps and came once more to Ferrara. The Pope and the Emperor. of the East were just about to depart for Florence, and we have a striking description of the Papal progress, or rather flight, for Piccinino's troops were patrolling the roads. Tafur then travelled to Venice in time to witness one of the most marvellous engineering feats of any age, namely the transporting of 25 barks and 6 galleys across the Tyrolese Alps to the Lago di Garda. He paid a flying visit to Florence, and finally took ship for his own country, where he arrived in March or April 1439. What are the main features which stand out from this really extraordinary narrative? Chiefly, I think, the commercial instincts of the traveller, his businesslike methods, and his vivid and intimate descriptions of the great trading centres of Europe and the Near East. Tafur, for all his claims to Imperial descent and his views on the obligations of his rank, was more interested in trade than in anything else. As for the cities he visited, they were well walled and ditched, as large as Valladolid, or Seville, or Cordova. The comparisons hardly ever vary, but place him in a commercial centre such as Kaffa, Pera, Venice, Bruges, Ghent or Antwerp, and his interest is awakened at once. That he was well supplied with this world's goods is clear, but one suspects that his ancestors made their money by trading. At a time when many of the nobility could scarcely sign their names, Tafur had been trained to write with fluency and effect. He had correspondents all over the world upon whom he could draw bills at sight. He remarks again and again upon the benefits of the system, and applauds especially the honesty of the Venetians, who would pay a fellow-trader's debts rather than allow him to default. Prof. Pirenne in the index to his Histoire de Belgique by a strange slip refers to Tafur as a Spanish merchant. Possibly he was not so far from the truth. One feels that our hidalgo could have written an excellent treatise on bills of exchange.
Tafur was not lacking in personal courage. Much fighting had familiarized him with death. He risked his life in the Mosque of Omar; he effected a very gallant rescue of Christian slaves in the Dardanelles; he could speak his mind with almost foolhardy directness to the usurping Emperor of Trebizond, and he told the Sultan's chief interpreter at Cairo in no uncertain terms. what he thought of his master's ideas of justice. Added to this Tafur always makes light of his own misfortunes and never grumbles. His outlook is quite simple and human. There is something rather moving in his avowal, after the terrors of a storm at sea, that until then he had not known God. He saved the life of a boatswain who should have been hanged at the yard-arm, and his conduct at Sluys, where a poor woman offered him her two daughters for a little bread, stamps him as a very courteous and gallant gentleman. Like other travellers he tells us much that is valueless, and at times omits the very things we desire most to know, but his style, though stilted, has warmth and colour, and we could ill spare his pictures of life long since passed away.
Of the people he met he was undoubtedly most impressed by the Turks, the Venetians, and the Flemings. France he did not visit. England, except for two or three stray references, might never have existed.
PROLOGUE
HERE begins the prologue addressed to the most noble and virtuous Señor Don Fernando de Guzman, Chief Commander of the Order of Calatrava, composed by Pero Tafur upon the treatise which he wrote of his travels and voyages in different parts of the world.
The state of knighthood, O most virtuous Señor, had ever a beginning, but is, indeed, more lasting than any other virtuous office, for the exercise thereof is more appropriate to the noble, and virtue itself is the chief and surest foundation of nobility. A man may be called noble so long as he follows the customs of his predecessors, who not departing from deeds of virtue, gave promise of the continuance of prowess, thus deserving to become the leaders and rulers of men . . . . From the practice of travelling into foreign lands a man may reasonably hope to attain proficiency in that which prowess demands. Thus hidalgos may grow stout-hearted where, being unknown, they are beset by hardship and peril, striving to show themselves worthy of their ancestors, and by their own deeds to make their virtues known to strangers. Moreover, if by good fortune they escape the perils of the way and return to their native land once more, they may from their experience of different forms of government, and the contrasting qualities of various nations, acquire knowledge of what is most conducive to the public weal and the establishment thereof, which should be the chief endeavour of him who would avoid the name of enemy to what is noble. Therefore, for these and other reasons, and especially in view of the truce between our lord the King Don Juan and the Moors, our natural enemies, I having both time and opportunity to visit various parts of the world, set forth upon my journey for the attainment of these ends . . . .
I would fain refine that which is gross, and being of your house and lineage, and likewise knowing that such compendiums and writings are agreeable to you, and serve to refresh you after the troubles and anxieties inflicted on your gentle spirit by these restless times; therefore, my most noble Señor, be pleased to read my work and hear the hardships I have suffered in various parts of the world. Accept with love this humble present, in which, knowing, as I do, your true nobility; you will, I trust, find some diversion; the more so since he who sends it has sought and will ever seek with lasting devotion to do you pleasure.
[TAFUR'S SIGNATURE FROM A DOCUMENT PRESERVED IN THE ARCHIVES AT CORDOVA.]
CHAPTER I: Departure from San Lucar.-The Count of Niebla.-The attack on Gibraltar.-Gibraltar.-Return to San Lucar.-Cadiz.-The Barbary Coast.-Ceuta. Malaga.-Cartagena.-The Balearic Isles.-Gulf of Lyons.-_A great storm.-The Riviera.-Genoa.
WE set sail and left the harbour of San Lucar de Barrameda. I travelled in a ship of Galicia, as I had already made preparations for my departure and had no horses and other things necessary for a land journey. That day and the night following we sailed on, and doubling Cape Trafalgar we entered the Straits, and at daylight we reached the promontory of Carnero at the entrance to Gibraltar. We anchored close to the town and saw there a great number of ships and a galley of the King, all of which had come with the Count of Niebla. We found that the Count was encamped about half a league from Gibraltar with 1200 horsemen and 5000 foot soldiers, and his son was there with him. I disembarked and went to see the Count, and he was delighted to meet me, and marvelled how I had been able to come, in view of my recent illness. He took counsel with his knights and told them the reason for his being there, which before had been kept secret. The undertaking was to be as follows. He had been told that in Gibraltar there were not ten Moors who were fighting men, whereas to defend so great a fortress not even a thousand would be sufficient, and that it could be taken by assault. He proposed to muster his horsemen at the entrance which is on land, while he with his men-at-arms launched an attack close to the dockyard, on the side of the mountain where King Alfonso entered. His son Don Juan was to march against the tower of Tuerto, which is on the mountain. This was to be from the sea. Meanwhile the Biscayans with their ships and the galley were to attack the Casal de Ginoveses which is at the very summit of the mountain.
So he ordered everything, and the next day after Mass each one went to his station. We then set out and drew near to the town, and at low water we all disembarked and moved towards the wall, but that day we did not carry up our artillery, because this was only a test to see how many men were there to defend the place. Nevertheless, as soon as we came up to the wall, fifteen or twenty of our men were killed at once. And we were so occupied that we did not observe how the tide was rising, and we were soon up to our knees in water. As we could do nothing, not having brought our artillery, the Count gave orders to sound the retreat to the sea. The men retired to the boats, but the Count remained behind collecting the others. As he was making for the last boat, with ten or twelve knights who had remained on shore with him, it became clear to the enemy that only a small party was left, and that the others had withdrawn without any orders having been given to cover the retreat with cross-bows and artillery, and that all were taking to the water, and that the last boat was leaving. The Moors thereupon dashed out with horsemen to the number of twenty, with as many foot-soldiers, and as they came up at. a gallop, the boat, which was small and heavily laden, capsized, and the Count and all those with him were drowned. Meanwhile the other engagements were proceeding, and the rest of the men had as much work as they could do, except the horsemen on the shore who had no one to fight with. So very sadly, with the loss of so noble a leader both on sea and land, we returned to Castile to San Lucar from which place we had set out. Gibraltar is a very strong fortress and famous all the world over. It stands at the mouth of the Straits where the Atlantic Ocean joins the Mediterranean Sea, and it is a very fruitful place. The town commands the entrance to the mainland which is very narrow, and it is about a league from there to the top of the rock. It is very well walled, with orchards, vines and excellent water, and it lies very low on the edge of the sea. Behind it stands the rock which is so high that it seems to reach to the clouds. It rises straight up, and although it looks formidable from the west, it is seen to greater advantage from the east. The harbour, which is very secure, is made by an arm of the sea which runs inland as far as Algeciras, three leagues distant, and the whole way is good anchorage. Leaving there, we sailed through the Straits in view of Cape Tarifa and past Cadiz and other places on the coast, and entered the harbour of Barrameda at San Lucar, where they received us with less lightness of heart than at our departure. I then collected the things I had prepared and put myself aboard a carack owned by Geronimo de Voltajo, who had come from Genoa with two other ships belonging to Esteban Doria and Geronimo Doria, and they had troops to defend them for fear of the Catalans, and most of the Genoese who were in Seville sailed in them, for they carried great riches. We left the harbour of Cadiz and came to the coast of Barbary, to a town called Arzila, where we had to discharge and take fresh cargo. This town is close to the Cape of Espartel. It belongs to the King of Fez and had then as governor a Moorish knight, called Calabencala. It is a very fruitful place, but abounds more in animals and fowls than in anything else. We remained there three days. Then we set sail and entered the Straits of Gibraltar, and at the hour of Vespers we espied two large ships which we took to be the Catalans, and we turned back and anchored off Tangier, but they passed by on their way to Cadiz. The next day we departed and came to Ceuta, where we, learned from a Biscayan vessel that those two caracks belonged to the Genoese fleet, and that they came from Genoa to accompany the three of us. We anchored at Ceuta and disembarked, and hailed a sloop and sent letters to Cadiz saying that the caracks should await us there, or that at least they would find us at Malaga, where we had to discharge and take fresh cargoes. That day we remained at Ceuta, and I went about inspecting the city and its surroundings which appeared to me to be very excellent. It showed itself to have been a great place and, without doubt, if the King of Castile owned it and caused it to be embellished, it would, in view of its situation, be one of the most notable places in the world. The soil is generally fruitful, although it is rugged and the country mountainous, but there is a good harbour and much land, and fruit and water are abundant. What is left of the city is sufficiently strong. There is on one side on the mountain a rocky place surrounded by a wall, called El Alminan, which would be very remarkable if it were what it ought to be. In these mountains of Ceuta there are more lions than in any other part of the world, and porcupines, apes, panthers, bears and pigs without number. They say that it is doubtful if there is any place so high and mountainous on the African side. This is said to arise from its nearness to the Weft on the side of the Straits (sic).
We departed from Ceuta, and leaving Africa on the right hand, and having Europe on the left, we sailed through the Straits and entered the open sea, and continued along the coast until we anchored on the shore of Malaga, a city belonging to the King of Granada. There the merchants landed and discharged their cargoes and took others. We remained there nine days, and while we were there those caracks arrived which had passed us, and put their men on board our ships and took in merchandise, and returned to Cadiz for more to take to Flanders. During those nine days we had nothing to do but to admire the city of Malaga which impressed me favourably, both as regards its situation, though it has no port, and its soil, though there is a scarcity of bread; but what there is is good. And there is no shortage of orchards and fruit. The city is flat, for the most part walled, with a castle on either hand and a walled passage running from one to the other which they call Gibralfar. It is full of trade, and if it belonged to us it would be better. But all kinds of merchandise would have to go in from our country, which would never be suffered in any place held by the Moors. The sea flows up to the walls, in such wise that a fleet of galleys could throw out landing stages on to flat land. For the part towards the sea is very low-lying, although it is well defended on its landward side. There are many people there, but rather of the merchant class than skilled in war. After nine days at Malaga the Genoese collected their goods and armed the ships and set them in order or they had to coast from headland to headland along the country of the King of Aragon. Sailing onwards, we followed the coast of Granada, past Salobreña, Almuñecar, and Almeria, until we reached Cartagena which is in our country. We entered the harbour, and remained there one day, awaiting news of the Catalans. It is one of the finest harbours, in my judgment, in the world, and the town is excellent. We departed and sailed along the coast of Aragon, by Elche and Alicante, until we came near to Valencia, and there we had advices to leave the coast and take to the open sea. The next day, leaving the coast, we came close to the island of Iviça, belonging to the King of Aragon. So continuing our route, leaving Cataluña and Barcelona on the left hand, we passed the islands of Majorca and Minorca, which belong to the King of Aragon, and entered the Gulf of Lyons, which is so called as one goes out from it, but at the going in it is called the Gulf of Narbonne.
One day at Vespers such a violent storm arose that we ran before it all that night, and the next day we were far away. The two large caracks were driven under bare poles towards Sardinia, and it was two months before we had news of them, but our ship, which still had its main-sail, although but little of it remained, kept close to the island of Titan, as they call it, off the coast of Provence. This day and the following night we were in constant peril and had much labour, but we ran on and the next day we came to Nice. It was Christmas Eve, and we anchored there and repaired our sails. We then departed and came to Savona, a pleasant city, belonging to Genoa, and remained there for Christmas Day. The following day we set sail, and keeping close inland we passed along the sea-shore, forty miles from Genoa, which is the most beautiful sight in the world. To one who does not know it, the whole coast from Savona to Genoa looks like one continuous city, so well inhabited is it, and so thickly studded with houses.
CHAPTER II: Genoa.-Litigation with certain merchants.-San Lorenzo.- Genoese possessions abroad.-The inhabitants-.A rising.-Sestri Levante. -Portavenere.-Spezia.-Lerici.-Pietrasanta.-Leghorn.-The vessel taken by the Count of Modica.-Niccolo Piccinino.-Pisa. Florence.-Pistoia. Bologna.-Pope Eugenius.-Ferrara.-Bills of Exchange.-Venice.
WE entered the harbour of Genoa close by the Mole, and were very cheerfully received both by men and women, but they were very sad at the fate of the caracks, as no one knew what had become of them. We disembarked, but before entering the city we went half a league from there to the church of Nuestra Dona que Corona, according to the vow which we had made during the storm. I then took a lodging for the fifteen days that I had to remain in Genoa, and, indeed, I had need of repose, for I was overcome with fatigue, and unhappy, and sea-sick, and quite out of conceit with myself, and this was the first time that I began to know God. For some days I was engaged in litigation with certain merchants who would not honour some bills of exchange which I had. But the Doge and many of the lords of the place showed me much honour and favour, and made the merchants pay me what was mine, with double the costs which they had put me to. This city is very ancient. They say that it was founded by Janus Prince of Troy, after the destruction of that city, and, indeed, it seems to have been the work of a defeated man, for it is placed upon a very high mountain above the sea, and all the houses are like towers of four or five storeys or more, while the streets are very narrow and difficult of access. The soil is very unproductive, but the people are industrious , and they import provisions from all parts of the world, so that the city is as well supplied as if the land were fruitful. There is an excellent harbour, as well as a mole with a tower and lighthouse, which burns all night, and on the other side of the harbour there is another very high tower, also with a light, so that the entry to the harbour may be known to everyone. All this has been made at great cost. The monasteries are very notable, as are also the churches. The great church is called San Lorenzo, and it is very remarkable, particularly the porch. They keep in it the Holy Grai1, which is made of a single emerald and is indeed a marvellous relic. This city with all its patrimony is ruled by the people, and by their industry and wisdom they have acquired many cities and towns and castles on the mainland, and many islands in the sea. They own Chios and Mytilene, and in the island of Cyprus they own the city called Famagusta, which they took when they captured the King of Cyprus and carried him to Genoa, both him and his wife. The father of this present King was born there in the Pharos tower, and was called Janus, as he was born in Genoa. They also own Pera, a city which adjoins Constantinople, and a city called Kaffa at the end of the Black Sea, as large or greater than Seville, and in the Sea of Azov they have fortresses, and others in Turkey.
The nation is very powerful at sea, its caracks in particular are the best in the world, and had it not been for the great dissensions which the people have had amongst themselves, their dominion would have extended throughout the world. The inhabitants are very industrious and without vice, nor are they addicted to sensual pleasures, for which the nature of the country is unfavourable. They are very wealthy and orderly. In matters of dress they see to it that if anyone is more richly clad than is necessary, he or she is taxed. They are of a very beautiful complexion, but not handsome of face, although both men and women are well grown, and they value the women by size: the tallest has the smallest dowry. Widows do not take a second husband, and if they do they suffer in their reputation. In the troubles which the people have had, the Duke of Milan entered the city as ruler with one of the factions, and while I was there the people rose against the Duke and killed one of his captains who was stationed there, who was called Pacino de Alciato, and they destroyed his castle which was near the city. There they showed me the dreadful prison, in which were kept those knights who had been taken by the Kings of Aragon and Navarre. In the sea at Genoa there are few fish, and those very small. Without doubt, if the men of other nations were such travellers throughout the world as are the Genoese, and were so long separated from their homes, the chastity of their wives would be much endangered. But here they value their morals so highly that a woman is hardly ever taken in adultery. If such a thing occurs the penalty is always death.
I departed from Genoa and travelled along the coast, which is thickly inhabited, to Sestri Levante, and from there I came to Portovenere. On that day the people had risen against the Duke of Milan and the King of Aragon, the Duke having given the place to the King. It is an excellent port, with an island in front of it which affords it great protection. The town is very strongly fortified with two castles, the first at one end and the second at the other. From there we sailed to Spezia, a large town belonging to Genoa, and thence to Lerici, a great fortress of the King of Aragon. We next came to Pietrasanta, and at the hour of Vespers we arrived outside Leghorn, the port of Pisa. The Count of Modica had arrived there from Naples with fourteen galleys, and he took our ship and sent to the galleys all those Genoese who had come in it. To me, on the other hand, he showed much honour, and desired me to depart at once, but certain Catalan knights informed him that I should be in great peril from the armed men in those parts, who were in the pay of the Count Francesco, a man much in favour with the Genoese who was now captain of. the Florentines. The Count heard from me how that the town of Portovenere had risen against the King of Aragon, and that Nicolao Pichilino was there with his men, and I returned with him to Lerici. We found the castle in safe keeping, but the town was in revolt, and the rebels plundered it and attacked Spezia and Portovenere by land and sea, but they could not take them, although they laid waste the countryside. The Count of Modica and Nicolao Pichilino then sent me into Portovenere, and gave me four Genoese prisoners to ensure my good treatment. When I arrived at Portovenere, where I was known, I found a vessel and sailed in it for Leghorn, and entering the river of Pisa I arrived at the city. It is possible at high tide for galleys to reach the walls. Pisa was at one time very powerful and rich, and had many possessions, not only on the land, but among the islands, but now the Pisans are subjugated to the Florentines, whose masters they were. Leaving Pisa I came to Florence, ten leagues from that place, travelling through a very fruitful country and by large villages which had, however, been much depopulated in the Pisan wars. Florence is a city both great and rich, and exceedingly beautiful within and without. It is situated in a plain with extensive suburbs on either side. A river runs through the centre which reaches to Pisa. But I will not write much of this city, as I shall speak of it later.
From Florence I crossed the Alps to Pistoia, passing through many villages, and came to Bologna, where I found Pope Eugenius, and here I was received with great honour by the Castilians who were there, by the prelates as well as by the knights who bore me company when I craved licence from the Pope to go to Jerusalem. This he gave me readily with his blessing. He gave me also a Bull of plenary absolution at the hour of death. I remained there fifteen days, resting myself and watching the festivities with which both noblemen and citizens diverted themselves. It was the middle of winter, when the people are accustomed to amuse themselves and celebrate their weddings. The city accounts itself part of Lombardy. It is very large, well populated, and supplied with all the necessities of life, for which reason it is called Bologna the Fat. The houses and streets are most remarkable; the inns are excellent and the churches and monasteries very fine indeed. Among the latter is the monastery of St. Dominic the Preacher, where the body of the Saint is buried. This blessed one was a native of Castile of the lineage of Guzman on his father's side and of those of Ana on his mother's side, and the Master Don Luis de Guzman, being of the same lineage, sent to his majordomo, Pedro de Guzman, who was am bassador to the Pope and attached to the embassy of King Juan, desiring him to visit the place where St. Dominic was buried and to expend a certain sum of money there, which he gave him for the purpose, and he did so. I saw the chapel and grave, now very richly adorned, but formerly much neglected, and round about are sculptured and painted the arms of Guzman, which that good knight, Don Luis de Guzman, Master of Calatrava, had ordered to be set up. A small river runs through the city which improves it very much, and there are a hundred sluices with mills; some grind wheat, others spices, some scour arms, others make paper, saw wood, and spin silk, and in this manner they make use of the water. On one side of the city is a castle, the wall of which is made of sods of earth, which is very strong against shots from bombards. Here is also one of the most famous universities in the .world, where all sciences are studied, and students of all nationalities and great men are continually working there. The city belongs to the Church.
While at Bologna I sold my horses, and placed myself and my goods and people on board a boat, and travelled to Ferrara, all the way by that river of which I have spoken. It is very narrow so that only one boat can travel at a time, and if two boats meet one of them has to be hauled ashore. The river freezes each night, and the villagers have boats, the keels of which are shod with iron, and at night they go up and down the river, breaking the ice with poles which are pointed with iron, and thus they make a waterway for travellers. The children go about singing, "good sport," which is to say: " May there be a good frost" By this river we reached the Po, one of the greatest rivers in the world, and one of the four arms which descend from the German Alps, and travelling along the Po we came to the city of Ferrara. I there presented myself to the Marquis, lord of the city, and remained three days. I then left by the river and came to Francolino, and continuing still by the river, I arrived at the place where it enters the sea which is one day's journey.
I reached Venice at Vespers, leaving on the right hand and on the left many churches and monasteries and inns, all placed in the sea in the same way as Venice itself, and as soon as I had landed I went to see the church of St. Mark, which is on the water's edge, and worshipped there, after which we went to an inn called the Sturgeon, a very notable hostelry, where we lodged the day and night following. The next day, after Mass, I enquired for the exchange of Messer Sylvestro Morosini, on whom I held bills. I found him speedily, and he accepted the bills and paid me the money. This is a matter in which nothing on earth will make them delay, for though all merchants in every part of the world make use of bills of exchange they are more eager than any for fair dealing. I spent the day with him and with Carlo Morosini, a merchant who had been in Seville and had for a long time rented mines there. I had been great friends with him in the house of Master Don Luis, and therefore he received me very kindly and made me free of his house, where I resided all the time I was in Venice.
While there I enquired concerning my journey to Jerusalem, and learnt that it was not possible to set out for three months, as the pilgrim boats were not accustomed to leave until Ascension Day, which is in May. I desired to spend the intervening time in visiting the Christian world, including the courts of the Emperor and the King of France, but the merchants, my friends, with whom I took counsel, advised me to leave this until after my return from Jerusalem, and that in the meantime I should travel in Italy, which was well worth while, and as Lent was approaching I could spend it in Rome. I could then go on to Naples and see the King of Aragon, all which I could accomplish, and still have twenty days and more before my boat sailed. This seemed to me to be excellent counsel, and I followed it. I, therefore, set out to visit Italy, and saw many cities and towns, villages and fortresses until Lent, when I came to Rome. But Pope Eugenius was at Bologna, as I have said, having been driven out of Rome by a faction which had taken arms against him, intending to murder or capture him, and he escaped by boat by the Tiber and went to Pisa, and thence to Florence and Bologna.
CHAPTER III: Rome.-Pope Gregory and the Faithful.-The walls.-The Tiber.-Castle of St. Angela.-The Vatican.-Old St. Peter's.-St. John Lateran.-Right of Sanctuary.-Sancta Sanctorum.-Statue of Marcus Aurelius.-The Colosseum.-Imperial buildings on the Palatine.-S. Maria Nuova.-S.Croce in Geruralemme.-S. Silvestro in Capite.-S. Maria Rotonda.-Trajan's column.-Triumphal arches.-S. Maria in Ara Coeli.-S. Maria Maggiore.-S. Prassede.-S. Pietro in Vincoli.-S..Anastasio alle Tre Fontane.-The miserable condition of the city.-The inhabitants.-Wild beasts within the walls.
I STAYED at Rome during the whole of Lent, visiting the sanctuaries and ancient buildings, which appeared to me to be very wonderfully made, but not only am I unable to describe them, but I doubt whether I could appreciate them as they deserved. Therefore I may be pardoned, such is the grandeur and magnificence of Rome, if I fall short in my account, for I am not equal to so great an undertaking in view of the extent to which these ancient buildings have been destroyed and changed, and are decayed. Nevertheless, to all who behold them it is clear that they were once very magnificent, in spite of the tumults which they witnessed after the beginning of the downfall of Rome, in the discords between the princes who were her citizens, the destruction wrought by powerful kings who fought against her, and the hand of time which consumes everything. Moreover, Pope St. Gregory, seeing how the faithful flocked to Rome for the salvation of their souls, but that they were so astounded at the magnificence of the ancient buildings that they spent much time in admiring them, and neglected the sacred object of their visit, the Pope, I say, sent orders to destroy all or the majority of the antiquities which had survived from ancient times. The circuit of the city is very great, the walls being twenty-four miles round, that is eight of our leagues. They are so built, and of such height, that they appear to be fresh from the hand of the master-builder, and where they are broken down, there the tyrants entered the city from time to time, for the work is such that they defy wilful destruction. Small wonder, then, that they have survived, having been left as the ancients built them.
Through the middle of the city runs a river, which the Romans brought there with great labour and set in their midst, and this is the Tiber. They made a new bed for the river, so it is said, of lead, and channels at one and the other end of the city for its entrances and exits, both for watering horses and for other services convenient to the people, and anyone entering it at any other spot would be drowned. On either side of this river there are many mills which make the city all one [sic]. On one shore of the Tiber is a castle standing on a mound, which has been piled up so high that it has become a mountain, and it is fortified with a very high wall and many brave towers. It is called the Castle of St. Angelo. It stands above the bridge over the Tiber on the way to St. Peter's, where is the seat and place of the Apostles. They say that there was once a great plague m Rome which lasted for a long time, and it was revealed to Pope Gregory that he should go in procession to a church at one end of the city, called S. Agata in Suburra, where was an idol which was worshipped by the heathen, and even in secret by Christians, for some parts of the heathen rites had survived. As the Pope arrived in procession at the church and came to the idol, a noise like thunder burst from it and it fell in pieces. The Pope, beholding this marvel, made his procession, and as he was returning very devoutly to St. Peter's by the bridge below that castle, an angel appeared in the sight of all with a drawn sword in his hand, all bloody, which sword he cleansed on his mantle and placed in its sheath. This was held to be a sign that God was appeased, and did not desire that more should die. In this manner was idolatry put down, and the castle from that day onwards was named the Castle of St. Angelo. It is so called to this day, and the figure of an angel is set up on it. It was in view of this miracle, and of other mighty and wonderful things which took place in Rome, that Pope Gregory, as I have related, destroyed many of the ancient buildings because they drew the attention of the pilgrims from the holy places, but he did not destroy all, and those who go there to-day, if they desire to see beautiful things, still seek them out before anything else.
The Pope has his dwelling adjoining the church of St. Peter on the slopes of the Aventine Hill. This is the place where formerly they used to secure the liberty of Rome (and in like manner they have now to secure the Faith, of which the Pope is constituted defender, against any heretics who desire to overthrow it), and here the Emperors remain several days before they are crowned, as if encamped against the Church's enemies. Afterwards they receive the crown of gold, with many ceremonies of which I cannot give an account. The Pope's dwelling is a mediocre place and when I was there it was ill-kept.
The church of St. Peter is a notable church, the entrance is very magnificent, and one ascends to it by very high steps. The roof is richly worked in mosaic. Inside, the church is large, but very poor and in bad condition and dirty, and in many places in ruins. On the right hand is a pillar as high as a small tower, and in it is the holy Veronica. When it is to be exhibited an opening is made in the roof of the church and a wooden chest or cradle is let down, in which are two clerics, and when they have descended, the chest or cradle is drawn up, and they, with the greatest rever- ence, take out the Veronica and show it to the people, who make concourse there upon the appointed day. It happens often that the worshippers are in danger of their lives, so many are they and so great is the press.
A little further on there are two large columns encased in wood, where they put those who are pos- sessed by spirits, and from these pillars it was that Our Lord preached to the people in Jerusalem. In front of them is the rope with which Judas hanged himself, which is as thick as a man's arm or thicker.
In the high altar are the bodies of St. Peter and St. Paul, and there is here a very great indulgence on a certain day, plenary both for sin and punishment. Here is also the chair in which St. Peter sat, and the Pope seats himself in it when he is elected. It is well, indeed, that strangers look on it with devotion, for it is neither rich nor kept with reverence.
There are many other sanctuaries in this church. On the other side of it is a high tower made of one piece of stone, like a three-cornered diamond raised upon three brazen feet; and many, taking it for a holy thing, creep between the ground and the base of that tower. This was a work undertaken in honour of Julius Caesar and assigned for his burial, and on the top of it are three large gilt apples in which is the dust of the Emperor Julius Caesar, and certainly it is a noble edifice and marvellously ordered and very strange. It is called Caesar's needle, and in the middle and at the base, and even at the top, are a few ancient letters carved in the stone which now cannot well be read, but in fact they record that the body of Julius Caesar was buried there. And around this are many other edifices now much ruined.
The city of Rome is very sparsely populated considering its size. It is the opinion of many that now that it is thrown down and depopulated, there issues from the ruins of the great buildings, and from the cellars and cisterns and houses, and from the deep vaults, now uninhabited, such poisonous air that it affects human bodies, and therefore it is said that Rome is unhealthy. But when it was well populated it was the contrary. Even now it seems that in the places where it is most closely inhabited the people find better health, as in Campo dei Fiori, which is a large district, and Campidoglio, another large district, and in the Ghetto, which is like a great village. But all the rest of the city is but thinly-scattered houses.
The first church established among Latin peoples was the church of St. John Lateran, from which the Holy Fathers draw their title and of which they are bishops. Both in it and around it there are very singular things to be seen. This church, so it is said, was the house in which Rome kept her treasure, and there is the Tarpeian Gate, which Caesar opened when he took out the treasure, and which until that hour had always been closed. When the Emperor Constantine was converted to the Catholic Faith and gave the patrimony of the Empire to the Church, and endowed it, he begged Pope Sylvester to issue a Bull in respect of that gate for the souls of those who should pass it, in like manner as previously the gate had been a place of sanctuary for those who took shelter there. For if one came as a fugitive and reached the Tarpeian Gate, whatsoever crime he had committed, he could not be taken thence, and this out of reverence for the treasure which lay therein. The Pope at first ordained that all who entered should be absolved from sin and punishment, but because many boldly committed sin with intent to be absolved by passing through the gate, the Pope ordered it to be closed, and to be opened once only every hundred years. Later, the period was reduced to fifty years, and now it is as the Pope is pleased to ordain. In this church are the heads of St. Peter and St. Paul, a very great relic and a great indulgence for sin and punishment when they are exhibited, in the same manner as the Veronica in the church of St. Peter.
Beside this church is a chapel apart, which they call Sancta Sanctorum. In it is a picture of Our Lord, showing Him from the girdle upwards, painted on a stone. They say that Our Lady begged St. Luke, who was a famous painter, to paint this picture after the death of her Son, and he consented and painted it. It is, indeed, an object of the greatest devotion, and a very suitable remembrance of Him who had, and still has, power to do all things. It shows well the figure of Our Lord, His age and colour and all that He was, and there is a mole on the left cheek as an emblem of His humanity. It is the most revered object, and the greatest relic in Rome. Four men armed with iron maces guard it continually hour by hour, and on one day in the year, the feast of the Virgin, in the middle of August, they take out the relic, and protected by men-at-arms, and amidst much rejoicing, they carry it in procession and take it to the church of S. Maria Maggiore, where it rests that day and night, and the following day they return it to its place. There is plenary indulgence for all who are there at that time. No women are allowed to enter the chapel, for the reason, as they say, that a woman once uttered such things that she burst asunder. At the door of this chapel are two bells, said to be the first which were ever made in the world.
The election of the Pope takes place in the church of St. John Lateran, and here the various ceremonies are observed and he receives the triple crown. There are also many relics of St. Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine, which were sent by him when he was in the Holy Land. The church is large, but not rich nor well built, nor clean, nor richly adorned. Outside in a large square are many buildings and ancient memorials. Here is the statue of that Mucius who caused the siege of Rome to be raised, and thinking to kill the king killed his favourite, for which he condemned himself, and suffered his right arm to be burnt. He is seated on a great horse of gilded brass, and both the figure and the horse are clearly the work of a master. Round about the square are many and diverse things, figures in stone, and marbles and stones with ancient inscriptions cut upon them.
Close by is the Colosseum which was, so they say, unmatched in the whole world for size and magnificence, and although most of it is in ruins the greatness and the marvel of its building may well be seen. It would take long to tell how the Romans kept this Colosseum, and with what reverence, and of the statue they had there, which was so great that its feet stood on the ground and its head reached to the highest point of the roof. The right arm was raised and held a large apple in the hand, which is now on the door of St. John Lateran. This, they say, was meant to signify that the whole world was in his hand, and from it is said to have been derived the custom of carrying an apple before the Emperors. They say, further, that this statue was once surrounded by figures of all the kings and princes in the world, each having a chain round the neck fastened to the feet of that great statue, and when it was known that any king or, prince was rising against Rome, they threw down his image and issued decrees commanding war to be made upon him. However this may be, the Colosseum shows that it was once a very magnificent and sumptuous building.
Near at hand are the palaces of Octavian Augustus, which, they say, he built and fortified because he was told by one of the Sibyls that when the Virgin should bring forth a child his statue would fall, and this was upon the advent and birth of Our Lord, and his palace fell, and it is said that even now every year, on the day of the birth of Our Lord, some portion falls. Here there is a large mound like a hill, and it well appears that this mound was made by the fall of some very large edifice, and one can see many marbles, large stones, and other things which show well what it must have been. There is also a notable monastrery of the Order of St. Bernard, which is called S. Maria Nuova. There is in Rome a church, which they call S. Croce in Gerusalemme, where is preserved the title which was set up above Our Lord's Cross, which reads IHS NAZARENUS. All this church, with the floor and the walls and everything else, was made from earth of Jerusalem brought as ballast in ships, when St. Helena sent the holy relics to Rome, and here there is plenary indulgence for sin and punishment. There is also another church called S. Maria Rotonda, which was formerly the place where the Roman people held their council. It is supported on great columns and is covered with lead, and one day in the year there is plenary indulgence. Another church belongs to certain nuns, where is the head of St. John the Baptist and there is also plenary indulgence on his feast-day. Close by is a great column made of a single stone, which was erected in memory of the Emperor Trajan, who came from Castile and was a native of Pedraza. He gave Rome its laws, which are used to this day by the Romans and by ourselves, as well in warfare as in the direction of public affairs. There are also three or four or more triumphal arches, which the Romans set up in honour of victorious men, among them one which was made for Julius Caesar, a very notable work.
Another church is called S. Maria in Ara Coeli, beneath which is a large vaulted chamber, in which, at times, the Romans held their council, and where Julius Caesar was murdered by the hands of Cassius and Brutus. Close by is the church of S. Maria Maggiore, where, on a certain day in the year, there is plenary indulgence, and at the door, in a great square, there is a column of porphyry, the worth of which cannot be estimated, and there are also many relics in this church. Adjoining is the church of S. Prassede, in which is the half of the column at which Christ was scourged, and there is also the body of the Blessed St. Jerome, on whose day there is plenary indulgence. The church where St. Peter was incarcerated is called S. Pietro in Vincoli, where is also plenary indulgence. Beyond the walls is the church where St. Peter and St. Paul were beheaded, in which are certain springs of very healing water, and here also there is plenary indulgence. Close by is the monastery of St. Paul, a very notable fraternity of the Order of Preachers; also with indulgence.
There are in this city many other things and sanctu aries, plenary indulgences, and wonderful buildings, which it would take long to describe. And since those who came with intent to visit the sacred places spent their time in admiring the ancient buildings and ruins, Pope Gregory ordered them, or the greater part of them, to be destroyed, so that the pilgrims should turn their minds from such matters to the holy places. He could not, however, completely destroy them, and it is apparent what these things, or some of them, must once have been. Here were the sepulchres of Romulus and Remus, the first builders of Rome, as well as many statues of men and women, placed there as a perpetual memorial of their deeds. Rome, which used to be the head of the world and is now the tail, has lost nothing in her ceremonies of what she was when she held the whole world in subjection, but such is now the miser- able condition of the city that it is a shame to utter it. They say that in order not to forfeit their place as head of the world, which once they held, the citizens on a certain day in the year make formal protest to the Pope, proclaiming that they are still ready to subdue the world as of old, that they have not lost their rights, but that the Pope has despoiled them of their own. This formal protest is made on Shrove Tuesday. Would to God that they were able to rule themselves, and were not, as the Italians say of them, a worthless people, given over to every vice and abused by all.
I found no one in Rome who could give me any account of those ancient things concerning which I enquired, but they could, without doubt, have informed me fully as to the taverns and places of ill-fame. It is said that the people never dine in their houses even by a miracle, and, indeed, their dress and bearing, both indoors and out, show clearly what they are. I say this of the majority, for doubtless in such a multitude there must be some who are virtuous. It is said, further, that Rome, though depopulated, has more inhabitants than any Christian city in the world, but there are parts within the walls which look like thick woods, and wild beasts, hares, foxes, wolves, deer and even, so it is said, porcupines breed in the caves.
There are two statues in Rome, and it is related of them that once there was a dispute between the plebeians and the nobles, the former demanding to know why, since they were all sons of one father, namely Adam, and consequently having Eve for mother, the nobles should take precedence of them. And the plebeians said in a sculptured inscription: Cum pater Adam nobis sit, mater Eva, cur igitur non sumus nobilitate pares? The nobles thereupon made answer: Degenerant omnes viciis, fiuntque minores, exaltat virtus, nobilitantque mores. Therefore, it is said, the nobles have greater jurisdiction, and, moreover, that this was the reason why the law was made that no plebeian nor woman could hold the office of consul, which law was broken later when Gaius Marius, according to Sallust was proposed in the Senate.
CHAPTER IV: Rome to Viterbo.-Perugia.-~Assisi.-Gubbio.-Meeting with Count of Urbino.-Rimini.-Ravenna.-Venice.-Arrangementa far the voyage.
I DEPARTED from Rome and came to Viterbo, a very pleasant city, where there are warm water baths, which are said to be sovereign against all infirmities, and they say that on the request of his private physician, the Pope sent orders to destroy them, and it is not known now what manner of diseases they cured, but it is believed that some little time since they were found to cure dropsy. The holy body of St. Rose is here. We left Viterbo and passed certain cities called Narni, Terni and Spoleto, and arrived finally at Perugia, a famous city, where was born Bracchio, that great captain, and Sforza, father of the present Duke of Milan. All this country is so thickly inhabited that cities, towns and castles seem all joined together. I left Perugia for Assisi, where St. Francis and St. Clare were born, and where their bodies now lie. It is a notable city. In it are eight or ten monasteries, both for men and women, of the Order of the blessed St. Francis, the principal monastery being in the chief square. I went to lodge in it, having found there a servant of our Cardinal of Castile who was a great friend of mine, and I remained three days resting myself. They say that the body of St. Francis is buried there in a place which they show, but the truth is that no one knows the exact spot, not even those in the monastery, except the Pope, one cardinal, and a brother of the monastery, to whom the Pope confides the secret. The monastery is very notable and very richly adorned Departing thence I set out for Gubbio which belongs to the Count of Urbino of the House of Malatesta, but by the way I came upon armed troops placed there by Count Francesco, who at that time was making war on the Pope and had occupied many places, and I was advised to send my horses from Assisi with a man well known there who was going to see the Count, and that I should be wise to go on foot, which I accordingly did, and after walking for two days and a half I reached Gubbio, a great city belonging to the Count. I found then that the Count was going forth on foot in pro- cession to greet the Cardinal of Colonna, his wife's brother, and nephew of Pope Martin, and I saw him coming, surrounded by clerics and singing with them, and thus they met the Cardinal and received him most honourably. I presented myself to the Count and made my reverence, and begged him, for the love of God, to assist me, as I was a poor man who had come from Rome and was going to Jerusalem; but my men remained behind, as I had told them not to come with me. The Count took me aside, but first he asked me whence I came. I said: "From Spain." He then enquired if I was of gentle birth, and I said, "Yes": whether I was a knight, and I said, "Yes." He then desired to be informed how I had come and of what I had need. I informed him of my coming, and that I had arrived on foot, further, that I had need of nothing as I had sufficient for my journey, but that I had come in this guise in order to see him and have speech with him Thereupon he embraced me closely and said: "Even against your will you shall be assisted here to the best of my ability," but I replied that I could under no circumstances accept anything so long as I had what was needful, for so I had resolved before departing from my country. He made me, however, remain there two days to rest and enjoy myself, after which he called a squire and ordered him to accompany me through his dominions as far as Rimini, which is a port and a possession of his, and that he was to bear all my expenses. Further, that at Rimini he was to provide me with a ship and with all necessaries for my journey to Venice. At parting the Count took me by the hand and led me to his room and told me to take whatever I had need of, and he gave me of his own shirts and woollen garments and towels, of each three pairs, and was much distressed because I did not want to accept anything else, and he said farewell to me very humanly as if we had been equals. He charged me much to remember him in my prayers and to come and visit him on my return. But this good Count is now dead, and they say that he died very piously and has been canonized as a saint. In Gubbio there are many relics, among them the finger of the right hand of John the Baptist, with which he pointed when he said: ecce agnus Dei. I departed with that squire and came to Urbino, which belongs to the Count, and remained there a day, after which, in two days, we arrived at Rimini, a great city, also the Count's, and I stayed there two days. The squire prepared a boat for me and victualled it, and paid all charges as far as Venice, and as I parted from him he said: "Sir knight, the Count, my Master, ordered me to give you a hundred ducats: see, here they are." I bade him thank the Count greatly for his kindness and liberality, but said that I had sufficient for my needs, and that on my homeward journey, if I was in difficulties, I should certainly crave assistance from him, and that I should shortly return. I begged him, further, to kiss the Count's hands for me, and thus we parted.
I now embarked on board my ship, and we set sail and arrived the following day at Ravenna, a very ancient place and large, although not well populated. There we found a good wind, and at Vespers we reached Venice, where I was well received by my friends the merchants, and found the money I had left there at my departure in good hands. I took up my quarters in the house of my friend Carlo Morosini, and spent thirty days or more there until Ascension Day, which falls in May, the month when the ships, especially the pilgrims' galleys, have leave to depart. During the intervening time I made my customs with the galley-master, as the custom is, for my passage and provisions, with a supply of preserves for morning, afternoon and evening, the cost for the outward and return journey being thirty-five ducats for each person. But since I proposed to stay at Jerusalem, I paid for myself and my two squires the sum of sixty ducats, that is twenty ducats for each of us. I passed my time at Venice very pleasantly and restfully, at small expense, and each day I went about seeing many remarkable and delightful things. Every hour there came news from all countries of the world, for the sea-borne traffic is very great, and ships are continually arriving from all parts, and if one desires to have news of any place it is only necessary to enquire of the ships.
CHAPTER V: Departure from Vevice.-Parenzo.-Zara.-Ragusa.-Corfu.-Gulf of Patras. Isthmus of Corinth.-A monastery of Greek monks.-Modone.-Island of Cythera.-Crete.-Rhodes.-The Knights Hospitaller,-Arrival at Jaffa.
ON Ascension Day, after receiving the blessing, we departed and set sail at noon, and took the left side of the gulf towards Esclavonia [Dalmatia], the greater part of which is Venetian, and all along the coast there are many safe harbours and islands and ports for taking in provisions. The next day we came to a town called Parenzo, and from there we sailed for Zara, a town of the Venetians. Thence we reached Ragusa which is under the dominion of the Emperor. All this time we kept passing islands belonging to Esclavonia, some populated and some uninhabited. The country is very mountainous and bare; and the inhabitants are the tallest I have ever seen, but what a barbarous people they are! In these parts are bred the best falcons in the world, except the Norwegian, and it is said that silver is to be found in many places.
We continued our voyage along the Gulf, passing Valona, a large city, which had recently fallen into the hands of the Turks, and then, leaving Esclavonia, we sailed by Albania, which is part of the same coast, and left Italy and the Cape of Spartivento on the right hand. The Gulf of Venice runs for 800 miles between Italy and Esclavonia, and at the end of it is the island of Corfu, which the Venetians call their door, although Venice is in fact 800 miles away. On the right hand is that part of Italy called Apulia and the Tierra di Lavoro, and, on the left, Esclavonia, formerly called Dalmatia, and a great part of Albania. The island of Corfu is inhabited by Greeks. Not long ago King Ladislaus of Naples took it and held it with the intention of capturing Jerusalem, of which he called himself king, and it is said that in his necessity he sold the island to the Venetians who now possess it. We remained there two days, waiting for a favourable wind, and on the third day we departed, sailing for Modone, which is in Greece. This day we passed the Gulf of Patras on the left hand, and much enjoyed the sight of it. Here the city of Corinth is situated, a very ancient place with magnificent buildings, now much depopulated. This gulf strikes inland, and with the other gulf which enters from the other side it forms the peninsula of Morea, which in ancient times was called Achaia. It is governed by the Emperor of Constantinople, and is the patrimony of the eldest son whom they call Despot of Morea. These two gulfs eat so far into the land that they say there is not a space of two miles between them. An Emperor of Contantinople once wished to make the peninsula into an island, but he changed his mind on the advice of his counsellors. Nevertheless, he enclosed it with a very strong wall which can be seen to this day.
On the fourth day we came in sight of the city of Modone. Six miles before we reached it we passed a small island, on which is a notable monastery of Greek brothers of St. Basil, whom the Latins call monks, and since the wind had dropped, and I desired to see the monastery, I asked the master to put me ashore, and I carried some fish with me, since by their rules the monks are never allowed to eat meat. They received us very joyfully and showed us their house, and soon afterwards we departed. The inhabitants of the island told us that the monks live a very holy life there. The monastery is called Stanphane. That day we arrived at Madone, which lies between that island and the island of Sapienza, and there we cast anchor and landed in order to provision the ship, and to enable the master and the passengers to transact certain business there, for they were Venetians and the place belongs to Venice. There are 2000 inhabi- tants, and the sea encloses it on both sides. It is well walled and sufficiently strong, but flat. I saw there numerous gardens supplied with all kinds of fruit, and the soil is very productive, like that of Andalucia. Lodging is good, the language is Greek, but the place is governed from Venice. Six miles away is Corone, which lies in the other gulf of which I spoke. It is a large town and a powerful fortress. Here also Greek is spoken, and it is likewise under the seigniory of Venice. The Venetians have these possessions in Morea because they are vital for their trade. The people are very wealthy, for these places are the ports of discharge for Greece and the Black Sea for all classes of merchandise. We remained there six days. Then we sailed towards Candia, which was anciently called Creta, where once King Agamemnon reigned, who led the Greeks against the Trojans. We left the Archipelago on the left, which is full of islands both populated and uninhabited, and among them I saw the island of Cythera, which the Greeks call Cetril. Here it was that Paris seized Helen and carried her off to Troy. I saw also a mighty rock which is very smooth, but which rises to a great height. In the midst of it is a cave, two hundred fathoms high and more than that in depth.
From Modone to the island of Crete the distance is 350 miles, which we compassed in two days and, two nights, after which we arrived at the harbour of Candia, and because the Latins of Crete know only the city of Candia they call the whole kingdom by that name. The islands is very fertile and well supplied with excellent towns and fortresses. The language is Greek, and the government is from Venice. Each year a Duke is sent as governor, and since, not long ago, the islanders rose against the Venetians, who had to send and recapture the place, an ordinance was issued that in a certain part of the island nothing should be sown, nor should the cattle be allowed to multiply. This was done to decrease the prosperity of the people, since everything is so abundant there. The city of Candia is very large, with many great buildings. They say that three miles away is that Labyrinth, made by Daedalus, with many other antiquities. The city is well built, with beautiful gardens and much water. The harbour is remarkable, with an excellent mole made artificially. There are also many wind-mills. At a certain period of the year such multitudes of falcons pass over the island that they can hardly find anyone to buy them. We remained there three days, and then sailed for Rhodes, leaving the Archipelago and numerous islands on the left hand. The distance from Candia to Rhodes is 300 miles. On the third day we reached the island, and found there certain galleys and ships belonging to the King of Aragon, but we armed ourselves and displayed our pennons for Jerusalem, and when they saw these they left us at once and sailed away.
The city of Rhodes is flat, but fortified with a moat and wall, and on one side is a place apart where the Knights Hospitallers of Jerusalem have their residence, which is called the Collachium, and in it is the Hospital from which they take their name. It is one of the most magnificent houses of piety which I have ever seen, and, indeed, in the matter of building and embellishments and supplies it could not be improved. The Knights receive anyone who is sick, and a patient dying there is absolved from sin and punishment, and even for those who visit the Hospital there are certain indul- gences. This Hospital is situated just as one enters the Collachium on the left hand, and it was built by Don Anton de Fluvian, Grand Master of the Knights, who was a Catalan by birth. From there we went to see the city, passing many streets and houses of the Knights, among them certain hostels where foreigners eat and have their places of meeting, each nation apart from the others, and a Knight has charge of each one of these hostels, and provides for the necessities of the inmates according to their religion. At the end of the Knights' quarter, on the left hand, is the church of St. John, to which they constantly resort to say their office, and where they hold their council. In this church there are many relics, including, so they say, the basin in which Our Lord washed His hands, and a large share of the money for which He was sold, some of the thorns, a nail of the Cross, and many others, and when they elect the Grand Master, the Knights swear on these relics that, truly and without favour, they will elect the one most worthy to hold that office. In front of this church is the house of the Grand Master, an ordinary dwelling and not rich. There the Master is attended by twelve Knights, called companions, who take counsel with him and eat always at his board.
Every day throughout the year the Knights have to give food to twelve poor people and serve them with their own hands, except when they are occupied with the sick or are absent. There is another hostel which is for the reception of pilgrims for Jerusalem, and here they lodge every one according to his station, and everything is provided except food. There is also a church where certain chaplains are charged with the duty of saying Mass for the pilgrims, and all this is done to keep them from the common inns. The Knights visit them there, and anyone who desires to take a guest with him may do so with leave of the Marshal. The island of Rhodes is reasonably well supplied with bread and wine, and with gardens.
Most of the gardens are for the service of the Master's table, and he portions them out among the twelve companions who are with him. There is also a fortress in the island called Judigo. Much might be related of this noble company of Knights, but I leave them now to speak of other things.
We departed from Rhodes and sailed past Castelrosso, an island off the coast of Armenia, a very strong fortress belonging to the
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https://magazine.atavist.com/american-hippopotamus/
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American Hippopotamus
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"Jon Mooallem"
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2013-11-28T04:29:19+00:00
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A bracing and eccentric epic of espionage and hippos.
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en
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The Atavist Magazine
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https://magazine.atavist.com/american-hippopotamus/
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A bracing and eccentric epic of espionage and hippos.
By Jon Mooallem
This is a story about hippopotamuses, as advertised, but it’s also a story about two very complicated and exceptional men. These men were spies. They were also bitter enemies. Each wanted to kill the other and fully expected to feel really good about himself afterward. Eccentric circumstances—circumstances having to do with hippopotamuses—would join these men together as allies and even dear friends. But then, eventually, they’d be driven into opposition again.
Whatever strange bond these two men had, they were loyal to it. They were like repulsive magnets: Some fundamental property of each was perfectly opposed to the core of the other. And yet, somehow throughout their long lives—as several volatile phases of American history tumbled along in the background—they also had a way of continually snapping back together. One of these men was a humble patriot, known for his impeccable integrity. He tried to leave detailed, reliable accounts of what he did and thought and felt. The other, I discovered, was a megalomaniac and a pathological liar.
This is a true story, and a very serious one, even though it’s composed of many details that will seem ludicrous and impossible. Most of those details are irrefutable, though. And while I worked hard to verify the rest, doing so occasionally proved futile. I’d like to try and explain why.
These two men will seem larger than life, but they lived at a time, a hundred years ago, when, I would argue, life in America seemed larger than life—when what was unimaginable still felt feasible and ideas that looked ridiculous could still come true.
That said, this is the story of one idea that looked ridiculous and didn’t come true. The idea was ridiculous. But it was completely reasonable, too.
All I can say is, try to keep that in mind.
The Most Complete Human Being Who Ever Lived
Frederick Russell Burnham didn’t like public speaking, but he arrived at the Maryland Hotel, in Pasadena, California, on the night of September 19, 1910, determined to communicate a few clear and uncontroversial truths.
Burnham was 49 years old—a frontiersman and soldier of fortune who’d spent his life leaping into conflicts with American Indians and colonial wars in Africa. He looked bronzed and weather-beaten, like a living monument to those campaigns, and though small—he was only about five foot four—his presence was imposing. He was a compact strongbox of a man. One admirer would describe him as “emphatically a man’s man: able, active, alert.” The impression he gave was immediately one of “force and self-control.”
Burnham had risen to fame as a scout—an esteemed breed of solitary wayfinder and spy with no exact analog in contemporary warfare. Scouts slinked into enemy territory to gather intelligence or cut supply lines, or roamed the no man’s land around camp to keep watch. They were disciplined, self-sufficient, preternaturally competent. Their proficiency in the wilderness seemed almost supernatural at times, and Burnham, who’d earned the nickname King of Scouts, exemplified their character and prowess.
“He has trained himself to endure the most appalling fatigues, hunger, thirst, and wounds; has subdued the brain to infinite patience, has learned to force every nerve in his body to absolute obedience, to still even the beating of his heart,” wrote the journalist Richard Harding Davis. “He reads ‘the face of Nature’ as you read your morning paper.” Another writer described Burnham’s life as “an endless chain of impossible achievements.”
People who met Burnham tended to comment on the same disarming quality of his eyes. The novelist H. Rider Haggard called them “steady, grey blue eyes that have in them a far-away look such as those acquire whose occupation has caused them to watch continually at sea or on great plains.” They were eyes that absorbed every inch of the periphery, even as they bored deep into your own—eyes, one woman noted, “of startling keenness and brilliancy, eyes that see everything without seeming to see.” She remembered sitting with friends under a great sycamore tree in California while Burnham spun tales of a certain African siege. The scout paused at one point and said casually, “We’ll kill that snake when I finish the story.” No one else had noticed the rattlesnake that had slithered in silently behind them as he spoke.
He was “a man whose senses and abilities approached that of a wild predator,” one writer explained. He could go two and a half days without sleep. He could fix a pistol’s broken mainspring with a bit of buffalo bone. It was said he could smell water from afar, and very seldom drank alcohol and never smoked, for fear it would dull his senses. Commanding officers described him as half jackrabbit and half wolf, or as “a man totally without fear.” But ultimately, the most impressive thing about Burnham may have been his reticence to talk too much about his conspicuous impressiveness. (Years later he would prepare two versions of a prologue for his memoirs and label them “Boastful” and “Non-Boastful.” The “Boastful” version was hardly boastful, and the last paragraph of the “Non-Boastful” version began: “If mine seems a rather boastful recital, I shall apologize.”) One acquaintance would call him “the most complete human being who ever lived.”
Burnham had come to the hotel in Pasadena to address the Humane Association of California at its second annual convention, a banquet hall full of do-gooders, dedicated to the prevention of cruelty to animals. The Humane Association had quickly become one of California’s most powerful civic organizations, and Burnham—now part of an eccentric brain trust that was getting its own innovative animal project off the ground—knew that the philanthropists in the room might be valuable allies. He didn’t necessarily respect them, though. Privately, he mocked humane societies as small-minded and sentimental—full of romantics who’d rush to save flies from murderous spiders. It was foolish, Burnham felt, to “fritter away our money and time on silly, emotional things as proposed by so-called animal lovers” at a time when America roiled with so many substantial opportunities and terrors.
Burnham was here at the Maryland Hotel to call these animal lovers to a higher purpose, to gather them behind an idea. It was a grand and sparkling idea, an idea with momentum. The idea was already making its way through the U.S. House of Representatives in the form of a bill, introduced by one of Burnham’s partners, the Louisiana congressman Robert Broussard. Theodore Roosevelt, a friend of Burnham’s, had been so impressed with the idea a few years earlier that, newspapers reported, he’d pledged “his hearty approval and promise of cooperation.” Days before the speech in Pasadena, Burnham had gone to Denver to meet with the former president and secured his endorsement all over again. The New York Times called the idea “practical and timely.” Editorials around the country claimed that the idea’s time had come, or that it couldn’t come soon enough.
The idea was to import hippopotamuses from Africa, set them in the swamplands along the Gulf Coast, and raise them for food. The idea was to turn America into a nation of hippo ranchers.
The Meat Question
“I do not think this importation idea can be laughed down,” Congressman Broussard had insisted to the press. And truly, to anyone who appreciated common sense—who loved to see logic, like a bicycle chain, pushing a wheel smoothly forward—the idea was nothing short of gorgeous. Hippopotamuses, it turned out, could solve a number of problems for the country, all at once. For starters, they constituted a blubbery, elegant fix to what newspapers had taken to calling the Meat Question.
America was withering under a serious meat shortage at the time. Beef prices had soared as rangeland had been ruined by overgrazing, and a crippled industry struggled to satisfy America’s explosively growing cities, an unceasing wave of immigrants, and a surging demand for meat abroad. There were more mouths to feed than ever, but the number of cows in the country had been dropping by millions of head a year. People whispered about the prospect of eating dogs. The seriousness of the Meat Question, and the failure to whip together some brave and industrious solution to it, was jarring the nation’s self-confidence and self-image. It was a troubling sign that maybe the country couldn’t keep growing as fast and recklessly as it had been. Maybe there were limits after all.
Now, though, someone had an answer. The answer was hippopotamuses. One Agricultural Department official estimated that an armada of free-range hippos, set moping through the bayous of Florida, Mississippi, and Louisiana, would easily yield a million tons of meat a year. Already, Representative Broussard had dispatched a field agent on a fact-finding mission. The man, a native of southern Africa, found the Louisiana swamps “wildly dismal and forbidding.” (The “silence strike[s] one with an almost unforgettable horror,” he wrote in his report, titled “Why and How to Place Hippopotamus in the Louisiana Lowlands.”) Still, the place was perfect for hippos. His conclusion: “The hippopotamus would find no difficulty living in Louisiana.”
Apparently, the animals tasted pretty good, too, especially the fatty brisket part, which could be cured into a delicacy that a supportive New York Times editorial was calling, euphemistically, “lake cow bacon.” (“Toughness is only skin deep,” another reporter noted.) Congressman Broussard’s office was receiving laudatory letters from ordinary citizens, commending his initiative-taking and ingenuity. Several volunteered to be part of the expedition to bring the great beasts back.
In other words, in the encroaching malaise of 1910, it was easy to be gripped by the brilliance of the hippopotamus scheme, to feel hippopotamuses resonating not just as a way of sidestepping catastrophic famine, but as a symbol of American greatness being renewed. Burnham’s generation had seen the railroad get synched across the wild landscape like a bridle and the near solid swarms of buffalo and passenger pigeons get erased. America had dynamited fish out of rivers, dredged waterways, felled and burned forests, and peeled silver from the raw wreckage of what had once been mountains. The frontier was now closed. So much had been accomplished and so much taken. It was clear that a once boundless-seeming land did have boundaries, and with those limits revealed, you couldn’t help but feel like you were drifting listlessly between them. There was a sense in the country of: Now what? And, lurking beneath that: What have we done?
For Burnham, though, this moment was only a chance for the country to pause and regather itself, then start over, with more wisdom this time. “Let us not make the same mistakes again,” he would tell the Humane Association that night in Pasadena. “This nation has reached a stage in its development where we should take stock of our assets and make full use of them in an intelligent manner.” So much of the continent had been left “lonely, silent, devoid of life in any useful form,” and, Burnham believed, “the hour of time is at hand when we can make use of it. It is within our power to people it with useful and beautiful animals.”
In short, the same industriousness that had allowed America to snatch up the continent’s natural resources and snuff out its beauty could be deployed now, more pragmatically, to restock it. Yes, the hippo idea sounded crazy. But as a glowing editorial in Washington Post noted, “Proposals which at first may look odd and chimerical to the mass of our readers will be seen to be matter-of-fact propositions when they become familiar.” And if we’d learned to swallow raw oysters and suck the meat out of crabs, the paper argued, why couldn’t we also embrace “that plump and pulchritudinous beast which has a smile like an old-fashioned fireplace?” The reasons it might look impossible were fickle and foolish. Burnham understood that the most restrictive boundary America was running up against was psychological—a scarcity of courage and imagination, and not really just meat.
The introduction of hippos would signal an awakening, a kind of national maturation: proof that, as Burnham put it, “we have passed from the destructive to the constructive period of our national life.” Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine was even more stirred by their promise: “This animal, homely as a steam-roller, [is] the embodiment of salvation,” it wrote. “Peace, plenty, and contentment lie before us; and a new life, with new experiences, new opportunities, new vigor, new romance, folded in that golden future when the meadows and the bayous of our Southern lands shall swarm with herds of hippopotami.”
The master of ceremonies at the Maryland Hotel that night was the Reverend Robert Jones Burdette, an avuncular Baptist minister known nationally for his early career as a newspaper humorist and touring performer. (Burdette, it was said, had delivered his comedic lecture “The Rise and Fall of the Mustache” more than 3,000 times.) All night he introduced speakers with poems and little jokes. But when announcing Burnham, all of Burdette’s corniness fell away. The reverend seemed suddenly stiffened, stilled—like the air before an electrical storm.
“I am going to introduce to you a man who knows the cruel edges of war,” he began. “Who has seen the keen blades sweep together as they clashed like the grim shears of Atropos, severing the throbbing threads of human life, smearing the golden sands and the emerald grasses with the darkest stains that ever discolored the pain-distorted face of God’s beautiful world. A soldier. A scout whose name has filled both hemispheres with stories of his daring and loyal service. The rider of the bad lands between the lines, who trusts his own knowledge some, providence a great deal, and the sound legs and good horse sense of his steed perhaps most of all in some blood-freezing emergencies.… I am honored, in being permitted to present, as our next speaker, the only man in America who [knows] the darkest shades of darkest Africa.… Major Frederick R. Burnham.”
The scout surveyed his audience. He readied himself to speak.
“I am by nature an optimist,” he said.
Guts
Frederick Russell Burnham was born in southern Minnesota in 1861. One night the following year, his parents watched from their isolated log cabin as the night sky turned red in the distance. The nearby town of New Ulm was burning. Chief Little Crow was leading the Lakota on a raid, killing hundreds of people, including children, during a conflict known as the Dakota War. Burnham’s father, Edwin, a Presbyterian minister, rushed off to the town of Mankato to gather powder and bullets to protect the family.
One evening while Edwin was away, Burnham’s mother, Rebecca, was brushing her hair in the doorway when she saw a band of Lakota slip out of the forest. Knowing she wouldn’t be able to evade them with her child in tow, she hid the boy—not yet two years old—in a heap of newly shucked corn, too green to catch fire. She told him to keep perfectly still. Then she took off, vanishing into the cottonwoods toward a neighbor’s house six miles away. At dawn she came back to find that the Indians had burned the cabin, but her son was still alive. He’d stayed motionless in the corn—stashed away, like baby Moses in his basket, as a river of violence rushed past. “I had faithfully carried out my first orders of silent obedience,” the scout later wrote.
Seven years later, Edwin was injured when a log he was carrying slipped and fell on him, puncturing a lung. The family relocated to Los Angeles, a town materializing out of the sagebrush and dust, where he could find some relief in the warmer climate. But Edwin would pass away only a few years after they arrived. Burnham’s mother took out a loan and bought two train tickets, for herself and Burnham’s young brother, to return east, where they could be with family. Fred stayed behind, deciding to strike out on his own in California. He got a job delivering telegrams as a mounted messenger for Western Union and excelled at the job, riding hard over precarious terrain day and night, switching to a second horse when he wore out the first, then a third horse, and a fourth. In no time, he’d repaid his mother’s loan, racing between Los Angeles and Anaheim, out to Santa Monica, and through the hinterlands that would become Pasadena. He was often alone for days at a time. He was 13 years old.
When he was 14, religious family members in the small town of Clinton, Iowa, concerned about his soul, summoned Burnham to live with them—to try life as a regular townie kid. But the regularness of Clinton didn’t suit him. He resented his relatives for trying to impose a prefabricated existence on him. He wanted to live in a world that unfolded, little by little, on the trail ahead of him. Playing games—ordinary kid games, with sticks and balls—seemed strange to him; he couldn’t get his head around it. “I felt an urge to do bigger things,” he said. He lasted a year. Then one night he stole a canoe, slipped off down the Mississippi, and never came back.
Burnham reached Texas, where he encountered the grizzled characters of a fading West. Many of these old frontiersmen had wound up as alone at the end of their lives as Burnham was at the outset of his, and they’d sit with him for hours, unspooling their stories. An old scout named Holmes had lost his family in the Indian Wars and, without any heirs to pass his knowledge on to, began teaching Burnham the old ways of scouting. He led Burnham through the desert for six months, forging the boy’s grit and courage into actual skills.
These adventures were exhilarating but often unpleasant. Holmes could be a curmudgeon, especially at the end of a long, hot day, and would pick apart everything Burnham did. Watching the boy sling a saddle off his horse, the old man would bark: “Oh my God, I never can teach you anything! You are a little ass. In the morning you can go back home.” But then the sun would come up and all would seem forgiven.
From Holmes and the other high priests of scouting he encountered, Burnham learned to read the air like a river and pull the scent of a campfire out of the warmer currents floating along high ridges; how to build up his internal compass and rely on it even in total darkness; how to hone a photographic memory for the tracks of individual horses; how to improvise and conceal booby traps; how to carry a gallon or two of water in a saddle blanket, then wring it out over a concave rock; how never to ride a straight line into camp, in case someone had detected you and was plotting an ambush. One of the old men would use corncobs and sand to demonstrate how forts were built, or how to decipher the movements of troops. More than anything, Burnham learned that, as he later put it, “we should be learning something always, no matter how long we live, or how long we play the game.”
Soon he began spending all his money on ammunition. He practiced trick shots, trained himself to be ambidextrous. He’d set up oilcans in the brush and fire at them from a gallop, or place a cork in a puddle and shoot underneath it to make it hop, then try to hit it again in midair—practicing, again and again, until he could nail them three times out of five. But he also learned to treat his gun as a luxury and a lifeline, not an appendage. (The old scouts had taught him that reliance on a firearm decayed a man’s courage and made him worthless in hand-to-hand combat.)
The most grueling lessons were psychological—learning to weather the loneliness, fear, and deprivation amid which those physical skills would be deployed. Scouts, after all, worked alone. “The darkness of night is his best friend,” Burnham wrote, “for it will hide his secret movements—although it is at night that physical exhaustion is most apt to breed the cowardice that comes creeping into the bones of every man at times.” One of the most pernicious forces a scout needed to suppress was hunger. It could be just as powerful a disincentive as exhaustion or fear—often more powerful. In a way, Burnham came to see the stomach, paradoxically, as the weakest and most persuasive part of a man. It messed with you mentally, tried to order you around. A scout couldn’t afford to humor his stomach; it was hard enough to make sure his horse was properly fed. And when Burnham ended his years of apprenticeship and began working out in the world—protecting mining camps from raids or guarding prospectors as they transported their gold back to town—he found that eating conventional food on these missions was often impossible. (Hunting can be a problem, for example, because cooking over a fire creates light and smoke, and butchered carcasses attract conspicuous circles of buzzards.) So he adapted. He’d hammer deer jerky into a powder, mix the powder with flour, and bake the mixture into a saddle-bag-shaped loaf. Then he’d eat off that block of deer cake for the duration of his travels, one pound per day.
This flexibility—the fierce epicurean stoicism that Burnham cultivated—would be a subtle hallmark of all of Burnham’s future adventures. In East Africa, he’d do as the local tribesmen did, eating no vegetables for months at a time, instead consuming a mixture of three parts milk and one part fresh blood, drawn from a vein in the neck of a living ox the way syrup makers tap the trunk of a maple. (After ten days, Burnham claimed, his system had adjusted.) During conflicts in Africa, he’d steal rank-smelling, partially fermented corn that had been buried in the ground by the locals and live off that for a while. During one stakeout, he subsisted wholly on a ration of uncooked corn, grinding away at the stuff until his jaw was sore and his starchy, thickened tongue made his speech unintelligible.
“The man of one diet is hopelessly handicapped,” he wrote, “for nature has made it possible for a well organized human being to wrest sustenance out of a thousand foods.… Man’s stomach, like his hand, can be trained to adapt itself to many strange uses.” In other words, the stomach wanted what it wanted, but appetite, like all desire, was a liability. And with enough discipline, you could disregard it and fill the stomach with drab blocks of pure common sense instead.
It was only because Burnham had had this epiphany, and proved his hypothesis in the growling laboratory of his own gut, that he could consider hippopotamus steaks such an obvious solution to America’s meat shortage 30 years later.
For all his self-control, Burnham was susceptible to gold fever and spent years during his young adulthood rashly chasing rumors of lost mines around the American Southwest. He had only one small strike, at age 22. It brought him just enough money to send back to the town in Iowa he’d long ago escaped, for a girl he’d met there, Blanche Blick, and make her his wife. He bought them a house in an orange grove in Pasadena and settled into a more conventional life as an upstart Californian citrus grower.
But somehow the man with an alchemical ability to turn crud into food couldn’t manage to produce oranges from orange trees. The economics of his operation quickly bottomed out, and the sedentary lifestyle he’d carved out for himself and Blanche left him restless. The whole project had been a serious miscalculation. Burnham spent his time reading books about Africa and dreaming.
Burnham’s infatuation with Africa had started as a child in Minnesota. An older girl named Katy Boardman, charged with babysitting him for a few days, had read Burnham adventure stories about young boys trekking into the wilds of a southern territory known as the Orange Free State—one of the republics founded by the descendants of Dutch settlers called Boers. (In the mid-1800s, Boers living in the British-controlled Cape Colony, in present-day South Africa, had undertaken a large-scale migration known as the Great Trek, seeking autonomy.) The stories Katy read each evening brought Burnham his only moments of calm and focus during his stay at the Boardman home. Otherwise, he and Katy’s four younger brothers were running riot through the place, at one point shaving the family’s pig with Mr. Boardman’s only razor. But at bedtime every night, all five boys would sit still, beguiled by those stories from Africa, and Burnham had gone on reading similar ones ever since. Even as he wandered the Southwest as a young man, he tried to stay up on the developments in the region, following along as longstanding strife between the British and the Boers even sparked a brief war in 1881.
Burnham was particularly enthralled by the Cape Colony’s prime minister, Cecil John Rhodes. Rhodes was a shrewd and aggressive imperialist—a “superbrain,” Burnham called him. Burnham was swept up by Rhodes’s vision for remaking the African continent. Like many people of his time, Burnham earnestly believed that the transformation of Africa was a noble and even perversely humanitarian goal, never recognizing the hubris and vile racism that underlay it. “Rhodes saw Africa as a vast unkempt field, calling to him to be cleared,” Burnham wrote. He was striving to plant “the flower of civilization” there.
Frontiers like this were Burnham’s natural habitat. It’s why he’d been drawn to the Southwest in his youth. “It is the constructive side of frontier life that most appeals to me, the building up of a country,” he explained to a friend. “When the place is finally settled I don’t seem to enjoy it very long.” But the Southwest had been tamed, wrestled from the Indians and demystified. And as deflating as it was to admit, Burnham had only truly participated in the tail end of that conquest.
Now he was transposing all those same boyish ambitions to southern Africa, where the deserts happened to look remarkably like the ones he’d spent a decade traveling. Sitting in his orange grove in Pasadena, something about the blank slate he perceived in Africa and the industriousness of Rhodes seduced him. “I was as one summoned by an irresistible call,” he wrote. He figured Rhodes would need a good scout, one who knew how to operate in daunting desert terrain. He left for Africa with his wife and young son, Roderick, on January 1, 1893.
The Human Epitome of Sin and Deception
In late January 1900, the novelist and war correspondent Richard Harding Davis was sailing from England to Cape Town on a ship called the SS Scot. The journey lasted 17 days, and every night, Davis noticed, the men on deck would gather around the same small, reserved man with piercing blue eyes. The crowd consisted of big-game hunters and career soldiers, many of whom had held command in British wars in India or Sudan—roughneck, capable survivors, in other words, with their own yarns to spin and advice to give. But they all sat like schoolkids, Davis later wrote, pelting the quiet man with questions.
The man explained to them how to tell a column of dust raised by a cavalry from one kicked up by a wagon train; how to read the speed of a horse from its prints; how to conceal a campfire. The crowd was impressed with the quickness and clarity of the man’s answers, but more impressed that, in the couple of instances when he wasn’t able to answer, he told them so—it was a unique combination of mastery and humility. This man was Frederick Russell Burnham, of course, on his way back to Africa seven years after that first impulsive trip. He had made his name fighting for Rhodes’s Cape Colony and gained a reputation as a scout. A series of conflicts had flared up almost as soon as Burnham and his family arrived in South Africa in 1893. Rhodes’s forces were pressing into Matabeleland, in present day Zimbabwe, and struggling to suppress the Ndebele tribe there. Burnham leaped right into the battle. It felt like the Indian wars of his youth all over again. Before long, Matabeleland had been occupied and rechristened Rhodesia.
Three years later, when the Ndebele staged an uprising and the so-called Second Matabele War erupted, Burnham and his family were living outside the city of Bulawayo. There was a second child now, a two-year-old girl named Nada. As the conflict intensified and the Ndebele advanced, the Burnhams were moved into Bulawayo for their protection. The city was being hastily locked down and fortified with homemade defenses; the Burnhams and another family were stuffed into a three-room shack, with their livestock milling outside.
Soon, a virus ripped through the colonists’ oxen. Thousands of animals died in the course of three weeks. “The scavenging hyenas and vultures could make no impression on the thousands of huge, swollen carcasses that blocked the roads for miles,” Burnham remembered. Bulawayo was 500 miles from the nearest railroad—it was with oxen carts that the colonists brought in food and supplies. Soon, thousands of people began dying, too. “For weeks,” Burnham wrote, “there was an unremitting stench.” The colonists couldn’t spare the fuel to cremate the bodies, and the men—going out at night to defend Bulawayo against raids by the Ndebele, who had put the crippled city under siege—were simply too exhausted during the day to bury them.
Eventually, Nada came down with a fever. By that point, the remaining livestock had been eaten. So had the pets, including Nada’s three ostriches, which she’d been given as chicks. Ultimately, Nada was one of many children who could not outlast the siege. Burnham was off fighting when she died, and it was up to Blanche to enlist some friends to bury her daughter in a shallow grave outside town. Burnham was devastated, obsessing over a series of painful and unanswerable question—questions, he later wrote, that started with If only…, and even more wrenching questions that started with Why…. That June, he received a critical bit of intelligence, locating a man believed to be the Ndebele’s religious leader and commander, or Mlimo, in a secret cave. Burnham was sent to assassinate him. Sneaking into the cave, he paused a second to watch the holy man. “Constantly before my enraged vision rose the picture of my wife vainly holding to her breast our dying Nada,” he later wrote. Then he shot the Mlimo under the heart and ran out of the cave ahead of the commander’s men, lighting villages on fire as he went.
The following year, at age 36, Burnham left Africa for Alaska. Gold had been discovered, and he was again determined to be part of the beginning of something big. But the gold still evaded him. He kept up on the news from South Africa: the antipathy between the British and the Dutch-descended Boers was escalating again. Burnham wrote to his friend, H. Rider Haggard, explaining that he now spent six hours a day in Alaska traversing a map of southern Africa in his mind, seeing all the trails and streams that led out of the city of Pretoria; picking the right spots to camp, obtain fuel, and stage the animals if there was another war. By now everyone felt one coming. “I fear I will miss it,” Burnham wrote glumly.
He was mining quartz north of Juneau when, on January 4, 1900, a telegram arrived from the new British commander in South Africa, who had heard about Burnham’s service during the previous conflicts. It read: “Lord Roberts appoints you on his personal staff. All expenses paid if you accept. Start shortest way Cape Town and report yourself to him.” Burnham was en route to Africa two and a half hours later, aboard the same ship the telegram had come in on. Once in England, he transferred to the SS Scot, where Richard Harding Davis found him, reluctantly mesmerizing his fellow passengers night after night.
The Second Boer War was not going well for the British when Burnham received the call. The Boers had surprised the colonists, shattering their imperial confidence with a string of shocking and decisive victories right after combat had started the previous fall.
In truth, the entire conflict was saturated with feelings of bewilderment and disarray. Two modern historians describe the Second Boer War as a clash characterized by a “capacity to produce confusion and ambivalence” and a “wide variety of half-truths.” (Even the war’s immediate causes are hard to pull from the slop of competing propaganda; in part, the British were simply seeking control of the Transvaal, a Boer territory rich in gold.) And for the British, “the scale of [the war’s] embarrassments and traumas were not merely shocking,” but relayed back home, vividly, by a new kind of popular press. (Both Rudyard Kipling and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle covered the war.) By December of 1899, England was determined to change tactics. Lord Frederick Sleigh Roberts of Kandahar was installed as the new commander in South Africa. Roberts began assembling his team, summoning Burnham as his chief of scouts and Major-General Lord Herbert Kitchener of Khartoum and Aspall as his chief of staff. Kitchener was a particularly merciless strategist, and helped steer the British through a series of barreling offensives. Within months, the tide had turned completely. Soon the Boer government in the Transvaal would be shattered, and its leadership would flee to Europe. But the Boers kept fighting tenaciously as guerrillas—a decentralized and lethal swarm. Burnham’s job was to gallop around inside this fractured conflict, undetected.
Like a lot of freelance adventurers involved in the war, and even many British citizens, Burnham felt great respect for the other side. He was awed by the Boers, in fact. He believed that they were uniquely menacing adversaries because, like the best scouts of the American Southwest, they’d somehow retained the instincts and senses of more primitive men. In a way, Burnham considered himself a Boer at heart, trapped in the wrong nation or time. His entire life, he’d felt people nudging him toward a world of “soft carpets, soft food, soft life, soft men and women,” he wrote. But “sometimes I wish I had never learned to read or form any conception of duty, civilization or religion; for then I might have been outwardly, as I am now at heart, a thorough savage, nothing more.” For years after the war was over, he would carry on about the virtuosity of two of his enemies in particular: the Boer’s lead scout, Danie Theron, and a more enigmatic figure working underneath Theron. The man was known as the Black Panther of the Veld. “He was one of the craftiest men I ever met,” Burnham would tell an interviewer 30 years later. He was “a man of extraordinary power.”
The Black Panther’s name was Fritz Duquesne. Burnham had heard that he’d adopted the nom de guerre as a boy, after watching a wild panther stalk its prey at a watering hole. Duquesne noticed how efficient the animal was—how it always waited to attack, intent and totally untroubled, until the other animal was compromised. The boy vowed to emulate the panther and made it his totem. The panther, Burnham wrote, was a wild predator that no one had ever succeeded in taming. By the Second Boer War, Duquesne had become just as cunning and sinister.
Duquesne would spend the conflict trying to kill Burnham, and Burnham was assigned to kill Duquesne. Burnham called him the “human epitome of sin and deception.” Another writer described him as a “walking living breathing searing killing destroying torch of hate.”
Duquesne was only one of countless threats Burnham had to dodge during the war, as his commanders sent him to infiltrate and sabotage the scurrying, deadly remnants of the Boer army. Burnham’s exploits were numerous and bizarre. Once, he hid for two days and nights inside an aardvark hole. Another time, he floated down a river disguised as a dead cow, drifting under a fresh, fleshy hide with two eyeholes cut out of it, to size up an enemy camp downstream.
In the spring of 1900, he was captured by Boer scouts but managed to conceal his identity. The Boers had been given index cards describing the famous Frederick Russell Burnham—a supposedly ruthless, godless, illiterate rogue from the American West. Realizing this, Burnham sparked an erudite theological debate with one of his captors—was baptism by immersion the one true route to salvation, or was it baptism by sprinkling?—then followed that up by reciting some poetry. Eventually, he slipped away from the Boers’ wagon train in the dark. As day broke, he hunkered in a fallow field, hidden just barely by four inches of vegetation, and resigned himself to lie there in the heat, with his hat over his head for camouflage, until the sun set again and it was safe to move on. Stuck in the brush, he became fixated on a thick ear of corn he’d jammed in his breast pocket before escaping, worried it was sticking up just enough beneath his shirt to give him away. He was already carrying one whole biscuit and a fragment of a second; the corn suddenly seemed to him like a horrible indulgence. “What a fool to be such a glutton for food!” he later remembered thinking. “I was not living up to the traditions of the American scout.” But a Boer patrol came and went. Burnham had waited them out, invisibly.
Eventually, he made it back to a campsite and from there was sent on a series of missions to cut supply lines. He spent his 39th birthday, in May of 1900, hiding in enemy territory, preparing to blow up some bridges, feasting on a ration of chocolate and condensed soup. Then, in early June, he was given 25 pounds of explosives and sent to cut the railway connecting Pretoria to the Indian Ocean.
After setting out, Burnham encountered a group of Boers in the distance, and his horse, Stembok, was shot. The animal fell on him. His spine burned. He assumed his back was broken. But he managed to reach his target anyway—a specific point on the railway, beside a distillery—traveling the rest of the way on foot, vomiting blood and compressing his abdomen with both hands to lessen the pain slightly, as though he were holding his guts together manually. (At one point, he wrote a farewell note to his wife, Blanche, and dropped it on the ground, hoping British soldiers would eventually pass by and find it.) Then, after rigging his explosives and detonating them, he hauled his busted body into a grove of eucalyptus and hid, trying to make himself invisible yet again as a unit of Boers fired systematically into the trees to flush him out. At one point, a commander sat on horseback less than 20 yards away from where Burnham was hiding, chastising his men for their ineptitude. Eventually, the troops gave up and moved on.
Hours later, Burnham heard the voices of British soldiers approaching. He was rushed to a field hospital, where doctors determined that, though his spine was not damaged, his internal injuries were severe. Lord Roberts promoted him to major and sent him to recuperate in England. On the ship back, he chatted with a young British newspaperman named Winston Churchill who had also been captured by the Boers and escaped. The two men swapped stories and, though Churchill’s involved taking many risks which Burnham, as a scout, could not condone, the scout ultimately understood that the writer had done the best he could. “His moves were restricted by the handicap of physical weakness,” Burnham wrote, “which made a twenty mile run at night”—what Burnham judged to be the most straightforward move in those circumstances—“entirely beyond his power.”
In England, Burnham was invited to dine with Queen Victoria and decorated with the Distinguished Service Order, a high honor for heroism during wartime, by King Edward VII. Burnham, with his characteristic stoicism, described the award as so humbling and unnecessary that it was “almost humiliating.” “I felt of no more importance than a grain of sand on the shore of the mighty sea,” he wrote.
Slowly, Burnham’s injuries healed. The darkness of Nada’s death was dissipating, too. Blanche had given birth to another child—a son named Bruce—and they joined Fred in England. By 1905, the couple were hatching a plan to return their family to Rhodesia and restart their lives.
The Burnhams’ oldest child, Roderick, was now 19 years old and in school back in California, living with his grandmother. One night that October, he woke and ran to her, shrieking from a nightmare. He claimed that he had watched his little brother chase a toy boat into deep water and sink to his death. The next day, a telegram arrived from England. It was from Blanche and Fred, and it read: “Bruce drowned. Coming soon.” Bruce was seven years old. He’d been swept away in the Thames.
The Burnhams returned to California, wrecked. They spent a lot of their time at home, overlooking a picturesque arroyo, in a secluded area of Pasadena called San Rafael Heights. Burnham tried his best to console his wife. It was a time of recovery and repose. “The wild quail, the meadow larks and mocking birds still drown [out] the ding dong of the American locomotive,” he wrote to a friend the following February, “and the squeak of the trolley car is still very faint. Nature has kindly softened the acute sorrow of my wife. So all in all, this year of 1906 can not be such a dreary and painful one as 1905.”
It was during this time that Burnham started to think seriously, and ambitiously, about an idea he’d had many years earlier. Maybe it was because Bruce’s death had made the horror of Nada’s slow starvation feel fresh again. Or maybe it was because Burnham was marooned at home, glaring at the arid and relatively lifeless landscape around him—a place, he knew, that had already been drained of so much of its wild, edible game by short-sighted hunters. Eventually, he sat down to write an article about this idea of his, hoping one of the major magazines back east might be talked into publishing it.
“There is in Africa a wonderfully varied range of interesting animals,” he wrote. “Most of the desirable ones could easily be introduced into our own Southwest.”
Four years later.
We Ought to Have More Creatures
“Transplanting African Animals,” by Major Frederick Russell Burnham, was published in New York’s Independent magazine in January 1910. Before long, a chain of serendipitous connections were made and Burnham was invited to share his ideas in a hearing before the House Committee on Agriculture. It would be a long afternoon of testimony, but at the very start a federal researcher named W.N. Irwin summed up the matter nicely: “Mr. Chairman and gentlemen of the committee,” he told the congressmen, “in studying the resources of our country for a good many years, I was led to the conclusion that we ought to have more creatures than we are raising here.”
It was March 24, 1910. Under discussion was H.R. 23261, a bill to appropriate $250,000 for the importation of useful new animals into the United States—the hippo bill, as the public would come to understand it. H.R. 23261 had been introduced by the Louisiana congressman Robert Broussard, who had limited himself to a very short statement at the start of the hearing, not wanting to detract from the impressive roster of experts he’d assembled—“three gentlemen,” he explained, “who probably have devoted more time than almost anyone else to this matter.”
Ceding the spotlight was not in Broussard’s nature. Then 45 years old, Robert Foligny Broussard was a raucous and charismatic Democrat from New Iberia, Louisiana. He was the son of a Cajun planter and had lived in the district he represented for most of his life. He loved speechifying and glad-handing and generally addressed himself to the job of campaigning the way a gourmand addresses himself to a platter of oysters—despite having never encountered any real opposition in his seven successive reelections. A native French speaker, he sometimes traveled to give campaign speeches for colleagues in close races in Maine or Massachusetts, parachuting in to charm any French-Canadian constituents in their mother tongue.
Louisianans knew Broussard affectionately as Cousin Bob. He claimed to be related to a quarter of the voters in Iberia Parish—sometimes to a full half of them. “Certain Louisianians may protest they are not his cousins,” one Saturday Evening Post profile noted. “That is a matter of minor importance. The point is that Cousin Bob is their cousin; and he is satisfied, even if they are not. It is quite impossible to stop Cousin Bob from being everybody’s cousin.” A company in New Orleans named a cigar after him.
Broussard had met Burnham for the first time that morning. Launching a national effort to import foreign animals that could benefit American society, especially hippos, had been percolating on Broussard’s legislative agenda for some time, and he had been referred to Burnham by mutual friends in Washington who knew the major would gladly advocate for any bill he introduced to fund that work. It was a stroke of symbiotic political matchmaking. Four years earlier, after returning to Pasadena from England following his son Bruce’s death, Burnham had tried to jump-start his own African animal project in Washington. He had called for 30 varieties of edible antelope—klipspringers, gemsboks, waterbucks—as well as other animals, including giraffes, to be imported from Africa and plopped down in the American Southwest. The pioneering conservationist Gifford Pinchot, then head of the forestry service under President Theodore Roosevelt, had been scrambling to claim and protect more land as federal reserves, and Burnham had imagined those areas as ideal incubators for the transplanted creatures. New populations could be built up under the government’s protection, then dispersed. Formerly vacant, unproductive landscapes could be converted into wonderlands for sportsmen and new storehouses for the nation’s food supply. Burnham and several wealthy friends had even raised $50,000 to pay for the first wave of importations. They’d had a successful meeting with President Roosevelt. Pinchot had written to Burnham, “I have talked with a good many men about the plan and no one has developed any weak points yet.”
But the proposition had eventually broken apart in the churning, acidic stomach of Washington politics. An enemy of Roosevelt’s in Congress had lumped the president’s support for the plan into a broader, petty attack. Importing antelopes and giraffes suddenly became politically impossible. The experience had left Burnham angry—mostly at himself. He’d been naive enough to believe that America made decisions about its future in a more commonsensical way.
This time around, though, Burnham was partnering with an insider. He and Broussard were like Darwinian finches—the same species of capable specialist evolved to thrive within two parallel environments. As adeptly as Burnham maneuvered through the African desert, Broussard seemed to maneuver through the disorienting wilderness of Washington, reading the landscape, performing what could only seem like magic to outsiders. In Broussard, Burnham saw new hope now that his gorgeous idea for America might actually become a reality. He called the congressman “a tower of strength for the movement.”
Broussard, for his part, had locked onto the potential of African animals for his own idiosyncratic reasons—and they did not, initially, have anything to do with food. Cousin Bob had actually set out to solve a different crisis for his constituents. The crisis was a flower.
Water hyacinths had been brought to New Orleans in 1884, distributed as gifts by the Japanese delegation to an international cotton exposition. New Orleanians loved the frilly, pale lavender flowers and gradually planted them as decorations around the city in garden ponds. The hyacinths multiplied rapidly. (The plant reproduces asexually.) Soon they were spreading through local waterways, clotting into impenetrable mats, then drifting toward the mouth of the Mississippi like big, menacing hairballs toward a drain.
By 1910, when Broussard introduced his bill, the flowers had been plaguing his state for at least a decade. They’d clogged up streams and made shipping routes that had previously moved millions of tons of freight unnavigable. They’d blanketed rivers and wetlands, hogging the oxygen and killing fish. The hyacinth had destroyed fishermen’s livelihoods and transformed some of the state’s greatest resources into a chain of stinking dead zones. The War Department was staging an all-out offensive against the flower, “[b]ut they have only been partially successful,” Broussard said. “They clean a stream today, and in a month it is covered all over again with the same plant.” They’d even tried throwing oil on the hyacinth, but the plant would just sink to the bottom, wait out the disturbance, then send out another bulb and rise again.
Broussard was not the sort of man who could abide such defeat. He liked to plug up problems with big solutions; he was “a large operator,” one reporter wrote, who “goes in for broad effects.” It occurred to him that perhaps some animal could be brought to Louisiana to swallow this particular problem up, and he seems to have hit on the hippopotamus after encountering the curious, aging bureaucrat he’d now called to brief the House Agricultural Committee just before Burnham.
William Newton “W. N.” Irwin was a veteran researcher at the pomological branch of the Bureau of Plant Industry at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He was an apple guy, basically—“one of the foremost fruit experts in the country,” according to The Washington Post. Irwin appears to have spent his career championing ideas that were simultaneously perfectly logical and extravagantly bizarre. (Another of his crusades was trying to convert Americans from eating chicken eggs to eating turkey eggs. The advantages of turkey eggs were just so obvious to Irwin: they were richer, larger, and more nutritious and had thicker shells and membranes, so they stayed fresh longer. Sometimes he wouldn’t eat a bunch of turkey eggs until six months after he’d purchased them. And still, he bragged, “the yolks would drop out round and plump, and the white, or albumen, would be perfectly normal.”) He had first laid out the case for hippopotamuses while delivering a paper at a conference in Missouri the previous year. He reviewed the causes of America’s gathering meat crisis and noted that, in the past, the country had sidestepped these kinds of Malthusian forecasts by expanding just a little farther west. There had always been more land to put into production. But now the great prairies had all been overgrazed or carved into farms; there was little suitable rangeland left to occupy. The only way forward, Irwin concluded, was to find ways of wringing nourishment out of land that now seemed barren or worthless—for example, the vast marshes along the Gulf Coast. Extracting the energy embedded there would require assembling a new set of tools—new technologies. The hippopotamus was one such technology.
Hippopotamuses eat aquatic vegetation, like water hyacinths—loads of it, Irwin learned. Deposit some hippos in a hyacinth-choked stream, he argued, and they’d suck it clean in no time. That is, hippos could solve Louisiana’s problem with the flower while simultaneously converting that problem into the solution to another—an answer to the Meat Question. The animal, Irwin now told the committee, would “turn the plague that they now have in the South into good, wholesome flesh for our people.” The hippopotamus was a perversely elegant win-win.
Of course, it could be hard to see that logic through all the lavish weirdness of the proposal. But for Irwin—and Burnham—any resistance to their idea came down to simple small-mindedness. The only reason Americans didn’t already eat hippopotamuses, Irwin claimed, was “because their neighbors don’t, or because nobody ever told them it was the proper thing to do.” Like Burnham, he saw the Meat Question as a test of American ingenuity and resolve: To defend our freedom and way of life, some generations of Americans are called to go to war; this generation was being called to import hippopotamuses and eat them. And, also like Burnham, Irwin seemed incapable, or at least unwilling, to let any emotional objections or queasiness detract from the divine common sense of their plan. At times he seems to have gotten a little pissy about it, actually. A few months earlier, Irwin had invited a Washington Post reporter to his office, fed him a stick of hippo jerky while showing him a photograph of five East African men skinning the very beast he was now digesting, and whined: “I am at a loss to understand why anybody should protest against the hippopotamus as a food animal. There is no good reason beyond that inexplicable American habit of following beaten paths. Everyone seems to hate to go out and blaze a trail.” In one scientific paper, Irwin compared himself to Christopher Columbus, being laughed at as he sailed toward what looked like the edge of the earth but was, in reality, a new and nutritionally superior world of turkey eggs and hippopotamus brisket.
When it was Burnham’s turn to testify, he echoed Irwin’s arguments but tried to imbue the bureaucrat’s geeky reasoning with his own firsthand experiences and gravitas. Burnham challenged the committee to consider how bizarre it is that we eat only cows, pigs, sheep, and poultry—just four types of animals, basically all of which had themselves been imported by Europeans centuries ago. Why, somewhere along the line, had we stopped feeling entitled to improve our country’s food stocks by infusing them with animals from the great global pantry abroad? “I think we are allowing one of our greatest assets to lie idle,” Burnham told the committee. It was only the passage of time that had made a pork chop or a bowl of chicken soup feel American—not their actual origins. Time would make hippo roasts just as familiar.
Burnham also noted that hippopotamuses would be only a few shades stranger than other animals recently brought into the country. Twenty-five years earlier, for example, an Englishman named George Cawston had started an ostrich farm near Pasadena, where Burnham lived. Cawston had been made fun of initially, caricatured as a crazy man riding ostriches—he offered ostrich rides at the farm—but he was now making a fortune selling ostrichplumes for pillows and ladies’ accessories. More recently, the federal government had introduced Russian reindeer as a food source in Alaska. And in the 1850s, Burnham noted, the nation’s Secretary of War and eventual president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, had brought African camels to the deserts of the American Southwest, convinced that they would outperform horses as pack animals on that terrain. And they did—the camels’ endurance impressed everyone, just as Davis smugly insisted they would. But in that case, too, it was explained to the committee, silly emotions had gotten in the way of good sense. The soldiers on horseback made fun of the soldiers asked to ride camels; the camel riders began refusing to ride their camels. Eventually, the experiment was discontinued, and many of the camels were left to scatter in the desert.
Burnham told the committee that he’d actually stumbled onto one of the feral descendants of these camels while traveling through the region with a cowboy friend in his youth. “We were five days chasing one of those animals with the best horses we could get in Arizona,” he explained. Eventually, they caught the camel, and though it took days of roping and fighting they were able to tame it. Burnham and his friend started concocting plans, thinking maybe there’d be a market for camels if they rounded enough of them up. It never happened. As Burnham explained, “one of the Apache Wars broke out at that time, which was more interesting than breaking camels, and we both went off to that.” But he’d seen firsthand how well a foreign animal could adapt to America—how well it could serve us. His dream of importing useful new animals was born then and there, he told the congressmen. “And it has clung to me ever since.”
It was an impassioned, impressive testimony. But Congressman Broussard had invited another speaker that afternoon, one who would wind up being the star attraction. Broussard introduced this man to the committee as a “hunter of great note” in Africa who happened to be touring America now, lecturing on the African continent’s wild animals. “I now desire to present to the committee,” Broussard announced, “Captain Fritz Duquesne.”
It was him, the Black Panther of the Veld. Two of Broussard’s three expert witnesses—these men seated in the hearing room, graciously educating the 61st Congress of the United States about the usefulness and deliciousness of hippopotamuses—were, in fact, arch enemies who had vowed to assassinate each other.
Duquesne took the floor and sought immediately to establish his singular credibility on the subject at hand. “I am as much one of the African animals as the hippopotamus,” he began.
A Unit of Hate
The details of Fritz Duquesne’s life dart around in a deep pool of uncertainty. Partly this is because the journalists of his day who assembled them were unscrupulous, but mainly it’s because Duquesne would dramatically reinvent himself again and again.
Frederick L’Huguenot Joubert Duquesne (pronounced du-cain) was born in the Cape Colony on December 21, 1877—according to one suspect source, at least; friends would claim that even Duquesne did not know his own age. He was a lean and alluring man with a youthful, clean-shaven look. He was said to be a champion womanizer, with an unflappable confidence that seemed drawn from some mysterious wellspring. His hair was black, or else it was brown. His eyes were brown, hazel, or blue. He spoke with a clipped British accent, which may have been fake.
Duquesne grew up on a farm among other Boer families. His father was a hunter and trader who was constantly traveling, and so Fritz was raised by his mother and his Uncle Jan, who’d been blinded when an elephant gun backfired on him during a hunt. As a boy, Duquesne would watch the adults return from the river with a hippopotamus—they were among the easiest animals to hunt—then butcher its massive carcass and divide the meat among their families. It was up to Duquesne and the other kids to collect the fat and sell it to the French soap manufacturers who came around to claim it.
As a teenager he was sent to school in Europe. He was studying at a military academy in Belgium, learning about weaponry and explosives, when a letter arrived from his father, calling him back to fight for his people against the overbearing British. It was 1899; the Second Boer War was underway.
Duquesne arrived at Boer headquarters in Pretoria, a city in the Transvaal republic, northeast of the Cape Colony, just before the British aggressively revised their strategy and the war turned uglier and more unruly. Over the next year, Roberts and Kitchener would funnel the Boers into concentration camps and scorch the earth behind them. There were as many as 160,000 Boer prisoners in the camps at one time; 25,000 would die there by the end of the conflict in 1902.
Boer soldiers like Duquesne began roving the land in small guerrilla squadrons, without the security or support of a formal army. Duquesne was captured and escaped at least twice. (In one failed attempt, he painstakingly dug through the grout of the prison wall with a spoon, pushing the resulting dust out the window to blow away in the wind. It took weeks and ultimately came to nothing: When Duquesne finally tried to wriggle through the hole he’d opened, the stone wall—which he’d rendered structurally unsound—partially collapsed on him. A guard found him pinned and unconscious the next morning.) At one point, he was shipped all the way to a prison in Lisbon. But he escaped easily, first finding the time to seduce his jailer’s daughter. He then made his way to England, claimed to be a Boer defector, enlisted as a British soldier, hitched a ride back to the front in Africa, and took off on his own again.
Duquesne became a military courier, delivering messages between Boer commandos. Traveling around, he saw the devastation of Kitchener’s scorched-earth policy—the fires, the horses sprayed with bullets so the Boers could not use them, the crops burned and the livestock shot up and clubbed. He was sickened by how much the British had obliterated, how desolate they’d left the land. There was virtually no one left, except for the occasional pockets of women and children who fed Duquesne in his travels.
During this time, Duquesne found an opportunity to visit his family’s homestead, north of Pretoria, after 11 years away—according to the writer Clement Wood, who in 1932 published a detailed but extremely romanticized and journalistically tenuous account of Duquesne’s life. Duquesne knew that his father had died shortly after calling him back to fight but had no other news of his family. Wood writes that it wasn’t until Duquesne had gotten off his horse, and touched the blackened stone that had once been the corner of his house’s foundation, that he knew where he was; the British had so totally destroyed the place, it was unrecognizable. Duquesne found a servant there who had worked for his family since he was a child. The old man, Kanya, was living in a primitive shelter he’d dug for himself in the ruins. Hunched over and demoralized, Kanya explained that the British soldiers had hung Duquesne’s blind uncle Jan from a telegraph pole with a cow rope, then jabbed at his body with their bayonets. They’d taken turns raping Duquesne’s sister Elsbet, then shot her. Then they’d tied his mother’s hands, raped her, and carried her off.
Duquesne assumed that his mother had been taken to the nearest concentration camp, a few days away on horseback. He sped there and, disguising himself in the British uniform he’d been given as a supposed defector, entered the camp and tried to track her down. He found her in a barbed-wire paddock clutching a seven-month-old baby, both of them starving and dying of syphilis—essentially dead already.
Before leaving, Duquesne pledged to his mother that he would kill 100 Englishmen for every drop of blood in her body. But he felt nothing for the baby—it was his half-sibling, but it was also half-British, the evidence of his mother’s rape. Riding away from the camp, still in uniform, Duquesne saw two captains in the British army approaching. He saluted them. Once they’d passed, he turned in his saddle and shot both men in the back. Then he got off his horse and kicked each in the face.
Any number of these details that Wood relays could be wrong—possibly all of them. But at the very least, the story was as an attempt to explain one unmistakably true thing about Fritz Duquesne: that at some point in Africa, he became radicalized, consumed with searing rage for the British and for Lord Kitchener personally.
“Something happened inside of him that had fused him into a unit,” Wood wrote, “a unit of hate.”
Duquesne was captured one last time, late in the Boer War, while plotting a sensational symphony of explosions around Cape Town. The British shipped him to a prison camp on Tucker’s Island, in Bermuda, with his wrists and ankles bound so tightly that he’d be scarred for the rest of his life.
He wasted no time in escaping. In one version of the story, Duquesne coordinated a jailbreak with two other prisoners, banging out their plans in Morse code from their cells. They slipped past the guards and dove into the sea with their clothes and boots tied to their bodies as bullets whizzed around them. They spent three weeks on the lam, subsisting mostly on onions pilfered from people’s gardens at night. Eventually, Duquesne reached the port town of Hamilton, where, according to a 1995 biography by Art Ronnie, Counterfeit Hero, he established himself as a pimp for a prostitute named Vera.
It was a strategic job placement; in the course of her nightly business, Vera acquired detailed information about the ships moving in and out of the port. Duquesne had been her pimp for only a week when he managed to get one of Vera’s clients drunk and learned he was a crew member on a private yacht about to sail for Baltimore. While Vera serviced the sailor, Duquesne stole his uniform and snuck onto the ship in his place, huddling into one of the holds, pretending to be drunk. He was eventually discovered, but he hit it off so well with the yacht’s owner, a middle-aged inventor of a powdered headache remedy, that he was ultimately invited to ride along. Duquesne set foot on American soil on July 4, 1902. Unless, according to another account, it was on December 16.
There was peace now in southern Africa—the Boer territories had been subdued and claimed by the British. But, given his sinister machinations during the war, Duquesne believed he would not be welcome there. He was on his own now. With the help of a network of Boer sympathizers on the East Coast, he slowly began constructing a life for himself in America. He went to New York and got a job selling subscriptions for the New York Sun. Soon, after proving himself and deploying enough of his charm, he was bumped up to reporter. Duquesne was an immigrant, in other words, living his own lonely version of the classic American immigrant story—reinventing himself, hustling. And it was working. Seven years later, Fritz Duquesne found himself sitting in the White House with the President of the United States.
President Theodore Roosevelt, preparing to leave office in early 1909, began enthusiastically plotting a stunning first act to his retirement: a big-game-hunting expedition to East Africa, undertaken in conjunction with the Smithsonian. Roosevelt spent months studying up, writing letters to men who’d hunted in the region, figuring out which caliber firearm to use on which species and how exactly to topple a lion or rhino. Somehow, Duquesne, with his native’s knowledge of the continent and its wildlife, had inserted himself into this informal committee of experts and was invited to meet with the president that January. They talked for more than two hours. Duquesne was impressed with the President. He told the press, “He seems to have mastered all the details.”
Over the next year, Roosevelt’s journey through Africa would unfold in the newspapers back home in daily, time-delayed dispatches. It became a national fascination. (By the end of 1909, for example, there were two separate children’s games called With Teddy in Africa, featuring a miniaturized Roosevelt and his local guides to skin and field-dress miniaturized giraffes, hippopotamuses, and warthogs.) Duquesne had been dropped into the center of that excitement, briefly, during their meeting at the White House. Now he’d do his best to capitalize on it.
He wrote a series of syndicated columns called “Hunting Ahead of Roosevelt,” in which he drew on his own adventures in Africa to speculate about the kinds of animals and adventures the president was now encountering. When that momentum seemed exhausted, Duquesne went negative, keeping his name in the papers by mocking Roosevelt, denigrating him as nothing more than a dandy tourist blustering across the continent with a team of Africans to do the real hunting for him. He offered his own unflattering translation of the honorific reportedly given to Roosevelt by his African guides. (“Bwana Tumbo,” Duquesne told the press, meant “Mr. Unusually Large Stomach.”) And as Roosevelt readied to return in early 1910, Duquesne announced that he believed the former president might have contracted a deadly, still-dormant disease and should not be allowed back into the country.
By then, Duquesne had adapted his hunting stories into a theatrical lecture called “East Africa—the Wonderland of Roosevelt’s Hunt” and taken the show on tour. It featured moving pictures and stereopticon slides of “hunting scenes and savage life in darkest Africa,” all narrated by “Captain Fritz Duquesne,” as he’d taken to calling himself: “a man who knows and feels what he tells because it is what he has lived.” As it happened, he was booked for two shows at the Columbia Theatre, in Washington, just as Broussard was gathering experts for his hippo hearing.
In a sense, then, Duquesne’s appearance at the committee hearing was both an advertisement for his performances and performance in itself. The man wanted attention, and he knew how to work his audience when he got it.
Duquesne affably walked the congressmen through his knowledge of hippos and parried their skeptical questions with composed and charming assurances. He described how easy it was to domesticate a hippo; how you can feed a young one milk from a bottle, “like a baby,” and lead it on a leash like a pudgy hound. “It is absolutely not dangerous,” he said of the animal and described the meat—especially from young, castrated males—as a delicious, satisfying, and sustaining meal. (“Splendid food,” Duquesne insisted, “excellent food.”) As proof, he pointed proudly to how well his own people, the Boers, had performed in the recent imperial wars, despite being outnumbered. “There was nothing mentally or physically defective about them,” he explained, “and they lived on hippopotamus.”
Duquesne was not finished, however. He recommended elands, a kind of brutish antelope, as another phenomenal addition to American wildlife. Also giraffes. And what about elephants? Hannibal’s army crossed the Pyrenees on elephants, Duquesne reminded the congressmen, so this should give us all some inkling of the animal’s usefulness and stamina. “It went right around the Pyrenees,” he said, “backward and forward.”
It was a fetching, whip-smart whirlwind of a performance, and it seemed to sweep up everyone. Before it was over, one congressman had invited him out to Bethesda to have a look at some captive zebras being bred there and offer an expert opinion.
“I think I have about exhausted the proposition,” Duquesne finally told the committee. “I have finished.” Although, he added, if the congressmen wanted him to perform his lecture right then and there, he’d be glad to. He happened to have all his transparencies with him.
The New Food Supply Society
The hearing was followed by a surge of excited publicity. “Hippopotami for Dixie,” one headline read. The Chicago Tribune covered the proceedings right above news that Delmonico’s, the famous steakhouse, had been forced to raise the price of everything on its menu due to dwindling meat supplies. Another story speculated that, because full-grown hippopotamuses would be too large to profitably ship to the stockyards in Chicago, smaller slaughterhouses would have to be built on-site, creating a constellation of local food systems, and breaking the monopoly lording over American meat production. (Only four years earlier, in The Jungle, Upton Sinclair had exposed the horrendous abuses of that monopoly—the way, for example, workers sometimes slipped into rendering tanks, then were churned together with scraps and sold as Durham’s Pure Leaf Lard.) Most newspapers led their coverage with splashy quotes from Fritz Duquesne, but even the torturously uncharismatic W. N. Irwin got called on occasionally. (“I like to say ‘hippo’ instead of the full name, because it is shorter and somewhat more euphonious,” Irwin paused to explain to one reporter.) The momentum felt unstoppable. According to The Washington Post, it was “a question of only a very few years now when large shipments of hippos will be made to America.”
It wasn’t likely that Congress would be able to act on Broussard’s appropriation bill before the end of its session, but Broussard, Burnham, and Duquesne believed that, with the right legwork, a reintroduced version would breeze through the next one. And so they decided to build a new organization to leverage their position and keep the pressure on—a lobbying firm, essentially, that they would call the New Food Supply Society. Shortly after the hearing, the congressman invited Duquesne and Burnham down to his plantation in Louisiana to hash out some preliminary plans.
It’s unclear what, if any, contact the two enemies had had in the nine years since they’d fought against each other in Africa. The evidence suggests that Burnham and Duquesne never actually crossed paths during the war—just loomed heavily, and terribly, in each other’s minds. Theirs was an old-fashioned kind of rivalry. What adhered them to one another was a dismaying and unshakable respect, nothing as vulgar as hatred. It involved a bizarre kind of honor; Duquesne remembered that he had once “tossed coins with a brother scout for the privilege of having first shot [at Burnham,] of splitting his body with a bullet,” but had never managed to track the great scout down. Now their inadvertent partnership on the hippopotamus project gave them an opportunity to finally know one another at close range. They’d fought on different sides but were still soldiers—part primitives, deep down—and they were presumably far more comfortable with each other than with the genteel politicians surrounding them.
Burnham was impressed by his old rival. “Duquesne was clever, educated and resourceful,” he would recall. He knew all about the sins in his past, but chose to force them out of his mind. He wanted to help the Boer. Duquesne was free-floating in permanent exile and, nearly a decade after being cast out of Africa, still struggling to set a new trajectory for himself in the United States. Burnham believed that this noble attempt they were making to answer the nation’s Meat Question would show his former adversary, firsthand, the sort of hard work, imagination, and values that made America great. It might finally steer Duquesne’s talents in a productive direction. The hippo project was a way to convert Duquesne, to cleanse him.
Burnham was ambivalent about playing the reformer. He remembered his own experience as a kid, suffering through life with his pious relatives in Iowa. But he believed that if he could understand what “had transformed this strong and remarkable man into a being abnormal and terrible” and “conquer the cruel darkness” that had infected Duquesne somewhere along the way, there was a chance that the wily Boer could “become one of the world’s noblest figures.” And so, Burnham later wrote, “I set out to win over to genuine Americanism one of the most remarkable men I had ever met.” Duquesne could be assimilated, made useful—just like the hippopotamus.
As Broussard, Duquesne, and Burnham began plotting the formation of the New Food Supply Society in the spring of 1910, each man was being driven by different levels of idealism and opportunism, and by different semi-secret motives. Letters began flying between the three men, and then also—all of a sudden—to and from a fourth man as well, a New York City–based writer and inventor named Eliot Lord.
It’s possible someone may have actually asked Lord to participate in the fledgling New Food Supply Society, or he may have just barged his way in, but within two days of the hearing he was writing to Burnham, claiming to already have rounded up some of the most powerful members of the House of Representatives for the group’s organizing committee and detailing what his own duties in the organization should be. There was a slipperiness to the man, not unlike Duquesne’s, but Lord’s slipperiness was clumsier and less convincing. His rapid-fire updates to the other partners came on a series of mysterious and seemingly random letterheads: John A. Stewart, president of the Carbonating Company of America, or Huff & Coryell Underwritten Securities, or the Republican League of Clubs. Repeatedly, he nagged Burnham to ask a mining magnate he knew from his Africa days to bankroll the organization.
Burnham was suspicious of Lord. He’d gone about everything in his life with caution and poise, and he found Lord’s rashness and moneygrubbing irritating. He described Lord to a friend as “flighty and without any financial balance.” Burnham was ready to forward the society’s goals, to ask friends for financing and give speeches to groups of influential sportsmen and naturalists he had access to. But he wanted to see a real plan in place first. He imagined the New Food Supply Society becoming a “permanent and valuable branch” of the nation’s new conservation movement, but so far it felt pretty wishy-washy. He wrote to Broussard: “I do not wish to go among my friends and ask for their names for a society that is soon to go the way of so many abortive congresses and federations and high sounding things mentioned about twice in a Sunday paper and then forgotten.”
Broussard agreed. “Like you,” he told Burnham, “I am adverse to organizing any movement unless energy, spirit and intelligent management are to follow the organization.” But Broussard was also becoming busy with higher-profile projects. He was journeying back and forth to Central America all summer, part of a delegation trying to bring an upcoming World’s Fair to New Orleans. And he’d spend August traveling his district, shaking the hands of his many Louisianan cousins and wringing all the available joy from another reelection campaign, even though he was once again running unopposed. Still, he told Burnham that he hoped to schedule a meeting with the would-be New Food Supply Society at some point soon—to sit down, all of them, and talk things out face-to-face.
Lord did not relent. He kept claiming, throughout the summer, to have an increasingly impressive roster of dignitaries ready to become charter members of the New Food Supply Society. He unilaterally announced plans to send Duquesne, as an “agent of the Society,” on a lecture tour of Ivy League colleges and then the leading seaside and mountain hotels. Of course, the New Food Supply Society still did not technically exist, and so, again and again, in letters to Broussard and Burnham, Lord begged them to finally incorporate it. He even went so far as to compose one of these letters to Broussard on a sheet of New Food Supply Society letterhead. In the upper left corner, Lord listed Broussard as chairman of the society and himself as secretary. “My compensation can be arranged for after the Society is in funds,” he informed the congressman.
Duquesne, meanwhile, seems to have been the only one doing any concrete work. Not long after the hearing, the society had sent him on a fact-finding mission to Louisiana, and he hoped that his role as freelance hippo expert might soon turn into a legitimate job. Lord was farming out articles Duquesne wrote about African animals to newspapers, which in the interim was a nice bump for his career, and Duquesne kept making sure that the other members of the would-be society saw his clips.
In short, Duquesne wanted credit. He made it clear that he was doing this work at his own expense and that the newspapers seldom paid him for his articles. In a letter to Burnham, he described writing African animal essays all day until his hand cramped and his handwriting became illegible, at which point he’d switch to using a typewriter, which carried its own costs—ribbons, maintenance, and so on. Burnham tried to buck him up. (“My dear Captain,” he wrote. “You certainly are pushing your part of the society in advance of the rest of us.”) He told him he would try to get Lord and Broussard to finally hammer out some financial arrangement and employ Duquesne properly. Duquesne replied to Burnham that he didn’t appreciate being left in the dark and was getting fed up with Lord’s “glowing promises.” “I do not want this movement to die through undue satisfaction or dry rot,” he said.
Months passed like this. Burnham tried to keep his optimism up, writing to pitch new acquaintances about the idea and scheduling public appearances, including his speech to the Humane Association of California in Pasadena that fall. At one point, he sent Lord $25 to keep the operation running. But the time between the men’s letters grew longer and longer. In September of 1910, Duquesne wrote to Broussard: “What have you that is new or valuable in the way of suggestion? If any make them and I shall act.” Broussard replied: “There is no news to communicate.”
The following month, the New York World published an article about the importation of African animals which apparently credited the idea to Charles Frederick Holder of Santa Catalina Island in California, a well-known fisherman of exceptionally large tuna. Duquesne was irate. He sent copies of the article to both Burnham and Broussard, seething, and demanded that Broussard issue some sort of universal correction to the press.
It was a momentary outburst; soon, the slow and painful birthing process of the New Food Supply Society would quietly resume. But something in Duquesne had snapped. He may have believed, deep in his gut like Burnham did, that importing hippopotamuses was the right and necessary thing for America—that the animal, if transplanted properly, would thrive here. But it was clear by now that he was working primarily for the prosperity of his favorite transplanted African animal: himself.
“It seems every day I hear of someone else, not Duquesne, being the man who brought this matter before the people,” Duquesne wrote to the congressman. “I am working day in and day out to keep this matter before the people, at some expense too.” But now, he explained, there were half a dozen other writers wandering around New York, all cribbing from Duquesne’s published work to sell stories about their supposed plans to import African animals.
“The thing was never heard of in DC till I spoke to you,” Duquesne insisted to Broussard. “No one else, mind you. Only Duquesne.”
Seven years later.
Captain Claude Stoughton
Around Thanksgiving in 1917, the head of the New York City Police Department’s bomb squad, Thomas J. Tunney, asked two of his detectives to begin investigating a certain Captain Claude Stoughton, a British officer who had served in the West Australian Light Horse division and was now stationed for a time in New York.
It’s unclear why exactly Tunney had taken an interest in Stoughton, though his suspicions seem to have grown out of an ongoing investigation of a recent explosion at a warehouse in Brooklyn. City authorities had also been approached about Captain Stoughton by a widow on Riverside Drive. America had entered World War I that April, and the woman was troubled by sympathetic comments about the Germans which she’d heard a slightly inebriated Stoughton make at parties, and even more so by the style of his mustache. He wore it “trained upward in imitation of the well known style affected by the German emperor,” she explained.
Tunney’s detectives began digging up what they could on the man. They obtained a photograph of him, a slender and handsome man in uniform, and learned that he lived in a second-floor apartment at 137 West 75th St. But an eventual search of the apartment produced photos of Stoughton dressed in other countries’ uniforms, too. Another photograph identified him as a war correspondent for a Belgian newspaper and showed him wearing his hair in florid curls. In another, he sat in tall grass and wore a thick black beard. Another pictured him with ammunition slung over his torso, standing over a dead white rhinoceros. (Clearly, Tunney wrote, the man “fancied photographs of himself, as he made up rather dashingly.”)
The trove of paperwork the detectives recovered was similarly fragmented and irreconcilable. There was an insurance policy for a staggering $80,000 worth of motion-picture film, taken out five years earlier, protecting against “fires, pirates, rovers, assailing thieves, jettison, barratry of the master and mariners and all other perils, losses and misfortunes.” There were newspaper articles—piles of them, which, according to The New York Times, detailed “practically every bomb explosion since the war began,” with a special focus on a ship called the SS Tennyson, which had blown up a year earlier, after leaving Brazil for New York. One of the clippings described an investigation into the Tennyson explosion that had led to a British safe-deposit box, where police seized $6,740 in cash in an envelope addressed to someone with the virtually unpronounceable name Piet Niacud.
The men had also obtained a program for a theatrical lecture staged seven years earlier. The cover featured a very small circular photograph of President Theodore Roosevelt in safari gear, and a much larger studio portrait of Captain Stoughton. The captain was wearing khakis and clutching the holster of his sidearm, while glaring dramatically into the middle distance as though he were stalking a lion. He was identified here by another name, one that had appeared in several other documents as well—including, most troublingly, a letter of introduction from a diplomat in Nicaragua, describing him as a man who had “in many circumstances rendered notable services to our good German cause.” The name was Fritz Duquesne.
“A thousand questions sprang up in our minds about the man,” Tunney remembered. They started following whatever leads they had. At some point, they reached out to a well-known adventurer in California who, according to a magazine clipping they’d found, had once appeared alongside Duquesne at a congressional hearing about hippopotamuses in March of 1910.
Preparedness
In 1917, Frederick Burnham was living in relative seclusion. Shortly before the First World War started, he’d sold the house in Pasadena and moved his family and in-laws to a ranch in Tulare County, California, backed up against Sequoia National Park. He felt that Pasadena had swollen into a stifling and crowded suburb. The ranch, which the Burnhams called La Cuesta, offered them privacy, space, and some very well-deserved peace.
The phase of Burnham’s life that had included the hippo hearing, seven years earlier, had been busy and stressful. While the New Food Supply Society was struggling to get off the ground, he was also traveling back and forth between Mexico and California, establishing copper mines and irrigation projects in the Yaqui Valley for a number of financiers, including the Guggenheim family, J. P. Morgan, and John Hays Hammond, a mining baron he befriended during his days in Rhodesia. Burnham considered Mexico “the most active region left in the world”—the next unruly frontier, rich with opportunities—and he was drawn to it just as he’d been drawn to the Southwest as a boy and Africa as a young man. But Mexico, too, eventually burst into violence. And when the Mexican Revolution began, in 1910, Burnham was called down to watch over Hammond’s interests; at one point, he would command an encampment of 500 armed men on the banks of the Yaqui.
The move to La Cuesta ranch presented him with yet another empty frontier to master and improve—but a tranquil one, on a smaller scale, far removed from any geopolitical violence. He imported white-tailed deer from Mexico and took pride in how they prospered. He introduced wild turkeys, peccaries, pheasants, and game bantams. The Burnhams were part of a small community of settlers living deep in the Sierras, widely dispersed—people who worked hard and made do on their own. Burnham thought of them as a “lost white tribe.”
“When the World War broke,” he remembered, “it was some time before the reality of it penetrated into our deep canyon.” But when it did, the lost tribe sprang into action. Young men filed out of the mountains to enlist and fight. “Elderly women walked four miles in the heat of summer over dusty mountain roads to knit and sew for soldiers over seas,” he wrote. This determination reassured Burnham. Otherwise, he was unsettled by the war. The new technological mode of warfare—the gassing, machine guns, and trenches—had “turned us all into military robots,” he wrote. He argued that the traditional skills and ethos of self-reliance that those old scouts had taught him as a boy remained as important as ever, and he worried that they were being lost.
Self-reliance was becoming an obsession of Burnham’s—the only sensible response to the growing disorder of the world. In the run-up to the war, he’d been extremely sympathetic to the so-called Preparedness Movement in America—the belief that conflict was inevitable and that President Woodrow Wilson wasn’t building a sufficiently large and capable military to handle it. Burnham and his friends traded letters about “Preparedness,” extolling it as an ideal, griping about the glaring unpreparedness of those around them. And in July of 1916, Burnham was listed as a grand marshal’s assistant in San Francisco’s Preparedness Day Parade.
The parade would be a stunning display of civic preparedness, featuring more than 50,000 marchers: 200 nurses in uniform; 500 physicians and surgeons; 200 optometrists and opticians, prepared to help the nation’s eyes; a vaudevillian actress, dressed as the Goddess of Preparedness; and a Division of Six-Footers, which was essentially a few rows of very tall people organized by a six-foot-four gentleman named J. R. Martin. But the day was disrupted by a terrorist attack. Antiwar, anti-preparedness radicals detonated a suitcase bomb shortly after the start of the parade, killing 10 and injuring 40. It was perhaps the clearest sign yet of the insolence that had begun churning in the world—the audacity it took to try and catch a Preparedness Day Parade by surprise.
Burnham kept preparing, however. In fact, he prepared more vigorously now. In early 1917, he enlisted as one of 18 lieutenants in a battalion of aging, able-bodied men from around the West that his friend Theodore Roosevelt had begun zealously organizing and was threatening to lead into battle himself if President Wilson continued to keep the nation’s military on the sidelines. By now, American writers had related Burnham’s feats in Africa, making him a famous war hero. But it gnawed at him that he’d never actually fought for his own country. He thought, at age 55, that he’d finally get his chance. But Roosevelt’s army never shipped out. It wasn’t until America finally joined the Great War in April 1917 that Burnham found an idiosyncratic opportunity to serve.
Manganese, a mineral used to make steel, had suddenly become invaluable during the war: a scarcity developed after shipments that the U.S. relied on, including German exports, were compromised or cut off. America scrambled after new exports from Brazil and other South American countries, but also took a hard look at its own potential reserves. The mineral had not been worth much during the gold and silver rushes, and engineers now began poring over old U.S. Geological Survey documents and historical maps, looking for any sign of deposits that the miners had skipped over.
Burnham attacked the problem differently. He began rounding up prospectors he’d encountered in his youth. They were wizened old nomads now, but, Burnham would remember, they’d retained an “indescribable spiritual quality” and “perennial optimism” that allowed them to “wander vaguely over the desert wastes with the patience of the burro and the imperturbability of the Sphinx.” Burnham began roaming the desert with these men, hunting for manganese. Many of them were able to lead Burnham back to deposits they remembered stumbling across years ago. Soon they were pulling manganese out of the hills in Nevada, from the sides of Mount Diablo, outside San Francisco, and from the belly of Southwestern deserts, and sending it off to be bolted into the flanks of the modern war machine. It was the only inheritance this nearly extinct species of American frontiersman could manage to leave: “the desert people’s best tribute to the nation,” as Burnham put it. For him, it was reassuring proof that old skills could still contribute in a new kind of war.
In other words, Burnham spent the years after Broussard’s congressional hearing essentially championing the same ideals he’d fought for in Washington: self-sufficiency and industriousness powered by an underlying optimism. As a young scout, he’d taught himself to stay awake for longer than seemed humanly possible by thwacking the back of his head with his fist if he started to nod off. Now, at the outset of the 20th century, America clearly had problems—horrible and frightening ones. But they seemed solvable to Burnham if the nation would only rap itself on the head with enough determination and force, if it would shout at itself to wake the hell up. His loyalty to this belief was unwavering. And in this way he was the perfect foil to his old nemesis, Fritz Duquesne—who during those same years, the New York City police detectives were now learning, had been slowly shedding his belief in everything.
Captain Fritz Duquesne’s South American Expedition
Duquesne had worked hard to cobble together a small amount of notoriety and influence by the time he appeared at Broussard’s hippopotamus hearing, and as the New Food Supply Society bumped along, he was determined not to let any of it go. He branched off on his own, marshaling all his entrepreneurial energy to stay in the limelight. He wound up spiraling into darkness instead.
At first, Duquesne simply took the hippopotamus idea and built on it, eccentrically. In the spring of 1911, he organized a series of banquets in Washington and New York, likely as showcases for a potential animal-importing venture he was considering launching on his own. He served guests a menu of imported African springbok soup, dik-dik, and hippo croquettes. Next, he explored bringing elephants to Central and South America and selling them as beasts of burden. And after that, he came improbably close to staging an incomprehensible publicity stunt for an American matchstick manufacturer, wherein Duquesne would bring over a band of indigenous Peruvians and have them drive a herd of imported llamas across the eastern United States, from New York City to the company’s headquarters in Ohio.
In 1913, however, Duquesne began planning a more promising business venture—one that apparently had started in earnest but would gradually contort into an ambitious and deadly con. Theodore Roosevelt was now organizing a follow-up to his African expedition: a long, daring journey to trace one of the Amazon’s tributaries through the Brazilian jungle. Duquesne saw another chance to capitalize on the public’s fascination with Roosevelt’s adventures, just as he’d done with his lectures during Roosevelt’s safari.
He started canvassing acquaintances, and then acquaintances of acquaintances, for money to produce Captain Fritz Duquesne’s South American Expedition. It would be part movie, part lecture; he’d travel through the jungle with his wife Alice, filming the same sorts of things that Roosevelt would encounter, then narrate his footage live on stage. (Duquesne first encountered Alice while locked up in the British prison camp in Bermuda—she was the daughter of an American bureaucrat stationed there. It was a classic meet cute: he was resting under a tree, taking a break from his chain gang, when a ball from her tennis game came rolling toward him.) Duquesne eventually secured funding from the Thanhouser Film Corporation and the Goodyear tire company—he’d apparently agreed to do some rubber hunting in South America on the side—and agreed to deliver the finished travelogue in time for the Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, in 1915. He bought 20,000 feet of film, at four dollars a foot, and insured the lot of it before sailing out of New York, thereby generating the policy that Tunney’s detectives would discover in his apartment four years later.
Apparently, not one foot of the film was ever used. World War I began shortly after the Duquesnes left New York, in the summer of 1914. The details are foggy, but President Wilson’s initial insistence that the United States remain neutral seems to have disillusioned and enraged the Black Panther. Duquesne’s contempt for England, forged during the Second Boer War, was so overpowering that, in his mind, the only conscionable response to the outbreak of the Great War was for America to team up with Germany and crush the British Empire. In short, he hated Britain so much that he would hate any nation that refused to hate it, too. According to his biographer Clement Wood, Duquesne’s attitude became: “There are no good Americans except the anti-English ones.”
Duquesne sent Alice back home on a ship from Brazil, then went to the German consulate and offered up his services as a spy and saboteur. He started hanging around the docks in disguise. From then on, Duquesne would move through life in a cloud of aliases. These included Frederick Barron, Colonel Bezin, F. Crabbs, Colonel Marquis Duquesne, Fred Buquesne, J. Q. Farn, Berthold Szabo, Von Goutard, Vam Dam, Fritters, Worthy, and Jim. Some people knew him as the Handsomest Man in Europe.
But now, on the docks, Duquesne morphed into a frumpy and feeble middle-aged botanist from the Netherlands who walked wrenched over in a stoop and wore thick, unflattering glasses. He called himself Frederick Fredericks.
As Fredericks, Duquesne hung out in bars, sidling up to drunk English sailors and offering them bribes to carry rare orchid bulbs to his friends and relatives abroad. But the packages contained explosives; Duquesne would later claim to have sunk 22 ships and started 100 dock fires during this time.
Most famously, Duquesne would claim responsibility for the destruction of the HMS Hampshire, a British ship that sank west of the Orkney Islands, in northern Scotland, in 1916, killing more than 600 men aboard, including Duquesne’s old nemesis Lord Kitchener, now Britain’s secretary of war. (Clement Wood’s 1932 biography, titled The Man Who Killed Kitchener, relays as truth Duquesne’s totally fabricated account of how he supposedly infiltrated the Hampshire, posing as a young Russian count named Boris Zakrevsky, then signaled a German U-boat to take the ship down.) But, as Frederick Burnham later pointed out, much of what Duquesne actually accomplished during his time in South America was likely to disrupt outgoing shipments of manganese—exacerbating the problem that Burnham and his tribe of prospectors would file into the desert to solve. That is, the two adversaries still somehow managed to lock themselves in an oblique, intercontinental standoff—Frederick Burnham versus Frederick Fredericks, with one man racing to rebuild what the other was breaking apart.
In February 1916, Duquesne packed the film from his aborted motion-picture project into a trunk and registered it as cargo aboard the SS Tennyson, a British ship heading for New York. Then he went about engineering the ship’s destruction.
Maybe there was no film in the trunk; maybe it was filled with explosives instead. Or maybe they were in the six boxes labeled “Minerals,” which, investigators came to believe, Duquesne had also stashed aboard the Tennyson. But something on the ship exploded as it approached the equator. Three sailors were killed in the fire. Before long, a clerk who claimed to be a co-conspirator was captured by British intelligence and gave up Duquesne’s name. He also led authorities to the safety-deposit box and the envelope full of money waiting for “Piet Niacud.” “Niacud” was “Duquesne” spelled backward phonetically.
Duquesne was now wanted for murder by the British. But before long, on April 27, word came in The New York Times that Duquesne had himself been murdered. He was traveling through the Bolivian frontier when his party was raided by “host
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CONTENTS
Introductory Comments
Introduction [1916], by Ernest Brehaut
Preface
Book I
Book II
Book III
Book IV
Book V
Book VI
Book VII
Book VIII
Book IX
Book X
Bibliography
Connected Image Files
Map of Frankish Dominions 511-561 AD (73k jpeg file, facing p. 280 of edition)
Genealogy of Merovingian Kings Mentioned in Gregory of Tours, (p. 276 of edition)
INTRODUCTORY COMMENTS
[Paul Halsall]
The text presented here is the abridged translation of Gregory of Tour's History of the Franks made by Earnest Brehaut in 1916. The etext gives the full text of the Brehaut edition, pp. 1-248, apart from the Selections from The Eight Books of Miracles [pp. 249-62] which has been made available separately.
Brehaut gives a complete list of books and chapters, but only translated a selection of the chapters. Here each book is preceded by a list of all the chapters. I have made clear which chapters are available here by highlighting those that are translated. Short notes from the foot of each page have been inserted italicized into the body of the text.
This is a very large file, but has been kept as one to facilitate keyword searching, downloading, and printing.
The following individual episodes have been created as separate files for classroom use and discussion:
Book II: Clovis and the Vase at Soissons
Book II: Clovis' Conversion
More to come
[Since the scanning of this text is a big task, but the text is of special use to students and teachers, it has been made available even though only parts are as yet completed.
This version is dated 12/21/1997, and now contains Brehaut's Introduction, and Books I-X, as well as an up-to-date Bibliography and guide to Web Resources. The end notes will be added as time allows].
[Other Translations Included: In addition to the Chapters translated by Brehaut, which amount to over half the full text, from time to time other chapters will be inserted in the text, as copy-permitted translations become available. So far such other translations include: VIII:20]
INTRODUCTION
By Earnest Brehaut, [from his 1916 translation] , pp. ix-xxv
[Note: Many of Brehaut's opinions and prejudices would not be upheld by modern historians. Students should not rely on this Introduction as a guide.]
The History of the Franks by Gregory, bishop of Tours, is an historical record of great importance. The events which it relates are details of the perishing of the Roman Empire and the beginning of a great modern state and for these events it is often the sole authority. However although Gregory was relating history mainly contemporaneous or recent, we must allow largely for error and prejudice in his statements of fact. It is rather as an unconscious revelation that the work is of especial value. The language and style, the intellectual attitude with which it was conceived and written, and the vivid and realistic picture, unintentionally given, of a primitive society, all combine to make the History of the Franks a landmark in European culture. After reading it the intelligent modern will no longer have pleasing illusions about sixthcentury society.
Gregory's life covers the years from 538 to 594. He was a product of central Gaul, spending his whole life in the Loire basin except for brief stays elsewhere. [note: Besides Clermont and Tours in which cities Gregory spent most of his life we hear of stays at Poitiers, Saintes, Bordeaux, Riez, Cavaillon, Vienne, Lyons, Chalon-sorSaône, ChâlonssurMarne, Rheims, Soissons, Metz, Coblentz, Braine, Paris, Orleans. Monod, Sources de l'histoire Mérovingienne, p. 37.] The river Loire may be regarded as the southern limit of Frankish colonization and Gregory therefore lived on the frontier of the barbarians. He was born and grew up at Clermont in Auvergne, a city to which an inexhaustibly fertile mountain valley is tributary. In this valley his father owned an estate. Its wealth brought Clermont much trouble during the disorderly period that followed the breakup of Roman rule, and Gregory gives a hint of the eagerness which the Frankish kings felt to possess this country [note: Childebert the elder is represented as saying: Velim unquam Arvernam Lemanem quae tantae jocunditatis gratia refulgere dicitur, oculis cernere. H. F. III: 9.]
After 573 Gregory lived at Tours in the lower Loire valley. This city with its pleasant climate and moderately productive territorial background had more than a local importance in this age. It lay on the main thoroughfare between Spain and Aquitania and the north. Five Roman roads centered in it and the traffic of the Loire passed by it. The reader of Gregory's history judges that sooner or later it was visited by every one of importance at the time. It was here that the Frankish influences of the north and the Roman influences of the south had their chief contact.
However the natural advantages of Tours at this time were surpassed by the supernatural ones. Thanks to the legend of St. Martin this conveniently situated city had become "the religious metropolis" of Gaul. St. Martin had made a great impression on his generation. [note: In France, including Alsace and Lorraine, there are at the present time three thousand six hundred and seventyfive churches dedicated to St. Martin, and four hundred and twentyfive villages or hamlets are named after him. C. Bayet, in Lavisse, Histoire de France, 221, p. 16] A Roman soldier, turned monk and then bishop of Tours, he was a man of heroic character and force. He had devoted himself chiefly to the task of Christianizing the pagani or rural population of Gaul and had won a remarkable ascendancy over the minds of a superstitious people, and this went on increasing for centuries after his death. The center of his cult was his tomb in the great church built a century before Gregory's time just outside the walls of Tours. This was the chief point of Christian pilgrimage in Gaul, a place of resort for the healing of the sick and the driving out of demons, and a sanctuary to which many fled for protection. [note: . C. Bayet, in Lavisse, Histoire de France, 21, pp. 13 ff.] In a time of dense superstition and political and social disorder this meant much in the way of securing peace, influence, and wealth, and it was to the strategic advantage of the office of bishop of Tours as well as to his own aggressive character that Gregory owed his position as the leading prelate of Gaul.
Gregory does not neglect to tell us of his family connections and status in society. [note: Monod, op. cit. pp. 25 ff. See pp. 13, 84, 109,0, 140.] He belonged to the privileged classes. Of his father's family he tells us that "in the Gauls none could be found better born or nobler," and of his mother's that it was "a great and leading family." On both his father's and his mother's side he was of senatorial rank, a distinction of the defunct Roman empire which still retained much meaning in central and southern Gaul. But the great distinction open at this time to a Gallo-Roman was the powerful and envied office of bishop. Men of the most powerful families struggled to attain this office and we can therefore judge of Gregory's status when he tells us proudly that of the bishops of Tours from the beginning all but five were connected with him by ties of kinship. We hear much of Gregory's paternal uncle Gallus, bishop of Auvergne, under whom he probably received his education and entered the clergy, and of his granduncle Nicetius, bishop of Lyons, and of his greatgrandfather Gregory, bishop of Langres, in honor of whom Gregory discarded the name of Georgius Florentinus which he had received from his father. Entering on a clerical career with such powerful connections he was at the same time gratifying his ambitions and obeying the most strongly felt impulse of his time.
In spite of all these advantages, under the externals of Christianity Gregory was almost as superstitious as a savage. His superstition came to him straight from his father and mother and from his whole social environment. He tells us that his father, when expecting in 534 to go as hostage to king Theodobert's court, went to "a certain bishop" and asked for relics to protect him. These were furnished to him in the shape of dust or " sacred ashes " and he put them in a little gold case the shape of a peapod and wore hem about his neck, although he never knew the names of the saints whose relics they were. According to Gregory's account the miraculous assistance given to his father by these relics was a common subject of family conversation. After his death the relics passed to Gregory's mother, who on one occasion . extinguished by their help a great fire that had got started in the straw stacks on the family estate near Clermont. While on a horseback journey from Burgundy to Auvergne Gregory himself happened to be wearing these same relics. A fearful thunderstorm threatened the party, but Gregory "drew the beloved relics from his breast and lifted them up against the cloud, which at once separated into two parts and passed on the right and left, and after that did no harm to them or any one else." In spite of himself Gregory could not help being somewhat elated at the incident and he hinted to his companions that his own merit must have had something to do with it. "No sooner were the words spoken than my horse shied suddenly and threw me heavily on the ground; and I was so shaken that I could scarcely get up. I understood that my vanity was the cause of it, and it was a lesson to me to be on my guard against the spur of pride. And if thereafter I happened to have the merit merely to behold miracles of the saints I would say distinctly that they had been worked by God's grace through faith in the saints." [note: Gloria Martyrum, c.83].
The number of miracles at which Gregory " assisted " was great. A picturesque and significant one is the following: "It happened once that I was journeying to visit my aged mother in Burgundy. And when passing through the woods on the other side of the river Bèbre we came upon highwaymen. They cut us off from escape and were going to rob and kill us. Then I resorted to my usual means of assistance and called on St. Martin for help. And he came to my help at once and efficiently, and so terrified them that they could do nothing against us. And instead of causing fear they were afraid, and were beginning to flee as fast as they could. But I remembered the apostle's words that our enemies ought to be supplied with food and drink, and told my people to offer them drink. They wouldn't wait at all, but fled at top speed. One would think that they were being clubbed along or were being hurled along involuntarily faster than their horses could possibly go", [note: De Virtut. S. Mart. I, 36.]
The reality of this incident need not be doubted. The highwaymen were as superstitious as Gregory, probably more so. When they found what they had against them they fled in a panic. The peculiar wording of the last sentence makes it seem likely that Gregory for his part thought that the highwaymen had demons to help them and that these in their urgent flight before the superior " virtue " of St. Martin were responsible for the appearance he describes.
Of Gregory's education and literary training we receive scanty details. At the age of eight he was beginning to learn to read.[note: Vitae Patram, VIII, 3.] The books he read were naturally the Scriptures and works of Christian writers and his contact with pagan literature of the classical period must have been slight; he appears to have read Virgil and Sallust's Catiline but probably did not go beyond these. [note: Bonnet, Le Latin de Gregoire de Tours, pp. 4876]. His attitude toward pagan literature was the conventional one of his age,-fear of the demonic influences embodied in it; [note: Speaking of Jupiter, Mercury, Minerva, Venus, a character in the Vitae Patrum, XVII, says, Nolite, o, viri, nolite eos invocare, non sunt enim dii isti sed daemones.] he expresses it thus: "We ought not to relate their lying fables lest we fall under sentence of eternal death." [note: Gloria Martyrum, Pref. ] Among Christian writers Sulpicius Severus, Prudentius, Sidonius Apollonaris, and Fortunatus were the only ones to exercise a genuine influence on his style.
The question has been much discussed whether sixthcentury education in Gaul included a knowledge of the liberal arts. Gregory gives us no definite information on the point. It is true that he is explicit as to his own case. He says, " I was not trained in grammar or instructed in the finished style of the heathen writers, but the influence of the blessed father Avitus, bishop of Auvergne, turned me solely to the writings of the church." [note: Vitae Patrum, II, Pref. ] Gregory does indeed mention Martianus Capella's work on the seven liberal arts and seems to have had some notion of the scope of each one, [note: See p. 240. (i.e. Book X.16)] but in the face of his repeated confessions of ignorance of the most elementary of them as well as the actual proof of ignorance which he constantly gives, the conclusion must be that they were not included in his education. As to the general situation the only evidence is furnished by Gregory's famous preface in which he declares that "liberal learning is declining or rather perishing in the Gallic cities," and no one could be found sufficiently versed in the liberal arts to write the History of the Franks as it ought to be written. We may feel certain that Gregory's idea of the qualifications for historical writing were not high; correct spelling, knowledge of the rules of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic as laid down in the textbooks would be sufficient. But, as he tells us, no person so qualified could be found to undertake the task. Again we hear of bishops who were illiterate. It is plain that the trend of the evidence is all in one direction, namely that in Gaul by this time the liberal arts had disappeared from education.
Gregory's Latin presents many problems. Its relation to sixth-century linguistic development is not well understood although it has been closely scrutinized. Gregory's vocabulary does not show the decadence that might be expected. It is extremely rich and varied and contains a moderate number of Celtic, Germanic, and Hunnish additions. Old Latin words, however, often have new and unexpected meanings. In the field of grammar the situation is different. Judged by anything like a classical standard Gregory is guilty of almost every conceivable barbarity. He spells incorrectly, blunders in the use of the inflections, confuses genders, and often uses the wrong case with the preposition. In addition he is very awkward in handling the Latin verb: the different voices, tenses, and modes are apt to look alike to him. His constructions too, are frequently incorrect. In all this he seems very erratic, he may use the correct form ten times and then give us something entirely different. No method has so far been traced in his vagaries.
Gregory's literary style is as peculiar as his language. It is often vigorous and direct, giving realistic and picturesque delineations of events. Within his limitations he well understood the complexity of human motives and actions, and now and then he shows a trace of humor. However, offending elements often appear; sometimes his realism verges on a brutal plainness. He is also by no means free from literary affectation; indeed by his choice of expressions, his repetitions and unnatural arrangement of words, he is almost always striving for effect. In his day the tradition of literary workmanship was quite dead but it would seem as if its ghost tortured Gregory. On the whole his literary style is uncouth, awkward, and full of rude surprises.
There are wellmarked variations in the style. At times we have the conventionalized jargon of the church, in which Gregory was proficient and which was always in the back of his mind ready to issue forth when other inspiration failed. At the opposite extreme from this is the easy, clear narrative in which the popular tales, both Frankish and Roman, are often recited. It is believed that in some of these we have a version of epic recitals of Frankish adventures. Then there are the passages, like the baptism of Clovis [note:l See p. 40 (i.e. Book II:30-31).] or the tale of the two lovers, which Gregory labored to make striking. These do not offend; they are so naïvely overdone that they are merely amusing.
In the light of these conclusions, objectively reached, [note: They are substantially the conclusions of Bonnet in Le Latin de Gregoire de Tours, Paris, 1890.], as to Gregory's language and style, how shall we interpret the confessions in regard to them which he repeatedly makes? In these confessions there are two leading notions: first, that he is without qualifications to write in the literary style; second, that the popular language can be more widely understood. The inference is always therefore that Gregory writes in the language of the day. This, however, cannot be so. A language spoken by the people would have something organic about it, and it would not defy as Gregory's does the efforts of scholars to find its usages. It would be simpler than the literary language and probably as uniform in its constructions. We must decide then that Gregory's self-analysis is a mistaken one, correct in the first part but not in the second. He knew he could not write the literary language but in spite of this he made the attempt, and the result is what we have, a sort of hybrid, halfway between the popular speech and the formally correct literary language.
In the Epilogue of the History of the Franks written in 594, the year of Gregory's death, he gives us a list of his works: "I have written ten books of History, seven of Miracles, one on the Lives of the Fathers, a commentary in one book on the Psalms, and one book on the Church Services [note: See p. 247 (Book X: 31.) In the Arndt and Brusch edition in the Monumenta Germania Historica we have all these titles included. The commentary on the Psalms however is in a fragmentary condition, and the Lives of the Fathers appears as one of eight books of Miracles. The book on Church Services is there entitled Account of the Movements of the Stars as they ought to be observed in performing the Services. It is really a brief astronomical treatise the purpose of which was in the absence of clocks to guide the church services at night. ] These works represent two sides of Gregory's experience,-his profession, and his relations with the Merovingian state.
In the former sphere the overshadowing interest was the miraculous. We have eight books devoted to miracles and it may be said that as a churchman Gregory never got very far away from them. It is idle to discuss the question whether he believed in them or not. It is more to the point to attempt to appreciate the part they played in the thought and life of the time. They were considered as the most significant of phenomena. They seemed a guarantee that the relations were right between the supernatural powers on the one hand and on the other the men who possessed the "sanctity" to work miracles and those who had the faith or merit to be cured or rescued by them. Gregory's eight books of Miracles were thus a register of the chief interest of his day, with an eye of course to its promotion, and it is much more remarkable that he wrote a History of the Franks than that he compiled this usually wearisome array of impossibilities.
A brief glance at the practical situation that lay back of the four books which Gregory devotes to the miracles wrought by St. .Martin will be enlightening. The cult of St. Martin was a great organized enterprise at the head of which Gregory was placed. In the sixth century St. Martin's tomb was a center toward .which the crippled, the sick, and those possessed by demons flowed as if by gravity from a large territory around Tours. The cures wrought there did much " to strengthen the faith." They passed from mouth to mouth and brought greater numbers to the shrine and it was to aid this process that the four books of St. Martin's miracles were written. Gregory is here a promoter and advertiser. To get at the practical side of the situation we have only to remember that St. Martin's tomb was the chief place of healing among the shrines of Gaul, and that the shrines of the sixth century stood for the physicians, hospitals, drugs, patent medicines, and other healing enterprises of the twentieth.
The History of the Franks is Gregory's chief work. It was written in three parts. The first, comprising books IIV, begins with the creation, and after a brief outline of events enters into more detail with the introduction of Christianity into Gaul. Then follow the appearance of the Franks on the scene of history, their conversion, the conquest of Gaul under Clovis, and the detailed history of the Frankish kings down to the death of Sigibert in 575. At this date Gregory had been bishop of Tours two years. The second part comprises books V and VI and closes with Chilperic's death in 584. During these years Chilperic held Tours and the relations between him and Gregory were as a rule unfriendly. The most eloquent passage in the History of the Franks is the closing chapter of book VI, in which Chilperic's character is unsympathetical1y summed up. The third part comprises books VIIX. It comes down to the year 591 and the epilogue was written in 594, the year of Gregory's death. The earlier part of the work does not stand as it was first written; Gregory revised it and added a number of chapters. It will be noticed that from the middle of the third book on, Gregory was writing of events within his own lifetime, and in the last six books, which are of especial value, of those that took place after he became bishop. For the earlier part of the work he depended on various chronicles, histories and local annals, and also on oral tradition. [note: The list given by Manitius is as follows: Chronicles of Jerome Victor, Sulpicius Severus; history of Orosius; church history of EusebiusRufinus; Life of St. Martin by Sulpicius Severus; letters of Sidonius Apollinaris and Ferreolus writings of Avitus; histories of of Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus and Sulpicius Alexander (not elsewhere known), annals of of Arles, Angers, Burgundy. Geschichte der Lateinischen Litteratur.]
For the task undertaken by Gregory in the History of the Franks no one else was so well qualified His family connections were such as to afford him every opportunity of knowing the occurrences of central Gaul, while his position as bishop of Tours with all that it entailed brought him into touch with almost every person and matter of interest throughout the country. His frequent journeys and wide acquaintance, his leadership among the bishops, and his personal relations with four kings, Sigibert, Chilperic, Gunthram,and Childebert and also with most of the leading Franks, gave him unsurpassed opportunities for learning what was going on. Perhaps his most realistic notions of the working of Frankish society were obtained in dealing with the political refugees who sought- refuge in St. Martin's church. Though these people must have always been interesting to talk with, they were the cause of some of Gregory's most harrowing and at the same time informing experiences. This varied contact with the world about him made Gregory what every reader feels him to be, a vivid and faithful delineator of his time.
The History of the Franks must not be looked upon as a secular history. The old title, Ecclesiastical History of the Franks, is a better one descriptively. It is written not from the point of view of the GalloRoman or the Frank, but solely from that of the churchman, almost that of the bishop. Gregory does not take a tone of
loyalty to the Frankish kings, much less of inferiority. His attitude toward them is cold unless they are zealous supporters of the church, and he speaks with the utmost disgust of their civil wars, which seemed to him absolute madness in view of the greater war between the good and evil supernatural powers. [note: Book III, Pref, and IV Pref.] On the other hand his loyalty to his worthy fellowbishops is often proved. No doubt the words he quotes from Paulinus expressed his own feelings: "Whatever evils there may be in the world, you will doubtless see the worthiest men as guardians of all faith and religion." [note: Book II:13, Cf. V:11] Everywhere we can read in the lines and between the lines Gregory's single-minded devotion to the church and above all to the cult of St. Martin.
The great value of Gregory's writings is that we get in them an intimate view of sixthcentury ideas. At first sight, perhaps, we seem to have incongruous elements which from the modern viewpoint we cannot bring into harmony with one another. Credulity and hardheaded judgment appear side by side. How could Gregory be so shrewd and worldlyminded in his struggle with Chilperic and at the same time show such an appetite for the miraculous? How could he find it necessary to preface his history, as no other historian has done, with an exact statement of his creed? And how could he relate Clovis's atrocities and then go on to say, "Every day God kept laying his enemies low before him and enlarging his kingdom because he walked with right heart before him and did what was pleasing in his eyes"? These apparently glaring incongruities must have some explanation.
The reason why they have usually passed as incongruities is perhaps that it is difficult for us to take an unprejudiced view of religious and moral phenomena that are in the direct line of our cultural descent. If we could regard the Franks and GalloRomans as if they were alien to us, living, let us say, on an island of the southern Pacific, and believing and practising a religion adapted to their general situation, the task of understanding the History of the Franks would become easier. It is really a primitive society with a primitive interpretation of life and the universe with which we have to deal.
I,ook at the conception of religion held by Gregory. It seems most explicable, not by the creed he thrusts at us or by any traditional elements interpreted in a traditional sense, but by the living attitude toward the supernatural which he held. Two words are always recurring in his writings; sanctus and virtus, [note: Nunc autem cognovi quod magna est virtus eius beati Martini. Nam ingrediente me atrium domus. Vidi virum senem exhibentem arborem in manu sua, quae mox extensis ramis omne atrium texit. Ex ea emm unus me adtigit ramus, de cuius ictu turbatus corrui. Book VII:42] the first meaning sacred or holy, and the second the mystic potency emanating from the person or thing that is sacred. These words have in themselves no ethical meaning and no humane implications whatever. They are the keywords of a religious technique and their content is wholly supernatural. In a practical way the second word is the more important. It describes the uncanny, mysterious power emanating from the supernatural and affecting the natural. The manifestation of this power may be thought of as a contact between the natural and the supernatural in which the former, being an inferior reality, of course yielded. These points of contact and yielding are the miracles we continually hear of. The quality of sacredness and the mystic potency belong to spirits, in varying degrees to the faithful, and to inanimate objects. They are possessed by spirits, acquired by the faithful, and transmitted to objects.
There was also a false mystic potency. It emanated from spirits who were conceived of as alien and hostile, and, while it was not strong as the true "virtue," natural phenomena yielded before it and it had its own miracles, which however were always deceitful and malignant in purpose. This "virtue" is associated with the devil, demons, soothsayers, magicians, pagans and pagan gods, and heretics, and through them is continually engaged in aggressive warfare on the true " virtue." [note: See pp. 38 (Book II:28), 162 (Book VI:35), 185 (Book VII:44), 205 (Book IX:3).]
For the attainment of the true mystic potency asceticism was the method. This was not a withdrawal from lower activities of life to gain more power for higher activities, but it was undertaken m contempt of life, and in the more thoroughgoing cases the only restraint was the desire to avoid selfdestruction, which was forbidden. Almost every known method of selfdenial and self mortification was practised. Humility of mind was insisted on as an always necessary element. Fasting was part of the prescribed method. The strength of the motive behind asceticism may be judged from the practice of immuring, [note: For an objective account of immuring as the climax of religious practice see Vol II, chap. I, Sven Hedin's TransHimalaya, 1909. The following is his account of an immured monk who was brought out from his cell after a long time. "He was all bent up together and as small as a child and his body was nothing but a lightgray parchment like skin and bones. His eyes had lost their color, were quite bright and blind. His hair hung round his head in uncombed matted locks and was pure white. His body was covered only by a rag for time had eaten away his clothing and he had received no new garments. He had a thin unkempt beard, and had never washed himself all the time or cut his nails."] several specimens of which are related by Gregory. In this the ascetic was shut in a cell and the door walled up and only a narrow opening left to hand in a scanty supply of food. Here he was to remain until he died. Such men were regarded as having the true "virtue" in the highest degree. In reality their life must have made them distinctly inferior in all the ordinary virtues of a natural existence. [note: pp, 147-150 (Book VI:6), 158 (Book VI:28), 198-199 (Book: VIII:34)]
As asceticism was the method by which mystic potency was attained, so miracles were the product, and the proof that it had been acquired. Of course in theory the main object of the mystic was to assimilate himself to the supernatural and not expressly to work miracles. Still to society in general the miracles were the important thing. In the first place they served the immediate purpose for which a miracle might be needed, healing the sick or driving out a demon or something of the sort; in the second place they encouraged society by evidencing the fact that things in general were right and that their spiritual leaders had the right "medicine." Incredulity is not to be expected in such a situation. The miracle played an integral part in the life-theory of the time. It was the proof of religion and it did not need to be proved itself. Furthermore many miracles were real; for example, the cessation of a pain or natural recovery from a sickness would be regarded as a miracle.
Some mention should be made of the transmissibility of the mystic potency. The case of St. Martin is a good example. During his lifetime he acquired this power in a large degree. When he died on November 8, 397, at a village halfway between Tours and Poitiers, the inhabitants of these cities were all ready to fight for his body, when the people of Tours managed to secure it by stealth. This was because of the sanctity and mystic "virtue" inherent in it. It was carried to Tours and buried there and proved the greatest asset of the city. The mystic potency resided in the tomb and the area about it, and was transmitted to the dust accumulated on it, the wine and oil placed on it for the purpose, and was carried in these portable forms to all parts of Gaul. Gregory himself, for example, carried relics of St. Martin on his journeys and records that they kept his boat from sinking in the river Rhine.
The system of superstition just outlined is the greater and more real part of Gregory's religion. There was the right mystery and the wrong mystery; and both were of a low order; men had to deal with capricious saints and malignant demons. It was a real, live, local religion comparable with that of savages. By the side of this and intertwined with it the elements of traditional Christianity in a more or less formalized and ritualized shape were retained. Here the great stress was laid on the creed, not, however, that it amounted to anything in Gregory's mind as a creed. He was no theologian. His acceptance of it and insistence on it was ritualistic. However, although he accepted it as he tells us with pura credulitas, [note: Book I:Pref] that is, without a critical thought, it was not mere formality. He felt, no doubt, that it was a sort of mystic formula, especially the Trinitarian part of it,-for putting men into the right relation with the supernatural. If they believed in the creed they had the right "medicine"; if they did not, they had not.
This system of superstition was not calculated to nourish delicate moral sensibilities. Life had gone too far back to the primitive word applied to the adept in this religion was sanctus and it indicated not moral excellence at all but a purely mystic quality. The "virtue" which this person possessed was mystic potency, which was not moral but a supernatural force. The orthodox of course called the saint good, but this was merely because they were on the same side, just as Cicero for example six centuries before called members of his political party the boni. Gregory's moral praise or blame is distributed in the same way. When he praises a man we must look for the service done by this man to the church, and when he blames one we must look in like manner for the opposite. Outside of the interests of the orthodox group Gregory is not morally thinskinned; he shared in the brutality of his contemporaries, as we can see in many recitals. His portrait of Clovis throws no false light back on Gregory. Clovis was a champion and favorite of the right supernatural powers in their fight with the wrong ones, and any occasional atrocities he committed in the struggle were not only pardonable but praiseworthy. [note: See pp. 47-50 (Book II:40-43)].
Secular activities and the state of mind just indicated could not coexist in the same society. We have noticed already how education was desecularized. It is of interest to note also what had happened to the secular professions of medicine and law.
The profession of medicine had almost completely disappeared. It is true indeed that we hear of a few physicians. For example when Austrechild, king Gunthram's wife, was dying, she accused her two physicians of having given her "potions" that were proving fatal, and asked the king to take an oath to have them executed. He did so and kept his word and Gregory remarks with what seems excessive moderation, " Many wise men think that this was not done without sin." [note: p 130 (Book V;34)] Again we hear of Gregory's own illness, when he sent for a physician. He soon decided that "secular means could not help the perishing," and sent for some dust from St. Martin's tomb which he put in water and drank, and was soon cured. [note: De Virtut. S. Martin, II.1] Such tales indicate the status of the medical profession.
The truth was that the condition of the people's minds made the profession an impossibility. Disease was looked upon as supernatural. The sick man thought he had a better chance if he called the priest rather than the doctor. Gregory tells us of Vulfilaic, who was suddenly covered from head to foot with angry pimples; he rubbed himself with oil consecrated at St. Martin's tomb, and they speedily disappeared. He reasoned that if they had been driven away by St. Martin, they had plainly been sent by the devil. [note: p. 196 (book VIII:154)] This meant to him that the whole thing was supernatural and that the true mystic power had driven out the false which had caused the trouble.
Perhaps this was not the reasoning in every case, but at any rate, the people went to the shrines and churches to be healed. In some cases the diagnosis was quite clear as with a patient at Limoges. The priest put holy oil on his head and " the demon went down into his finger-nail; seeing this the priest poured oil on the finger and soon the skin burst, blood flowed from the place, and the demon thus took his departure. [note: Glor.Conf. c.9]
Such practices were not isolated or unusual, but typical. Mystical healing was adjusted to an everyday basis, as many "cases " cited by Gregory indicate. Many, like the following are found: "Charigisil, king Clothar's secretary, whose hands and feet were made helpless by a humor, came to the holy church, and devoting himself to prayer for two or three months, was visited by the blessed bishop [note: St. Martin] and had the merit to obtain health in his crippled limbs. He was later domesticus of the king I have mentioned, and did many kindnesses to the people of Tours and the officials of the holy church." An analysis of this record reveals the typical elements, with the exception of fasting which is usually mentioned. The miraculous properties of St. Martin were thus reinforced by change of scene, prolonged treatment, and a rigorous mental and physical regimen.
With such a state of mind prevailing no rivals of the clergy in the healing art were to be found except among those healers who used a "virtue" of another kind-the false virtue of the magicians and demons; the few physicians who remained were not real competitors.
The administration of justice was also affected by the same causes which brought about the disappearance of medicine There was little inducement to look for evidence when an appeal could be made to superstitious fear. Hence the importance of the oath. Gregory himself, when he was charged with slandering queen Fredegunda, had to take oath to his innocence on three altars We have also other appeals to the supernatural in the trial by combat and the ordeal. Another interference in the domain of law was a peculiar one; holy men seemed to have a particular desire to set prisoners free. Gregory himself begs them off. We heal of one dead bishop whose body sank like lead on the street before the jail and could not be moved until all in the jail were let loose. [note: De Virtut. S. Martin., I, 21, 25.] Another holy man tried to secure the pardon of a notorious criminal and falling, brought him back to life after he was executed.
In the History of the Franks attention is given from time to time to natural phenomena. With few exceptions these passages deal with prodigies. Gregory tells for example of the prodigies of the year 587. Most of them are given from his own personal observation. [note: Book IX:5] Mysterious marks which could not be deleted in any way appeared on dishes; vines made a new growth and bore deformed fruit in the month of October after the vintage; at the same time fresh leaves and fruits appeared on fruit trees; rays of light were seen in the north. In addition Gregory mentions from hearsay that snakes had fallen from the clouds, and that a village with its inhabitants and dwellings had disappeared entirely. He goes on to say, "Many other signs appeared such as usually announce a king's death or the destruction of a country." In the same way he tells us of the signs preceding plagues. Sometimes he relates the prodigies without giving any sequel to them. In one case he says, " I do not know what these prodigies foretold." It is evident that the idea which Gregory had of the phenomena of nature was such as to prevent his giving any intelligent attention to them. The supernatural came between him and objective realities in such a way as to prevent the latter from having a natural effect upon his mind.
The inhibiting and paralyzing force of superstitious beliefs penetrated to every department of life, and the most primary and elementary activities of society were influenced. War, for example, was not a simple matter of a test of strength and courage, but supernatural matters had to be taken carefully into consideration. When Clovis said of the Goths in southern Gaul, "I take it hard that these Arians should hold a part of the Gauls; let us go with God's aid and conquer them and bring the land under our dominion," [note: see p. 45 (Book II:37)] he was not speaking in a hypocritical or arrogant manner but in real accordance with the religious sentiment of the time. What he meant was that the Goths, being heretics, were at once enemies of the true God and inferior to the orthodox Franks in their supernatural backing. Considerations of duty, strategy, and self-interest all reinforced one another in Clovis's mind. However, it was not always the orthodox side that won. We hear of a battle fought a few years before Gregory became bishop of Tours between king Sigibert and the Huns, [note: Book IV:29] in which the Huns " by the use of magic arts caused various false appearances to arise before their enemies and overcame them decisively. " It is very plain that one exceedingly important function of the leader of a sixthcentury army was to keep the right relation with the supernatural powers. Clovis is represented as heeding this necessity more than any other Frankish king. [note: pp 3638 (Book II:22-29), 40 (Book II:31), 45 (Book II: 37), 5354 (Book II: Pref)]
It is clear that in the sixthcentury state of mind in Gaul nothing was purely secular. As far as possible all secular elements had been expelled. Men did not meet the objective realities of society and of nature as they were; there was a superstitious interpretation for everything. The hope in such a condition of things lay only in unconscious developments which might break through the closed system of thought before the latter realized that it was on the defensive.
The most promising element in the situation was the Frankish state. Apparently the Frankish kingship was not to any large extent a magicoreligious institution, but simply a recent development arising out of the conquest. As an institution it was not grounded in the superstitious past, and the cold hostility of the bishops kept it from the development usual in a benighted society. To this chance we may perhaps attribute a momentous result; in it lay the possibility and promise of a secular state.
In the case of King Chilperic we apparently have a premature development in this direction. We must read between the lines when Gregory speaks of him. Gregory calls him "the Nero and Herod of our time," and loads him with abuse. He ridicules his poems, and according to his own story overwhelms him with an avalanche of contempt when he ventures to state some new opinions on the Trinity. The significant thing about Chilperic was this, that he had at this time the independence of mind to make such a criticism, as well as the hard temper necessary to fight the bishops successfully. "In his reign," Gregory tells us, "very few of the clergy reached the office of bishop." Chilperic used often to say: "Behold our treasury has remained poor, our wealth has been transferred to the churches; there is no king but the bishops; my office has perished and passed over to the bishops of the cities." [note: see p. 166 (Book VI: 46)] Chilperic was thus the forerunner of the secular state in France.
E. B.
Gregory of Tours (539-594): History of the Franks
PREFACE HERE BEGINS GREGORY'S FIRST PREFACE
With liberal culture on the wane, or rather perishing in the Gallic cities there were many deeds being done both good and evil: the heathen were raging fiercely; kings were growing more cruel; the church. attacked by heretics, was defended by Catholics; while the Christian faith was in general devoutly cherished, among some it was growing cold; the churches also were enriched by the faithful or plundered by traitors-and no grammarian skilled in the dialectic art could be found to describe these matters either in prose or verse; and many were lamenting and saying: "Woe to our day, since the pursuit of letters has perished from among us and no one can be found among the people who can set forth the deeds of the present on the written page." Hearing continually these complaints and others like them I [have undertaken] to commemorate the past, order that it may come to the knowledge of the future; and although my speech is rude, I have been unable to be silent as to the struggles between the wicked and the upright; and I have been especially encouraged because, to my surprise, it has often been said by men of our day, that few understand the learned words of the rhetorician but many the rude language of the common people. I have decided also that for the reckoning of the years the first book shall begin with the very beginning of the world, and I have given its chapters below.
BOOK I
HERE BEGIN THE CHAPTERS OF THE FIRST BOOK
1. Adam and Eve
2. Cain and Abel.
3. Enoch the Just.
4. The flood
5. Cush, inventor of idols.
6. Babylonia.
7. Abraham and Ninus.
8. Isaac, Esau, Job and Jacob.
9. Joseph in Egypt.
10. Crossing of the Red Sea.
11. The people in the desert and Joshua.
12. The captivity of the people of Israel and the generations to David
13. Solomon and the building of the Temple.
14. The division of the kingdom of Israel.
15. The captivity in Babylonia.
16. Birth of Christ.
17. The various kingdoms of the nations.
18. When Lyons was founded.
19. The gifts of the magi and the slaughter of the infants.
20. The miracles and suffering of Christ.
21. Joseph who buried Him.
22. James the apostle.
23. The day of the Lord's resurrection.
24. The ascension of the Lord and the death of Pilate and Herod.
25. The suffering of the Apostles and Nero.
26. James, Mark and John the evangelist.
27. The persecution under Trajan.
28. Hadrian and the heretics' lies and the martyrdom of Saint Polycarp and Justin.
29. Saints Photinus, Irenæus and the rest of the martyrs of Lyons.
30. The seven men sent into the Gauls to preach.
31. The church of Bourges.
32. Chrocus and the shrine in Auvergne.
33. The martyrs who suffered in Auvergne.
34. The holy martyr, Privatus.
35. Quirinus, bishop and martyr.
36. Birth of St. Martin and the finding of the cross.
37. James, bishop of Nisibis.
38. Death of the monk Antony.
39. The coming of St. Martin.
40. The matron Melania.
41. Death of the emperor Valens.
42. Imperial rule of Theodosius.
43. Death of the tyrant Maximus.
44. Urbicus, bishop of Auvergne.
45. The holy bishop Hillidius.
46. The bishops Nepotian and Arthemius.
47. The chastity of the lovers.
48. St. Martin's death.
IN CHRIST'S NAME HERE END THE CHAPTERS OF THE FIRST BOOK ------ IN CHRIST'S NAME HERE BEGINS THE FIRST BOOK OF THE HISTORIES
As I am about to describe the struggles of kings with the heathen enemy, of martyrs with pagans, of churches with heretics, I desire first of all to declare my faith so that my reader may have no doubt that I am Catholic. I have also decided, on account of those who are losing hope of the approaching end of the world, to collect the total of past years from chronicles and histories and set forth clearly how many years there are from the beginning of the world. But I first beg pardon of my readers if either in letter or in syllable I transgress the rules of the grammatic art in which I have not been fully instructed, since I have been eager only for this, to hold fast, without any subterfuge or irresolution of heart, to that which we are bidden in the church to believe, because I know that he who is liable to punishment for his sin can obtain pardon from God by untainted faith.
I believe, then, in God the Father omnipotent. I believe in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord God, born of the Father, not created. [I believe] that he has always been with the Father, not only since time began but before all time. For the Father could not have been so named unless he had a son; and there could be no son without a father. But as for those who say: "There was a time when he was not," [note: A leading belief of Arian Christology.] I reject them with curses, and call men to witness that they are separated from the church. I believe that the word of the Father by which all things were made was Christ. I believe that this word was made fresh and by its suffering the world was redeemed, and I believe that humanity, not deity, was subject to the suffering. I believe that he rose again on the third day, that he freed sinful man, that he ascended to heaven, that he sits on the right hand of the Father, that he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe that the holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son, that it is not inferior and is not of later origin, but is God, equal and always coeternal with the Father and the Son, consubstantial in its nature, equal in omnipotence, equally eternal in its essence, and that it has never existed apart from the Father and the Son and is not inferior to the Father and the Son. I believe that this holy Trinity exists with separation of persons, and one person is that of the Father, another that the Son, another that of the Holy Spirit. And in this Trinity confess that there is one Deity, one power, one essence. I believe that the blessed Mary was a virgin after the birth as she was a virgin before. I believe that the soul is immortal but that nevertheless it has no part in deity. And I faithfully believe all things that were established at Nicæa by the three hundred and eighteen bishops. But as to the end of the world I hold beliefs which I learned from our forefathers, that Antichrist will come first. An Antichrist will first propose circumcision, asserting that he is Christ; next he will place his statue in the temple at Jerusalem to be worshipped, just as we read that the Lord said: "You shall see the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place." But the Lord himself declared that that day is hidden from all men, saying; "But of that day and that hour knoweth no one not even the anger in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father alone." Moreover we shall here make answer to the heretics [note: the Arians] who attack us, asserting that the Son is inferior to the Father since he is ignorant of this day. Let them learn then that Son here is the name applied to the Christian people, of whom God says: "I shall be to them a father and they shall be to me for sons." For if he had spoken these words of the onlybegotten Son he would never have given the angels first place. For he uses these words: "Not even the angels in heaven nor the Son," showing that he spoke these words not of the only-begotten but of the people of adoption. But our end is Christ himself, who will graciously bestow eternal life on us if we turn to him.
As to the reckoning of this world, the chronicles of Eusebius bishop of Cæsarea, and of Jerome the priest, speak clearly, an they reveal the plan of the whole succession of years. Orosius too, searching into these matters very carefully, collects the whole number of years from the beginning of the world down to his own time. Victor also examined into this in connection with the time of the Easter festival. And so we follow the works of the writers mentioned above and desire to reckon the complete series of years from the creation of the first man down to our own time, if the Lord shall deign to lend his aid. And this we shall more easily accomplish if we begin with Adam himself.
1.
In the beginning the Lord shaped the heaven and the earth in his Christ, who is the beginning of all things, that is, in his son; and after creating the elements of the whole universe, taking a frail clod he formed man after his own image and likeness, and breathed upon his face the breath of life and he was made into a living soul. And while he slept a rib was taken from him and the woman, Eve, was created. There is no doubt that this first man Adam before he sinned typified the Redeemer. For as the Redeemer slept in the stupor of suffering and caused water and blood to issue from his side, he brought into existence the virgin and unspotted church, redeemed by blood, purified by water, having no spot or wrinkle, that is, washed with water to avoid a spot, stretched on the cross to avoid a wrinkle. These first human beings, who were living happily amid the pleasant scenes of Paradise, were tempted by the craft of the serpent. They transgressed the divine precepts and were cast out from the abode of angels and condemned to the labors of the world.
2.
Through intercourse with her companion the woman conceived and bore two sons. But when God received the sacrifice of the one with honor, the other was inflamed with envy; he rushed on his brother, overcame and killed him, becoming the first parricide by shedding a brother's blood.
3.
Then the whole race rushed into accursed crime, except the just Enoch, who walked in the ways of God and was taken up from the midst by the Lord himself on account of his uprightness, and reed from a sinful people. For we read: " Enoch walked with the Lord, and he did not appear for God took him."
4.
And so the Lord, being angered against the iniquities of the people who did not walk in his ways, sent a flood, and by its waters destroyed every living soul from the face of the earth; only Noah, who was most faithful and especially belonged to him and bore the stamp of his image, he saved in the ark, with his wife and those of his three sons, that they might restore posterity. Here the heretics upbraid us because the holy Scripture says that the Lord was angry. Let them know therefore that our God is not angry like a man; for he is aroused in order to inspire fear; he drives away to summon back; he is angry in order to amend. Furthermore I have no doubt that the ark typified the mother church. For passing amidst the waves and rocks of this world it protects us in its motherly arms from threatening ills, and guards us with its holy embrace and protection.
Now from Adam to Noah are ten generations, namely: Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Malalehel, Jareth, Enoch, Mattusalam, Lamech, Noah. In these ten generations 2242 years are included. The book Joshua clearly indicates that Adam was buried in the land of Enacim, which before was called Hebron.
5.
Noah had after the flood three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. From Japheth issued nations, and likewise from Ham and from Shem. And, as ancient history says, from these the human race was scattered under the whole heaven. The first-born of Ham was Cush. He was the first inventor of the whole art of magic and of idolatry, being instructed by the devil. He was the first to set up an idol to be worshipped, at the instigation of the devil, and by his false power he showed to men stars and fire falling from heaven. He passed over to the Persians. The Persians called him Zoroaster, that is, living star. They were trained by him to worship fire, and they reverence as a god the man who was himself consumed by the divine fire.
6.
Since men had multiplied and were spreading over all the earth they passed out from the East and found the grassy plain of Senachar. There they built a city and strove to raise a tower which should reach the heavens. And God brought confusion both to their vain enterprise and their language, and scattered them over the wide world, and the city was called Babyl, that is, confusion, because there God had confused their tongues. This is Babylonia, built by the giant Nebron, son of Cush. As the history of Orosius tells, it is laid out foursquare on a very level plain. Its wall, made of baked brick cemented with pitch, is fifty cubits wide, two hundred high, and four hundred and seventy stades in circumference. A stade contains five agripennes. Twenty-five gates are situated on each side, which make in all one hundred. The doors of these gates, which are of wonderful size, are cast in bronze. The same historian tells many other tales of this city, and says: "Although such was the glory of its building still it was conquered and destroyed."
[7. Abraham, who is described as "the beginning of our faith." 8. Isaac, Esau, Jacob, Job. 9. The twelve patriarchs, the story of Joseph, and the coming out of Egypt to the crossing of the Red Sea.]
10.
Since many authorities have made varying statements about this crossing of the sea I have decided to give here some information concerning the situation of the place and the crossing itself. The Nile flows through Egypt, as you very well know, and waters it by its flood, from which the inhabitants of Egypt are named Nilicolæ. And many travelers say its shores are filled at the present time with holy monasteries. And on its bank is situated, not the Babylonia of which we spoke above, but the city of Babylonia in which Joseph built wonderful granaries of squared stone and rubble. [note: The pyramids, apparently] They are wide at the base and narrow at the top in order that the wheat might be cast into them through a tiny opening, and these granaries are to be seen at the present day. From this city the king set out in pursuit of the Hebrews with armies of chariots and a great infantry force. Now the stream mentioned above coming from the east passes in a westerly direction towards the Red Sea; and from the west a lake or arm of the Red Sea juts out and stretches to the east, being about fifty miles long and eighteen wide. [note: Gregory's geography is mixed] And at the head of this lake the city of Clysma is built, not on account of the fertility of the soil, since there is nothing more barren, but because of the harbor, since ships coming from the Indias lie there for the convenience of the harbor; and the wares purchased there are carried through all Egypt. Toward this arm the Hebrews hastened through the wilderness, and they came to the sea itself and encamped, finding fresh water. It was it this place, shut in by the wilderness as well as by the sea, that they encamped, as it is written: "Pharaoh, hearing that the sea and the wilderness shut them in and that they had no way by which they could go, set out in pursuit of them." And when they were close upon them and the people cried to Moses, he stretched out his wand over the sea, according to the command of the Deity, and it was divided, and they walked on dry ground, and, as the Scripture says, they crossed unharmed under Moses' leadership, a wall of water on either hand, to that shore which is before Mount Sinai, while the Egyptians were drowned. And many tales are told of this crossing, as I have said. But we desire to insert in this account what we have learned as true from the wise, and especially from those who have visited the place. They actually say that the furrows which the wheels of the chariots made remain to the present time and are seen in the deep water as far as the eye can trace them. And if the roughness of the sea obliterates them in a slight degree, when the sea is calm they are divinely renewed again as they were. Others say that they returned to the very bank where they had entered, making a small circuit through the sea. And others assert that all entered by one way; and a good many, that a separate way opened to each tribe, giving this evidence from the Psalms: "Who divided the Red Sea in parts.'' [Ps. 135:13] But these parts ought to be understood according to the spirit and not according to the letter. For there are many parts in this world, which is figuratively called a sea. For all cannot pass to life; equally or by one way. Some pass in the first hour, that is those who are born anew by baptism and are able to endure to the departure from this life unspotted by any defilement of the flesh. Others in the third hour, plainly those who are converted later in life; others in the sixth hour, being those who hold in check the heat of wanton living. And in each of these hours, as the evangelist relates, they are hired for the work of the Lord's vineyard, each according to his faith. These are the parts in which the passage is made across this sea. As to the opinion that upon entering the sea they kept close to the shore and returned, these are the words which the Lord said to Moses: "Let them turn back and encamp before Phiahiroth which is between Magdalum and the sea before Belsephon." There is no doubt that this passage of the sea and the pillar of cloud typified our baptism, according to the words of the blessed Paul the apostle: "I would not, brethren, have you ignorant that our fathers were all under the cloud and all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." And the pillar of fire typified the holy Spirit. Now from the birth of Abraham to the going forth of the children of Israel from Egypt and the crossing of the Red Sea, which was in the eightieth year of Moses, there are reckoned four hundred and sixty-two years.
[11. The Israelites spend forty years in the wilderness. 12. From the crossing of the Jordan to David. 13. Solomon. 14. Division of the kingdom into Judæa and Israel. 15. The captivity. 16. From the captivity to the birth of Christ.]
17.
In order not to seem to have knowledge of the Hebrew race alone [note: Gregory's purpose is not realized] we shall tell what the remaining kingdoms were in the time of the Israelites. In the time of Abraham Ninus ruled over the Assyrians; Eorops over the Sitiones; among the Egyptians it was the sixteenth government, which they call in their own tongue dynasty. In Moses' time lived Trophas, seventh king of the Argives; Cecrops, first in Attica; Cencris, who was overwhelmed in the Red Sea, twelfth among the Egyptians; Agatadis, sixteenth among the Assyrians; Maratis was ruler of the Sicionii. . . [note: Jerome's Chronicle was the source for the history summarized here. It is dear that Gregory had not much sense of the historical perspective in spite of a list of states Which might impress his audience. He passes directly from "Servius the sixth king of Rome " to Julius Caesar the founder of the empire.]
[18. Beginning of the Roman empire; founding of Lyons, a city afterwards ennobled by the blood of martyrs. 19. Birth of Christ. 20. Christ's crucifixion. 21. Joseph is imprisoned and escapes miraculously. 22. James fasts from the death of the Lord to the resurrection 23. The day of the Lord's resurrection is the first, not the seventh. 24. Pilate transmits an account of Christ to Tiberius. The end of Pilate and of Herod. 25. Peter and Paul are executed at Rome by order of Nero, who later kills himself. 26. The martyrs, Stephen, James and Mark; burning of Jerusalem by Vespasian; death of John. 27. Persecution under Trajan. 28. The rise of heresy. Further persecutions. 29. The martyrs of Lyons. Irenæus, second bishop, converts the whole city. His death and that of vast numbers," of whom Gregory knows of forty-eight.]
30.
Under the emperor Decius many persecutions arose against the name of Christ, and there was such a slaughter of believers that they could not be numbered. Babillas, bishop of Antioch, with his three little sons, Urban, Prilidan and Epolon, and Xystus, bishop of Rome, Laurentius, an archdeacon, and Hyppolitus, were made perfect by martyrdom because they confessed the name of the Lord. Valentinian and Novatian were then the chief heretics and were active against our faith, the enemy urging them on. At this time seven men were ordained as bishops and sent into the Gauls to preach, as the history of the martyrdom of the holy martyr Saturninus relates. For it says: " In the consulship of Decius and Gratus, as faithful memory recalls, the city of Toulouse received the holy Saturninus as its first and greatest bishop." These bishops were sent: bishop Catianus to Tours; bishop Trophimus to Arles; bishop Paul to Narbonne; bishop Saturninus to Toulouse; bishop Dionisius to Paris; bishop Stremonius to Clermont, bishop Martial to Limoges.
And of these the blessed Dionisius, bishop of Paris, after suffering divers pains in Christ's name, ended the present life by the threatening sword. And Saturninus, already certain of martyrdom said to his two priests: "Behold, I am now to be offered as a victim and the time of my death draws near. I ask you not to leave me at all before I come to the end." But when he was seized and was being dragged to the capitol he was abandoned by them and was dragged alone. And so when he saw that he was abandoned he is said to have made this prayer; "Lord Jesus Christ, grant my request from holy heaven, that this church may never in all time have the merit to receive a bishop from among its citizens." And we know that to the present it has been so in this city. And he was tied to the feet of a mad bull, and being sent headlong from the capitol he ended his life. Catianus, Trophimus, Stremonius, Paul and Marcial lived in the greatest sanctity, winning people to the church and spreading the faith of Christ among all, and died in peace, confessing the faith. And thus the former by martyrdom as well as the latter by confession, left the earth and were united in the heavens.
31.
One of their disciples went to the city of Bourges and carried to the people the news of Christ the lord as the saviour of all. A few of them believed and were ordained priests and learned the ritual of psalmsinging, and were instructed how to build a church and how they ought to observe the worship of the omnipotent God. But as they had small means for building as yet, the citizens asked for the house of a certain man to use for a church. But the Senators and the rest of the better class of the place were at that time, devoted to the heathen religion and the believers were of the poor, according to the word of the Lord with which he reproached the Jews saying; "Harlots and publicans go into the kingdom of God before you." And they did not obtain the house from the person from whom they asked it, but they found a certain Leocadius, [note: Gregory's paternal grandmother was Leocadia, who traced her descent from Vectius Epagatus See Historia Francorum ed. Arndt, Introd. p. 4, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica The story related above was from Gregory's family tradition. ] the first senator of the Gauls, who was of the family of Vectius Epagatus, who, we have said above, suffered in Lyons in Christ's name. And when they had made known to him at the same time their petition and their faith he answered; " If my own house in the city of Bourges were worthy of this work I would not refuse to offer it." And when they heard this they fell at his feet and offered three hundred gold pieces on a silver dish and said the house was very worthy of this mystery. And he accepted three gold pieces from them for a blessing and kindly returned the rest, although he was yet entangled in the error of idolatry, and he became a Christian and made his house a church. This is now the first church in the city of Bourges, built with marvelous skill and made illustrious by the relics of Stephen, the first martyr.
32.
Valerian and Gallienus received the Roman imperial power in the twentyseventh place, and set on foot a cruel persecution of the Christians. At that time Cornelius brought fame to Rome by his happy death, and Cyprian to Carthage. In their time also Chrocus the famous king of the Alemanni raised an army and overran the Gauls. This Chrocus is said to have been very arrogant. And when he had committed a great many crimes he gathered the tribe of the Alemanni, as we have stated,-by the advice, it is said, of his wicked mother,-and overran the whole of the Gauls, and destroyed from their foundations all the temples which had been built in ancient times. And coming to Clermont he set on fire, overthrew and destroyed that shrine which they call Vasso Galatæ in the Gallic tongue. It had been built and made strong with wonderful skill. And its wall was double, for on the inside it was built of small stone and on the outside of squared blocks. The wall had a thickness of thirty feet. It was adorned on the inside with marble and mosaics. The pavement of the temple was also of marble and its roof above was of lead.
[33. Martyrs of Clermont. 34. The bishop of Gévaudan is maltreated by the Alemanni.]
35.
Under Diocletian, who was emperor of Rome in the thirty-third place, a cruel persecution of the Christians was kept up for four years, at one time in the course of which great numbers of Christians were put to death, on the sacred day of Easter, for worshipping the true God. At that time Quirinus, bishop of the church of Sissek, [note: In Hungary] endured glorious martyrdom in Christ's name. The cruel pagans cast him into a river with a millstone tied to his neck, and when he had fallen into the waters he was long supported on the surface by a divine miracle, and the waters did not suck him down since the weight of crime did not press upon him. And a multitude of people standing around wondered at the thing, and despising the rage of the heathen they hastened to free the bishop. He saw this and did not permit himself to be deprived of martyrdom, and raising his eyes to heaven he said: "Jesus lord, who sittest in glory at the right hand of the Father, suffer me not to be taken from this course, but receive my soul and deign to unite me with thy martyrs in eternal peace." With these words he gave up the ghost, and his body was taken up by the Christians and reverently buried.
36.
Constantine was the thirty-fourth emperor of the Romans, and he reigned prosperously for thirty years. In the eleventh year of his reign, when peace had been granted to the churches after the death of Diocletian, our blessed patron Martin was born at Sabaria, a city of Pannonia, of heathen parents, who still were not of the lowest station. This Constantine in the twentieth year of his reign caused the death of his son Crispus by poison, and of his wife Fausta by means of a hot bath, because they had plotted to betray his rule. In his time the venerated wood of the Lord's cross was found, through the zeal of his mother Helen on the information of Judas, a Hebrew who was called Quiriacus after baptism. The historian Eusebius comes down to this period in his chronicle. The priest Jerome continues it from the twenty-first year of Constantine's reign. He informs us that the priest Juvencus wrote the gospels in verse at the request of the emperor named above.
[37. James of Nisibis and Maximin of Trèves. 38. Hilarius bishop of Poitiers.]
39.
At that time our light arose and Gaul was traversed by the rays of a new lamp, that is, the most blessed Martin then began to preach in the Gauls, and he overcame the unbelief of the heathen, showing among the people by many miracles that Christ the Son of God was the true God. He destroyed heathen shrines, crushed heresy, built churches, and while he was glorious for many other miracles, he completed his title to fame by restoring three dead men to life. At Poitiers, in the fourth year of Valentinian and Valens, Saint Hilarius passed to heaven full of sanctity and faith, a priest of many miracles; for he too is said to have raised the dead.
[40. Melania's journey to Jerusalem.]
41.
After the death of Valentinian, Valens, who succeeded to the undivided empire, gave orders that the monks be compelled to serve in the army, and commanded that those who refused should be beaten with clubs. After this the Romans fought a very fierce battle in Thrace, in which there was such slaughter that the Romans fled on foot after losing their horses, and when they were being cut to pieces by the Goths, and Valens was fleeing with an arrow wound, he entered a small hut, the enemy closely pursuing, and the little dwelling was burned over him. And he was deprived of the burial he desired. And thus the divine vengeance finally came for shedding the blood of the saints. Thus far Jerome; from this period the priest Orosius wrote at greater length.
[42. The pious emperor Theodosius. 43. The emperor Maximus with capital at Trèves. 44. Urbicus, second bishop of Clermont, and his wife. 45. Hillidius, third bishop of Clermont, and his miracles. 46. Nepotian and Arthemius, fourth and fifth bishops of Clermont. 47. Legend of the two lovers of Clermont.]
48. In the second year of the reign of Arcadius and Honorius, Saint Martin, bishop of Tours, departed this life at Candes, a village of his diocese, and passed happily to Christ in the eighty-first year of his life and the twenty-sixth of his episcopate, a man full of miracles and holiness, doing many services to the infirm He passed away at midnight of the Lord's day, in the consulship of Atticus and Cæsarius. Many heard at his passing away the sound of psalmsinging in heaven, which I have spoken of at greater length in the first book of his Miracles. Now as soon as the saint of God fell sick at the village of Candes, as we have related, the people of Poitiers came to be present at his death, as did also the people of Tours. And when he died, a great dispute arose between the two peoples. For the people of Poitiers said: "As a monk, he is ours; as an abbot, he belonged to us; we demand that he be given to us. Let it be enough for you that when he was a bishop on earth you enjoyed his conversation, ate with him, were strengthened by his blessings and cheered by his miracles. Let all that be enough for you. Let us be permitted to carry away his dead body." To this the people of Tours replied: "If you say that the working of his miracles is enough for us, let us tell you that while he was placed among you he worked more miracles than he did here. For, to pass over most of them, he raised two dead men for you, and one for us; and as he used often to say himself, there was more virtue in him before he was bishop than after. And so it is necessary that he complete for us after death what he did not finish in his lifetime. For he was taken away from you and given to us by God. If a custom long established is kept, a man shall have his tomb by God's command in the city in which he was ordained. And if you desire to claim him because of the right of the monastery, let us tell you that his first monastery was at Milan." While they were arguing in this way the sun sank and night closed in. And the body was placed in the midst, and the doors were barred and the body was guarded by both peoples, and it was going to be carried off by violence by the people of Poitiers in the morning. But omnipotent God was unwilling that the city of Tours should be deprived of its protector. Finally at midnight the whole band from Poitiers were overwhelmed with sleep and no one remained out of this multitude to keep watch. Then when the people of Tours saw that they had fallen asleep they seized on the clay of the holy body and some thrust it out the window and others received it outside, and placing it in a boat they went down the river Vienne with all their people and entered the channel of the Loire, and made their way to the city of Tours with great praises and plentiful psalm-singing, and the people of Poitiers were waked by their voices, and having no treasure to guard they returned to their own place greatly crestfallen. And if any one asks why there was only one bishop, that is, Litorius, after the death of bishop Gatianus to the time of Saint Martin, let him know that for a long time the city of Tours was without the blessing of a bishop, owing to the resistance of the heathen. For they who lived as Christians at that time celebrated the divine office secretly and in hiding. For if any Christians were found by the heathen they were punished with stripes or slain by the sword.
Now from the suffering of the Lord to the passing of Saint Martin, 412 years are included.
HERE ENDS THE FIRST BOOK CONTAINING 5597 YEARS WHICH ARE RECKONED FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD TO THE DEATH OF THE HOLY BISHOP MARTIN.
BOOK II HERE BEGIN THE CHAPTERS OF THE SECOND BOOK
1. The episcopate of Bricius.
2. The Vandals and the persecution of the Christians under them.
3. Cyrola the heretics' bishop and the holy martyrs.
4 The persecution under Athanaric.
5. Bishop Aravatius and the Huns.
6. St. Stephen's church in the city of Metz.
7. The wife of Ætius.
8. What the historians have written about Ætius.
9. What the same say of the Franks.
10. What the prophets of the Lord write about the images of the nations.
11. The emperor Avitus.
12. King Childeric and Egidius.
13. The episcopate of Venerandus and of Rusticus in Auvergne.
14. The episcopate of Eustochius at Tours and of Perpetuus; St. Martin's church.
15. The church of St. Simphorianus.
16. Bishop Namatius and the church at Clermont.
17. His wife and St. Stephen's church.
18. How Childeric went to Orleans and Odoacer to Angers.
19, War between the Saxons and Romans.
20. Duke Victor.
21. Bishop Eparchius.
22. Bishop Sidonius.
23. The holiness of bishop Sidonius and the visitation of the divine vengeance for the wrongs done to him.
24. The famine in Burgundy and Ecdicius.
25. The persecutor Euvarege.
26. Death of the holy Perpetuus and the episcopates of Volusianus and Virus.
27. Clovis becomes king.
28. Clovis marries Clotilda.
29. Death of their first son in his baptismal garments.
30. War with the Alamanni.
31. Clovis's baptism.
32. War with Gundobad
33. Killing of Godegisel.
34. How Gundobad wished to be converted.
35. Clovis and Alaric have an interview.
36. Bishop Quintian.
37. War with Alaric.
38. King Clovis is made patrician.
39. Bishop Licinius.
40. Killing of Sigibert the elder and his son.
41. Killing of Chararic and his son.
42. Killing of Ragnachar and his brothers.
43. Death of Clovis.
HERE END THE CHAPTERS ----- HERE BEGINS THE SECOND BOOK
FOLLOWING the order of time we shall mingle together in our tale the miraculous doings of the saints and the slaughters of the nations. I do not think that we shall be condemned thoughtlessly if we tell of the happy lives of the blessed together with the deaths of the wretched, since it is not the skill of the writer but the succession of times that has furnished the arrangement. The attentive reader, if he seeks diligently, will find in the famous histories of the kings of the Israelites that under the just Samuel the wicked Phineas perished, and that under David, whom they called Stronghand, the stranger Goliath was destroyed. Let him remember also in the time of the great prophet Elias, who prevented rains when he wished and when he pleased poured them on the parched ground, who enriched the poverty of the widow by his prayer, what slaughters of the people there were, what famine and what thirst oppressed the wretched earth. Let him remember what evil Jerusalem endured in the time of Hezekiah, to whom God granted fifteen additional years of life. Moreover under the prophet Elisha, who restored the dead to life and did many other miracles among the peoples, what butcheries, what miseries crushed the very people of Israel. So too Eusebius, Severus and Jerome in their chronicles, and Orosius also, interwove the wars of kings and the miracles of the martyrs. We have written in this way also, because it is thus easier to perceive in their entirety the order of the centuries and the system of the years down to our day. And so, leaving the histories of the writers who have been mentioned above, we shall describe at God's bidding what was done in the later time.
1.
After the death of the blessed Martin, bishop of Tours, a very great and incomparable man, whose miracles fill great volumes in our possession, Bricius succeeded to the bishopric. Now this Bricius, when he was a young man and the saint was yet living in the body, used to lay many traps for him, because he was often accused by Saint Martin of following the easy way. And one day when a sick man was looking for the blessed Martin in order to get medicine from him he met Bricius, at this time a deacon, in the square, and he said to him in a simple fashion: "Behold I am seeking the blessed man, and I don't know where he is or what he is doing." And Bricius said: "If you are seeking for that crazy person look in the distance; there he is, staring at the sky in his usual fashion, as if he were daft." And when the poor man had seen him and got what he wanted, the blessed Martin said to the deacon: " Well, Bricius, I seem to you crazy, do I? " And when the latter, in confusion at this, denied he had said so, the saint replied: "Were not my ears at your lips when you said this at a distance? Verily I say unto you that I have prevailed upon God that you shall succeed to the bishop's office after me, but let me tell you that you will suffer many misfortunes in your tenure of the office. Bricius on hearing this laughed and said: "Did I not speak the truth that he uttered crazy words?" Furthermore, when he had attained to the rank of priest, he often attacked the blessed man with abuse. But when he had become bishop by the choice of the citizens, he devoted himself to prayer. And although he was proud and vain he was nevertheless considered chaste in his body. But in the thirty-third year after his ordination there arose against him a lamentable ground for accusation. For a woman to whom his servants used to give his garments to be washed, one who had changed her garb on the pretext of religion, conceived and bore a child. Because of this the whole population of Tours arose in wrath and laid the whole blame on the bishop, wishing with one accord to stone him. For they said: "The piety of a holy man has too long been a cover for your wantonness. But God does not any longer allow us to be polluted by kissing your unworthy hands." But he denied the charge forcibly. "Bring the infant to me," said he. And when the infant, which was thirty days old was brought, the bishop said to it: "I adjure you in the name of Jesus Christ, son of omnipotent God, to declare publicly to all if I begot you." And the child said: "It is not you who's my father" When the people asked him to inquire who was the father, the bishop said: "That is not my affair. I was troubled in so far as the matter concerned me; inquire for yourselves whatever you want." Then they asserted that this had been done by magic arts, and arose against him in a conspiracy, and dragged him along, saying: "You shall not rule us any longer under the false name of a shepherd." And to satisfy the people he placed red-hot coals in his cloak and drawing it close to him he walked as far as the tomb of the blessed Martin along with throngs of the people. And when the coals were cast down before the tomb his robe was seen to be unburned. And he said: "Just as you see this robe uninjured by the fire, so too my body is undefiled by union with a woman." And when they did not believe but denied it, he was dragged, abused, and cast out, in order that the words of the saint might be fulfilled: "Let me tell you that you will suffer many misfortunes in your episcopate." When he was cast out they appointed Justinian to the office of bishop. Finally Bricius went to see the pope of the city of Rome, weeping and wailing and saying: "Rightly do I suffer this because I sinned against a saint of God and often called him crazy and daft; and when I saw his miracles I did not believe." And after his departure the people of Tours said to their bishop: " Go after him and attend to your own interest, for if you do not attack him, you shall be humiliated by the contempt of us all." And Justinian went forth from Tours and came to Vercelli, a city of Italy, and was smitten by a judgment of God and died in a strange country. The people of Tours heard of his death, and persisting in their evil course, they appointed Armentius in his place. But bishop Bricius went to Rome and related to the pope all that he had endured. And while he remained at the apostolic see he often celebrated the solemn ceremony of the mass, weeping for the wrong he had done to the saint of God. In the seventh year he left Rome and by the authority of that pope purposed to return to Tours. And when he came to the village called Mont-Louis at the sixth milestone from the city, he resided there. Now Armentius was seized with a fever and died at midnight. This was at once revealed to bishop Bricius in a vision, and he said to his people: "Rise quickly, so that we may go to bury our brother, the bishop of Tours." And when they came and entered one gate of the city, behold they were carrying his dead body out by another. And when he was buried, Bricius returned to the bishop's chair and lived happily seven years after. And when he died in the forty-seventh year of his episcopate, Saint Eustochius, a man of magnificent holiness, succeeded him.
2.
After this the Vandals left their own country and burst into the Gauls under king Gunderic. And when the Gauls had been thoroughly laid waste they made for the Spains. The Suebi, that is, Alamanni, following them, seized Gallicia. Not long after a quarrel arose between the two peoples, since they were neighbors And when they had gone armed to the battle, and were already at the point of fighting, the king of the Alemanni said: "Why are all the people involved in war? Let our people, I pray, not kill one another in battle, but let two of our warriors go to the field in arms and fight with one another. Then he whose champion wins shall hold the region without strife." To this all the people agreed, that the whole multitude might not rush on the edge of the sword. In these days king Gunderic had died and in his place Thrasamund held the kingdom. And in the conflict of the champions the side of the Vandals was overcome, and, his champion being slain, Thrasamund promised to depart, and so, when he had made the necessary preparations for the journey, he removed from the territories of Spain.
About the same time Thrasamund persecuted the Christians, and by torture and different sorts of death tried to force all Spain to consent to the perfidy of the Arian sect. And it so happened that a certain maiden bound by religious vows was brought to trial. She was very rich and of the senatorial nobility according to the ranking of the world, and what is nobler than all this, strong in the catholic faith and a blameless servant of Almighty God. And when she was brought before the eyes of the king he first began to coax her with kind words to be baptized again. And when she repelled his venomous shaft by the armor of the faith, the king commanded that wealth be taken from her who already in her heart possessed the kingdom of paradise, and later that she should be tortured without hope of this life. Why make a long story? After long examinations, after losing the treasure of earthly riches, when she could not be forced to attack the blessed Trinity she was led against her will to be rebaptized. And when she was being forcibly immersed in that filthy bath and was crying loudly; "I believe that the Father and the holy Spirit are of one substance With the Son," when she said this she stained the water with a worthy ointment [note: For qua sanguine cuncta infecit read digne aquas unguine infecit. See Bonnet, Le Latin de Gregoire de Tours, p. 457.], that is, she defiled it with excrement. Then she was ; taken to the examination according to the law, and after the needle, flame and claw, she was beheaded for Christ the lord. After this the Vandals crossed the sea, the Alemanni following as far as Tangier, and were dispersed throughout all Africa and Mauritania.
[3. Persecutions of Catholics by Arians under the Vandal king Honeric of Africa. 4. The same, under the Gothic king Athanaric of Spain. 5. Journey of Bishop Aravatius of Tongres to Rome thait he might avert by prayer the threatened invasion of the Huns. But there he learns that "it was sanctioned in the council of the Lord that the Huns must come into the Gauls and ravage them." He: returns to Tongres and dies.]
6. Now the Huns left Pannonia and, as certain say, on the very watchnight of holy Easter arrived at the city of Metz, after devastating the country, and gave the city over to burning, slaying the people with the edge of the sword and killing the very priests of the Lord before the holy altars. And there remained in the city .no place unburned except the oratory of the blessed Stephen, the deacon and first martyr. And I do not hesitate to tell what I have heard from certain persons about this oratory. For they say that before these enemies came, a man of the faith saw in a vision the blessed levite Stephen as if conferring with the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and speaking as follows about this disaster: " I beg you, my lords, to prevent by your intercession the burning of the city of Metz by the enemy, because there is a place in it in which the relics of my life on earth are preserved; rather let the people learn that I have some influence with God. But if the wickedness of the people has grown too great, so that nothing else can be done except deliver the city to burning, at least let this oratory not be consumed." And they replied to him: " Go in peace, beloved brother, your oratory alone the fire shall not burn. But as for the city shall not prevail, because the sentence of the will of the Lord has already gone out over it. For the sin of the people has grown great, and the outcry of their wickedness ascends to the presence of God; therefore this city shall be burned with fire." Whence it is certain that it was by the intercession of these that when the city was burned the oratory remained unharmed.
7.
And Attila king of the Huns went forth from Metz and when he had crushed many cities of the Gauls he attacked Orleans and strove to take it by the mighty hammering of battering rams. Now at that time the most blessed Annianus was bishop in the city just mentioned, a man of unequaled wisdom and praiseworthy holiness, whose miracles are faithfully remembered among us. And when the people, on being shut in, cried to their bishop, and asked what they were to do, trusting in God he advised all to prostrate themselves in prayer, and with tears to implore the ever present aid of God in their necessities. Then when they prayed as he had directed, the bishop said: "Look from the wall of the city to sec whether God's mercy yet comes to your aid." For he hoped that by God's mercy Ætius was coming, to whom he had recourse before at Arles when he was anxious about the future. But when they looked from the wall, they saw no one. And he said: "Pray faithfully, for God will free you this day." When they had prayed he said: "Look again." And when they looked they saw no one to bring aid. He said to them a third time: "If you pray faithfully, God comes swiftly." And they besought God's mercy with weeping and loud cries. When this prayer also was finished they looked from the wall a third time at the old man's command, and saw afar off a cloud as it were arising from the earth. When they reported this the bishop said: "It is the aid of the Lord." Meanwhile, when the walls were now trembling from the hammering of the rams and were just about to fall, behold, Ætius came, and Theodore, king of the Goths and Thorismodus his son hastened to the city with their armies, and drove the enemy forth and defeated him. And so the city was freed by the intercession of the blessed bishop, and they put Attila to flight. And he went to the plain of Moirey and got ready for battle. And hearing this, they made manful preparations to meet him....
Ætius with the Goths and Franks fought against Attila. And the latter saw that his army was being destroyed, and escaped by flight. And Theodore, king of the Goths, was slain in the battle. Now let no one doubt that the army of Huns was put to flight by the intercession of the bishop mentioned above. And so Ætius the patrician, along with Thorismodus, won the victory and destroyed the enemy. And when the battle was finished, Ætius said : to Thorismodus: "Make haste and return swiftly to your native land, for fear you lose your father's kingdom because of your brother." The latter, on hearing this, departed speedily with the intention of anticipating his brother, and seizing his father's throne first. At the same time Ætius by a stratagem caused the king of the Franks to flee. When they had gone, Ætius took the spoils of the battle and returned victoriously to his country with much booty. And Attila retreated with a few men. Not long after Aquileia was captured by the Huns and burned and altogether destroyed. Italy was overrun and plundered. Thorismodus, whom we have mentioned above, overcame the Alans in battle, and was himself defeated later on by his brothers, after many quarrels and battles, and put to death.
[8. The history of Renatus Frigeridus is quoted for the character of Ætius and an account of his death.]
9.
The question who was the first of the kings of the Franks is disregarded by many writers. Though the history of Sulpicius Alexander tells much of them, still it does not name their first king, but says that they had dukes. However, it is well to relate what he says of them. For when he tells that Maximus, losing all hope of empire, remained within Aquileia, almost beside himself, he adds: "At that time the Franks burst into the province of Germany under Genobaud, Marcomer, and Sunno, their dukes, and having broken through the boundary wall they slew most of the people and laid waste the fertile districts especially, and aroused fear even in Cologne. And when word was carried to Trèves, Nanninus and Quintinus, the military officers to whom Maximus had intrusted his infant son and the defense of the Gauls, assembled an army and met at Cologne. Now the enemy, laden with plunder after devastating the richest parts of the provinces, had crossed the Rhine, leaving a good many of their men on Roman soil all ready to renew their ravages. An attack upon these turned to the advantage of the Romans, and many Franks perished by the sword near Carbonnière. And when the Romans were consulting after their success whether they ought to cross into Francia, Nanninus said no, because he knew the Franks would not be unprepared and would doubtless be stronger in their own land. And since thi displeased Quintinus and the remainder of the officers, Nanninus returned to Mayence, and Quintinus crossed the Rhine with his army near the stronghold of Neuss, and at his second camp from the river he found dwellings abandoned by their occupants and great villages deserted. For the Franks pretended to be afraid and retired into the more remote tracts, where they built an abattis on the edge of the woods. And so the cowardly soldiers burned all the dwellings, thinking that to rage against them was the winning of victory, and they passed a wakeful night under the burden of their arms. At the first glimmer of dawn they entered the wooded country under Quintinus as commander of the battle, and wandered in safety till nearly midday, entangling themselves in the winding paths. At last, when they found everything solidly shut up by great fences, they struggled to make their exit into the marshy fields which were adjacent to the woods, and the enemy appeared here and there, and sheltered by trunks of trees or standing on the abattis as if on the summit of towers, they sent as if from engines a shower of arrows poisoned by the juices of herbs, so that sure death followed even superficial wounds inflicted in places that were not mortal. Later the army was surrounded by the enemy in greater number, and it eagerly rushed into the open places which the Franks had left unoccupied. And the horsemen were the first to plunge into the morasses, and the bodies of men and animals fell indiscriminately together, and they were overwhelmed by their own confusion. The foot soldiers also who had escaped the hoofs of the horses were impeded by the mud, and extricated themselves with difficulty, and hid again in panic in the woods from which they had struggled a little before. And so the ranks were thrown into disorder and the legions cut in pieces. Heraclius, tribune of the Jovinians, and nearly all the officers were slain, when night and the lurking places of the woods offered a safe escape to a few." This he narrated in the third book of his History.
And in the fourth book, when he tells of the killing of Victor son of Maximus, the tyrant, he says: "At that time Carietto and Sirus who had been appointed in place of Nanninus, were absent in the province of Germany with the army opposed to the Franks". And a little later when the Franks had taken booty from Germany, he added: "Arbogastes, wishing no further delay, warned Cæsar that the punishment due must be exacted from the Franks, unless they speedily restored all the plunder they had taken the previous year when the legions were destroyed, and delivered up the instigators of the war to be punished for their treachery in breaking the peace." He related that this had been done under the leadership of dukes and says further: "A few days later he held a hasty conference with Marcomer and Sunno, princes [note: 'Regalabus'] of the Franks and required hostages of them as usual, and then retired to Treves to spend the winter." But when he calls them princes, we do not know whether they were kings or held in the place of kings. Still the same writer, when he told of the hard straits of the emperor Valentinian, added this: "While events of various sorts were taking place in the East throughout Thrace, the public order was disturbed in Gaul. Valentinian the emperor was shut up in Vienne in the palace, and reduced almost below the position of a private person, and the military command was given over to the Frankish allies, and even the civil offices fell under the control of Arbogast's faction, and no one of all the oathbound soldiery was found to dare to heed the familiar speech or obey the command of the emperor." Then he says: "In the same year Arbogast pursued with heathenish hate the princes of the Franks, Sunno and Marcomer, and hastened to Cologne in the depth of winter, since he knew that all the retreats of Francia could be safely penetrated and ravaged with fire when the woods, left bare and dry by the fall of the leaves, could not conceal men lying in ambush. And so he gathered an army and crossed the Rhine, and devastated the country of the Brictori, near the bank, and also the district which the Chamavi inhabit, and no one met him any where, except that a few of the Ampsivarii and Chatti appeared with Marcomer as duke on the ridges of distant hills." At another time this writer, no longer mentioning dukes and princes, openly asserts that the Franks had a king, and without mentioning his name he says: " Then the tyrant Eugenius undertook a military expedition, and hastened to the Rhine to renew in the customary way the old alliances with the kings of the Alemanni and the Franks and to threaten the barbarian nations at that time with a great army." So much the historian mentioned above wrote about the Franks.
Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus, whom we have already mentioned, in his story of the capture and destruction of Rome by the Goths, says: "Meantime when Goare had gone over to the Romans, Respendial, king of the Alamanni, turned the army of his people from the Rhine, since the Vandals were getting the worse of the war with the Franks, having lost their king Godegisil, and about 20,000 of the army, and all the Vandals would have been exterminated if the army of the Alamanni [note: Alamanni for Alani] had not come to their aid in time." It is surprising to us that when he names the kings of the other nations he does not name the king of the Franks as well. However, when he says that Constantine, after seizing imperial power,
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Learn the history behind every event mentioned in Fall Out Boy’s 2023 “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”
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Encyclopedia Britannica
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https://www.britannica.com/list/all-81-references-in-fall-out-boys-we-didnt-start-the-fire-explained
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All 81 References in Fall Out Boy’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” Explained
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
In his 1989 hit “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” American songwriter Billy Joel rattles off a list of historical references in order to argue that his generation…well, like the title says, “didn’t start the fire” of global tragedy, scandal, and screwups. (Britannica explains all 119 events here.) In 2023 pop-punk band Fall Out Boy released their own version of the song, covering events from 1989 to 2023.
We did the research, again. Here are the stories behind all 81 historical references Fall Out Boy deemed worthy of attention in 2023.
Captain Planet
The titular superhero of television series Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990–96) helped a group of cartoon teenagers in their battle against ecological catastrophe. Captain Planet taught these teens—and the show’s viewers—about the importance of environmental conservation.
Arab Spring
In the early 2010s, a wave of pro-democracy protests and uprisings erupted throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Known as the Arab Spring, this series of revolts targeted authoritarian regimes and their leaders. Protesters found rapid success during Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution and Egypt’s January 25 Revolution. Bloody struggles between ruling regimes and opposition groups subsequently arose in Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, and Syria.
L.A. Riots
In April 1992 four Los Angeles police officers were acquitted on all but one charge connected with the severe beating of Rodney King, an African American motorist. The charges included assault with a deadly weapon. The officers, three of whom were white, were acquitted by a mostly white jury despite a widely circulated video capturing the brutal attack. Following the announcement of the acquittal, protesters took to the streets all over Los Angeles. More than 50 people were killed, more than 2,300 were injured, and thousands were arrested. With $1 billion in property damage, the L.A. Riots became one of the most destructive civil disruptions in American history.
Rodney King
See above.
Deepfakes
Along with the rise of artificial intelligence in the 21st century came deepfakes: images, videos, and audio samples of fake events created by advanced computers. Deepfake technology can imitate a person’s voice, likeness, and mannerisms in order to make it appear as if that person said outlandish remarks or engaged in inappropriate activities. Deepfake videos began popping up about 2017, the vast majority of which were pornographic. Reactions toward the new technology included worries of defamation, particularly with regard to altered videos of politicians, and concern that pornographic deepfakes can be created without the featured individuals’ consent.
Earthquakes
Several deadly earthquakes occurred since the Billy Joel released “We Didn’t Start the Fire” in 1989. These include a magnitude-9.1 quake in the Indian Ocean in 2004, which triggered a tsunami; a magnitude-7.0 quake in Haiti in 2010; and a magnitude-9.0 quake that triggered a tsunami in Japan in 2011 and caused a major nuclear accident (see number 17 on this list). Altogether, these earthquakes claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
Iceland volcano
In March 2010 the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland erupted for the first time since the 19th century. The eruptions melted glacial ice at the center of the volcano, sending steam and ash into the atmosphere. Prevailing winds carried the ash cloud southeast to northern Europe, prompting many European countries to temporarily ground flights and shut down their national airspace.
Oklahoma City bomb
On April 19, 1995, former U.S. Army soldier Timothy McVeigh ignited a homemade bomb, which he concealed in a rental truck, in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The terrorist attack killed 168 people and injured several hundred more. Until the September 11 attacks in 2001, the Oklahoma City bombing was the deadliest terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain was the lead singer, guitarist, and primary songwriter for the band Nirvana. He was an unofficial spokesman for teen angst, bringing alternative rock into the mainstream. Cobain was a frequent user of heroin and battled depression. In 1994 he died by suicide at age 27.
Pokémon
In the 1990s Japanese game designer Satoshi Tajiri first created the concept for Pocket Monsters, now known as Pokémon. In 1996 Nintendo released the first Pokémon video games, Pokémon Green and Pokémon Red. Pokémon soon became a cultural phenomenon, with the creatures appearing in more video games, trading cards, several television series, and a movie franchise. In 2016 the mobile game Pokémon Go was released, reviving the monsters’ popularity.
Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods was the golfer to beat throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, following one of the most impressive amateur careers in golf history with a prestigious run in the professional circuit. Despite media scrutiny surrounding his personal life, he is considered one of the greatest professional golfers in history, having tied the record for the most PGA Tour wins with 82.
Myspace
Created by Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe in 2003, Myspace was one of the first social network sites. The platform peaked in popularity between 2005 and 2008, with tens of millions of users. After the introduction of Facebook, however, Myspace’s popularity rapidly declined.
Monsanto, GMOs
Monsanto was a dominant company in American agriculture, perhaps best known for its controversial use of genetically modified organism (GMO) technology to produce crops. In the late 20th century Monsanto genetically engineered seeds to resist the herbicide glyphosate, which resulted in crops being sprayed with more herbicides to kill weeds without harming the crops. The technology sparked an ongoing debate regarding safety issues associated with GMOs and the wider use of biotechnology in agriculture.
Harry Potter
J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, a seven-book narrative following the titular wizard boy and his battle against the evil Voldemort, captivated audiences in the late 1990s and 2000s. The series was adapted into a blockbuster eight-film franchise starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint; in 2010, Universal Studios opened a Harry Potter-themed section in their Florida amusement park. Since then, J.K. Rowling has faced criticism for insensitive comments about the transgender community.
Twilight
Stephenie Meyer’s vampire-themed Twilight Saga, the first book of which was published in 2005, entertained fans with love triangles, forbidden romance, and rivalry between vampires and werewolves. Plus, the Twilight books and corresponding film series sparked a major debate among fans: Team Edward or Team Jacob?
Michael Jackson dies
On June 25, 2009, “King of Pop” Michael Jackson died of cardiac arrest in Los Angeles, California, at age 50. His death was caused by a lethal mix of sedatives and propofol, an anesthetic. Jackson’s death was later ruled a homicide, and in 2011 Conrad Murray, Jackson’s personal doctor, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
Nuclear accident, Fukushima, Japan
In 2011 a magnitude-9.0 earthquake off the coast of Japan triggered a tsunami whose waves flooded and damaged the backup generators at the Fukushima Daiichi (“Number One”) nuclear power plant in northern Japan. Three reactors partially melted, releasing radioactive material into the surrounding area. Over 100,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes, and over 2,000 lives were lost due to the disaster.
Crimean Peninsula
In February 2014 Russia, led by President Vladimir Putin, invaded and illegally annexed Crimea, an autonomous republic of Ukraine on the Black Sea. Putin characterized his actions as an effort to support the Russian ethnic majority and military assets in the region. Russia’s invasion followed the ousting of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, whose pro-Russia policy resulted in protests in Kyiv and the toppling of his government. In March 2014 the United Nations General Assembly condemned the annexation. The conflict in Crimea was a prelude to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and the subsequent war between the two countries, during which the Russian military continued to occupy the peninsula.
Cambridge Analytica
In 2018 Cambridge Analytica, a British data analytics and political consulting firm, was at the forefront of a national debate in the U.S. about Internet data privacy and user consent. The company was under investigation for harvesting data from some 87 million Facebook users without their consent. It used this data to create detailed profiles of American voters, designed to be sold to political campaigns. Cambridge Analytica had ties to the campaigns of several Republican politicians in the United States, including Senator Ted Cruz and President Donald Trump. Facebook and its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, also received criticism for mishandling user data.
Kim Jong-Un
In 2011 Kim Jong-Un succeeded his father, Kim Jong Il, as the supreme leader of North Korea. While many details about Kim Jong-Un and his regime remain unknown outside North Korea, he is often characterized as a repressive dictator who directed the rapid development of North Korean nuclear weapons. He engaged in several wars of words with U.S. President Donald Trump, until the two leaders met face-to-face in 2018 and pledged to de-escalate growing nuclear tension between the two nations.
Robert Downey, Jr., Iron Man
Robert Downey, Jr., is an American actor known for his portrayal of Tony Stark and his superhero alter ego Iron Man in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a series of blockbuster films including Iron Man and The Avengers. By 2020 the franchise’s cumulative global box office receipts had topped $22 billion.
More war in Afghanistan
The Afghanistan War, an international conflict triggered by the September 11 attacks, was waged between the United States and Afghanistan from 2001 to 2014. In 2021, after the execution of U.S. President Joe Biden’s order to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, the Taliban regained full control of the country for the first time since the late 1990s.
Cubs go all the way again
In 2016 the American baseball team the Chicago Cubs won the World Series for this first time since 1908.
Obama
Barack Obama was the first African American to be elected president of the United States, serving in the office from 2009 to 2017. In 2009 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
Spielberg
Steven Spielberg is an American film director, producer, and three-time Academy Award winner. His filmography includes Jaws (1975), The Color Purple (1985), and Jurassic Park (1993), among others.
Explosion, Lebanon
An explosion on August 4, 2020, devastated the streets of Lebanon’s capital, Beirut. When a warehouse caught fire, a large amount of stored ammonium nitrate combusted, resulting in a mushroom cloud explosion that killed more than 200 people and injured about 7,000. The chemical reaction came at the fault of improper safety measures and neglect. Following the disaster, almost half a million people were left homeless.
Unabomber
“Unabomber” is a name given to Ted Kaczynski, an American mathematician, political extremist, and domestic terrorist. Between 1978 and 1995 he detonated 16 bombs in the United States, attacking universities and airlines. By the time of his arrest, 3 people had been killed and 23 injured. Kaczynski was sentenced to life in prison with no parole, where he died reportedly by suicide on June 10, 2023.
Bobbit, John
In 1993 Lorena Bobbitt cut off her husband’s penis. John Bobbit, a former U.S. Marine, then underwent a nine-hour surgery to have his penis successfully reattached. The incident was widely covered in national media, and “Bobbitt” became a household name. Charged with assault, Lorena accused her husband of physical and sexual abuse, charges he later faced in court. The couple officially divorced in 1995.
Bombing Boston Marathon
The Boston Marathon bombing was a terrorist attack on the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. Placed and detonated in the crowd, homemade bombs injured more than 260 people and caused 3 deaths. The perpetrators, brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, avoided capture for a few days after the bombing. On April 19 Tamerlan died after a shootout with police, and Dzhokhar was later apprehended, convicted of terrorism associated with Islamic radicalization, among other counts, and sentenced to death.
Balloon Boy
In 2009 Richard and Mayumi Heene reported their six-year-old son, Falcon, to be trapped inside a released homemade helium balloon. Shaped like a flying saucer, the balloon was in the air for a total of 90 minutes. Having not found the boy northeast of Denver, where the balloon landed, rescuers began the search for his body. But Falcon was later discovered to be hiding in the attic of the Heenes’ home, having never been in the balloon at all. The situation received incredibly vast global publicity, with Falcon nicknamed “Balloon Boy.”
War on terror
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States launched a global counterterrorism effort. The term war on terror was first officially used by the U.S. government on September 20. The effort came to include major wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the monitoring of political ideologies in the Middle East, the capture and interrogation of suspected terrorists, and other international operations.
QAnon
QAnon is an American conservative conspiracy theory that originated online in October 2017 and gained traction among supporters of then U.S. president Donald Trump. Believers tend to antagonize the Democratic Party, Hollywood, and what they consider the “deep state” within the U.S. government, members of which groups they consider to be satanic and cannibalistic sexual predators. The group’s anonymous leader, Q, was determined by linguists to most likely be the creation of South African software engineer Paul Furber and 8chan/8kun administrator Ron Watkins.
Trump gets impeached twice
In the history of the United States, only three presidents have ever been impeached:Andrew Johnson was impeached in 1868 for having violated the Tenure of Office Act; Bill Clinton was impeached in 1998, charged with perjury and obstruction of justice after denying an affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky; and Donald Trump, who is the first to have been impeached twice. In 2019 he was presented with the articles of impeachment in connection with his alleged attempt to extort Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for political favors in exchange for military support. Two years later Trump was impeached again, regarding his role in the January 6 storming of the United States Capitol.
Polar bears got no ice
The melting of Arctic ice due to climate change threatens Arctic species, including polar bears, with displacement and habitat loss.
Fyre Fest
Fyre Festival was a 2017 music festival characterized by fraudulent marketing and disastrous mismanagement. Founded by con artist Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule, it was marketed by celebrities and social media influencers as a luxury music festival experience on an island in The Bahamas. The eventual accommodations, infrastructure, and schedule lacked the originally promised grandeur. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of lawsuits followed in the ensuing years. McFarland pleaded guilty to fraud charges and in 2022 was released after serving four years of his original six-year sentence.
Black Parade
The Black Parade is the title of the third studio album of the American emo punk-rock band My Chemical Romance, released in 2006. The album follows a dying man through death and beyond. In 2021 Beyoncé earned the Grammy for best R&B performance for her single “Black Parade,” from her visual album Black Is King.
Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps is a former American Olympic swimmer. He won the most medals of any athlete in Olympic history, with 23 gold, 3 silver, and 2 bronze medals in his collection.
Y2K
Y2K is a term originally coined to address a computer-related concern that emerged as the 20th century was coming to a close, sometimes called the “Millennium Bug.” In the 20th century many computer systems and software abbreviated four-digit years as two digits. Concerns were raised that software would fail to distinguish between years like 1900 and 2000 upon the turn of the century, though the actual impact was minor. Later the term came to signify the pop culture trends and aesthetic of the early aughts.
Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson is a British politician who served as mayor of London from 2008 to 2016 and was elected Conservative Party leader and prime minister of the United Kingdom in 2019. He was involved in facilitating Brexit (see below). In 2022 information was made public that Johnson routinely violated public health regulations in association with the COVID-19 pandemic. Johnson denied the allegations in Parliament but was forced to resign in September 2022.
Brexit
In a referendum held on June 23, 2016, some 52 percent of participating voters opted for the United Kingdom to leave the European Union (EU). Brexit was the political process of the U.K.’s withdrawal. The term is a combination of the words British and exit. In the few years of active debate regarding how the exit would take place, Brexit was destabilized by a change of leadership, with Theresa May being replaced by Boris Johnson. Nevertheless, the decision was finalized, and Brexit came into action as of 23:00 GMT on January 31, 2020.
Kanye West
Kanye West is an American rapper and fashion designer known for his critically acclaimed albums such as The College Dropout (2004) and My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2010)—and for his many public controversies, including anti-Semitic comments and support for U.S. President Donald Trump. At the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards, he leaped onstage during Taylor Swift’s acceptance of the award for best female video. He took over the microphone to publicly exclaim: “I’mma let you finish, but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!” In 2016 at a fashion show for his brand YEEZY, he released his single “Famous,” reigniting the conflict by referring to Swift by a derogatory term.
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift is an American singer-songwriter whose discography—which includes Taylor Swift (2006), Fearless (2008), and 1989 (2014)—traces her transition from acoustic country music to the world of pop. Many of her songs reference her personal life, including the conflict with Kanye West at the 2009 Video Music Awards (see above).
Stranger Things
Netflix’s 2016 release Stranger Things is a throwback to the 1980s in the form of a TV horror series. Over several seasons the show follows young friends investigating child abduction, government experiments, and supernatural monsters in small-town Indiana and beyond.
Tiger King
A popular documentary series on Netflix, Tiger King follows Joseph Maldonado-Passage, better known as “Joe Exotic,” and big-cat breeding in the United States. In 2019 Joe Exotic was convicted of animal abuse and the attempted murder for hire of fellow zookeeper and animal rights activist Carole Baskin.
Ever Given, Suez
The world’s supply chain, already under extreme stress because of the COVID-19 pandemic, all but collapsed when the Ever Given, one of the world’s largest container ships, beached diagonally in the Suez Canal. As a result of high winds, poor visibility, and speeding, the Ever Given lost control in a single-lane passage, blocking the Suez Canal for six days in March 2021. An essential waterway, the Suez Canal receives about 15 percent of the world’s shipping traffic and is the shortest route between Europe and Asia.
Sandy Hook
On December 14, 2012, 20 students and 6 educators were killed in a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, by 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who entered the school with an AR-15 and two semiautomatic pistols. Sandy Hook would rank among the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, and its enduring legacy would be marked by continued failure from federal and local entities in producing gun reform legislation.
Columbine
The Columbine High School shootings took place on April 20, 1999, in Littleton, Colorado. Columbine was the U.S.’s deadliest school shooting at the time it occurred. Two students—armed with semiautomatic rifles, pistols, and several explosives—entered the high school and killed 12 students and an educator before killing themselves.
Sandra Bland
On July 13, 2015, Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old African American woman, was found hanged in a jail cell in Waller county, Texas. Her death was ruled a suicide. Bland had been arrested three days earlier on the charge of assaulting a public servant. It resulted from an argument between Bland and a state trooper who issued her a citation for failing to signal a lane change. Bland’s death inspired the enactment of Texas’s 2017 Sandra Bland Act, which aims to prevent future similar tragedies, and the HBO documentary Say Her Name, released in 2018.
Tamir Rice
On November 22, 2014, 12-year-old Tamir Rice was killed by law enforcement in a Cleveland park. The officer was heavily criticized for shooting the child within seconds of arrival on the scene, as were police dispatchers who did not relay to officers that the gun was likely a toy and the individual likely a child. Rice had been playing on the playground with an air pellet gun.
ISIS
The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), one of the deadliest global terrorist organizations with Salafi jihadist ideology, originated with al-Qaeda in Iraq during the Iraq War. It branched away in 2006 to form what would eventually become known as ISIS. The radical insurgent group was at its largest and most bureaucratically sophisticated in 2015, holding a geographic area covering some 40,000 square miles, before declining and being largely dismantled by the end of the decade. ISIS is characterized by extreme Islamic fundamentalism and extreme violence.
LeBron James
LeBron James is widely considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He has played on teams that won the National Basketball Association (NBA) championship four times (2012, 2013, 2016, and 2020) and has been the league’s all-time leading scorer since 2023, when he broke Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 38-year-old record of 38,387 career points.
Shinzo Abe blown away
In a rare episode of gun violence in Japan, former prime minister Shinzo Abe was fatally shot during a campaign rally on July 8, 2022, by a 41-year-old man with a homemade gun at close range. The assailant was disillusioned with Abe’s alleged long-standing ties to the Unification Church, to which the assailant’s mother had donated $700,000 and subsequently bankrupted the family. Abe was the longest-serving prime minister of modern Japan, affiliated with the Liberal-Democratic Party of Japan, and was known for his diplomatic skills and the economic agenda that came to be known as “Abenomics.”
Meghan Markle
Meghan Markle is an American former actress and the spouse of Prince Harry of the United Kingdom. Perhaps her best-known acting role was in the popular legal drama series Suits (2011–19). She married Prince Harry in 2018, but in 2020, amid allegations of poor and possibly racist treatment of Markle by the royal family, the couple retreated from royal duties and moved to Los Angeles. In 2022 Netflix released Harry & Meghan, a candid documentary series on the couple’s relationship and their move to become nonworking members of the royal family.
George Floyd
On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who knelt on Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes after Floyd was accused of using a counterfeit $20 bill. The viral video circulation of Floyd’s last minutes generated global attention and mass protests regarding police brutality, empowering the Black Lives Matter movement. That summer anywhere from 15 million to 26 million people in the U.S. demonstrated over Floyd’s death, in addition to those at similar protests held in at least 40 countries. In 2021 Chauvin was convicted of murder, a rarity for law enforcement officers standing trial for police violence.
Burj Khalifa
Located in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the Burj Khalifa is the world’s tallest building, with a height of 2,717 feet (828 meters) and 163 floors. It was unveiled on January 4, 2010, following six years of construction, and far surpassed Taipei 101, the previous record holder. It was designed by the Chicago-based architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.
Metroid
Released in 1986 by Nintendo, the intergalactic videogame Metroid allows players to control bounty hunter Samus Aran as she adventures on desolate planets or space stations. Constituting a franchise of more than a dozen titles, Metroid games have sold more than 20 million copies globally. Nintendo released Metroid Dread in 2021.
Fermi paradox
In short, where are the aliens? In his later years Nobel Prize-winning physicist and “architect of the nuclear age” Enrico Fermi conjectured this paradox, wondering how the age and size of the universe had not yet yielded an extraterrestrial civilization that could have made some contact with Earth. Or have they already…?
Venus and Serena
The Williams sisters are a remarkable duo who commanded women’s tennis for about two decades. Serena, known for her powerful style of play, has won 23 Grand Slam singles titles, the most of any player during the open era. Venus, the elder of the two, has won 7 Grand Slam singles titles and is highly regarded for her athleticism and grace on the court. As a team, they have won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles.
Michael Jordan 23
Considered one of the all-time greatest basketball players, Michael Jordan is known for his incredible acrobatic and leaping abilities, tenacious shooting, and defense. The number that appeared on his jersey for most of his professional career, 23, is an homage to his brother, Larry Jordan, who wore the number 45. When both brothers played on the same court in high school, the number Michael Jordan would wear was half of his brother’s jersey number: 23, rounded up from 22.5.
YouTube killed MTV
MTV, or Music Television, played music videos around the clock on cable television beginning in 1981. Showcasing hit artists such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, Tina Turner, and Peter Gabriel, MTV became the go-to platform and destination for music lovers. In the 2000s the emergence of Youtube, which made it possible for most music videos to be watched anywhere at anytime, confirmed the obsoleteness of MTV’s former programming focus on music videos—a focus MTV has continually shifted away from since its inception. The line may also reference to the Buggles’ song “Video Killed the Radio Star,” the first music video to air on MTV in 1981.
SpongeBob
The Nickelodeon children’s cartoon SpongeBob SquarePants first aired in 1999. Set under the sea, the absurdist cartoon features the eponymous sea sponge and his aquatic friends. (SpongeBob also had a species of fungus found on Borneo named for him.)
Golden State Killer caught
For nearly four decades, government agencies were unable to locate the Golden State Killer, who committed 13 murders and kidnappings, nearly 50 rapes, and more than 120 home invasions between 1975 and 1986 in California. James DeAngelo was identified as the killer in 2018 with the help of novel genetic testing using nearly 40-year-old DNA, a technique that has been implemented nationwide to solve scores of murders and rapes. In 2020 DeAngelo pleaded guilty in court and was sentenced to 11 consecutive life terms without parole.
Michael Jordan 45
Michael Jordan briefly switched from his iconic number 23 jersey to a number 45 jersey in March 1995, after a two-year break from the NBA during which he played minor league baseball. Jordan wrote that he didn’t want to return to the court wearing the last number seen by his father, who had been murdered in 1993. Jordan reverted back to the number 23 after, fittingly, 23 games.
Woodstock ’99
During a scorching hot weekend in late July 1999, the notorious final Woodstock music festival took place at a decommissioned air force base near Rome, New York. Headliners included Korn, Bush, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Kid Rock, and Rage Against the Machine. These acts attracted a more aggressive crowd than previous iterations of the festival, which was first billed as “3 Days of Peace and Music” in 1969. Woodstock ’99 was a cornucopia of chaos that included temperatures above 100 °F with little shade, overcrowding, overflowing septic systems, rampant sexual assaults, and destructive riots and fires that razed the grounds.
Keaton, Batman
The Batman movie franchise was rebooted in the 1989 film Batman, starring actor Michael Keaton as the hero alongside Jack Nicholson as the homicidal trickster Joker. Directed by Tim Burton, the movie won an Oscar and raked in $411 million at the box office. Keaton reprised his role in the 1992 sequel Batman Returns and in 2023 in The Flash.
Bush v. Gore
Night fell on election day in November 2000 and a clear presidential winner had yet to surface. In fact, Americans would wait for more than a month, until December 12, and for a ruling from the Supreme Court to know if their next president would be Republican George W. Bush or Democrat Vice President Al Gore. After legal challenges and protracted ballot recounts involving Florida’s vote, the Court ruled 5–4 that there should be no further recounts and the election should be certified. That gave Bush Florida’s electoral college votes and the election despite the fact that Gore won the popular vote.
Elon Musk
Elon Musk is an American billionaire and entrepreneur who has cofounded several companies, including PayPal and SpaceX. He also funded Tesla and later became CEO. In 2022 SpaceX launched the first spaceflight completely manned by civilians, and Tesla became the largest electric vehicle manufacturer in the world. Musk made headlines in October 2022 when he bought a majority stake of Twitter, making drastic changes after naming himself CEO of the social media company that he renamed X.
Kaepernick
Colin Kaepernick is an American football player and social activist who was a quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers. He is best known for kneeling during the national anthem at the beginning of his NFL games, protesting racial injustice and police brutality in the United States. Many NFL players followed his lead, creating much controversy. “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses Black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football,” Kaepernick commented at the time. He last played in the NFL in 2017.
Texas failed electric grid
In February 2021 a bitter winter storm swept through Texas, ushering in temperatures cold enough to freeze natural gas supply lines and prevent wind turbines from spinning. What resulted was a widespread power outage that affected about 10 million Texans during the coldest time of the year. Texas’s deregulated and independent energy infrastructure left it isolated from the country’s power supply, compounding the issues. State officials reported that 246 Texans died from complications of the weather and power failure.
Jeff Bezos
Jeff Bezos is an American entrepreneur, a billionaire, and the founder of Amazon.com. What started as a small virtual bookstore in 1995 has diversified into many sectors including cloud computing, entertainment, electronics, and online retail. Amazon’s yearly revenue increased from some $600 million in 1998 to almost $233 billion two decades later, in 2018. Bezos also founded the spaceflight company Blue Origin in 2000 and bought The Washington Post in 2013. According to Forbes, Bezos ranked as the richest person in the world from 2018 to 2021.
White rhino goes extinct
Northern white rhinos are thought to be extinct in the wild, and only two females remain in captivity. The last male of the subspecies died on March 19, 2018, due to complications of old age. Rampant poaching for their prized horns led to the rhinos’ dire situation. Najin and Fatu, the mother-daughter survivors, are kept under armed guard in Kenya to protect them. As of 2020, there were about 10,000 wild southern white rhinos. Despite its population success, the subspecies is classified as near threatened because of continued high levels of poaching.
Great Pacific Garbage Patch
Sailing from Hawaii to California, Charles Moore discovered the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in 1997. Four currents form a vortex between the coasts of Japan and California, swirling debris toward two patches near each respective coast. The eastern patch, off the coast of California, is 620,000 square miles of detritus—nearly three times the size of France. In 2018 the nonprofit environmental engineering organization the Ocean Cleanup performed an expansive study on the patch, revealing that it’s composed of an estimated 1.8 trillion pieces of trash weighing about 87,000 tons. The patch includes an immense amount of microplastics that lend the water a milky quality.
Tom DeLonge and aliens
Tom DeLonge is an American musician and a founding member of several pop-punk bands, often serving as lead vocalist and guitarist. He has an on-again, off-again relationship with his most successful band, blink-182, playing with two other groups during breaks: Box Car Racer and Angels & Airwaves. He is known for his eccentric stage performances, even performing nude. He cofounded the multimedia company To The Stars in 2014 and became invested in research on unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP, also known as UFOs), enlisting the help of established experts and government insiders.
Mars rover
NASA developed two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, to analyze Mars’s geology and uncover possible traces of water. Both landed successfully on Mars in January 2004, and, although each was designed for a 90-day mission, the rovers were operational for years. Spirit ceased transmitting to Earth in 2010, followed by Opportunity in 2018. The missions were a success, and NASA concluded that water did historically exist on Mars in sufficient quantities to sustain microbial life.
Avatar
Avatar is a 2009 science-fiction film directed by James Cameron. It won three Academy Awards, became the highest-grossing film of all time, earning $2.9 billion, and launched a media franchise. A sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, was released in 2022 and also won an Academy Award.
Self-driving electric cars
The last decade has seen quick advancement in autonomous vehicle technology. Notably, Tesla released its Autopilot feature in 2014, which gave Model S vehicles (and later other models) the capability to autonomously steer, adjust speed, and brake. Other electric vehicles, including the 2022 BMW iX and the Ford Mustang Mach-E, support similar features. Waymo, established in 2016 by Google’s parent company Alphabet, is an autonomous ride-hailing service that operates in select cities in the United States. Some of its hybrid vehicles are fully driverless, with no human supervisor. The technological advances of self-driving vehicles, however, can be accompanied by safety concerns. For example, Tesla’s Autopilot feature was reported to have been involved in more than 700 crashes from 2019 to 2021.
SSRIs
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are a class of medications typically used as antidepressants. They are often a first-choice drug because of their reliability and minimal side effects. By raising serotonin levels in the brain, SSRIs have been proven to effectively treat a variety of mental disorders.
Prince and the queen die
Queen Elizabeth II, the United Kingdom’s longest-reigning monarch, died on September 8, 2022. She was 96 years old and had reigned for 70 years. Her son succeeded her, becoming King Charles III. Prince could refer to her husband, Prince Philip, duke of Edinburgh, who died on April 9, 2021. The lyric could also be interpreted as a reference to Prince the musical artist, who died on April 21, 2016.
World Trade
On September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda militants hijacked four commercial airplanes to be used in suicide attacks against the United States. The first plane impacted the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City at 8:46 AM, and a second plane crashed into the south tower 17 minutes later. The south tower collapsed from the damage at 9:59 AM, and the north tower fell shortly after. Fires at the site burned for three months. The attacks in New York resulted in 2,753 dead, including 343 firefighters. The third plane struck the Pentagon, outside Washington, D.C., at 9:37 AM. The final jet, perhaps destined to hit the White House or the Capitol crashed in a field in Pennsylvania at 10:03 AM, after passengers stormed the cockpit to try to seize control away from the hijackers. The September 11 attacks focused American foreign policy on combating terrorism.
Second plane
See above.
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Economy When I wrote the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor, in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my hands only. I lived there two years and two months. At present I am a sojourner in civilized life again. I should not obtrude my affairs so much on the notice of my readers if very particular inquiries had not been made by my townsmen concerning my mode of life, which some would call impertinent, though they do not appear to me at all impertinent, but, considering the circumstances, very natural and pertinent. Some have asked what I got to eat; if I did not feel lonesome; if I was not afraid; and the like. Others have been curious to learn what portion of my income I devoted to charitable purposes; and some, who have large families, how many poor children I maintained. I will therefore ask those of my readers who feel no particular interest in me to pardon me if I undertake to answer some of these questions in this book. In most books, the _I_, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference. We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking. I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well. Unfortunately, I am confined to this theme by the narrowness of my experience. Moreover, I, on my side, require of every writer, first or last, a simple and sincere account of his own life, and not merely what he has heard of other men's lives; some such account as he would send to his kindred from a distant land; for if he has lived sincerely, it must have been in a distant land to me. Perhaps these pages are more particularly addressed to poor students. As for the rest of my readers, they will accept such portions as apply to them. I trust that none will stretch the seams in putting on the coat, for it may do good service to him whom it fits. I would fain say something, not so much concerning the Chinese and Sandwich Islanders as you who read these pages, who are said to live in New England; something about your condition, especially your outward condition or circumstances in this world, in this town, what it is, whether it is necessary that it be as bad as it is, whether it cannot be improved as well as not. I have travelled a good deal in Concord; and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways. What I have heard of Bramins sitting exposed to four fires and looking in the face of the sun; or hanging suspended, with their heads downward, over flames; or looking at the heavens over their shoulders "until it becomes impossible for them to resume their natural position, while from the twist of the neck nothing but liquids can pass into the stomach"; or dwelling, chained for life, at the foot of a tree; or measuring with their bodies, like caterpillars, the breadth of vast empires; or standing on one leg on the tops of pillars--even these forms of conscious penance are hardly more incredible and astonishing than the scenes which I daily witness. The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor. They have no friend Iolaus to burn with a hot iron the root of the hydra's head, but as soon as one head is crushed, two spring up. I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labor in. Who made them serfs of the soil? Why should they eat their sixty acres, when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born? They have got to live a man's life, pushing all these things before them, and get on as well as they can. How many a poor immortal soul have I met well-nigh crushed and smothered under its load, creeping down the road of life, pushing before it a barn seventy-five feet by forty, its Augean stables never cleansed, and one hundred acres of land, tillage, mowing, pasture, and woodlot! The portionless, who struggle with no such unnecessary inherited encumbrances, find it labor enough to subdue and cultivate a few cubic feet of flesh. But men labor under a mistake. The better part of the man is soon plowed into the soil for compost. By a seeming fate, commonly called necessity, they are employed, as it says in an old book, laying up treasures which moth and rust will corrupt and thieves break through and steal. It is a fool's life, as they will find when they get to the end of it, if not before. It is said that Deucalion and Pyrrha created men by throwing stones over their heads behind them:-- Inde genus durum sumus, experiensque laborum, Et documenta damus qua simus origine nati. Or, as Raleigh rhymes it in his sonorous way,-- "From thence our kind hard-hearted is, enduring pain and care, Approving that our bodies of a stony nature are." So much for a blind obedience to a blundering oracle, throwing the stones over their heads behind them, and not seeing where they fell. Most men, even in this comparatively free country, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them. Their fingers, from excessive toil, are too clumsy and tremble too much for that. Actually, the laboring man has not leisure for a true integrity day by day; he cannot afford to sustain the manliest relations to men; his labor would be depreciated in the market. He has no time to be anything but a machine. How can he remember well his ignorance--which his growth requires--who has so often to use his knowledge? We should feed and clothe him gratuitously sometimes, and recruit him with our cordials, before we judge of him. The finest qualities of our nature, like the bloom on fruits, can be preserved only by the most delicate handling. Yet we do not treat ourselves nor one another thus tenderly. Some of you, we all know, are poor, find it hard to live, are sometimes, as it were, gasping for breath. I have no doubt that some of you who read this book are unable to pay for all the dinners which you have actually eaten, or for the coats and shoes which are fast wearing or are already worn out, and have come to this page to spend borrowed or stolen time, robbing your creditors of an hour. It is very evident what mean and sneaking lives many of you live, for my sight has been whetted by experience; always on the limits, trying to get into business and trying to get out of debt, a very ancient slough, called by the Latins _aes alienum_, another's brass, for some of their coins were made of brass; still living, and dying, and buried by this other's brass; always promising to pay, promising to pay, tomorrow, and dying today, insolvent; seeking to curry favor, to get custom, by how many modes, only not state-prison offenses; lying, flattering, voting, contracting yourselves into a nutshell of civility or dilating into an atmosphere of thin and vaporous generosity, that you may persuade your neighbor to let you make his shoes, or his hat, or his coat, or his carriage, or import his groceries for him; making yourselves sick, that you may lay up something against a sick day, something to be tucked away in an old chest, or in a stocking behind the plastering, or, more safely, in the brick bank; no matter where, no matter how much or how little. I sometimes wonder that we can be so frivolous, I may almost say, as to attend to the gross but somewhat foreign form of servitude called Negro Slavery, there are so many keen and subtle masters that enslave both North and South. It is hard to have a Southern overseer; it is worse to have a Northern one; but worst of all when you are the slave-driver of yourself. Talk of a divinity in man! Look at the teamster on the highway, wending to market by day or night; does any divinity stir within him? His highest duty to fodder and water his horses! What is his destiny to him compared with the shipping interests? Does not he drive for Squire Make-a-stir? How godlike, how immortal, is he? See how he cowers and sneaks, how vaguely all the day he fears, not being immortal nor divine, but the slave and prisoner of his own opinion of himself, a fame won by his own deeds. Public opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates, his fate. Self-emancipation even in the West Indian provinces of the fancy and imagination--what Wilberforce is there to bring that about? Think, also, of the ladies of the land weaving toilet cushions against the last day, not to betray too green an interest in their fates! As if you could kill time without injuring eternity. The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. From the desperate city you go into the desperate country, and have to console yourself with the bravery of minks and muskrats. A stereotyped but unconscious despair is concealed even under what are called the games and amusements of mankind. There is no play in them, for this comes after work. But it is a characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things. When we consider what, to use the words of the catechism, is the chief end of man, and what are the true necessaries and means of life, it appears as if men had deliberately chosen the common mode of living because they preferred it to any other. Yet they honestly think there is no choice left. But alert and healthy natures remember that the sun rose clear. It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof. What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true to-day may turn out to be falsehood to-morrow, mere smoke of opinion, which some had trusted for a cloud that would sprinkle fertilizing rain on their fields. What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new. Old people did not know enough once, perchance, to fetch fresh fuel to keep the fire a-going; new people put a little dry wood under a pot, and are whirled round the globe with the speed of birds, in a way to kill old people, as the phrase is. Age is no better, hardly so well, qualified for an instructor as youth, for it has not profited so much as it has lost. One may almost doubt if the wisest man has learned anything of absolute value by living. Practically, the old have no very important advice to give the young, their own experience has been so partial, and their lives have been such miserable failures, for private reasons, as they must believe; and it may be that they have some faith left which belies that experience, and they are only less young than they were. I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors. They have told me nothing, and probably cannot tell me anything to the purpose. Here is life, an experiment to a great extent untried by me; but it does not avail me that they have tried it. If I have any experience which I think valuable, I am sure to reflect that this my Mentors said nothing about. One farmer says to me, "You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with"; and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle. Some things are really necessaries of life in some circles, the most helpless and diseased, which in others are luxuries merely, and in others still are entirely unknown. The whole ground of human life seems to some to have been gone over by their predecessors, both the heights and the valleys, and all things to have been cared for. According to Evelyn, "the wise Solomon prescribed ordinances for the very distances of trees; and the Roman prætors have decided how often you may go into your neighbor's land to gather the acorns which fall on it without trespass, and what share belongs to that neighbor." Hippocrates has even left directions how we should cut our nails; that is, even with the ends of the fingers, neither shorter nor longer. Undoubtedly the very tedium and ennui which presume to have exhausted the variety and the joys of life are as old as Adam. But man's capacities have never been measured; nor are we to judge of what he can do by any precedents, so little has been tried. Whatever have been thy failures hitherto, "be not afflicted, my child, for who shall assign to thee what thou hast left undone?" We might try our lives by a thousand simple tests; as, for instance, that the same sun which ripens my beans illumines at once a system of earths like ours. If I had remembered this it would have prevented some mistakes. This was not the light in which I hoed them. The stars are the apexes of what wonderful triangles! What distant and different beings in the various mansions of the universe are contemplating the same one at the same moment! Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another? Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other's eyes for an instant? We should live in all the ages of the world in an hour; ay, in all the worlds of the ages. History, Poetry, Mythology!--I know of no reading of another's experience so startling and informing as this would be. The greater part of what my neighbors call good I believe in my soul to be bad, and if I repent of anything, it is very likely to be my good behavior. What demon possessed me that I behaved so well? You may say the wisest thing you can, old man--you who have lived seventy years, not without honor of a kind--I hear an irresistible voice which invites me away from all that. One generation abandons the enterprises of another like stranded vessels. I think that we may safely trust a good deal more than we do. We may waive just so much care of ourselves as we honestly bestow elsewhere. Nature is as well adapted to our weakness as to our strength. The incessant anxiety and strain of some is a well-nigh incurable form of disease. We are made to exaggerate the importance of what work we do; and yet how much is not done by us! or, what if we had been taken sick? How vigilant we are! determined not to live by faith if we can avoid it; all the day long on the alert, at night we unwillingly say our prayers and commit ourselves to uncertainties. So thoroughly and sincerely are we compelled to live, reverencing our life, and denying the possibility of change. This is the only way, we say; but there are as many ways as there can be drawn radii from one centre. All change is a miracle to contemplate; but it is a miracle which is taking place every instant. Confucius said, "To know that we know what we know, and that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge." When one man has reduced a fact of the imagination to be a fact to his understanding, I foresee that all men at length establish their lives on that basis. Let us consider for a moment what most of the trouble and anxiety which I have referred to is about, and how much it is necessary that we be troubled, or at least careful. It would be some advantage to live a primitive and frontier life, though in the midst of an outward civilization, if only to learn what are the gross necessaries of life and what methods have been taken to obtain them; or even to look over the old day-books of the merchants, to see what it was that men most commonly bought at the stores, what they stored, that is, what are the grossest groceries. For the improvements of ages have had but little influence on the essential laws of man's existence; as our skeletons, probably, are not to be distinguished from those of our ancestors. By the words, _necessary of life_, I mean whatever, of all that man obtains by his own exertions, has been from the first, or from long use has become, so important to human life that few, if any, whether from savageness, or poverty, or philosophy, ever attempt to do without it. To many creatures there is in this sense but one necessary of life, Food. To the bison of the prairie it is a few inches of palatable grass, with water to drink; unless he seeks the Shelter of the forest or the mountain's shadow. None of the brute creation requires more than Food and Shelter. The necessaries of life for man in this climate may, accurately enough, be distributed under the several heads of Food, Shelter, Clothing, and Fuel; for not till we have secured these are we prepared to entertain the true problems of life with freedom and a prospect of success. Man has invented, not only houses, but clothes and cooked food; and possibly from the accidental discovery of the warmth of fire, and the consequent use of it, at first a luxury, arose the present necessity to sit by it. We observe cats and dogs acquiring the same second nature. By proper Shelter and Clothing we legitimately retain our own internal heat; but with an excess of these, or of Fuel, that is, with an external heat greater than our own internal, may not cookery properly be said to begin? Darwin, the naturalist, says of the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego, that while his own party, who were well clothed and sitting close to a fire, were far from too warm, these naked savages, who were farther off, were observed, to his great surprise, "to be streaming with perspiration at undergoing such a roasting." So, we are told, the New Hollander goes naked with impunity, while the European shivers in his clothes. Is it impossible to combine the hardiness of these savages with the intellectualness of the civilized man? According to Liebig, man's body is a stove, and food the fuel which keeps up the internal combustion in the lungs. In cold weather we eat more, in warm less. The animal heat is the result of a slow combustion, and disease and death take place when this is too rapid; or for want of fuel, or from some defect in the draught, the fire goes out. Of course the vital heat is not to be confounded with fire; but so much for analogy. It appears, therefore, from the above list, that the expression, _animal life_, is nearly synonymous with the expression, _animal heat_; for while Food may be regarded as the Fuel which keeps up the fire within us--and Fuel serves only to prepare that Food or to increase the warmth of our bodies by addition from without--Shelter and Clothing also serve only to retain the heat thus generated and absorbed. The grand necessity, then, for our bodies, is to keep warm, to keep the vital heat in us. What pains we accordingly take, not only with our Food, and Clothing, and Shelter, but with our beds, which are our night-clothes, robbing the nests and breasts of birds to prepare this shelter within a shelter, as the mole has its bed of grass and leaves at the end of its burrow! The poor man is wont to complain that this is a cold world; and to cold, no less physical than social, we refer directly a great part of our ails. The summer, in some climates, makes possible to man a sort of Elysian life. Fuel, except to cook his Food, is then unnecessary; the sun is his fire, and many of the fruits are sufficiently cooked by its rays; while Food generally is more various, and more easily obtained, and Clothing and Shelter are wholly or half unnecessary. At the present day, and in this country, as I find by my own experience, a few implements, a knife, an axe, a spade, a wheelbarrow, etc., and for the studious, lamplight, stationery, and access to a few books, rank next to necessaries, and can all be obtained at a trifling cost. Yet some, not wise, go to the other side of the globe, to barbarous and unhealthy regions, and devote themselves to trade for ten or twenty years, in order that they may live--that is, keep comfortably warm--and die in New England at last. The luxuriously rich are not simply kept comfortably warm, but unnaturally hot; as I implied before, they are cooked, of course _à la mode_. Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have ever lived a more simple and meagre life than the poor. The ancient philosophers, Chinese, Hindoo, Persian, and Greek, were a class than which none has been poorer in outward riches, none so rich in inward. We know not much about them. It is remarkable that we know so much of them as we do. The same is true of the more modern reformers and benefactors of their race. None can be an impartial or wise observer of human life but from the vantage ground of what we should call voluntary poverty. Of a life of luxury the fruit is luxury, whether in agriculture, or commerce, or literature, or art. There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once admirable to live. To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically. The success of great scholars and thinkers is commonly a courtier-like success, not kingly, not manly. They make shift to live merely by conformity, practically as their fathers did, and are in no sense the progenitors of a noble race of men. But why do men degenerate ever? What makes families run out? What is the nature of the luxury which enervates and destroys nations? Are we sure that there is none of it in our own lives? The philosopher is in advance of his age even in the outward form of his life. He is not fed, sheltered, clothed, warmed, like his contemporaries. How can a man be a philosopher and not maintain his vital heat by better methods than other men? When a man is warmed by the several modes which I have described, what does he want next? Surely not more warmth of the same kind, as more and richer food, larger and more splendid houses, finer and more abundant clothing, more numerous, incessant, and hotter fires, and the like. When he has obtained those things which are necessary to life, there is another alternative than to obtain the superfluities; and that is, to adventure on life now, his vacation from humbler toil having commenced. The soil, it appears, is suited to the seed, for it has sent its radicle downward, and it may now send its shoot upward also with confidence. Why has man rooted himself thus firmly in the earth, but that he may rise in the same proportion into the heavens above?--for the nobler plants are valued for the fruit they bear at last in the air and light, far from the ground, and are not treated like the humbler esculents, which, though they may be biennials, are cultivated only till they have perfected their root, and often cut down at top for this purpose, so that most would not know them in their flowering season. I do not mean to prescribe rules to strong and valiant natures, who will mind their own affairs whether in heaven or hell, and perchance build more magnificently and spend more lavishly than the richest, without ever impoverishing themselves, not knowing how they live--if, indeed, there are any such, as has been dreamed; nor to those who find their encouragement and inspiration in precisely the present condition of things, and cherish it with the fondness and enthusiasm of lovers--and, to some extent, I reckon myself in this number; I do not speak to those who are well employed, in whatever circumstances, and they know whether they are well employed or not;--but mainly to the mass of men who are discontented, and idly complaining of the hardness of their lot or of the times, when they might improve them. There are some who complain most energetically and inconsolably of any, because they are, as they say, doing their duty. I also have in my mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters. * * * * * If I should attempt to tell how I have desired to spend my life in years past, it would probably surprise those of my readers who are somewhat acquainted with its actual history; it would certainly astonish those who know nothing about it. I will only hint at some of the enterprises which I have cherished. In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line. You will pardon some obscurities, for there are more secrets in my trade than in most men's, and yet not voluntarily kept, but inseparable from its very nature. I would gladly tell all that I know about it, and never paint "No Admittance" on my gate. I long ago lost a hound, a bay horse, and a turtle dove, and am still on their trail. Many are the travellers I have spoken concerning them, describing their tracks and what calls they answered to. I have met one or two who had heard the hound, and the tramp of the horse, and even seen the dove disappear behind a cloud, and they seemed as anxious to recover them as if they had lost them themselves. To anticipate, not the sunrise and the dawn merely, but, if possible, Nature herself! How many mornings, summer and winter, before yet any neighbor was stirring about his business, have I been about mine! No doubt, many of my townsmen have met me returning from this enterprise, farmers starting for Boston in the twilight, or woodchoppers going to their work. It is true, I never assisted the sun materially in his rising, but, doubt not, it was of the last importance only to be present at it. So many autumn, ay, and winter days, spent outside the town, trying to hear what was in the wind, to hear and carry it express! I well-nigh sunk all my capital in it, and lost my own breath into the bargain, running in the face of it. If it had concerned either of the political parties, depend upon it, it would have appeared in the Gazette with the earliest intelligence. At other times watching from the observatory of some cliff or tree, to telegraph any new arrival; or waiting at evening on the hill-tops for the sky to fall, that I might catch something, though I never caught much, and that, manna-wise, would dissolve again in the sun. For a long time I was reporter to a journal, of no very wide circulation, whose editor has never yet seen fit to print the bulk of my contributions, and, as is too common with writers, I got only my labor for my pains. However, in this case my pains were their own reward. For many years I was self-appointed inspector of snow-storms and rain-storms, and did my duty faithfully; surveyor, if not of highways, then of forest paths and all across-lot routes, keeping them open, and ravines bridged and passable at all seasons, where the public heel had testified to their utility. I have looked after the wild stock of the town, which give a faithful herdsman a good deal of trouble by leaping fences; and I have had an eye to the unfrequented nooks and corners of the farm; though I did not always know whether Jonas or Solomon worked in a particular field to-day; that was none of my business. I have watered the red huckleberry, the sand cherry and the nettle-tree, the red pine and the black ash, the white grape and the yellow violet, which might have withered else in dry seasons. In short, I went on thus for a long time (I may say it without boasting), faithfully minding my business, till it became more and more evident that my townsmen would not after all admit me into the list of town officers, nor make my place a sinecure with a moderate allowance. My accounts, which I can swear to have kept faithfully, I have, indeed, never got audited, still less accepted, still less paid and settled. However, I have not set my heart on that. Not long since, a strolling Indian went to sell baskets at the house of a well-known lawyer in my neighborhood. "Do you wish to buy any baskets?" he asked. "No, we do not want any," was the reply. "What!" exclaimed the Indian as he went out the gate, "do you mean to starve us?" Having seen his industrious white neighbors so well off--that the lawyer had only to weave arguments, and, by some magic, wealth and standing followed--he had said to himself: I will go into business; I will weave baskets; it is a thing which I can do. Thinking that when he had made the baskets he would have done his part, and then it would be the white man's to buy them. He had not discovered that it was necessary for him to make it worth the other's while to buy them, or at least make him think that it was so, or to make something else which it would be worth his while to buy. I too had woven a kind of basket of a delicate texture, but I had not made it worth any one's while to buy them. Yet not the less, in my case, did I think it worth my while to weave them, and instead of studying how to make it worth men's while to buy my baskets, I studied rather how to avoid the necessity of selling them. The life which men praise and regard as successful is but one kind. Why should we exaggerate any one kind at the expense of the others? Finding that my fellow-citizens were not likely to offer me any room in the court house, or any curacy or living anywhere else, but I must shift for myself, I turned my face more exclusively than ever to the woods, where I was better known. I determined to go into business at once, and not wait to acquire the usual capital, using such slender means as I had already got. My purpose in going to Walden Pond was not to live cheaply nor to live dearly there, but to transact some private business with the fewest obstacles; to be hindered from accomplishing which for want of a little common sense, a little enterprise and business talent, appeared not so sad as foolish. I have always endeavored to acquire strict business habits; they are indispensable to every man. If your trade is with the Celestial Empire, then some small counting house on the coast, in some Salem harbor, will be fixture enough. You will export such articles as the country affords, purely native products, much ice and pine timber and a little granite, always in native bottoms. These will be good ventures. To oversee all the details yourself in person; to be at once pilot and captain, and owner and underwriter; to buy and sell and keep the accounts; to read every letter received, and write or read every letter sent; to superintend the discharge of imports night and day; to be upon many parts of the coast almost at the same time--often the richest freight will be discharged upon a Jersey shore;--to be your own telegraph, unweariedly sweeping the horizon, speaking all passing vessels bound coastwise; to keep up a steady despatch of commodities, for the supply of such a distant and exorbitant market; to keep yourself informed of the state of the markets, prospects of war and peace everywhere, and anticipate the tendencies of trade and civilization--taking advantage of the results of all exploring expeditions, using new passages and all improvements in navigation;--charts to be studied, the position of reefs and new lights and buoys to be ascertained, and ever, and ever, the logarithmic tables to be corrected, for by the error of some calculator the vessel often splits upon a rock that should have reached a friendly pier--there is the untold fate of La Prouse;--universal science to be kept pace with, studying the lives of all great discoverers and navigators, great adventurers and merchants, from Hanno and the Phoenicians down to our day; in fine, account of stock to be taken from time to time, to know how you stand. It is a labor to task the faculties of a man--such problems of profit and loss, of interest, of tare and tret, and gauging of all kinds in it, as demand a universal knowledge. I have thought that Walden Pond would be a good place for business, not solely on account of the railroad and the ice trade; it offers advantages which it may not be good policy to divulge; it is a good port and a good foundation. No Neva marshes to be filled; though you must everywhere build on piles of your own driving. It is said that a flood-tide, with a westerly wind, and ice in the Neva, would sweep St. Petersburg from the face of the earth. As this business was to be entered into without the usual capital, it may not be easy to conjecture where those means, that will still be indispensable to every such undertaking, were to be obtained. As for Clothing, to come at once to the practical part of the question, perhaps we are led oftener by the love of novelty and a regard for the opinions of men, in procuring it, than by a true utility. Let him who has work to do recollect that the object of clothing is, first, to retain the vital heat, and secondly, in this state of society, to cover nakedness, and he may judge how much of any necessary or important work may be accomplished without adding to his wardrobe. Kings and queens who wear a suit but once, though made by some tailor or dressmaker to their majesties, cannot know the comfort of wearing a suit that fits. They are no better than wooden horses to hang the clean clothes on. Every day our garments become more assimilated to ourselves, receiving the impress of the wearer's character, until we hesitate to lay them aside without such delay and medical appliances and some such solemnity even as our bodies. No man ever stood the lower in my estimation for having a patch in his clothes; yet I am sure that there is greater anxiety, commonly, to have fashionable, or at least clean and unpatched clothes, than to have a sound conscience. But even if the rent is not mended, perhaps the worst vice betrayed is improvidence. I sometimes try my acquaintances by such tests as this--Who could wear a patch, or two extra seams only, over the knee? Most behave as if they believed that their prospects for life would be ruined if they should do it. It would be easier for them to hobble to town with a broken leg than with a broken pantaloon. Often if an accident happens to a gentleman's legs, they can be mended; but if a similar accident happens to the legs of his pantaloons, there is no help for it; for he considers, not what is truly respectable, but what is respected. We know but few men, a great many coats and breeches. Dress a scarecrow in your last shift, you standing shiftless by, who would not soonest salute the scarecrow? Passing a cornfield the other day, close by a hat and coat on a stake, I recognized the owner of the farm. He was only a little more weather-beaten than when I saw him last. I have heard of a dog that barked at every stranger who approached his master's premises with clothes on, but was easily quieted by a naked thief. It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes. Could you, in such a case, tell surely of any company of civilized men which belonged to the most respected class? When Madam Pfeiffer, in her adventurous travels round the world, from east to west, had got so near home as Asiatic Russia, she says that she felt the necessity of wearing other than a travelling dress, when she went to meet the authorities, for she "was now in a civilized country, where... people are judged of by their clothes." Even in our democratic New England towns the accidental possession of wealth, and its manifestation in dress and equipage alone, obtain for the possessor almost universal respect. But they yield such respect, numerous as they are, are so far heathen, and need to have a missionary sent to them. Beside, clothes introduced sewing, a kind of work which you may call endless; a woman's dress, at least, is never done. A man who has at length found something to do will not need to get a new suit to do it in; for him the old will do, that has lain dusty in the garret for an indeterminate period. Old shoes will serve a hero longer than they have served his valet--if a hero ever has a valet--bare feet are older than shoes, and he can make them do. Only they who go to soirées and legislative balls must have new coats, coats to change as often as the man changes in them. But if my jacket and trousers, my hat and shoes, are fit to worship God in, they will do; will they not? Who ever saw his old clothes--his old coat, actually worn out, resolved into its primitive elements, so that it was not a deed of charity to bestow it on some poor boy, by him perchance to be bestowed on some poorer still, or shall we say richer, who could do with less? I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. If there is not a new man, how can the new clothes be made to fit? If you have any enterprise before you, try it in your old clothes. All men want, not something to _do with_, but something to _do_, or rather something to _be_. Perhaps we should never procure a new suit, however ragged or dirty the old, until we have so conducted, so enterprised or sailed in some way, that we feel like new men in the old, and that to retain it would be like keeping new wine in old bottles. Our moulting season, like that of the fowls, must be a crisis in our lives. The loon retires to solitary ponds to spend it. Thus also the snake casts its slough, and the caterpillar its wormy coat, by an internal industry and expansion; for clothes are but our outmost cuticle and mortal coil. Otherwise we shall be found sailing under false colors, and be inevitably cashiered at last by our own opinion, as well as that of mankind. We don garment after garment, as if we grew like exogenous plants by addition without. Our outside and often thin and fanciful clothes are our epidermis, or false skin, which partakes not of our life, and may be stripped off here and there without fatal injury; our thicker garments, constantly worn, are our cellular integument, or cortex; but our shirts are our liber, or true bark, which cannot be removed without girdling and so destroying the man. I believe that all races at some seasons wear something equivalent to the shirt. It is desirable that a man be clad so simply that he can lay his hands on himself in the dark, and that he live in all respects so compactly and preparedly that, if an enemy take the town, he can, like the old philosopher, walk out the gate empty-handed without anxiety. While one thick garment is, for most purposes, as good as three thin ones, and cheap clothing can be obtained at prices really to suit customers; while a thick coat can be bought for five dollars, which will last as many years, thick pantaloons for two dollars, cowhide boots for a dollar and a half a pair, a summer hat for a quarter of a dollar, and a winter cap for sixty-two and a half cents, or a better be made at home at a nominal cost, where is he so poor that, clad in such a suit, of _his own earning_, there will not be found wise men to do him reverence? When I ask for a garment of a particular form, my tailoress tells me gravely, "They do not make them so now," not emphasizing the "They" at all, as if she quoted an authority as impersonal as the Fates, and I find it difficult to get made what I want, simply because she cannot believe that I mean what I say, that I am so rash. When I hear this oracular sentence, I am for a moment absorbed in thought, emphasizing to myself each word separately that I may come at the meaning of it, that I may find out by what degree of consanguinity _They_ are related to _me_, and what authority they may have in an affair which affects me so nearly; and, finally, I am inclined to answer her with equal mystery, and without any more emphasis of the "they"--"It is true, they did not make them so recently, but they do now." Of what use this measuring of me if she does not measure my character, but only the breadth of my shoulders, as it were a peg to hang the coat on? We worship not the Graces, nor the Parcae, but Fashion. She spins and weaves and cuts with full authority. The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveller's cap, and all the monkeys in America do the same. I sometimes despair of getting anything quite simple and honest done in this world by the help of men. They would have to be passed through a powerful press first, to squeeze their old notions out of them, so that they would not soon get upon their legs again; and then there would be some one in the company with a maggot in his head, hatched from an egg deposited there nobody knows when, for not even fire kills these things, and you would have lost your labor. Nevertheless, we will not forget that some Egyptian wheat was handed down to us by a mummy. On the whole, I think that it cannot be maintained that dressing has in this or any country risen to the dignity of an art. At present men make shift to wear what they can get. Like shipwrecked sailors, they put on what they can find on the beach, and at a little distance, whether of space or time, laugh at each other's masquerade. Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new. We are amused at beholding the costume of Henry VIII, or Queen Elizabeth, as much as if it was that of the King and Queen of the Cannibal Islands. All costume off a man is pitiful or grotesque. It is only the serious eye peering from and the sincere life passed within it which restrain laughter and consecrate the costume of any people. Let Harlequin be taken with a fit of the colic and his trappings will have to serve that mood too. When the soldier is hit by a cannonball, rags are as becoming as purple. The childish and savage taste of men and women for new patterns keeps how many shaking and squinting through kaleidoscopes that they may discover the particular figure which this generation requires today. The manufacturers have learned that this taste is merely whimsical. Of two patterns which differ only by a few threads more or less of a particular color, the one will be sold readily, the other lie on the shelf, though it frequently happens that after the lapse of a season the latter becomes the most fashionable. Comparatively, tattooing is not the hideous custom which it is called. It is not barbarous merely because the printing is skin-deep and unalterable. I cannot believe that our factory system is the best mode by which men may get clothing. The condition of the operatives is becoming every day more like that of the English; and it cannot be wondered at, since, as far as I have heard or observed, the principal object is, not that mankind may be well and honestly clad, but, unquestionably, that corporations may be enriched. In the long run men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, though they should fail immediately, they had better aim at something high. As for a Shelter, I will not deny that this is now a necessary of life, though there are instances of men having done without it for long periods in colder countries than this. Samuel Laing says that "the Laplander in his skin dress, and in a skin bag which he puts over his head and shoulders, will sleep night after night on the snow... in a degree of cold which would extinguish the life of one exposed to it in any woollen clothing." He had seen them asleep thus. Yet he adds, "They are not hardier than other people." But, probably, man did not live long on the earth without discovering the convenience which there is in a house, the domestic comforts, which phrase may have originally signified the satisfactions of the house more than of the family; though these must be extremely partial and occasional in those climates where the house is associated in our thoughts with winter or the rainy season chiefly, and two thirds of the year, except for a parasol, is unnecessary. In our climate, in the summer, it was formerly almost solely a covering at night. In the Indian gazettes a wigwam was the symbol of a day's march, and a row of them cut or painted on the bark of a tree signified that so many times they had camped. Man was not made so large limbed and robust but that he must seek to narrow his world and wall in a space such as fitted him. He was at first bare and out of doors; but though this was pleasant enough in serene and warm weather, by daylight, the rainy season and the winter, to say nothing of the torrid sun, would perhaps have nipped his race in the bud if he had not made haste to clothe himself with the shelter of a house. Adam and Eve, according to the fable, wore the bower before other clothes. Man wanted a home, a place of warmth, or comfort, first of warmth, then the warmth of the affections. We may imagine a time when, in the infancy of the human race, some enterprising mortal crept into a hollow in a rock for shelter. Every child begins the world again, to some extent, and loves to stay outdoors, even in wet and cold. It plays house, as well as horse, having an instinct for it. Who does not remember the interest with which, when young, he looked at shelving rocks, or any approach to a cave? It was the natural yearning of that portion, any portion of our most primitive ancestor which still survived in us. From the cave we have advanced to roofs of palm leaves, of bark and boughs, of linen woven and stretched, of grass and straw, of boards and shingles, of stones and tiles. At last, we know not what it is to live in the open air, and our lives are domestic in more senses than we think. From the hearth the field is a great distance. It would be well, perhaps, if we were to spend more of our days and nights without any obstruction between us and the celestial bodies, if the poet did not speak so much from under a roof, or the saint dwell there so long. Birds do not sing in caves, nor do doves cherish their innocence in dovecots. However, if one designs to construct a dwelling-house, it behooves him to exercise a little Yankee shrewdness, lest after all he find himself in a workhouse, a labyrinth without a clue, a museum, an almshouse, a prison, or a splendid mausoleum instead. Consider first how slight a shelter is absolutely necessary. I have seen Penobscot Indians, in this town, living in tents of thin cotton cloth, while the snow was nearly a foot deep around them, and I thought that they would be glad to have it deeper to keep out the wind. Formerly, when how to get my living honestly, with freedom left for my proper pursuits, was a question which vexed me even more than it does now, for unfortunately I am become somewhat callous, I used to see a large box by the railroad, six feet long by three wide, in which the laborers locked up their tools at night; and it suggested to me that every man who was hard pushed might get such a one for a dollar, and, having bored a few auger holes in it, to admit the air at least, get into it when it rained and at night, and hook down the lid, and so have freedom in his love, and in his soul be free. This did not appear the worst, nor by any means a despicable alternative. You could sit up as late as you pleased, and, whenever you got up, go abroad without any landlord or house-lord dogging you for rent. Many a man is harassed to death to pay the rent of a larger and more luxurious box who would not have frozen to death in such a box as this. I am far from jesting. Economy is a subject which admits of being treated with levity, but it cannot so be disposed of. A comfortable house for a rude and hardy race, that lived mostly out of doors, was once made here almost entirely of such materials as Nature furnished ready to their hands. Gookin, who was superintendent of the Indians subject to the Massachusetts Colony, writing in 1674, says, "The best of their houses are covered very neatly, tight and warm, with barks of trees, slipped from their bodies at those seasons when the sap is up, and made into great flakes, with pressure of weighty timber, when they are green.... The meaner sort are covered with mats which they make of a kind of bulrush, and are also indifferently tight and warm, but not so good as the former.... Some I have seen, sixty or a hundred feet long and thirty feet broad.... I have often lodged in their wigwams, and found them as warm as the best English houses." He adds that they were commonly carpeted and lined within with well-wrought embroidered mats, and were furnished with various utensils. The Indians had advanced so far as to regulate the effect of the wind by a mat suspended over the hole in the roof and moved by a string. Such a lodge was in the first instance constructed in a day or two at most, and taken down and put up in a few hours; and every family owned one, or its apartment in one. In the savage state every family owns a shelter as good as the best, and sufficient for its coarser and simpler wants; but I think that I speak within bounds when I say that, though the birds of the air have their nests, and the foxes their holes, and the savages their wigwams, in modern civilized society not more than one half the families own a shelter. In the large towns and cities, where civilization especially prevails, the number of those who own a shelter is a very small fraction of the whole. The rest pay an annual tax for this outside garment of all, become indispensable summer and winter, which would buy a village of Indian wigwams, but now helps to keep them poor as long as they live. I do not mean to insist here on the disadvantage of hiring compared with owning, but it is evident that the savage owns his shelter because it costs so little, while the civilized man hires his commonly because he cannot afford to own it; nor can he, in the long run, any better afford to hire. But, answers one, by merely paying this tax, the poor civilized man secures an abode which is a palace compared with the savage's. An annual rent of from twenty-five to a hundred dollars (these are the country rates) entitles him to the benefit of the improvements of centuries, spacious apartments, clean paint and paper, Rumford fire-place, back plastering, Venetian blinds, copper pump, spring lock, a commodious cellar, and many other things. But how happens it that he who is said to enjoy these things is so commonly a poor civilized man, while the savage, who has them not, is rich as a savage? If it is asserted that civilization is a real advance in the condition of man--and I think that it is, though only the wise improve their advantages--it must be shown that it has produced better dwellings without making them more costly; and the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. An average house in this neighborhood costs perhaps eight hundred dollars, and to lay up this sum will take from ten to fifteen years of the laborer's life, even if he is not encumbered with a family--estimating the pecuniary value of every man's labor at one dollar a day, for if some receive more, others receive less;--so that he must have spent more than half his life commonly before his wigwam will be earned. If we suppose him to pay a rent instead, this is but a doubtful choice of evils. Would the savage have been wise to exchange his wigwam for a palace on these terms? It may be guessed that I reduce almost the whole advantage of holding this superfluous property as a fund in store against the future, so far as the individual is concerned, mainly to the defraying of funeral expenses. But perhaps a man is not required to bury himself. Nevertheless this points to an important distinction between the civilized man and the savage; and, no doubt, they have designs on us for our benefit, in making the life of a civilized people an _institution_, in which the life of the individual is to a great extent absorbed, in order to preserve and perfect that of the race. But I wish to show at what a sacrifice this advantage is at present obtained, and to suggest that we may possibly so live as to secure all the advantage without suffering any of the disadvantage. What mean ye by saying that the poor ye have always with you, or that the fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge? "As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel. "Behold all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine: the soul that sinneth, it shall die." When I consider my neighbors, the farmers of Concord, who are at least as well off as the other classes, I find that for the most part they have been toiling twenty, thirty, or forty years, that they may become the real owners of their farms, which commonly they have inherited with encumbrances, or else bought with hired money--and we may regard one third of that toil as the cost of their houses--but commonly they have not paid for them yet. It is true, the encumbrances sometimes outweigh the value of the farm, so that the farm itself becomes one great encumbrance, and still a man is found to inherit it, being well acquainted with it, as he says. On applying to the assessors, I am surprised to learn that they cannot at once name a dozen in the town who own their farms free and clear. If you would know the history of these homesteads, inquire at the bank where they are mortgaged. The man who has actually paid for his farm with labor on it is so rare that every neighbor can point to him. I doubt if there are three such men in Concord. What has been said of the merchants, that a very large majority, even ninety-seven in a hundred, are sure to fail, is equally true of the farmers. With regard to the merchants, however, one of them says pertinently that a great part of their failures are not genuine pecuniary failures, but merely failures to fulfil their engagements, because it is inconvenient; that is, it is the moral character that breaks down. But this puts an infinitely worse face on the matter, and suggests, beside, that probably not even the other three succeed in saving their souls, but are perchance bankrupt in a worse sense than they who fail honestly. Bankruptcy and repudiation are the springboards from which much of our civilization vaults and turns its somersets, but the savage stands on the unelastic plank of famine. Yet the Middlesex Cattle Show goes off here with _éclat_ annually, as if all the joints of the agricultural machine were suent. The farmer is endeavoring to solve the problem of a livelihood by a formula more complicated than the problem itself. To get his shoestrings he speculates in herds of cattle. With consummate skill he has set his trap with a hair spring to catch comfort and independence, and then, as he turned away, got his own leg into it. This is the reason he is poor; and for a similar reason we are all poor in respect to a thousand savage comforts, though surrounded by luxuries. As Chapman sings, "The false society of men-- --for earthly greatness All heavenly comforts rarefies to air." And when the farmer has got his house, he may not be the richer but the poorer for it, and it be the house that has got him. As I understand it, that was a valid objection urged by Momus against the house which Minerva made, that she "had not made it movable, by which means a bad neighborhood might be avoided"; and it may still be urged, for our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed in them; and the bad neighborhood to be avoided is our own scurvy selves. I know one or two families, at least, in this town, who, for nearly a generation, have been wishing to sell their houses in the outskirts and move into the village, but have not been able to accomplish it, and only death will set them free. Granted that the majority are able at last either to own or hire the modern house with all its improvements. While civilization has been improving our houses, it has not equally improved the men who are to inhabit them. It has created palaces, but it was not so easy to create noblemen and kings. And _if the civilized man's pursuits are no worthier than the savage's, if he is employed the greater part of his life in obtaining gross necessaries and comforts merely, why should he have a better dwelling than the former?_ But how do the poor minority fare? Perhaps it will be found that just in proportion as some have been placed in outward circumstances above the savage, others have been degraded below him. The luxury of one class is counterbalanced by the indigence of another. On the one side is the palace, on the other are the almshouse and "silent poor." The myriads who built the pyramids to be the tombs of the Pharaohs were fed on garlic, and it may be were not decently buried themselves. The mason who finishes the cornice of the palace returns at night perchance to a hut not so good as a wigwam. It is a mistake to suppose that, in a country where the usual evidences of civilization exist, the condition of a very large body of the inhabitants may not be as degraded as that of savages. I refer to the degraded poor, not now to the degraded rich. To know this I should not need to look farther than to the shanties which everywhere border our railroads, that last improvement in civilization; where I see in my daily walks human beings living in sties, and all winter with an open door, for the sake of light, without any visible, often imaginable, wood-pile, and the forms of both old and young are permanently contracted by the long habit of shrinking from cold and misery, and the development of all their limbs and faculties is checked. It certainly is fair to look at that class by whose labor the works which distinguish this generation are accomplished. Such too, to a greater or less extent, is the condition of the operatives of every denomination in England, which is the great workhouse of the world. Or I could refer you to Ireland, which is marked as one of the white or enlightened spots on the map. Contrast the physical condition of the Irish with that of the North American Indian, or the South Sea Islander, or any other savage race before it was degraded by contact with the civilized man. Yet I have no doubt that that people's rulers are as wise as the average of civilized rulers. Their condition only proves what squalidness may consist with civilization. I hardly need refer now to the laborers in our Southern States who produce the staple exports of this country, and are themselves a staple production of the South. But to confine myself to those who are said to be in _moderate_ circumstances. Most men appear never to have considered what a house is, and are actually though needlessly poor all their lives because they think that they must have such a one as their neighbors have. As if one were to wear any sort of coat which the tailor might cut out for him, or, gradually leaving off palm-leaf hat or cap of woodchuck skin, complain of hard times because he could not afford to buy him a crown! It is possible to invent a house still more convenient and luxurious than we have, which yet all would admit that man could not afford to pay for. Shall we always study to obtain more of these things, and not sometimes to be content with less? Shall the respectable citizen thus gravely teach, by precept and example, the necessity of the young man's providing a certain number of superfluous glow-shoes, and umbrellas, and empty guest chambers for empty guests, before he dies? Why should not our furniture be as simple as the Arab's or the Indian's? When I think of the benefactors of the race, whom we have apotheosized as messengers from heaven, bearers of divine gifts to man, I do not see in my mind any retinue at their heels, any carload of fashionable furniture. Or what if I were to allow--would it not be a singular allowance?--that our furniture should be more complex than the Arab's, in proportion as we are morally and intellectually his superiors! At present our houses are cluttered and defiled with it, and a good housewife would sweep out the greater part into the dust hole, and not leave her morning's work undone. Morning work! By the blushes of Aurora and the music of Memnon, what should be man's _morning work_ in this world? I had three pieces of limestone on my desk, but I was terrified to find that they required to be dusted daily, when the furniture of my mind was all undusted still, and threw them out the window in disgust. How, then, could I have a furnished house? I would rather sit in the open air, for no dust gathers on the grass, unless where man has broken ground. It is the luxurious and dissipated who set the fashions which the herd so diligently follow. The traveller who stops at the best houses, so called, soon discovers this, for the publicans presume him to be a Sardanapalus, and if he resigned himself to their tender mercies he would soon be completely emasculated. I think that in the railroad car we are inclined to spend more on luxury than on safety and convenience, and it threatens without attaining these to become no better than a modern drawing-room, with its divans, and ottomans, and sun-shades, and a hundred other oriental things, which we are taking west with us, invented for the ladies of the harem and the effeminate natives of the Celestial Empire, which Jonathan should be ashamed to know the names of. I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion. I would rather ride on earth in an ox cart, with a free circulation, than go to heaven in the fancy car of an excursion train and breathe a _malaria_ all the way. The very simplicity and nakedness of man's life in the primitive ages imply this advantage, at least, that they left him still but a sojourner in nature. When he was refreshed with food and sleep, he contemplated his journey again. He dwelt, as it were, in a tent in this world, and was either threading the valleys, or crossing the plains, or climbing the mountain-tops. But lo! men have become the tools of their tools. The man who independently plucked the fruits when he was hungry is become a farmer; and he who stood under a tree for shelter, a housekeeper. We now no longer camp as for a night, but have settled down on earth and forgotten heaven. We have adopted Christianity merely as an improved method of _agri_-culture. We have built for this world a family mansion, and for the next a family tomb. The best works of art are the expression of man's struggle to free himself from this condition, but the effect of our art is merely to make this low state comfortable and that higher state to be forgotten. There is actually no place in this village for a work of _fine_ art, if any had come down to us, to stand, for our lives, our houses and streets, furnish no proper pedestal for it. There is not a nail to hang a picture on, nor a shelf to receive the bust of a hero or a saint. When I consider how our houses are built and paid for, or not paid for, and their internal economy managed and sustained, I wonder that the floor does not give way under the visitor while he is admiring the gewgaws upon the mantelpiece, and let him through into the cellar, to some solid and honest though earthy foundation. I cannot but perceive that this so-called rich and refined life is a thing jumped at, and I do not get on in the enjoyment of the fine arts which adorn it, my attention being wholly occupied with the jump; for I remember that the greatest genuine leap, due to human muscles alone, on record, is that of certain wandering Arabs, who are said to have cleared twenty-five feet on level ground. Without factitious support, man is sure to come to earth again beyond that distance. The first question which I am tempted to put to the proprietor of such great impropriety is, Who bolsters you? Are you one of the ninety-seven who fail, or the three who succeed? Answer me these questions, and then perhaps I may look at your bawbles and find them ornamental. The cart before the horse is neither beautiful nor useful. Before we can adorn our houses with beautiful objects the walls must be stripped, and our lives must be stripped, and beautiful housekeeping and beautiful living be laid for a foundation: now, a taste for the beautiful is most cultivated out of doors, where there is no house and no housekeeper. Old Johnson, in his "Wonder-Working Providence," speaking of the first settlers of this town, with whom he was contemporary, tells us that "they burrow themselves in the earth for their first shelter under some hillside, and, casting the soil aloft upon timber, they make a smoky fire against the earth, at the highest side." They did not "provide them houses," says he, "till the earth, by the Lord's blessing, brought forth bread to feed them," and the first year's crop was so light that "they were forced to cut their bread very thin for a long season." The secretary of the Province of New Netherland, writing in Dutch, in 1650, for the information of those who wished to take up land there, states more particularly that "those in New Netherland, and especially in New England, who have no means to build farmhouses at first according to their wishes, dig a square pit in the ground, cellar fashion, six or seven feet deep, as long and as broad as they think proper, case the earth inside with wood all round the wall, and line the wood with the bark of trees or something else to prevent the caving in of the earth; floor this cellar with plank, and wainscot it overhead for a ceiling, raise a roof of spars clear up, and cover the spars with bark or green sods, so that they can live dry and warm in these houses with their entire families for two, three, and four years, it being understood that partitions are run through those cellars which are adapted to the size of the family. The wealthy and principal men in New England, in the beginning of the colonies, commenced their first dwelling-houses in this fashion for two reasons: firstly, in order not to waste time in building, and not to want food the next season; secondly, in order not to discourage poor laboring people whom they brought over in numbers from Fatherland. In the course of three or four years, when the country became adapted to agriculture, they built themselves handsome houses, spending on them several thousands." In this course which our ancestors took there was a show of prudence at least, as if their principle were to satisfy the more pressing wants first. But are the more pressing wants satisfied now? When I think of acquiring for myself one of our luxurious dwellings, I am deterred, for, so to speak, the country is not yet adapted to _human_ culture, and we are still forced to cut our _spiritual_ bread far thinner than our forefathers did their wheaten. Not that all architectural ornament is to be neglected even in the rudest periods; but let our houses first be lined with beauty, where they come in contact with our lives, like the tenement of the shellfish, and not overlaid with it. But, alas! I have been inside one or two of them, and know what they are lined with. Though we are not so degenerate but that we might possibly live in a cave or a wigwam or wear skins today, it certainly is better to accept the advantages, though so dearly bought, which the invention and industry of mankind offer. In such a neighborhood as this, boards and shingles, lime and bricks, are cheaper and more easily obtained than suitable caves, or whole logs, or bark in sufficient quantities, or even well-tempered clay or flat stones. I speak understandingly on this subject, for I have made myself acquainted with it both theoretically and practically. With a little more wit we might use these materials so as to become richer than the richest now are, and make our civilization a blessing. The civilized man is a more experienced and wiser savage. But to make haste to my own experiment. Near the end of March, 1845, I borrowed an axe and went down to the woods by Walden Pond, nearest to where I intended to build my house, and began to cut down some tall, arrowy white pines, still in their youth, for timber. It is difficult to begin without borrowing, but perhaps it is the most generous course thus to permit your fellow-men to have an interest in your enterprise. The owner of the axe, as he released his hold on it, said that it was the apple of his eye; but I returned it sharper than I received it. It was a pleasant hillside where I worked, covered with pine woods, through which I looked out on the pond, and a small open field in the woods where pines and hickories were springing up. The ice in the pond was not yet dissolved, though there were some open spaces, and it was all dark-colored and saturated with water. There were some slight flurries of snow during the days that I worked there; but for the most part when I came out on to the railroad, on my way home, its yellow sand heap stretched away gleaming in the hazy atmosphere, and the rails shone in the spring sun, and I heard the lark and pewee and other birds already come to commence another year with us. They were pleasant spring days, in which the winter of man's discontent was thawing as well as the earth, and the life that had lain torpid began to stretch itself. One day, when my axe had come off and I had cut a green hickory for a wedge, driving it with a stone, and had placed the whole to soak in a pond-hole in order to swell the wood, I saw a striped snake run into the water, and he lay on the bottom, apparently without inconvenience, as long as I stayed there, or more than a quarter of an hour; perhaps because he had not yet fairly come out of the torpid state. It appeared to me that for a like reason men remain in their present low and primitive condition; but if they should feel the influence of the spring of springs arousing them, they would of necessity rise to a higher and more ethereal life. I had previously seen the snakes in frosty mornings in my path with portions of their bodies still numb and inflexible, waiting for the sun to thaw them. On the 1st of April it rained and melted the ice, and in the early part of the day, which was very foggy, I heard a stray goose groping about over the pond and cackling as if lost, or like the spirit of the fog. So I went on for some days cutting and hewing timber, and also studs and rafters, all with my narrow axe, not having many communicable or scholar-like thoughts, singing to myself,-- Men say they know many things; But lo! they have taken wings-- The arts and sciences, And a thousand appliances; The wind that blows Is all that any body knows. I hewed the main timbers six inches square, most of the studs on two sides only, and the rafters and floor timbers on one side, leaving the rest of the bark on, so that they were just as straight and much stronger than sawed ones. Each stick was carefully mortised or tenoned by its stump, for I had borrowed other tools by this time. My days in the woods were not very long ones; yet I usually carried my dinner of bread and butter, and read the newspaper in which it was wrapped, at noon, sitting amid the green pine boughs which I had cut off, and to my bread was imparted some of their fragrance, for my hands were covered with a thick coat of pitch. Before I had done I was more the friend than the foe of the pine tree, though I had cut down some of them, having become better acquainted with it. Sometimes a rambler in the wood was attracted by the sound of my axe, and we chatted pleasantly over the chips which I had made. By the middle of April, for I made no haste in my work, but rather made the most of it, my house was framed and ready for the raising. I had already bought the shanty of James Collins, an Irishman who worked on the Fitchburg Railroad, for boards. James Collins' shanty was considered an uncommonly fine one. When I called to see it he was not at home. I walked about the outside, at first unobserved from within, the window was so deep and high. It was of small dimensions, with a peaked cottage roof, and not much else to be seen, the dirt being raised five feet all around as if it were a compost heap. The roof was the soundest part, though a good deal warped and made brittle by the sun. Doorsill there was none, but a perennial passage for the hens under the door board. Mrs. C. came to the door and asked me to view it from the inside. The hens were driven in by my approach. It was dark, and had a dirt floor for the most part, dank, clammy, and aguish, only here a board and there a board which would not bear removal. She lighted a lamp to show me the inside of the roof and the walls, and also that the board floor extended under the bed, warning me not to step into the cellar, a sort of dust hole two feet deep. In her own words, they were "good boards overhead, good boards all around, and a good window"--of two whole squares originally, only the cat had passed out that way lately. There was a stove, a bed, and a place to sit, an infant in the house where it was born, a silk parasol, gilt-framed looking-glass, and a patent new coffee-mill nailed to an oak sapling, all told. The bargain was soon concluded, for James had in the meanwhile returned. I to pay four dollars and twenty-five cents tonight, he to vacate at five tomorrow morning, selling to nobody else meanwhile: I to take possession at six. It were well, he said, to be there early, and anticipate certain indistinct but wholly unjust claims on the score of ground rent and fuel. This he assured me was the only encumbrance. At six I passed him and his family on the road. One large bundle held their all--bed, coffee-mill, looking-glass, hens--all but the cat; she took to the woods and became a wild cat, and, as I learned afterward, trod in a trap set for woodchucks, and so became a dead cat at last. I took down this dwelling the same morning, drawing the nails, and removed it to the pond-side by small cartloads, spreading the boards on the grass there to bleach and warp back again in the sun. One early thrush gave me a note or two as I drove along the woodland path. I was informed treacherously by a young Patrick that neighbor Seeley, an Irishman, in the intervals of the carting, transferred the still tolerable, straight, and drivable nails, staples, and spikes to his pocket, and then stood when I came back to pass the time of day, and look freshly up, unconcerned, with spring thoughts, at the devastation; there being a dearth of work, as he said. He was there to represent spectatordom, and help make this seemingly insignificant event one with the removal of the gods of Troy. I dug my cellar in the side of a hill sloping to the south, where a woodchuck had formerly dug his burrow, down through sumach and blackberry roots, and the lowest stain of vegetation, six feet square by seven deep, to a fine sand where potatoes would not freeze in any winter. The sides were left shelving, and not stoned; but the sun having never shone on them, the sand still keeps its place. It was but two hours' work. I took particular pleasure in this breaking of ground, for in almost all latitudes men dig into the earth for an equable temperature. Under the most splendid house in the city is still to be found the cellar where they store their roots as of old, and long after the superstructure has disappeared posterity remark its dent in the earth. The house is still but a sort of porch at the entrance of a burrow. At length, in the beginning of May, with the help of some of my acquaintances, rather to improve so good an occasion for neighborliness than from any necessity, I set up the frame of my house. No man was ever more honored in the character of his raisers than I. They are destined, I trust, to assist at the raising of loftier structures one day. I began to occupy my house on the 4th of July, as soon as it was boarded and roofed, for the boards were carefully feather-edged and lapped, so that it was perfectly impervious to rain, but before boarding I laid the foundation of a chimney at one end, bringing two cartloads of stones up the hill from the pond in my arms. I built the chimney after my hoeing in the fall, before a fire became necessary for warmth, doing my cooking in the meanwhile out of doors on the ground, early in the morning: which mode I still think is in some respects more convenient and agreeable than the usual one. When it stormed before my bread was baked, I fixed a few boards over the fire, and sat under them to watch my loaf, and passed some pleasant hours in that way. In those days, when my hands were much employed, I read but little, but the least scraps of paper which lay on the ground, my holder, or tablecloth, afforded me as much entertainment, in fact answered the same purpose as the Iliad. * * * * * It would be worth the while to build still more deliberately than I did, considering, for instance, what foundation a door, a window, a cellar, a garret, have in the nature of man, and perchance never raising any superstructure until we found a better reason for it than our temporal necessities even. There is some of the same fitness in a man's building his own house that there is in a bird's building its own nest. Who knows but if men constructed their dwellings with their own hands, and provided food for themselves and families simply and honestly enough, the poetic faculty would be universally developed, as birds universally sing when they are so engaged? But alas! we do like cowbirds and cuckoos, which lay their eggs in nests which other birds have built, and cheer no traveller with their chattering and unmusical notes. Shall we forever resign the pleasure of construction to the carpenter? What does architecture amount to in the experience of the mass of men? I never in all my walks came across a man engaged in so simple and natural an occupation as building his house. We belong to the community. It is not the tailor alone who is the ninth part of a man; it is as much the preacher, and the merchant, and the farmer. Where is this division of labor to end? and what object does it finally serve? No doubt another _may_ also think for me; but it is not therefore desirable that he should do so to the exclusion of my thinking for myself. True, there are architects so called in this country, and I have heard of one at least possessed with the idea of making architectural ornaments have a core of truth, a necessity, and hence a beauty, as if it were a revelation to him. All very well perhaps from his point of view, but only a little better than the common dilettantism. A sentimental reformer in architecture, he began at the cornice, not at the foundation. It was only how to put a core of truth within the ornaments, that every sugarplum, in fact, might have an almond or caraway seed in it--though I hold that almonds are most wholesome without the sugar--and not how the inhabitant, the indweller, might build truly within and without, and let the ornaments take care of themselves. What reasonable man ever supposed that ornaments were something outward and in the skin merely--that the tortoise got his spotted shell, or the shell-fish its mother-o'-pearl tints, by such a contract as the inhabitants of Broadway their Trinity Church? But a man has no more to do with the style of architecture of his house than a tortoise with that of its shell: nor need the soldier be so idle as to try to paint the precise color of his virtue on his standard. The enemy will find it out. He may turn pale when the trial comes. This man seemed to me to lean over the cornice, and timidly whisper his half truth to the rude occupants who really knew it better than he. What of architectural beauty I now see, I know has gradually grown from within outward, out of the necessities and character of the indweller, who is the only builder--out of some unconscious truthfulness, and nobleness, without ever a thought for the appearance and whatever additional beauty of this kind is destined to be produced will be preceded by a like unconscious beauty of life. The most interesting dwellings in this country, as the painter knows, are the most unpretending, humble log huts and cottages of the poor commonly; it is the life of the inhabitants whose shells they are, and not any peculiarity in their surfaces merely, which makes them picturesque; and equally interesting will be the citizen's suburban box, when his life shall be as simple and as agreeable to the imagination, and there is as little straining after effect in the style of his dwelling. A great proportion of architectural ornaments are literally hollow, and a September gale would strip them off, like borrowed plumes, without injury to the substantials. They can do without architecture who have no olives nor wines in the cellar. What if an equal ado were made about the ornaments of style in literature, and the architects of our bibles spent as much time about their cornices as the architects of our churches do? So are made the _belles-lettres_ and the _beaux-arts_ and their professors. Much it concerns a man, forsooth, how a few sticks are slanted over him or under him, and what colors are daubed upon his box. It would signify somewhat, if, in any earnest sense, he slanted them and daubed it; but the spirit having departed out of the tenant, it is of a piece with constructing his own coffin--the architecture of the grave--and "carpenter" is but another name for "coffin-maker." One man says, in his despair or indifference to life, take up a handful of the earth at your feet, and paint your house that color. Is he thinking of his last and narrow house? Toss up a copper for it as well. What an abundance of leisure he must have! Why do you take up a handful of dirt? Better paint your house your own complexion; let it turn pale or blush for you. An enterprise to improve the style of cottage architecture! When you have got my ornaments ready, I will wear them. Before winter I built a chimney, and shingled the sides of my house, which were already impervious to rain, with imperfect and sappy shingles made of the first slice of the log, whose edges I was obliged to straighten with a plane. I have thus a tight shingled and plastered house, ten feet wide by fifteen long, and eight-feet posts, with a garret and a closet, a large window on each side, two trap doors, one door at the end, and a brick fireplace opposite. The exact cost of my house, paying the usual price for such materials as I used, but not counting the work, all of which was done by myself, was as follows; and I give the details because very few are able to tell exactly what their houses cost, and fewer still, if any, the separate cost of the various materials which compose them:-- Boards.......................... $ 8.03-1/2, mostly shanty boards. Refuse shingles for roof sides... 4.00 Laths............................ 1.25 Two second-hand windows with glass.................... 2.43 One thousand old brick........... 4.00 Two casks of lime................ 2.40 That was high. Hair............................. 0.31 More than I needed. Mantle-tree iron................. 0.15 Nails............................ 3.90 Hinges and screws................ 0.14 Latch............................ 0.10 Chalk............................ 0.01 Transportation................... 1.40 I carried a good part -------- on my back. In all...................... $28.12-1/2 These are all the materials, excepting the timber, stones, and sand, which I claimed by squatter's right. I have also a small woodshed adjoining, made chiefly of the stuff which was left after building the house. I intend to build me a house which will surpass any on the main street in Concord in grandeur and luxury, as soon as it pleases me as much and will cost me no more than my present one. I thus found that the student who wishes for a shelter can obtain one for a lifetime at an expense not greater than the rent which he now pays annually. If I seem to boast more than is becoming, my excuse is that I brag for humanity rather than for myself; and my shortcomings and inconsistencies do not affect the truth of my statement. Notwithstanding much cant and hypocrisy--chaff which I find it difficult to separate from my wheat, but for which I am as sorry as any man--I will breathe freely and stretch myself in this respect, it is such a relief to both the moral and physical system; and I am resolved that I will not through humility become the devil's attorney. I will endeavor to speak a good word for the truth. At Cambridge College the mere rent of a student's room, which is only a little larger than my own, is thirty dollars each year, though the corporation had the advantage of building thirty-two side by side and under one roof, and the occupant suffers the inconvenience of many and noisy neighbors, and perhaps a residence in the fourth story. I cannot but think that if we had more true wisdom in these respects, not only less education would be needed, because, forsooth, more would already have been acquired, but the pecuniary expense of getting an education would in a great measure vanish. Those conveniences which the student requires at Cambridge or elsewhere cost him or somebody else ten times as great a sacrifice of life as they would with proper management on both sides. Those things for which the most money is demanded are never the things which the student most wants. Tuition, for instance, is an important item in the term bill, while for the far more valuable education which he gets by associating with the most cultivated of his contemporaries no charge is made. The mode of founding a college is, commonly, to get up a subscription of dollars and cents, and then, following blindly the principles of a division of labor to its extreme--a principle which should never be followed but with circumspection--to call in a contractor who makes this a subject of speculation, and he employs Irishmen or other operatives actually to lay the foundations, while the students that are to be are said to be fitting themselves for it; and for these oversights successive generations have to pay. I think that it would be better _than this_, for the students, or those who desire to be benefited by it, even to lay the foundation themselves. The student who secures his coveted leisure and retirement by systematically shirking any labor necessary to man obtains but an ignoble and unprofitable leisure, defrauding himself of the experience which alone can make leisure fruitful. "But," says one, "you do not mean that the students should go to work with their hands instead of their heads?" I do not mean that exactly, but I mean something which he might think a good deal like that; I mean that they should not _play_ life, or _study_ it merely, while the community supports them at this expensive game, but earnestly live it from beginning to end. How could youths better learn to live than by at once trying the experiment of living? Methinks this would exercise their minds as much as mathematics. If I wished a boy to know something about the arts and sciences, for instance, I would not pursue the common course, which is merely to send him into the neighborhood of some professor, where anything is professed and practised but the art of life;--to survey the world through a telescope or a microscope, and never with his natural eye; to study chemistry, and not learn how his bread is made, or mechanics, and not learn how it is earned; to discover new satellites to Neptune, and not detect the motes in his eyes, or to what vagabond he is a satellite himself; or to be devoured by the monsters that swarm all around him, while contemplating the monsters in a drop of vinegar. Which would have advanced the most at the end of a month--the boy who had made his own jackknife from the ore which he had dug and smelted, reading as much as would be necessary for this--or the boy who had attended the lectures on metallurgy at the Institute in the meanwhile, and had received a Rodgers' penknife from his father? Which would be most likely to cut his fingers?... To my astonishment I was informed on leaving college that I had studied navigation!--why, if I had taken one turn down the harbor I should have known more about it. Even the poor student studies and is taught only _political_ economy, while that economy of living which is synonymous with philosophy is not even sincerely professed in our colleges. The consequence is, that while he is reading Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Say, he runs his father in debt irretrievably. As with our colleges, so with a hundred "modern improvements"; there is an illusion about them; there is not always a positive advance. The devil goes on exacting compound interest to the last for his early share and numerous succeeding investments in them. Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end, an end which it was already but too easy to arrive at; as railroads lead to Boston or New York. We are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate. Either is in such a predicament as the man who was earnest to be introduced to a distinguished deaf woman, but when he was presented, and one end of her ear trumpet was put into his hand, had nothing to say. As if the main object were to talk fast and not to talk sensibly. We are eager to tunnel under the Atlantic and bring the Old World some weeks nearer to the New; but perchance the first news that will leak through into the broad, flapping American ear will be that the Princess Adelaide has the whooping cough. After all, the man whose horse trots a mile in a minute does not carry the most important messages; he is not an evangelist, nor does he come round eating locusts and wild honey. I doubt if Flying Childers ever carried a peck of corn to mill. One says to me, "I wonder that you do not lay up money; you love to travel; you might take the cars and go to Fitchburg today and see the country." But I am wiser than that. I have learned that the swiftest traveller is he that goes afoot. I say to my friend, Suppose we try who will get there first. The distance is thirty miles; the fare ninety cents. That is almost a day's wages. I remember when wages were sixty cents a day for laborers on this very road. Well, I start now on foot, and get there before night; I have travelled at that rate by the week together. You will in the meanwhile have earned your fare, and arrive there some time tomorrow, or possibly this evening, if you are lucky enough to get a job in season. Instead of going to Fitchburg, you will be working here the greater part of the day. And so, if the railroad reached round the world, I think that I should keep ahead of you; and as for seeing the country and getting experience of that kind, I should have to cut your acquaintance altogether. Such is the universal law, which no man can ever outwit, and with regard to the railroad even we may say it is as broad as it is long. To make a railroad round the world available to all mankind is equivalent to grading the whole surface of the planet. Men have an indistinct notion that if they keep up this activity of joint stocks and spades long enough all will at length ride somewhere, in next to no time, and for nothing; but though a crowd rushes to the depot, and the conductor shouts "All aboard!" when the smoke is blown away and the vapor condensed, it will be perceived that a few are riding, but the rest are run over--and it will be called, and will be, "A melancholy accident." No doubt they can ride at last who shall have earned their fare, that is, if they survive so long, but they will probably have lost their elasticity and desire to travel by that time. This spending of the best part of one's life earning money in order to enjoy a questionable liberty during the least valuable part of it reminds me of the Englishman who went to India to make a fortune first, in order that he might return to England and live the life of a poet. He should have gone up garret at once. "What!" exclaim a million Irishmen starting up from all the shanties in the land, "is not this railroad which we have built a good thing?" Yes, I answer, comparatively good, that is, you might have done worse; but I wish, as you are brothers of mine, that you could have spent your time better than digging in this dirt. * * * * * Before I finished my house, wishing to earn ten or twelve dollars by some honest and agreeable method, in order to meet my unusual expenses, I planted about two acres and a half of light and sandy soil near it chiefly with beans, but also a small part with potatoes, corn, peas, and turnips. The whole lot contains eleven acres, mostly growing up to pines and hickories, and was sold the preceding season for eight dollars and eight cents an acre. One farmer said that it was "good for nothing but to raise cheeping squirrels on." I put no manure whatever on this land, not being the owner, but merely a squatter, and not expecting to cultivate so much again, and I did not quite hoe it all once. I got out several cords of stumps in plowing, which supplied me with fuel for a long time, and left small circles of virgin mould, easily distinguishable through the summer by the greater luxuriance of the beans there. The dead and for the most part unmerchantable wood behind my house, and the driftwood from the pond, have supplied the remainder of my fuel. I was obliged to hire a team and a man for the plowing, though I held the plow myself. My farm outgoes for the first season were, for implements, seed, work, etc., $14.72-1/2. The seed corn was given me. This never costs anything to speak of, unless you plant more than enough. I got twelve bushels of beans, and eighteen bushels of potatoes, beside some peas and sweet corn. The yellow corn and turnips were too late to come to anything. My whole income from the farm was $ 23.44 Deducting the outgoes............ 14.72-1/2 -------- There are left.................. $ 8.71-1/2 beside produce consumed and on hand at the time this estimate was made of the value of $4.50--the amount on hand much more than balancing a little grass which I did not raise. All things considered, that is, considering the importance of a man's soul and of today, notwithstanding the short time occupied by my experiment, nay, partly even because of its transient character, I believe that that was doing better than any farmer in Concord did that year. The next year I did better still, for I spaded up all the land which I required, about a third of an acre, and I learned from the experience of both years, not being in the least awed by many celebrated works on husbandry, Arthur Young among the rest, that if one would live simply and eat only the crop which he raised, and raise no more than he ate, and not exchange it for an insufficient quantity of more luxurious and expensive things, he would need to cultivate only a few rods of ground, and that it would be cheaper to spade up that than to use oxen to plow it, and to select a fresh spot from time to time than to manure the old, and he could do all his necessary farm work as it were with his left hand at odd hours in the summer; and thus he would not be tied to an ox, or horse, or cow, or pig, as at present. I desire to speak impartially on this point, and as one not interested in the success or failure of the present economical and social arrangements. I was more independent than any farmer in Concord, for I was not anchored to a house or farm, but could follow the bent of my genius, which is a very crooked one, every moment. Beside being better off than they already, if my house had been burned or my crops had failed, I should have been nearly as well off as before. I am wont to think that men are not so much the keepers of herds as herds are the keepers of men, the former are so much the freer. Men and oxen exchange work; but if we consider necessary work only, the oxen will be seen to have greatly the advantage, their farm is so much the larger. Man does some of his part of the exchange work in his six weeks of haying, and it is no boy's play. Certainly no nation that lived simply in all respects, that is, no nation of philosophers, would commit so great a blunder as to use the labor of animals. True, there never was and is not likely soon to be a nation of philosophers, nor am I certain it is desirable that there should be. However, _I_ should never have broken a horse or bull and taken him to board for any work he might do for me, for fear I should become a horseman or a herdsman merely; and if society seems to be the gainer by so doing, are we certain that what is one man's gain is not another's loss, and that the stable-boy has equal cause with his master to be satisfied? Granted that some public works would not have been constructed without this aid, and let man share the glory of such with the ox and horse; does it follow that he could not have accomplished works yet more worthy of himself in that case? When men begin to do, not merely unnecessary or artistic, but luxurious and idle work, with their assistance, it is inevitable that a few do all the exchange work with the oxen, or, in other words, become the slaves of the strongest. Man thus not only works for the animal within him, but, for a symbol of this, he works for the animal without him. Though we have many substantial houses of brick or stone, the prosperity of the farmer is still measured by the degree to which the barn overshadows the house. This town is said to have the largest houses for oxen, cows, and horses hereabouts, and it is not behindhand in its public buildings; but there are very few halls for free worship or free speech in this county. It should not be by their architecture, but why not even by their power of abstract thought, that nations should seek to commemorate themselves? How much more admirable the Bhagvat-Geeta than all the ruins of the East! Towers and temples are the luxury of princes. A simple and independent mind does not toil at the bidding of any prince. Genius is not a retainer to any emperor, nor is its material silver, or gold, or marble, except to a trifling extent. To what end, pray, is so much stone hammered? In Arcadia, when I was there, I did not see any hammering stone. Nations are possessed with an insane ambition to perpetuate the memory of themselves by the amount of hammered stone they leave. What if equal pains were taken to smooth and polish their manners? One piece of good sense would be more memorable than a monument as high as the moon. I love better to see stones in place. The grandeur of Thebes was a vulgar grandeur. More sensible is a rod of stone wall that bounds an honest man's field than a hundred-gated Thebes that has wandered
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Skull Prom Queen Carrie T-Shirt
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[] |
[] |
[
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[] | null |
Skull Prom Queen Carrie T-Shirt Officially Licensed Carrie Men's T-shirt - Big and Tall Sizes Available
|
en
|
//www.80stees.com/cdn/shop/files/high_res_80sTeesLogo_32x32.png?v=1613737871
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Skull Prom Queen Carrie T-Shirt
|
https://www.80stees.com/products/skull-prom-queen-carrie-t-shirt
|
We’ve seen a ton of fly by night t-shirt companies come along, and lots of them advertise on facebook, so it’s natural for you to feel this way about us. But we are definitely not fly by night.
We’ve been around since the year 2000 and sold millions of t-shirts. We have direct licenses for Hasbro properties such as GI JOE, Transformers, Dungeons and Dragons, Monopoly, My Little Pony, and more! We also have direct deals to make retro tees and products for Doritos and Mountain Dew. The rest of our selection of officially licensed tees from the likes of Disney, Warner Brothers, Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, etc. come directly from companies that have obtained licensing rights to sell these products.
|
||||
3704
|
dbpedia
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1
| 24
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https://www.imdb.com/list/ls063827065/
|
en
|
Voices For Hot Rod
|
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Matthew Mackendree Lanter was born April 1, 1983 in Massillon, Stark County, Ohio, to Jana Kay (Wincek) and Joseph Hayes Lanter. He has a sister, Kara. When he was eight years old, he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where his father's family is from. His recent ancestry includes Polish, English, Austrian, Scottish, and German.
Growing up, the blue-eyed actor spent most of his time playing baseball, football and golf. His love for baseball led him to scoring a position as a bat boy with the Atlanta Braves. In the year 2001, he graduated from Collins Hill High School. His parents got divorced when he was a senior at Collins Hill. Matt majored in Sports Business at the University of Georgia, but eventually moved to Los Angeles to follow his dreams of being part of the showbiz industry. He attended the University of Georgia after attending a community college for two years.
Lanter first gained the attention of fans when he was selected as a contestant in the 2004 reality television series, Manhunt: The Search for America's Most Gorgeous Male Model (2004). The show revolved around contestants having to compete with each other in a series of modeling events. Although he did not win the competition, Matt succeeded in making the show's top 10. It did not take too long before critics started noticing Matt.
After landing roles on shows such as Grey's Anatomy: Die jungen Ärzte (2005), CSI: Vegas (2000), Life (2007), Big Love (2006), Monk (2002), as well as the feature film, Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (2004), starring Jim Caviezel, he built a solid foundation and was already in demand for future projects. His big break came when he starred as "Horace Calloway", the John F. Kennedy-like first son on the short-lived ABC political series, Welcome Mrs. President (2005) in 2005. However, most people do not know that he was, in fact, not in the original pilot. Instead, Matt was a re-cast. Matt has also recurred on two of television's most popular shows: NBC's Heroes (2006) as the sinister quarterback "Brody Mitchumm" opposite Hayden Panettiere and CBS' Shark (2006) as "Eddie Linden".
His talent surpasses the ability to solely act for TV and film and on stage; Matt had the opportunity of starring in his theatrical debut, opposite Laurence Fishburne in Alfred Uhry's "Without Walls" at The Mark Taper Forum. Consistently booking role after role, he has starred in multiple other feature films merging him into a leading man. Lanter's films include: Warner Bros. animated feature film, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008), in which he voices the popular character "Anakin Skywalker", the lead in Liongate's comedy, Disaster Movie (2008), and MGM's feature film, WarGames 2 - Der Todescode (2008). Prior to that, he established himself as a tween heartthrob, playing the lead in MGM/ABC Family's film, Liebe und Eis 3 (2008).
Outside of acting, Matt has participated in various events for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (one of which was a celebrity dodgeball team promoting the premiere of Ben Stiller's movie, Voll auf die Nüsse (2004), in which the proceeds also went to the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation) and the Nautica Malibu Triathlon, where he was part of the "Commander in Chief" celebrity relay team.
Despite being busy working in the industry, Matt says that he tries to stay as humble as possible. When he's not acting, he enjoys being outdoors, playing golf and relaxing at the beach.
Matt married his longtime girlfriend, Angela Lanter, on June 14, 2013.
Voice actor and former stand-up comic Roger Craig Smith is a man of a thousand voices. In just one animation production alone, Roger voiced more than 170 characters for the Emmy award-winning Cartoon Network series Regular Show. He's the titular character "Mouse", as well as "Moose" for Amazon Prime's Emmy-nominated children's series If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. For Netflix, Roger voices "Brock", "Mayor Fowler", "Cousin Ashley" and many more on Dreamworks' hit series from Tony Hale, Archibald's Next Big Thing. Also on Netflix, Roger voices "Pinkeye", "Bobby", and "Billy" in Dreamworks Animation's Harvey Girls Forever. On Cartoon Network, he voices "Sonic the Hedgehog" in Sonic Boom, "Hawkodile" and "Richard" for WB/LEGO's Unikitty!, "Diamondhead", "Forever Knight" and "Steam Smythe" on Ben-10, "Percy" and "Belson" in Clarence, "Bob" and "Schedulebot" in Powerpuff Girls. On Disney XD's NAACP Image Award-nominated Avengers: Black Panther's Quest, Roger has been voicing legendary superhero "Captain America" since 2012. He voices "Batman" in in the DC/WB film Superman: Red Son, as well as in the trilogy Batman Unlimited. His impact in the genre of anime includes voicing "Batman" in WB's feature film Batman Ninja, the maniacal "Deidara" in Naruto and "Shinji Hirako" in Bleach. Roger voiced "Sonic the Hedgehog" in Disney's blockbuster features Wreck-It Ralph and Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet and was called on by Disney in 2013 to voice lead villain "Ripslinger" in Disney's hit feature Planes.
Roger's legacy as an actor in video games is extensive. Voice of gaming icon "Ezio Auditore da Firenze" from Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed, with more than 28 million copies sold worldwide. He's the voice of the charming Legend "Mirage" in Respawn's record-setting Apex Legends, with over 70 million players in 2019 alone. WB chose Roger to voice the legendary "Batman" in WB's Batman: Arkham Origins and Arkham Origins: Blackgate. Roger has been voicing "Sonic the Hedgehog" for SEGA since 2010 and earned early gaming fandom when he voiced "Chris Redfield" in the Resident Evil series of games.
Roger is the announcer/narrator for NBC's smash hit World of Dance, averaging millions of viewers each episode. He's narrated more than 1,000 episodes of other shows, including TLC's longest-running prime-time series Say Yes to the Dress and DIY Network's Crashers series. He's voiced multiple promo campaigns for major networks and is the imaging/promo voice for the world-famous KROQ 106.7FM in Los Angeles. Multiple national retail campaigns continue to utilize Roger to enhance their message to consumers across all mediums.
An average day begins with sessions from his home studio at 7am for national retail clients, heading into LA from 9am-6pm for animation/game sessions, then back to his home studio for more promo/narration sessions in the evening.
Raised in SoCal and voted "Class Clown" in 8th grade, he focused his creativity toward training in musical theater. He spoke at both his 8th and 12th grade graduations, was elected freshman class president in high school, and hosted a live local TV talk show while earning his B.A. in Screenwriting from Chapman University...all while pursuing a career in stand-up comedy. After working as a comic for 5 years, he left stand-up to pursue voice acting full-time in 2005.
Knowing he's got fans of all ages on social media, Roger keeps his posts apolitical and family-friendly. An avid supporter of CHOC (Chidlren's Hospital Orange County), he frequently visits the hospital to meet with patients. He's currently learning ASL (American Sign Language) and enjoys getting outdoors as often as possible to pursue his passion for nature, hiking/mountain biking, and nightscape/astrophotography, which he shares regularly with his followers on Instagram and Twitter. (@rogercraigsmith).
Joseph Leonard Gordon-Levitt was born February 17, 1981 in Los Angeles, California, to Jane Gordon and Dennis Levitt. Joseph was raised in a Jewish family with his late older brother, Dan Gordon-Levitt, who passed away in October 2010. His parents worked for the Pacifica Radio station KPFK-FM and his maternal grandfather, Michael Gordon, had been a well-known movie director. Joseph first became well known for his starring role on NBC's award-winning comedy series Hinterm Mond gleich links (1996). During his six seasons on the show, he won two YoungStar Awards and also shared in three Screen Actors Guild Award® nominations for Outstanding Performance by a Comedy Series Ensemble.
Prior to his success on television, Joseph had already worked steadily in feature films. Early in his career, he won a Young Artist Award for his first major role, in Robert Redford's drama Aus der Mitte entspringt ein Fluß (1992). During the 1990s, he also co-starred in the films Angels - Engel gibt es wirklich (1994), Nicht schuldig (1996), Halloween H20 - 20 Jahre später (1998), a well-reviewed slasher sequel, and 10 Dinge, die ich an Dir hasse (1999), opposite Heath Ledger, which has become a teen comedy classic.
Following his work on 3rd Rock, Joseph took time off from acting to attend Columbia University. In the early 2000s, he broke from the mold of his television and film comedy supporting roles by appearing in a string of intense dramatic parts, mostly in smaller, independent films, such as Manic (2001), with Don Cheadle; Mysterious Skin - Unter die Haut (2004), for writer/director Gregg Araki; Rian Johnson's award-winning debut, dramatic thriller Brick (2005) (2005); Lee Daniels' Shadowboxer (2005); the crime drama Die Regeln der Gewalt (2007), which marked Scott Frank's directorial debut; John Madden's Killshot (2008), with Diane Lane and Mickey Rourke; Spike Lee's World War II film Buffalo Soldiers '44 - Das Wunder von St. Anna (2008); and the controversial drama Stop-Loss (2008), in which he starred with Ryan Phillippe, under the direction of Kimberly Peirce. By 2009, Joseph was officially established as one a new generation of leading men with his Golden Globe-nominated role in Marc Webb's comedy-drama (500) Days of Summer (2009), also starring Zooey Deschanel , for which he received Golden Globe, Independent Spirit Award and People's Choice Award nominations. He also adapted the Elmore Leonard short story Sparks (2009) into a 24-minute short film that he directed, which screened at the Sundance Film Festival.
Beginning the new decade, he headlined the indie drama Hesher - Der Rebell (2010) and established himself as an action star in Christopher Nolan's Inception (2010), also starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Marion Cotillard and Elliot Page. Balancing both independent and Hollywood film, Joseph scored another Golden Globe nod for the cancer drama 50/50: Freunde fürs (Über)Leben (2011), directed by Jonathan Levine and also starring Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, and Bryce Dallas Howard. He worked again with director Nolan on The Dark Knight Rises (2012), the third and final installment in the director's Batman series, for which he received a People's Choice Award nomination for Favorite Movie Actor; and snagged leading roles in both Premium Rush (2012), directed by David Koepp, and Looper (2012), reuniting with his Brick director, Rian Johnson, opposite Bruce Willis and Emily Blunt. Rounding out the year, he played Abraham Lincoln's son Robert in Steven Spielberg's Oscar-nominated Lincoln (2012), with Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field.
In 2013, Gordon-Levitt starred in his critically-acclaimed feature film directorial debut, Don Jon (2013), from a script he wrote, opposite Scarlett Johansson and Julianne Moore. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for "Best First Screenplay" for the film. He also provided the voice of Jiro Horikoshi in the 2014 English-language version of Hayao Miyazaki's Academy Award-nominated animated feature Wie der Wind sich hebt (2013), and appeared in Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller's Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For (2014), in which he played Johnny, a character Miller created for the film. In 2015, he starred in The Walk - Eine wahre Geschichte (2015), directed by Robert Zemeckis, and in which he portrayed Philippe Pettit, and in 2016 headlined Oliver Stone's Snowden (2016).
Joseph has completed production on Project Power (2020), Henry Joost/Ariel Schulman sci-fi film for Netflix, in which he stars opposite Jamie Foxx, and on the independent thriller, 7500 (2019), written and directed by Patrick Vollarth. Among his other projects, he will play attorney Richard Schultz in Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), and is in development on a variety of feature films including Fraggle Rock.
Joseph has also founded and directs hitRECord, an open collaborative production. hitRECord creates and develops art and media collectively using their website where anyone with an internet connection can upload their records, download and remix others' records, and work on projects together. When the results of these RECords are produced and make a profit, hitRECord splits the profits 50/50 with everybody who contributed to the final production. hitRECord has published books, put out records, gone on tour and has screened their work at major festivals including Sundance and TIFF. The half-hour variety program, "Hit Record on TV with Joseph Gordon-Levitt," which includes short films, live performances, music, animation, conversation and more, earned an Emmy Award for Creative Achievement in Interactive Media - Social TV Experience. hitRECord's project, "Band Together with Logic," is a one-hour YouTube Originals special that sees Grammy-nominated rapper Logic open up his creative process like never before, inviting the world to collaborate with him on an original song and music video.
In 2016, the ACLU honored Gordon-Levitt with their annual Bill of Rights Award for furthering diversity efforts, promoting free speech, empowering women and otherwise supporting civil rights and liberties for all Americans.
Known for his breakthrough starring role on Voll daneben, voll im Leben (1999), James Franco was born April 19, 1978 in Palo Alto, California, to Betsy Franco, a writer, artist, and actress, and Douglas Eugene "Doug" Franco, who ran a Silicon Valley business. His mother is Jewish and his father was of Portuguese and Swedish descent.
Growing up with his two younger brothers, Dave Franco, also an actor, and Tom Franco, James graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1996 and went on to attend UCLA, majoring in English. To overcome his shyness, he got into acting while studying there, which, much to his parents' dismay, he left after only one year. After fifteen months of intensive study at Robert Carnegie's Playhouse West, James began actively pursuing his dream of finding work as an actor in Hollywood. In that short time, he landed himself a starring role on Voll daneben, voll im Leben (1999). The show, however, was not a hit to its viewers at the time, and was canceled after its first year. Now, it has become a cult-hit. Prior to joining Voll daneben, voll im Leben (1999), Franco starred in the TV miniseries Tage voller Blut - Die Bestie von Dallas (1999). After that, he had a starring role in Hoffnungslos verliebt (2000).
Although he'd been working steadily, it wasn't until the TNT made-for-television movie, James Dean - Ein Leben auf der Überholspur (2001) that James rose to fan-magazine fame and got to show off his talent. Since then, he has been working non-stop. After losing the lead role to Tobey Maguire, James settled for the part of "Harry Osborne", Spider-Man's best friend in the summer 2002 major hit Spider-Man (2002). He returned to the Osborne role for the next two films in the trilogy.
Next was Deuces Wild - Wild in den Straßen (2002) and City by the Sea (2002), in which Robert De Niro personally had him cast, after viewing his performance in James Dean - Ein Leben auf der Überholspur (2001). He was seen in David Gordon Green's Ananas Express (2008) opposite Seth Rogen, in George C. Wolfe's Das Lächeln der Sterne (2008), starring Richard Gere and Diane Lane and in Paul Haggis' Im Tal von Elah (2007), starring Tommy Lee Jones. Also starring opposite Sean Penn in Gus Van Sant's Milk (2008) in which his performance earned him an Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Actor. Definitely growing out of his shyness, James Franco is turning into a legend of his own.
Scott Eric Weinger (pronounced wine-gur) was born in New York, New York, on October 5, 1975, to Babs Weinger, a teacher, and Elliott Weinger, an orthopedic surgeon. The eldest of four children, Scott has two brothers and one sister. He spent the majority of his formative years in southern Florida, then moved with his family to Los Angeles when his career began to take off.
Scott first became interested in acting in the third grade, when an actor gave a presentation for Career Day. He relentlessly pestered his parents to get him an agent until they finally realized that the young tyke was serious about becoming an actor. His first gig was a national commercial for Ideal Toys.
In fall 1994, Scott left the LA scene to fulfill yet another dream--attending Harvard University. Taking leave of the TV series Full House (1987) didn't suggest he was leaving the business altogether. He continued as the voice of Aladdin (1992) in the Saturday morning TV series, completed two more full length Aladdin videos, and made a final appearance on "Full House," all while maintaining excellent grades at school. As if all of that didn't keep the ambitious lad busy enough, he also held a part-time job as a youth correspondent for Good Morning America (1975).
Scott majored in English and minored in French literature while at Harvard, and he graduated magna cum laude in June of 1998. In his first online interview after returning to Los Angeles, he still seemed to be undecided about what his plans were, which were narrowed down to writing, directing, acting, and news correspondence.
Since his return to Hollywood, he has starred in a horror flick, Shredder (2001); produced an award winning film short called The Cricket Player (2002); and provided his voice for the English-language dub of Osamu Tezuka's Robotic Angel (2001), Disney/Square Co.'s video game Kingdom Hearts (2002), "Mickey's Philharmagic," and "The Search for Mickey Mouse"!
Scott considers himself to be a writer, primarily, and an actor, secondarily. He received his first writing credit on the WB television show Like Family (2003), which is described as a "multi-ethnic crossover comedy about two very different families coming together under one roof." Recently, he received a credit as a co-writer for another WB sitcom, Hallo Holly (2002)
Jensen Ross Ackles, better known as simply Jensen Ackles, was born on March 1, 1978, in Dallas, Texas, to Donna Joan (Shaffer) and actor Alan Ackles. He has English, German, and Scottish ancestry. Jensen grew up in Richardson, Texas, together with his older brother, Joshua, and a younger sister, Mackenzie. Jensen graduated from Dartmouth Elementary School in 1990, he graduated from Apollo Junior High School in 1993, and LV Berkner High School in 1996.
Jensen is a sports junkie. He loves football, lacrosse, baseball and basketball. He even played on the baseball and lacrosse teams in high school. The 6' 1" actor first started modeling when he was just 2 years old. When he turned 4, he started appearing in TV commercials for Nabisco, RadioShack and Wal-Mart. He caught the acting bug because he was mostly influenced by his father, who was an actor in Dallas. He used to watch his father study scripts, and that taught him a few things about the industry. During his later years in high school, he started taking theater classes, where he claimed he was the only "jock" in that department. When he was just a sophomore, a friend of Jensen had asked him to attend a local acting seminar. Two guys, Craig Wargo, and an agent, 'Michael Einfeld', were interested in Jensen's talent and wanted him to go to Los Angeles with them.
Jensen had to say no to the offer and admitted at one point, he thought they would forget about him but, eventually, when he went to Los Angeles, he still managed to get help from them. Prior to that, Jensen actually planned to study sports medicine at Texas Tech University and become a physical therapist, before he decided to move to Los Angeles to give acting a try. In 1996, he managed to secure guest roles on several TV shows, which included Wishbone (1995), Mr. Rhodes (1996) and Sweet Valley High (1994). Jensen's big break came when he was cast in the NBC soap opera, Zeit der Sehnsucht (1965), as Eric Brady in 1997. He won a Soap Opera Digest Award for Best Male Newcomer in 1998, and was nominated three times in 1998, 1999, and 2000 for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Younger Actor in a Drama Series for his work on Zeit der Sehnsucht (1965). After spending about three years on a soap set, he left Zeit der Sehnsucht (1965) and went on to appear in the mini-series Blond (2001), which was about the life of Marilyn Monroe, playing Eddie G. He also auditioned for the role of Clark Kent on Smallville (2001), but lost the part to Tom Welling, instead.
Not giving up hope, he went for a few auditions and managed to secure a guest role on the popular James Cameron TV series, Dark Angel (2000), as serial killer Ben/X5-493, the brother of main character Max/X5-452, who was played by Jessica Alba. His character died in the episode, but Jensen eventually returned to the show as a regular in the second season as Ben's clone, Alec/X5-494 and continued on until the show's cancellation in 2002. In 2003, he joined the cast of Dawsons Creek (1998), playing the role of C.J., Jen Lindley's lover. He also filmed episodes of the TV series, Still Life (2003), playing the role of Max Morgan, not knowing that the series was actually dropped. He also had a small role in the short film, The Plight of Clownana (2004), playing the role of Jensen. That same year, he was offered the part of Eliza Dushku's love interest on the second season of Tru Calling: Schicksal reloaded! (2003). Jensen, however, turned down the role which was later offered to another actor, Eric Christian Olsen. He was subsequently cast on Smallville (2001), as Assistant football coach Jason Teague, the new love interest of Lana Lang. In 2005, Jensen managed to earn a lead role in the movie, Devour - Der schwarze Pfad (2005), playing the role of Jake Gray. Jensen also earned the opportunity to work his father, actor Alan Ackles, who happened to play his character's father, Paul Kilton. The movie, however, received mixed reviews from the public.
That same year, Jensen joined the cast of the CW series, Supernatural: Zur Hölle mit dem Bösen (2005), where he plays the role of Dean Winchester. Dean and his brother Sam, who is played by Jared Padalecki, are brothers who drive throughout the United States hunting paranormal predators, sometimes with their father, John Winchester, played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan. It was reported that the creator of the show, Eric Kripke, mentioned that the show will last for a maximum of five seasons. In 2006, Jensen took on a role in the Independently filmed comedy/drama movie, Ten Inch Hero (2007), which explores the theme of honesty and the flaw of judging by appearances. In 2007 the film began a limited run at number of film festivals including the Newport Beach Film Festival, Phoenix Film Festival and the Santa Cruz Film Festival but never made it into major mainstream theatrical release. In the Spring of 2008 Ten Inch Hero was released onto DVD exclusively through Blockbuster. Jensen however, received high praise for his work as Priestly, who one of the movie's more quirky characters.
From June 5-10 in 2007 Jensen had his professional stage debut as Lt. Daniel Kaffee in "A Few Good Men" at Casa Manana Theatre in Fort Worth, Texas, working along side Lou Diamond Phillips. This proved to be another successful acting venture for Jensen, as critics were impressed with his work in this role. During his free time, Jensen enjoys golfing, horseback riding, scuba diving and photography. He is also a big fan of country music. His favorite musician is Garth Brooks. He even sang back-up vocals on good friend Steve Carlson's albums "Spot in the Corner" and "Rollin' On." In the summer of 2008 Jensen traveled to Kittaning, PA to film the horror/thriller movie, My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009), which was filmed in the cutting edge Real D technology, Jensen played the lead role of Tom Hanniger and starred alongside Jaime King and Kerr Smith.
Jensen splits his time between Vancouver, British Columbia where he films Supernatural (2005) and his home in Austin, Texas.
Taylor Daniel Lautner was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to Deborah, a software company worker, and Daniel Lautner, a pilot for Midwest Airlines. He and his younger sister Makena were raised in a well-mannered, Roman Catholic household in Hudsonville, Michigan. He is of English, German, Dutch, and Scottish descent. At the age of six, Taylor began studying martial arts at Fabiano's Karate School and he, along with his family, quickly noticed his unique and natural talent for the sport. He was soon invited to train with seven-time world karate champion Michael Chaturantabut (aka Mike Chat) and, at the age of eight, he was asked to represent his country in the 12-years-and-under division in the World Karate Association, where he became the Junior World Forms and Weapons champion, winning three gold medals. In 2003, Taylor continued to flourish in the martial arts circuit where he ranked number one in the world for NASKA's Black Belt Open Forms, Musical Weapons, Traditional Weapons, and Traditional Forms and, at the age of 12, he became the three-time Junior World Champion.
However, in addition to his love for martial arts, Taylor quickly developed a love for acting at the age of seven years old when his martial arts instructor, who was involved in show business, encouraged him to audition for a small appearance in a Burger King commercial. Although he was unsuccessful, he enjoyed the experience so much that he told his parents that he wanted to pursue a career in acting. Soon, he and his family were traveling back and forth from their home in Michigan to California so Taylor could regularly audition for acting roles. When Taylor was 10, with the frequent traveling and air fares starting to become overwhelming, his family made the crucial decision to relocate to Los Angeles, where Taylor would have the advantage of being able to audition for films, television, and commercials full-time.
Once Taylor moved with his family to Los Angeles, he found himself landing more and more small acting roles. He booked many occurring roles on various television shows such as What's Up, Dad? (2000), Summerland Beach (2004), and The Bernie Mac Show (2001). Taylor also found himself becoming successful in films as well. In 2005, he landed the role of Sharkboy in the family blockbuster flick, Die Abenteuer von Sharkboy und Lavagirl in 3-D (2005), and the role of Eliot Murtaugh in Im Dutzend billiger 2: Zwei Väter drehen durch (2005). However, it would be one single role that would ultimately change Taylor's life forever. In 2008, Taylor auditioned for the iconic role of werewolf hunk Jacob Black in the record-smashing, blockbuster hit Twilight - Biss zum Morgengrauen (2008). With the sudden and unexpected success of the film, Taylor, along with fellow cast members Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, found himself being propelled into a world that would forever change his life and his career.
Taylor has continued to portray Jacob Black in the following film adaptations of The Twilight Saga as well as branch out into other roles and films, such as the star-studded romantic comedy Valentinstag (2010) and the action-packed thriller Atemlos - Gefährliche Wahrheit (2011). Taylor Lautner has quickly become one of the most famous, talented, and successful young Hollywood actors thanks to the blockbuster success of the Twilight - Biss zum Morgengrauen (2008) films. It has quickly been established by this young man's diverse and gifted talent that we will continue to be his audience for many years to come.
Zachary David Alexander Efron was born October 18, 1987 in San Luis Obispo, California, to Starla Baskett, a secretary, and David Efron, an electrical engineer. He has a younger brother, Dylan. The surname "Efron", which is Hebrew and a Biblical place name, comes from Zac's Polish Jewish paternal grandfather.
Zac was raised in Arroyo Grande, CA. He took his first step toward acting at the age of eleven, after his parents noticed his singing ability. Singing and acting lessons soon led to an appearance in a production of "Gypsy" that ran 90 performances, and he was hooked. After appearing on-stage in "Peter Pan", "Auntie Mame", "Little Shop of Horrors" and "The Music Man", guest parts quickly followed on television series, including Firefly: Der Aufbruch der Serenity (2002), Emergency Room: Die Notaufnahme (1994), CSI: Miami (2002), Navy CIS (2003), and The Guardian - Retter mit Herz (2001). After guest-starring in several episodes of Summerland Beach (2004), Zac joined the regular cast as girl-crazy Cameron Bale. He also starred in several pilots, such as The Big Wide World of Carl Laemke (2003) and Triple Play (2004), and played an autistic child in the television film Miracle Run (2004), alongside Mary-Louise Parker and Aidan Quinn. He graduated from Arroyo Grande High School in June 2006.
Efron came to fame for starring in the Disney Channel original film High School Musical (2006), for which he won the Teen Choice Award for Breakout Star. He returned to the role of Troy Bolton in High School Musical 2: Singt alle oder keiner! (2007), which broke cable TV records with 17.5 million viewers.
He had the lead roles in the fantasy romance Wie durch ein Wunder (2010) and the comedy 17 Again - Back to High School (2009), both from director Burr Steers, and as the lovable Link Larkin in 2007's smash hit musical Hairspray (2007), directed by Adam Shankman. As part of the all-star cast, he shared a Critics Choice Award for Best Acting Ensemble and the 2007 Hollywood Film Festival Award for Ensemble of the Year, and was honored with a Screen Actors Guild Award® nomination for Outstanding Motion Picture Cast. In addition, he won an MTV Movie Award for Breakthrough Performance.
Efron then starred in Richard Linklater's Ich & Orson Welles (2008), an adaptation of the novel by Robert Kaplow, which premiered to rave reviews at the 2008 Toronto Film Festival. That same year, he led Kenny Ortega's High School Musical 3 (2008), which set a box office record for the highest grossing opening weekend for a musical. In 2012, Efron took the lead in The Lucky One - Für immer der Deine (2012), a film adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks novel, playing a marine who returns to North Carolina after serving in Iraq in search for the unknown woman he believes was his good luck charm during the war. He also lent his voice to the animated feature Dr. Seuss' Der Lorax (2012), and co-starred in Lee Daniels' thriller The Paperboy (2012), alongside Nicole Kidman, John Cusack, Matthew McConaughey and Scott Glenn, as well as Josh Radnor's Liberal Arts (2012), which premiered to rave reviews at the Sundance Film Festival. Another indie film he co-starred in, Um jeden Preis - At Any Price (2012), was released in 2013.
Most recently, Zac starred with Seth Rogen in the hit comedy film Bad Neighbors (2014), headlined the 2015 drama We Are Your Friends (2015), carried three 2016 comedies, Dirty Grandpa (2016), Bad Neighbors 2 (2016), and Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016), and starred opposite Hugh Jackman and Zendaya in the musical drama Greatest Showman (2017), about showman P. T. Barnum. The latter title was a sleeper hit in the winter of 2017, becoming Zac's highest-grossing live action film in the U.S.
Zac's 2019 roles include a supporting part in Harmony Korine's Beach Bum (2019), and playing serial killer Ted Bundy in Joe Berlinger's biographical drama Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019).
Efron's favorite sports include golf, skiing, rock climbing, and snowboarding. He added surfing after spending days on the beach for "Summerland." He played the piano at home. He has also fixed up two cars in his spare time, a Delorean and '65 Mustang convertible, both treasured hand-me-downs from his even-more-treasured grandfather.
American actor Mark Wahlberg is one of a handful of respected entertainers who successfully made the transition from teen pop idol to acclaimed actor. A Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee for Departed: Unter Feinden (2006) who went on to receive positive critical reviews for his performance in The Fighter (2010), Wahlberg also is a solid comedy actor, proven by his starring role in Ted (2012).
Mark Robert Michael Wahlberg was born June 5, 1971 in a poor working class district, Dorchester, of Boston, Massachusetts. He is the son of Alma Elaine (Donnelly), a nurse's aide and clerk, and Donald Edward Wahlberg, a delivery driver. Wahlberg is the youngest of nine children. He is of Swedish (from his paternal grandfather), French-Canadian, English, Irish and Scottish, descent. The large Wahlberg brood didn't have a lot growing up, especially after his parents divorced when he was eleven. The kids crammed into a three-bedroom apartment, none of them having very much privacy. Mark's mother has said that after the divorce, she became very self-absorbed with her own life. She has blamed herself for her son's subsequent problems and delinquency. Wahlberg dropped out of high school at age fourteen (but later got his GED) to pursue a life of petty crime and drugs. He'd spend his days scamming and stealing, working on the odd drug deal before treating himself to the substances.
The young man also had a violent streak - one which was often aimed at minorities. At age sixteen, he was convicted of assault against two Vietnamese men after he had tried to rob them. As a result of his assault conviction, he was sentenced to serve 50 days in prison at Deer Island penitentiary. Whilst there, he began working out to pass time and, when he emerged at the end of his sentence, he had gone from being a scrawny young kid to a buff young man. Wahlberg also credits jail time as being his motivation to improve his lifestyle and leave crime behind him.
Around this time, his older brother Donnie Wahlberg had become an overnight teen idol as a member of the 1980s boy band New Kids on the Block. A precursor to the boy-band craze, the group was dominating the charts and were on top of their game. Mark himself had been an original member of the band but had backed out early on - uncomfortable with the squeaky clean image of the group. Donnie used his connections in the music business to help his little brother secure a recording contract, and soon the world was introduced to Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, with Wahlberg as a bad-boy rapper who danced in his boxers. Despite a lack of singing ability, promoters took to his dance moves and a physique they knew teenage girls would love.
Donnie scripted some easy songs for Mark, who collected a troupe of dancers and a DJ to become his "Funky Bunch" and "Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch" was born. His debut album, "Music for the People", was a smash hit, which was propelled along by the rapper's willingness to disrobe down to boxer-briefs on stage, not to mention several catchy tunes. Teenage girls thrilled to the rapping "bad boy". Record producer David Geffen saw in Wahlberg a cash-cow of marketing ability. After speaking to designer Calvin Klein, Marky Mark was set up as the designer's chief underwear model.
His scantily clad figure soon adorned billboards across the nation. Ironically, while the New Kids on the Block's fame was dwindling as audiences tired of their syrupy lyrics, "Marky Mark's" bad boy image was becoming even more of a commodity. He was constantly in the headlines (often of the tabloids) after multiple scandals. In 1992, he released a book dedicated to his penis. Wahlberg was constantly getting into rumored fights, most memorably with Madonna and her entourage at a Los Angeles party. While things were always intense, they were relatively harmless and made for enjoyable reading for the public. However, when the story of his arrest for assault (and the allegations of racism) broke in the press, things took on a decidedly darker note. People were not amused. Soon after, while on a British talk show along with rapper Shabba Ranks, he got into even more trouble. After Ranks made the statement that gays should be crucified, Wahlberg was accused of condoning the comments by his silence. Marky Mark was suddenly surrounded by charges of brutality, homophobia and racial hatred. His second album, "You Gotta Believe", had not been faring well and, after the charges surfaced, it plummeted from the charts.
Adding to the hoopla, Wahlberg was brought to court for allegedly assaulting a security guard. He was ordered to make amends by appearing in a series of anti-bias advertisements. Humbled and humiliated by his fall from grace in the music world, Wahlberg decided to pursue another angle, acting. He dropped the "Marky Mark" moniker and became known simply as Mark Wahlberg. His first big screen role came in Penny Marshall's Mr. Bill (1994). Despite the name change, many people snickered at the idea of the has-been rapper thinking he could make it as an actor. From the get-go, he was proving them wrong. In Mr. Bill (1994), he gave an utterly charming performance as a simple but sincere army recruit. What naysayers remained found it increasingly difficult to write Mark Wahlberg off as he delivered one fine performance after another. He blew them away in the controversial Jim Carroll - In den Straßen von New York (1995) and chilled them in Fear - Wenn Liebe Angst macht (1996) as every father's worst nightmare.
The major turning point in Wahlberg's career came with the role of troubled porn star Dirk Diggler in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (1997). Since then, Wahlberg has chosen roles that demonstrate a wide range of dramatic ability, starring in critically acclaimed dramas such as Three Kings - Es ist schön König zu sein (1999) and Der Sturm (2000), popcorn flicks like Planet der Affen (2001) and Contraband (2012), and even indies such as I Heart Huckabees (2004).
Wahlberg was the executive producer of such television series as Boardwalk Empire (2010), In Treatment: Der Therapeut (2008) and the highly successful comedy Entourage (2004), which was partly based on his experiences in Hollywood.
Wahlberg and his wife Rhea Durham have four children.
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"David Morgan"
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2022-01-10T10:10:00-05:00
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A look back at the esteemed personalities who've left us this year, who'd touched us with their innovation, creativity and humanity.
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en
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https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/notable-deaths-in-2022/
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A look back at the esteemed personalities who left us this year, who'd touched us with their innovation, creativity and humanity.
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan. The Associated Press contributed to this gallery.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (April 16, 1927-December 31, 2022) stunned the world in 2013 when he announced, after eight years in office, that he lacked the strength to continue as head of the Catholic Church. The then-85-year-old thus became the first pope in 600 years to resign.
The first German pope in a thousand years, Benedict – born Joseph Ratzinger – was a theologian and writer devoted to history and tradition, who was elected to succeed Pope John Paul II. He used his position to redirect the world's focus on faith in an era of secularization. On his first foreign trip as pope, at a 2005 World Youth Day gathering in Cologne, Germany, he told a million attendees, "In vast areas of the world today, there is a strange forgetfulness of God. It seems as if everything would be just the same even without Him."
He reached out to other faiths, and became only the second pope in history to enter a synagogue. As a conservative, many of his actions (such as relaxing the restrictions on Latin mass) satisfied traditionalists, but were controversial among more progressive voices in the clergy. There were also PR gaffes; he was criticized for telling reporters, in 2009, that distributing condoms would increase, not decrease, the spread of AIDS.
But he was also forced to confront the fallout of the church's sex abuse scandal, and notably apologized to victims.
Benedict's dramatic decision to retire, rather than to remain in office until his death, paved the way for the election of Pope Francis, a more progressive cleric. The two lived as neighbors, an unprecedented arrangement, as Benedict wrote and lived a monastic life in the Vatican Gardens. Francis would say having Benedict at the Vatican was like having a "wise grandfather" living at home.
Barbara Walters
Trailblazing broadcaster Barbara Walters (September 25, 1929-December 30, 2022) forged a path for women in an industry that was dominated by men, so much so that, when she was hired as a writer for NBC's "Today" in 1961, she was only allowed to write for women. Writing for male correspondents would become only one of many glass ceilings she would break.
She began making on-air appearances with light, offbeat stories, for which she once wore bunny ears to report on the life of a Playboy bunny. In addition to "Today," she also hosted the syndicated morning show "Not for Women Only."
Walters would become the co-host of "Today," only to be lured away by ABC News in 1976, becoming the first woman to anchor an evening network newscast, earning an unprecedented $1 million salary. But co-anchoring with Harry Reasoner proved disastrous, and ABC News president Roone Arledge moved her into special projects, with primetime interview specials and contributions to the newsmagazine "20/20," a show she would eventually co-host. And in 1997, she created "The View," an all-female live talk show that tackled any and every topic.
During her decades at NBC and ABC, she earned her reputation as a tough interviewer with incisive questioning of newsmakers, celebrities, politicians and world leaders. She admitted she was never in awe around celebrities, because she'd grown up around many, her father being a nightclub owner. "I'm not afraid when I'm interviewing, I have no fear!" Walters told The Associated Press in 2008. And she was not afraid to snatch an interview away from a colleague – her competitive chops to get an exclusive were strong.
By 2004, when she stepped down from "20/20," she had logged more than 700 interviews (more than a few of whose subjects would be made to cry). She won 12 Emmys, and received a Peabody Award for her interview with Christopher Reeve, following the horseback-riding accident from which he was paralyzed. In 1999 her two-hour talk with Monica Lewinsky, in which the former White House intern discussed her affair with President Bill Clinton, drew more than 70 million viewers.
In 2014, upon her retirement from "The View," Walters said she was proud of her legacy, of the women who followed in her footsteps.
And she promised Variety, "I'm not going to cry."
Pelé
For many, Brazilian football star Pelé (October 23, 1940-December 29, 2022) was the greatest player of "the beautiful game." He won a record three World Cups, and became one of the most commanding sports figures of our era.
For nearly two decades he transfixed fans and dazzled opponents with his grace and athleticism as a leading scorer for the Brazilian club Santos, and his country's national team.
He was a mere 17 years old when he scored two goals in Brazil's 5-2 victory in the 1958 World Cup final. "I got the gift from God to play football," he said. That gift catapulted him from an impoverished childhood to worldwide celebrity, becoming an ambassador not just for the game, but for UNESCO and the United Nations as well.
In 1975, at age 34, he signed a $2.8 million contract with the New York Cosmos that made him the world's highest-paid athlete. He played in the States for three seasons, and finished his career with a record 1,279 goals.
In retirement, he didn't quite leave the field. He played a football player in the Sylvester Stallone movie "Victory."
In 2018 Pele described for GQ magazine what it was like to make his 1,000th career goal: "It was a penalty kick and for the first time in my whole career my legs were shaking, the whole of the Maracanã was shouting and screaming, and I remember thinking, 'Oh, my God… I cannot miss!' …
"When I was 17, it was my first World Cup, no responsibility, no nerves. But for my 1,000th goal, I was Pelé, three-time world champion, most famous footballer. I never felt pressure like it."
Vivienne Westwood
"I never, ever tried to shock people," said Vivienne Westwood (April 8, 1941-December 29, 2022), who in 1970s London became the leading designer and seamstress of the punk movement – a fashion rebellion made of ripped fabric, safety pins and S&M gear.
She told "Sunday Morning" in 2013, "At the time of punk rock, I was so outraged at the way the world is so corrupt and mismanaged and everything, that the look was supposed to be of an urban guerrilla. It was somehow a kind of crusade to challenge the status quo."
Westwood hadn't wanted to be a fashion designer; she'd started out as a primary schoolteacher. But she offered to help her boyfriend, Malcolm McLaren, manager of the pioneering punk rock band, The Sex Pistols. Together they opened a music and fashion shop on London's Kings Road.
Though she had no formal training, she held her first runway show in 1981, and gradually moved into more traditional fashion work, incorporating historical British designs into contemporary clothes (though still managing to shock, as in her 1987 Statue of Liberty corset).
Even decades after punk's rise and fall, the Westwood style remained irreverent and uncompromising, her hair still dyed a trademark orange. And she became accepted by a British establishment that once mocked her; the Queen made her a dame in 2006.
When correspondent Anthony Mason asked Westwood if she still thought of herself as a rebel, she replied, "To tell you the honest truth, all I am really trying to do is to make the world a better place," she said.
Stephen "tWitch" Boss
Dancer and choreographer Stephen "tWitch" Boss (September 29, 1982-December 13, 2022) became the beloved dancing DJ on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," beginning in 2014, and a familiar presence on TikTok, in videos featuring his wife, dancer Allison Holker.
Born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama, Boss studied dance performance at Southern Union State Community College and Chapman University. A contestant on "So You Think You Can Dance," he later became a judge on the dance competition show. He also appeared on "Star Search," "The Wade Robson Project," and in films like "Hairspray," "Step Up: All In," "Step Up 3D," "Magic Mike XXL," the 2016 "Ghostbusters," and "The Hip Hop Nutcracker."
In a 2014 interview with the Associated Press, Boss talked about his inspirations: "I love Fred Astaire … [He] was so smooth, and it was great. He was so classy. But Gene Kelly, he could be like somebody's dad, who just decided to get up off the couch and dance around and clean the kitchen up."
Angelo Badalamenti
Composer Angelo Badalamenti (March 22, 1937-December 11, 2022) was best-known for his work with filmmaker David Lynch, from motion pictures like "Blue Velvet" and "Mulholland Drive," to the cult TV series "Twin Peaks." Sensuous and other-worldly, Badalamenti's synthesizer-infused music was perfectly suited to the surreal and evocative visuals of Lynch.
Badalamenti grew up in Brooklyn listening to Italian opera, took piano lessons beginning at age 8, and earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the Manhattan School of Music. A music teacher, he also wrote songs for Nina Simone ("Another Spring") and Nancy Wilson ("Face It Girl, It's Over"), and for the films "Gordon's War" and "Law and Disorder," as well as a Christmas carol that was recorded for PBS.
When Isabella Rossellini was shooting 1986's "Blue Velvet," Badalamenti was asked to help her with the vocals for her performance as a nightclub singer. He did, and the subsequent recording earned high praise from the director: "This is peachy keen!" Badalamenti then composed music to accompany lyrics by Lynch for a song, "Mysteries of Love."
In a 2016 interview for Pitchfork Magazine, Badalamenti recalled asking Lynch what kind of music he wanted for his very unusual, non-rhyming, no-hook lyrics: "He said, 'Angelo, just let the music float like the ocean tide, just put it in space, make it timeless and endless.'" He brought on singer Julee Cruise to record the ethereal song, which led to Badalamenti being asked to compose the entire score.
Listen to an excerpt from Badalamenti's Opening Titles from "Blue Velvet"
Listen to an excerpt from "Mysteries of Love" from "Blue Velvet"
The composer's collaborations with Lynch would extend beyond films such as "Wild at Heart," "Lost Highway," "The Straight Story" and "Mulholland Dr.," to the landmark series "Twin Peaks," which itself spawned a feature film and a reboot series. (Badalamenti received three Emmy nominations for the show.)
Listen to an excerpt from Badalamenti's theme from "Twin Peaks"
He and Lynch also staged a live concert piece, "Industrial Symphony No. 1," performed by Cruise, for the 1989 New Wave Music Festival in Brooklyn.
Badalamenti's other film credits included "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors," "Weeds," "The Comfort of Strangers," "The City of Lost Children," "Holy Smoke," "The Beach," "Secretary," "Lathe of Heaven," "Auto Focus," "Cabin Fever," "A Very Long Engagement," and "Stalingrad."
In an article posted on culture.org, Badalementi's nephew, Frances, recalled visiting with his uncle in Prague while he was recording his score for Lynch's "Lost Highway," and a piece of advice his uncle gave him: "You need to do what you are good at. You need to do what you do best."
Kirstie Alley
Actress Kirstie Alley (January 12, 1951-December 5, 2022) earned plaudits for both comedy and drama, winning one Emmy for the hit sitcom "Cheers" (on which she starred for six seasons), and winning a second for her performance as the mother of an autistic child in the 1994 TV movie "David's Mother."
After dropping out of college in Kansas, Alley moved to Hollywood to work as an interior designer. She appeared on game shows as a contestant, on "Match Game" and "Password Plus." But she was hired, despite no professional experience and a faked résumé, to play Lt. Saavik, the half-Vulcan, half-Romulan protégé of Mr. Spock, in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." She noted at a 2016 "Star Trek" convention panel in Las Vegas that, as a teenager, friends had made fun of her eyebrows' ability to arch: "I have no control over it," she said. "So, I would watch [the original 'Star Trek' series] and when Mr. Spock would come on, I would say, 'Wow, if I was ever an actress, I could play Spock's daughter.'"
Films that followed included "Runaway," "A Bunny's Tale" (as Gloria Steinem), "Summer School," and "Sibling Rivalry," before the hit comedy "Look Who's Talking," as a single working mom of a newborn baby (voiced by Bruce Willis). She followed with two sequels "Look Who's Talking Too," and "Look Who's Talking Now."
She also earned Emmy nominations for her sitcom "Veronica's Closet," and for the TV miniseries "The Last Don."
A spokesperson for Jenny Craig, Alley dealt with weight issues for years, even starring as a fictionalized version of herself in the Showtime comedy series "Fat Actress" (a show that drew laughs from the public treatment of her weight gain and loss), and appearing in the reality series "Kirstie Alley's Big Life" (which documented her attempts to lose weight). She said she agreed to the show because of misinformation about her in the tabloids: "Anything bad you can say about me, they say," Alley told the Associated Press. "I've never collapsed, fainted, passed out. Basically, anything they've said, I never. The only true thing is, I got fat."
Her later TV appearances included "Dancing With the Stars" (in which she finished in second place, in 2011), and, in early 2022, the competition series "The Masked Singer."
Bob McGrath
Bob McGrath (June 13, 1932-December 4, 2022) was a founding cast member of the landmark children's series "Sesame Street" when the show premiered in 1969. His last appearance on the show was in 2017 – a more than four-decade run as the friendly neighbor Bob Johnson.
McGrath's character, a music teacher, sang such songs as "People In Your Neighborhood," "Sing," "Morning Town Ride" and "See You Tomorrow."
A folk singer and music teacher who'd enjoyed professional success in Japan, the Illinois native was also a singer on the 1960s series "Sing Along With Mitch." He recalled in a 2004 interview for the Television Academy that he'd had no real experience as an actor (most of the cast did not), and was frustrated during his first year on "Sesame Street," not getting a fix on what his character, "Bob," should be. "And ultimately they said, 'You know, we don't really want you to be anybody, we just really want all of you folks to be yourself.' …
"It's interesting, we had special guests, they'd come on, and some of them were wonderful, wonderful actors and actresses playing all different variety of roles, but apparently they did not test out as well because the kids kind of really were able to see that they were kind of acting more than being themselves and being totally genuine with them on a one-on-one, eyeball-to-eyeball basis."
McGrath was let go after 45 seasons (along with Emilio Delgado and Roscoe Orman) when the show's first-run broadcast rights were moved from PBS to HBO. He told a Florida convention in 2016, "I'd be so greedy if I wanted five minutes more."
Gaylord Perry
Gaylord Perry (September 15, 1938-December 1, 2022) was the first pitcher to win the Cy Young Award in two leagues – first with the Cleveland Indians in 1972 (notching a 24-16 record); and then, after having just turned 40, with the San Diego Padres in 1978 (21-6). It was his fifth season having scored 20 or more wins.
A native of Williamston, North Carolina, Perry was drafted by the San Francisco Giants, and would pitch for eight major league teams over his 22-season career. A five-time All-Star, he posted a lifetime won-loss record of 314-255, with 3,534 strikeouts, and an ERA of 3.11.
Although he was only ejected from a game once for doctoring a baseball, in 1982, Perry had a reputation for using foreign substances. In his 1974 autobiography, "Me and the Spitter," he told of first throwing a spitball on May 31, 1964, when Perry, a reliever, pitched 10 innings in a marathon 23-inning game against the New York Mets; he did not give up a run, and was credited with the win. It also earned him a spot in the Giants' starting rotation.
He stopped throwing the pitch in 1968 after Major League Baseball ruled pitchers could no longer touch their fingers to their mouths before touching the baseball. (Vaseline and hair tonic became fallbacks.) But he also mimicked routines to make batters think he was applying a foreign substance, to fake them out.
The future Hall of Famer, for all his pitching prowess, was not a natural at the plate; Giants manager Alvin Dark once stated that a man would land on the moon before Perry would hit a home run. It was therefore fate that on June 20, 1969, shortly after the Apollo 11 lunar lander touched down on the Moon's surface, Perry hit his first (and only) home run, against Dodgers pitcher Claude Osteen.
Christine McVie
Vocalist, songwriter and keyboard player Christine McVie (July 12, 1943-November 30, 2022) made her mark in one of the most successful rock bands of the 1970s, '80s and '90s, Fleetwood Mac.
Christine Anne Perfect was born into a music family, and studied classical piano until she turned to rock, and joined the band Chicken Shack as a singer and piano player. After two albums with Chicken Shack, she released an eponymous solo album, in 1970, before joining Fleetwood Mac (she had in the meantime married Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie).
Fleetwood Mac would go on to sell more than 100 million records, despite lineup changes that suggested the band was on the outs. But McVie continued (as singer, musician and songwriter), contributing to 14 albums, including the No. 1 charting albums "Fleetwood Mac," "Rumours," "Mirage" and "The Dance." "Rumours" won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1978.
McVie's songs for Fleetwood Mac included "Don't Stop," "Behind the Mask," "Everywhere," "Hold Me," "Oh Daddy," "Over My Head," "Save Me," "Little Lies," "You Make Loving Fun," and "Say You Love Me." And while her marriage to John McVie ended (as memorably documented in song in "Rumours"), the band endured.
In the late '90s, McVie left the group, released a solo album, "In the Meantime," and lived in semi-retirement. A fear of flying kept her in the U.K., but after psychotherapy helped her overcome her aerophobia, she flew to Maui and sat in with Mick Fleetwood's blues band. That led to her reteaming with Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and ex-husband John McVie for their 2014 tour. She also collaborated with Buckingham on a 2017 album, "Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie."
Earlier this year, an anthology of her work, "Songbird," was released.
In 2014 she talked with "Sunday Morning" correspondent John Blackstone about rejoining Fleetwood Mac after such a long separation: "I thought it was gonna be a struggle, to be honest. I was a little anxious. … But the moment you find yourself playing with these fantastic musicians and friends, it just melted away. And now I feel completely comfortable, really, surprisingly so."
Irene Cara
She recorded a Spanish-language album for Gema Records, "Esta Es Irene," when she was nine years old. The singer-actress Irene Cara (March 18, 1959-November 25, 2022) would go on to win an Oscar, two Grammys and a Golden Globe for her music for "Fame" and "Flashdance."
Before her film success she appeared on Broadway in "Maggie Flynn," "The Me Nobody Knows," and "Got Tu Go Disco." She flew across the stage in the 1972 sci-fi musical "Via Galactica," which closed after seven performances, and was in the Public Theater's production of "Lotta, or The Best Thing Evolution's Ever Come Up With."
Cara appeared on TV in "The Electric Company," "Love of Life," "What's Happening!!," and "Roots: The Next Generation." She starred in "Aaron Loves Angela" (Gordon Parks Jr's update of "Romeo and Juliet"), and at age 13 was cast as the lead of "Sparkle," a 1976 musical about a girl group co-starring Lonette McKee.
In 1980's "Fame," Cara starred as Coco, a student attending New York's High School of Performing Arts. She performed the songs "Out Here on My Own," "Hot Lunch Jam," "I Sing the Body Electric," and the title tune, which became a Top 10 hit and an Oscar-winner for Best Original Song. She also earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture/Comedy or Musical.
For the 1983 film "Flashdance," Cara co-wrote and performed the title track, "Flashdance ... What A Feeling," which sat on top of the Billboard charts for six weeks. She shared the Academy Award for Best Original Song with Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey.
She sang or composed songs for several features, from "D.C. Cab" to the animated "All Dogs Go to Heaven." For the Clint Eastwood/Burt Reynolds period comedy "City Heat," she recorded the George and Ira Gershwin ballad, "Embraceable You." Other albums included "Anyone Can See," "What a Feelin'," and "Carasmatic."
In the 1990s she toured as Mary Magdalene in "Jesus Christ Superstar."
Robert Clary
French-born actor-singer Robert Clary (March 1, 1926-November 16, 2022) was best-known for playing Cpl. Louis LeBeau, part of a cohort of Allied prisoners of war engaging in sabotage under the noses of their Nazi captors, in the 1960s comedy "Hogan's Heroes."
In 1965, when the show's pilot was being shot, Clary was offered the part of LeBeau without even having to audition. Though controversial, the show ran on CBS for six seasons.
In 1985 a documentary, "Robert Clary, A5714: A Memoir of Liberation," told of his life and his ordeal in concentration camps. The youngest of 14 children, Clary (born Robert Widerman) was 16 when he and his family were forced from their Paris apartment into a crowded cattle car, transporting them to concentration camps. [A5714 referred to the identification number tattooed on his arm.] His parents and 10 siblings were killed under the Nazis, he said.
He credited his youth and ability to work for keeping him alive for 31 months, until he was freed when American troops liberated the Buchenwald death camp.
Returning to Paris and reunited with his two sisters, Clary worked as a singer and recording artist. He moved to the States in 1949, appearing in musicals (including "New Faces of 1952," "Irma La Douce" and "Cabaret"), TV ("Days of Our Lives" and "The Bold and the Beautiful"), and films ("The Hindenburg"). He also recorded jazz versions of songs by Ira Gershwin and Stephen Sondheim.
In 1997, he was one of dozens of Holocaust survivors whose stories were told in "The Triumphant Spirit." In an interview that year he said, "I beg the next generation not to do what people have done for centuries - hate others because of their skin, shape of their eyes, or religious preference."
In an Associated Press interview he criticized Holocaust deniers, "making a mockery of the 6 million Jews - including a million and a half children - who died in the gas chambers and ovens." He also published a memoir, "From the Holocaust to Hogan's Heroes: The Autobiography of Robert Clary," in 2001.
In a 2018 interview with the Television Academy Foundation about his experience on "Hogan's Heroes," he said he had no trepidation about appearing in the prison camp comedy given his personal history. "No, because it had nothing to do with my past. I was never a soldier. I was never a prisoner of war. I was sent to a concentration camp and lucky I survived, which is completely different. We were not human beings. The only reason we lived [was] because they needed us to work in their factories. Otherwise they would have killed us all.
"And, it was acting!"
Aaron Carter
Singer, rapper and actor Aaron Carter (December 7, 1987-November 5, 2022) began performing as a child, and at age nine released his first, eponymous album. It went gold, and was followed by three more albums during his teen years, including the triple-platinum "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)" (2000). His hits included "Crush on You," "Crazy Little Party Girl," and "I Want Candy."
His fifth and final album was "LOVE" (2018).
The younger brother of Nick Carter (of Backstreet Boys), Aaron performed as an opening act for his brother's group, and for Britney Spears. He also appeared as an actor in "Lizzie McGuire," "Family Affair," "Popstar" and "Supercross," and in the musical "Seussical" on Broadway. He finished in fifth place on "Dancing with the Stars" in 2009.
Jerry Lee Lewis
In 1957 two songs by "The Killer," Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935-October 28, 2022), burned up the airwaves, becoming Top 10 hits: "Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On" and "Great Balls of Fire," songs that showcased the Louisiana-born piano player's outrageous talent and energy – a force of nature inspired by sneaking into Black juke joints, and honed by his experience playing rockabilly, boogie-woogie and gospel.
But in 1958 Lewis' career suffered from the scandal of marrying his second-cousin, Myra Gale Brown (who was 13 at the time), while he was still married to the second of his seven wives. His European tour was canceled, and he was blacklisted from the radio.
Lewis then reinvented himself as a country artist, in the 1960s, with such hits as "Another Place, Another Time," "She Still Comes Around (to Love What's Left of Me)," "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye," "There Must Be More to Love Than This" and "Would You Take Another Chance on Me."
In 1986, Lewis was among the inaugural class of inductees for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
In 2006, in his 70s, Lewis' longevity was marked by the release of "Last Man Standing," an album of duets featuring such stars as Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, B.B. King, George Jones, Chuck Berry and Neil Young. Four years later he recorded another album of duets, "Mean Old Man," this time paired with Willie Nelson, Mavis Staples, Tim McGraw, Keith Richards and Sheryl Crow.
In 2015's bestseller "Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story," he described to biographer Rick Bragg the importance, to him, of being a rock 'n' roll star: "The show, that's what counts. It covers up everything. Any bad thought anyone ever had about you goes away. 'Is that the one that married that girl? Well, forget about it, let me hear that song.' It takes their sorrow, and it takes mine."
Julie Powell
"My husband almost divorced me last night and it was all because of sauce tartar."
In 2002 Julie Powell (April 20, 1973-October 26, 2022), a secretary and frustrated writer who was finding no success after moving to New York City, made it her mission to prepare every single recipe in Julia Child's classic 1961 cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," over the course of a single year – cooking, chopping and stirring late into the night, making 11 to 12 dishes a week.
The amateur cook talked to "CBS Evening News" in 2003 about her culinary journey: "Even though I am making myself crazy, it has introduced some sanity into my life," she said.
Her husband Eric said there'd only been one real culinary disaster: the aspics. "All the aspics were just horrible," he said.
Her blog, the Julie/Julia Project, was a hit, earning her an agent and a book deal. "Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen," published in 2005, inspired the 2009 film, "Julie & Julia," which starred Amy Adams as Powell and Meryl Streep as Child.
The film was a success, but when Powell had written to Child about her cooking project, the response she received was underwhelming. It didn't matter, she told CBS News in 2009: "Her disinterest didn't change how I felt about her. I don't love Julia Child because she loves me; I love her because she inspired me to change my life. ... I know how I feel about Julia, and that's what matters."
Her favorite of Child's 524 recipes? Braised Cucumbers. "I'm so glad they made it into the movie, because I think they're a revelation!" Powell said.
Pierre Soulages
French abstract artist Pierre Soulages (December 24, 1919-October 26, 2022) became known as the "Master of Black," for bringing the mystery of darkness into the light. His paintings – big, bold, and overwhelmingly black – have commanded attention since he made a name for himself in 1950s New York, then emerging as the center of the modern art world.
Back then, like American avant-garde artists Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, Soulages experimented with challenging abstract forms. He even used color. Then, one morning in 1979, when he and his wife Colette were living in Paris, he noticed how reflections transformed the surface of black paint. He'd found his medium, and began to experiment with sculpting black paint on the canvas.
When asked by "CBS Sunday Morning" in 2020, on the occasion of his 100th birthday, why black still moved him, Soulages replied, "Because its possibilities are limitless. I say black, but actually it's light that's key. When I add black paint to a canvas, light reflects uniquely off the scar. That's what my work is all about. I paint with light."
Leslie Jordan
"Give me a good pandemic and I flourish," said comic actor Leslie Jordan (April 29, 1955-October 24, 2022). In 2022 he told "CBS Mornings" about adjusting to lockdown after staying with his mom in Tennessee. "I had a lot of time on my hands. And I started posting on Instagram. And I did two posts a day, I think, for 80 days. And I would always start it with, 'Well, how y'all doing?'"
He'd get more than a million hits a day. Its success amazed even him: "I didn't try to sell anybody anything. I just talked about what are y'all doing? Here's what I'm doing. I cut my hair because I couldn't get to the barbershop.
"I have people come up to me and say, 'You got me through that. I'm stuck at home with my kids, I thought I was going nuts, And I would look forward to just a minute or two with you every day.' And I think that's what comedy's about."
Beginning at age 19, the 4'11" Jordan exercised racehorses. Put off by the travel involved, he enrolled in journalism classes at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he also signed up for a theater elective. "It just hit me like a drug," he said.
After graduating, he headed to California, and got steady work in commercials. ("I was the elevator operator to Hamburger Hell for Taco Bell"), and eventually got acting roles in such TV series as "The Fall Guy," "Night Court," "Murphy Brown," "The People Next Door," "Pee-Wee's Playhouse," "Top of the Heap," "Reasonable Doubts," "Hearts Afire," "Caroline in the City," "Ally McBeal," "Boston Public," "Boston Legal," "American Horror Story," "The Cool Kids," and "Call Me Kat." Film roles included "The Help" and "The United States vs. Billie Holiday,"
His best-known character was Beverly Leslie in "Will & Grace," a recurring role for which he won an Emmy in 2006.
In the 1990s he wrote and starred in a stage musical, the semi-autobiographical "Hysterical Blindness and Other Southern Tragedies That Have Plagued My Life Thus Far." In 2008 he published a memoir, "My Trip Down the Pink Carpet," his take on Hollywood, fame, addiction and gay culture.
After blowing up his Instagram account during COVID, his career took a different turn when he released a gospel album called "Company's Comin'," featuring Dolly Parton, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Eddie Vedder and Tanya Tucker.
He recently wrote his second book, "How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived."
Robbie Coltrane
Born Anthony Robert McMillan, Robbie Coltrane (March 30, 1950-October 14, 2022) was in his early 20s when he began pursuing an acting career, renaming himself in honor of jazz musician John Coltrane.
The Scottish comedian and character actor's early film credits included the musical "Absolute Beginners," the drama "Mona Lisa," and the caper "Nuns on the Run." He played Falstaff in the Kenneth Branagh-directed "Henry V," the Pope in the comedy "The Pope Must Diet," and a Russian crime boss in the James Bond films "GoldenEye" and "The World is Not Enough."
Coltrane broke through as hard-bitten criminal psychologist Dr. Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald in the 1990s British TV series "Cracker," for which he won the best actor BAFTRA Award three years in a row.
He was beloved by a generation as the half-giant Rubeus Hagrid, the mentor of young wizard Harry Potter, in all eight Potter films. He was the first actor to be cast for the original movie – hand-picked by author J.K., Rowling – and in 2002 told the Christian Science Monitor that he knew the story well. "I'd read it to my young son, Spencer," he said. "I did all the accents, even inventing a few of my own, when reading it, and must say I felt a certain kindred to Hagrid."
The inspiration for his performance, he told The Daily Record in 2006, was an imposing, burly biker he'd once met, who'd entered a bar and complained about his petunias. "He was a gardener, but he had fists like hams. He had a gentle heart."
To play Hagrid, the 6'1" Coltrane wore boots that made him at least seven inches taller, underwent an hour-and-a-half of makeup, and wore a costume that weighed 65 pounds.
In an interview last January for an HBO Harry Potter reunion special, Coltrane said, "The legacy of the movies is that my children's generation will show them to their children. So, you could be watching it in 50 years' time, easily ... I'll not be here, sadly, but Hagrid will, yes."
Bruce Sutter
Six-time All-Star relief pitcher Bruce Sutter (January 8, 1953-October 13, 2022) was pitching for the Chicago Cubs' farm team in 1972 when he hurt his right elbow trying to learn a slider. Afraid he would be cut if the Cubs knew he'd been injured, Sutter hid the injury, and paid for the surgery on his pinched nerve himself. At spring training the following year, with the speed of his pitches off, he learned the split-fingered fastball from the Cubs' minor league pitching instructor Fred Martin.
The pitch (the ball is held between the index and middle fingers, and as it approaches the plate suddenly dips) wasn't being successfully thrown. "It came to me easy, but it took a long time to learn how to control it," Sutter once said. "I could throw pretty hard. I might strike out 16 guys, but I might walk 10. I mean, I was wild."
Sutter entered the majors with the Cubs in 1976. Three years later he won the National League Cy Young Award, with 37 saves, 2.22 ERA and 110 strikeouts.
In a 1979 Sports Illustrated interview veteran batter Lou Brock had this assessment of Sutter's split-fingered fastball: "You'd figure that if a guy stayed around long enough, he'd learn how to hit it. But no one has."
During his 12-year career Sutter led the National League in saves for five years, posting 300 saves with the Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals (he finished off the Cards' Game 7 win over Milwaukee in the 1982 World Series), and Atlanta Braves. In 661 games, he pitched 1,042 innings and struck out 861, with a career ERA of 2.83.
In 2006 Sutter became only the fourth reliever to be inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame – and the first pitcher to reach Cooperstown without ever having started a game.
Angela Lansbury
Born in London to an Irish actress and an English timber merchant, Angela Lansbury (October 16, 1925-October 11, 2022) was forced at a young age to become self-reliant after the death of her father. She was sent by her mother to drama school, first in London, then, after the Blitz, to New York and, ultimately, Hollywood.
By 17, she was in her first film, as the flirtatious, cockney maid in the 1944 classic, "Gaslight." Director George Cukor was "appalled" that a woman her age could pull off playing such a convincing seductress. '[You'd think] I'd been around the block, as they say," Lansbury told "CBS Sunday Morning" in 2009. "I hadn't, you know. I really hadn't!"
But playing characters beyond her years would become the story of Lansbury's life. Despite back-to-back Oscar nominations (for "Gaslight" and "The Picture of Dorian Gray"), she spent her twenties and thirties typecast in older, more maternal roles – as an adulterous mother in "The World of Henry Orient"; Elvis Presley's mom in "Blue Hawaii" (despite being only nine years older than the singer); and Laurence Harvey's scheming mom in "The Manchurian Candidate," nabbing her third Oscar nomination for the political thriller in which she gives her son advice only a loving mother could give: "You are to shoot the presidential nominee through the head." She even had her hair streaked gray, at age 23, to play a newspaper publisher in her 40s in "State of the Union."
Unsatisfied with Hollywood's lack of imagination, Lansbury packed her bags for the New York stage. "I felt liberated the minute I came to Broadway. Those years at MGM, I hadn't really been judged as an actress until I made it on Broadway."
After roles in "Hotel Paradiso," "A Taste of Honey" and "Anyone Can Whistle," she hit pay dirt with the musical "Mame" (1966), winning the first of five Tony Awards. [Her others were for "Dear World" (1969); "Gypsy" (1975); "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (1979), playing the meat pie maker Mrs. Lovett; and a 2009 revival of Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit."]
After playing Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in a film adaptation of "The Mirror Crack'd," and one of the murder suspects in "Death on the Nile," Lansbury found her greatest fame on "Murder, She Wrote" as mystery writer and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher. For twelve seasons (and in four subsequent movies-for-TV), she made an older female character – often invisible in media – a pop culture role model. She received 12 Emmy nominations for the series.
She was a role model of a very different sort as the voice of the teapot Mrs. Potts in the animated Disney musical, "Beauty and the Beast."
Lansbury later became a spokesperson for the ALS Association. (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis had claimed the life of her sister, Isolde.)
In 2014 she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II, honored for her acting career and charity work.
And she would continue working, on stage (she earned additional Tony nominations for the play "Deuce" and the Stephen Sondheim musical "A Little Night Music," as well as a lifetime achievement Tony in 2022) and in films ("Nanny McPhee," "Mr. Popper's Penguins," "Mary Poppins Returns," and, as herself, in "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery").
"The bottom line is, I really don't know how to relax to the degree that I could just stop," Lansbury told "Sunday Morning." "So, when something comes along and is presented to me, and I think, 'Gee, I could have some fun doing that,' or 'I think I could bring something to that,' I'll do it.
"I mean, there are times when you walk into that dressing room and you think, 'I can't do this. I cannot do this.' And it's a curious thing: When you sit down in front of that mirror and you pick up that first piece of makeup and you start to apply it … suddenly, you transform yourself into that person who is capable of going on stage and delivering that performance. And you do it, and yes, you can!"
Loretta Lynn
If you want to know the story of Loretta Lynn (April 14, 1932-October 4, 2022), listen to her songs. The country legend sang about a life of hardship, poverty, and her husband's infidelity – stories like "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl," "Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)," "You Ain't Woman Enough," "What Makes Me Tick," and "Coal Miner's Daughter," whose title became the name of her bestselling 1976 autobiography.
"It's whatever I was going through at the time, and whatever I was thinking about at the time," Lynn told "Sunday Morning" in 2010.
And even as she rose to become a legend of American music – a three-time Grammy-winner, with 30 Top 10 country albums, and the first woman to win the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year Award, in 1972 – she never forgot her roots, as the second of eight children of a coal miner in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky. "I ain't about to be nobody else. I'm just me. And if I was trying to be somebody else, I'd have never made it, either," she said.
When she was just 13, Loretta met 21-year-old Oliver Lynn, known as Doo. They married one month later. Lynn would have four children by the time she was 18. "I'd rock them to sleep. That's where Doo found out I could sing," she said. So, Doo bought her a guitar. Lynn taught herself to play, and began writing her own songs. Her kids were her audience. "I'd stand them up in a row: Betty, Jack, Ernest, and Cissie, 'Stand right there and tell mommy what you think of her singing.' 'Oh, you sound pretty, mommy.'"
Doo arranged for Loretta to record her song "Honky Tonk Girl," and they hit the road to promote it. Lynn became an overnight success. But as she spent nights on the road in her tour bus, Doo stayed home drinking, womanizing, and hiring housekeepers to raise their now-six children. Their marriage lasted 48 years, until Doo's death in 1996. But as she told "48 Hours" in 2002, the two were regular sparring partners: "I've never written a song that my husband wasn't in – every song I wrote – but he didn't know which line he was in."
She stayed, she said, because she loved him: "I didn't need him, but he was my kids' daddy. Why leave hearts laying on the floor for me? … He broke my heart lots of time, but that would have broke the kids' hearts, wouldn't it?"
And she got some evocative songs out of it, like the #1 country hit "Fist City":
Come on and tell me what you told my friends
If you think you're brave enough
And I'll show you what a real woman is
Since you think you're hot stuff
You'll bite off more than you can chew
If you get too cute or witty
You better move your feet
If you don't wanna eat
A meal that's called fist city
Roger Welsch
A humorist, storyteller and activist for Native Americans, Roger Welsch (November 6, 1936-September 30, 2022) was a longtime contributor to "CBS Sunday Morning" with his witty "Postcard from Nebraska" segments in the 1980s and '90s.
Clad in his familiar overalls, Welsch told stories from his beloved state, including his hometown of Dannebrog, so small, he noted, the town square only has three sides.
Welsch's segments developed after Charles Kuralt featured him in an "On the Road" segment about the Nebraskan's 1970s campaign for the Lancaster County Weed Control Authority, running on a "pro-weed" platform. Not marijuana, weeds – edible wild plants that were being sprayed with pesticides. His slogan: "If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em," He won.
Welsch wrote dozens of books, penned newspaper columns, and proudly admitted to having founded the National Liars Hall of Fame, claiming nearly two million visitors a year in tiny Dannebrog.
He also worked to reform the Nebraska State Historical Society after they refused to repatriate human remains of native peoples to the Pawnee Nation. In addition to the nickname "Captain Nebraska," Welsch also went by the names afforded him by indigenous tribes: Tenugahai "Bull Buffalo Chief" by the Omaha Tribe, Panitaka "White Wolfhite Pawnee" by the Pawnee Tribe, and Heyoka ta Pejuta "His Medicine is Contrary" by the Oglala Sioux.
Coolio
Born Artis Leon Ivey Jr., the rapper Coolio (August 1, 1963-September 28, 2022) garnered fame in the 1990s with such hits as "Gangsta's Paradise" (winner of the Grammy for best solo rap performance) and "Fantastic Voyage."
Raised in California, he began rapping at 15. He went to community college and worked as a volunteer firefighter and in airport security before devoting himself full-time to hip-hop.
He collaborated with WC and the Maad Circle, before releasing his debut album on Tommy Boy Records in 1994, "It Takes a Thief." The track "Fantastic Voyage" reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The following year, "Gangsta's Paradise" hit No. 1.
As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I take a look at my life and realize there's not much left
'Cause I've been blastin' and laughin' so long, that
Even my mama thinks that my mind is gone
Later hits included "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" and "C U When U Get There."
Collio aimed to rise above the feud that arose between east and west coast hip-hop factions. "I'd like to claim this Grammy on behalf of the whole hip-hop nation, West Coast, East Coast, and worldwide, united we stand, divided we fall," he said from the stage as he accepted the award in 1996.
But he engaged in a kind of feud with Weird Al Yankovic, who parodied "Gangsta's Paradise" with his hit, "Amish Paradise" ("As I walk through the valley where I harvest my grain, I take a look at my wife and realize she's very plain"). Though Coolio voiced his upset at the time, it was later attributed to a "misunderstanding."
"I have to say, that was probably one of the least smart things I've done over the years," he later told Rolling Stone. "I should have never been upset about that; I should have embraced it like everybody else did. Michael Jackson never got mad at him; Prince never got mad at him. Who the f*** was I to take the position that I took? It was actually years later before I realized how stupid that was of me [laughs]. But hey, you live and you learn."
Bill Plante
CBS News correspondent Bill Plante (January 14, 1938-September 28, 2022) was one of the longest-serving White House broadcast journalists in history. During his more than half-century with CBS News, Plante covered the civil rights movement (the "Mississippi Burning" murders in 1964, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in March 1965), and served four tours in Vietnam. (He reported from Saigon during its fall.)
He began his broadcasting career in 1956 at Chicago area radio stations, reading news and playing classical music. He then landed a job as assistant news director at the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee, before beginning a CBS Fellowship at Columbia University in New York. In his audition reel, his goals foreshadowed his long, varied career: "Politics, general assignment, writing, editing, reporting, air work, you name it, I'd like to do it," he said.
He was named a CBS News correspondent in 1966, assigned to the Chicago bureau, where he covered riots, strikes, campus unrest, and the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. His overseas reporting includes stories on the war between India and Pakistan over Bangladesh, and conflict in Northern Ireland.
Plante also covered 13 presidential elections, and joined CBS News' Washington bureau in December 1976. In addition to senior White House correspondent, Plante was also, from 1988 to 1995, the anchor of the "CBS Sunday Night News." He won several Emmy Awards, including for his reports on the 1997 death of Princess Diana; the 1986 Reagan-Gorbachev summit; and Reagan's 1984 reelection campaign.
One of Washington's most knowledgeable wine aficionados, Plante became known as the White House press corps' sommelier. He reported on wine occasionally for the "CBS Early Show" and "CBS Sunday Morning."
At his retirement in 2016, Plante said, "Fifty years plus, I have had a wonderful window, a closeup, on the human condition, telling the stories of civil rights and of the wastes of war and the politics of power. Through it all, you come to see how human nature is universal. People continue to behave in both altruistic and destructive ways. So that's why what we do continues to be so important."
Louise Fletcher
In the 1960s actress Louise Fletcher (July 22, 1934-September 23, 2022), who'd gotten work on TV series like "The Untouchables," "77 Sunset Strip," and "Wagon Train," put her career on hold to raise her two children. She came back in the '70s and, after a notable turn in Robert Altman's "Thieves Like Us," was chosen to star opposite Jack Nicholson in the tragi-comedy "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
Fletcher played the cruel and calculating Nurse Ratched, who rules over the mental institution to which Nicholson's Randle McMurphy is sent for evaluation. She engages in a cruel and violent battle of wills with McMurphy, and the other inmates, exerting her authority against his rebelliousness. Her performance – a rigid imperiousness coated with a frightening serenity – made her a villainess for the ages.
In a 2004 interview Fletcher said she was the last actress considered for the role: "It wasn't until we were halfway through shooting that I realized the part had been offered to other actresses who didn't want to appear so horrible on the screen."
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" became only the second film ever to win Academy Awards for best picture, best director, best actor, best actress and best screenplay.
At the 1976 ceremony, Fletcher accepted her Oscar and thanked her deaf parents in Birmingham, Alabama, using sign language: "I want to thank you for teaching me to have a dream. You are seeing my dream come true."
Fletcher was later nominated for two Emmy Awards, for guest appearances on "Picket Fences" and "Joan of Arcadia." Other TV credits included "The Karen Carpenter Story." "The Boys of Twilight," "ER," "Shameless," and a recurring role on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."
Her films included "Exorcist II: The Heretic," "The Cheap Detective," "The Magician of Lublin," "Strange Behavior," "Strange Invaders," "Brainstorm," "Firestarter," "Invaders from Mars," "The Boy Who Could Fly," "Blue Steel," "Cruel Intentions," and "A Perfect Man."
Hilary Mantel
Novelist Hilary Mantel (July 6, 1952-September 22, 2022) won the first of her two Booker Prizes for "Wolf Hall," a bloody 16th-century political drama featuring Thomas Cromwell and King Henry VIII. Translated to the stage and television, it launched a trilogy of books about Tudor intrigue that included "Bring Up the Bodies" (which also won the Booker Prize) and "The Mirror and the Light."
Mantel's first novel, 1985's "Every Day Is Mother's Day," drew on her experience working as a social worker in a geriatric hospital. She returned to the characters with "Vacant Possession." She would regularly publish for nearly 25 years, earning critical praise but only modest commercial success, with such books as "Eight Months on Ghazzah Street" (inspired by her move with her geologist husband to Saudi Arabia), "Fludd," "A Place of Greater Safety" (about the French Revolution), "A Change of Climate" (about missionaries in Africa), "An Experiment in Love," "The Giant," and "Beyond Black" (about a psychic medium). She also published short story collections and a memoir, "Giving Up the Ghost."
After a quarter-century, Mantel broke out with "Wolf Hall."
In a 2020 interview with the Guardian, Mantel reflected on the appeal of writing historical fiction, or of figures long gone: "I do have the sense of it being a very proximate world," she said. "And sometimes the barrier seems like an enormous stone wall, and sometimes it's just whisper thin. But you can be misunderstood in talking about it. Because none of it can be literal. It's all just a series of metaphors."
Irene Papas
Greek actress and recording artist Irene Papas (September 3, 1929-September 14, 2022) became an international star with her roles in the films "The Guns of Navarone" and "Zorba the Greek."
She appeared in more than 80 movies and TV programs, from classical tragedies ("Antigone," "Electra," "The Trojan Women," "Iphigenia") to Walt Disney family fare ("The Moon Spinners"). Among her films were "Tribute to a Bad Man," The Brotherhood," "Z," "Anne of the Thousand Days," "Christ Stopped at Eboli," "Mohammad, Messenger of God," "Chronicle of a Death Foretold," "Lion of the Desert," "Captain Corelli's Mandolin," and the miniseries "Moses the Lawgiver."
Of her stage work she was particularly celebrated for Greek tragedies, appearing on Broadway in "Medea" and "The Bacchae."
Her recordings included collaborations with Mikis Theodorakis, Aphrodite's Child, and one of that band's founding members, Vangelis.
In 1992, starring in a production of "Medea" in Barcelona, Papas evoked the mystery of acting: "I don't know if I am living memory, or a ghost that encourages."
Jean-Luc Godard
French-Swiss filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard (December 3, 1930-September 13, 2022) was a lightning rod for film fans and critics since his emergence as a founding member of the French New Wave movement. The director of such classics as "Breathless" and "Weekend," and the recipient (though begrudgingly) of an Honorary Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Godard's narrative tricks and his weaving of personal observations into his films would inspire younger generations of filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese, Brian de Palma and Quentin Tarantino.
A contributor to the French film journal Cahiers du Cinema in the 1950s, Godard and several like-minded film buffs began making their own films, founding what came to be known as the French New Wave (Nouvelle Vogue) – works that reinvigorated staid, traditional forms of motion picture storytelling and eschewed the artifice of Hollywood. A fan of such giants as Alfred Hitchcock, Godard was an advocate of the "auteur" theory behind filmmaking, in which a single vision (usually the director's) aimed all facets of filmmaking through their personal lens.
After making a documentary and several shorts, Godard directed his first feature, "Breathless (A Bout de Souffle)" (1960), a brisk, dark comedy shot on the streets with a handheld camera, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo as a petty thief and Jean Seberg as an American ex-pat. It was a hybrid of Continental and Hollywood styles that paid homage to Godard's hero Howard Hawks, while also reveling in an untethered narrative. The film became an international success – a breath of fresh cinematic air – and began a string of Godard movies that were more blatantly political, and more esoteric, than those of his contemporaries. As critic Roger Ebert noted, "Godard depends on us to do the heavy lifting."
Typically shunning traditional forms of editing, composition and music, Godard would regularly break the fourth wall, using stylized dialogue and off-handed delivery, suggesting the actors were self-consciously aware of being in a film, watched by an audience. He experimented with video editing, sound editing, 3-D, and smearing colors.
"In my opinion the cinema should be more poetic," Godard told Cahiers du Cinema in 1965. "Two or three years ago I felt that everything had been done [in film]. 'Ivan the Terrible' had been made, and 'Our Daily Bread.' Make films about people, they said; but 'The Crowd' had already been made, so why remake it? I was, in a word, pessimistic. After '[Pierrot le Fou],' I no longer feel this. Yes, one must film, talk about, everything. Everything remains to be done."
Godard would direct more than 125 features, documentaries, shorts, and TV series, including the miniseries "History of Cinema." Credits include "Contempt," with Brigitte Bardot; several starring his then-wife, Anna Karina, such as "A Woman Is a Woman," "Vivre Sa Vie," "Le Petit Soldat," "Alphaville" (a sci-fi homage to film noir detective films), "Pierrot le Fou," "Band of Outsiders," and "Made in U.S.A."; "Masculin Féminin"; "2 or 3 Things I Know About Her," "La Chinoise"; "Weekend"; "Tout Va Bien," with Jane Fonda and Yves Montand; "Every Man for Himself" and "Passion," with Isabelle Huppert; "First Name: Carmen"; "Hail Mary"; "Detective"; "King Lear," featuring himself, Norman Mailer and Woody Allen; "Film Socialisme"; "Goodbye to Language"; and "The Image Book."
In a 2002 poll of critics by the British Film Institute for Sight + Sound, Godard ranked #3 on the list of Top 10 Directors (behind Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock), but he did not fare as well among his peers — his name did not appear when the BFI polled directors on their choices for Top Ten.
For "Sympathy for the Devil" (a documentary depicting American counterculture and revolutionary movements like the Black Panthers, interwoven with film taken of the Rolling Stones recording in the studio), the producer re-edited Godard's version, leaving the director so incensed he punched the producer in the nose in front of a London audience.
Godard's reputation as an enfant terrible was not limited to what appeared on screen. In his early days he was something of a kleptomaniac with his family and colleagues; and when fellow filmmaker and longtime friend Agnes Varda visited his home in Rolle, Switzerland, while filming her 2017 documentary "Faces Places," Godard refused even to come to the door. Hurt, Varda left a note on his window glass ("No thanks for your bad hospitality"), but, she admitted, "I drew a heart anyway."
Queen Elizabeth II
Since ascending to the throne in 1952 at the age of 25, Queen Elizabeth II (April 21, 1926-September 8, 2022) was Great Britain's longest-reigning monarch, her rule marking years of change in the U.K. and throughout the British Empire following World War II. Her endurance as a stoic symbol of heritage and tradition, even as her country underwent enormous social upheavals, made her the most significant figure in British culture, a huge unifying symbol across generations, and a beloved matriarch far beyond the Empire's shifting boundaries.
The eldest daughter of George VI (who'd become king following the abdication of his older brother, Edward VIII), Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor worked to raise her country's morale during wartime, and volunteered as a mechanic in the women's auxiliary service. She married Philip Mountbatten, a member of the Greek royal family, and gave birth to four children — Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward.
After her father's death, Elizabeth's sense of duty became her primary image to the world. "I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service," she told the nation.
But the course of the British monarchy over the past seven decades would be a rocky one. In contrast to her steadfast union with Prince Philip, the marriages of her sister Margaret, her daughter Anne, and her sons Charles and Andrew all ended in divorces. The queen's lowest point was the death in 1997 of Princess Diana, following her tabloid-fodder separation from Charles, when the monarch's reputation for being unflappable stood in stark contrast to the public's very demonstrative show of emotion and grief.
After days of public silence, Elizabeth addressed the nation on television: "What I say to you now, as your Queen and as a grandmother, I say from my heart. First, I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being. In good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh, nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness. I admired and respected her — for her energy and commitment to others, and especially for her devotion to her two boys."
During Diana's funeral procession, the queen offered a bow to her coffin — a notably significant departure from royal protocol.
The queen would make gradual accommodations to the times and to the changing expectations of a less-deferential British public, for example agreeing to pay taxes on her income after complaints about the costs of repairing a fire-damaged Windsor Castle. She also helped guide the maturation of her grandchildren, Prince William and Prince Harry, after Diana's death.
When Prince Charles remarried Camilla Parker Bowles, the queen hosted the reception, and in time made her preference known that once Charles succeeded her as king, Camilla should be honored with the title Queen Consort.
Bernard Shaw
Bernard Shaw (May 22, 1940-September 7, 2022), who became the first anchor of the fledgling CNN upon its launch in 1980, would cover such stories as the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, student demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, the first Gulf War in 1991, and the 2000 presidential election.
Born in Chicago, Shaw was a U.S. Marine in Hawaii in 1961, when he managed to secure a meeting with one of his journalistic heroes, Walter Cronkite, who later described Shaw to the Washington Post as "the most persistent guy I've ever met in my life … I was going to give him five begrudging minutes, and ended up talking to him for a half-hour. He was just determined to be a journalist."
Shaw got a radio job as a reporter in Chicago, where he interviewed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He worked as a political reporter at CBS during the Watergate years, and was later ABC's Latin America correspondent and bureau chief. He was one of the first reporters on the scene of the 1978 Jonestown massacre in Guyana.
At CNN, the first 24-hour news channel, Shaw anchored the network's on-the-scene reporting from Baghdad as airstrikes marked the beginning of the U.S. invasion to liberate Kuwait.
"In all of the years of preparing to being anchor, one of the things I strove for was to be able to control my emotions in the midst of hell breaking out," Shaw told NPR in 2014. "And I personally feel that I passed my stringent test for that in Baghdad."
In 1988 Shaw was the first African American to moderate a presidential debate. When Shaw asked Democrat Michael Dukakis – who opposed the death penalty – whether he would condone capital punishment if his own wife had been raped and killed, Dukakis' cool, legalistic response was deemed fatally damaging to his candidacy. Shaw himself was criticized for even asking it.
"Since when did a question hurt a politician?" Shaw said in a 2001 CSPAN interview. "It wasn't the question. It was the answer."
Peter Straub
Bestselling horror writer and poet Peter Straub (March 2, 1943-September 4, 2022) was best known for his lyrical novels that helped revive the supernatural genre, namely "Ghost Story" and "Julia," and for his collaborations with Stephen King: "The Talisman" and its sequel, "Black House."
A Milwaukee native, Straub almost died when he was hit by a car at age seven. He told Salon in 2016, "It took me a long time to see this, but of course it kind of darkened my view of life in general. It meant that I was way more open to fear than any child ought to be, and that I knew more about fear and its first cousin terror, and pain, than children are normally expected to know. And it meant that I was kind of pushed forward into an emotional understanding that I wasn't quite prepared for.
"It was very, very complex. I had nightmares; my behavior suffered. I darkened in character; I was less amenable, less friendly. I was way less a child than I had been beforehand. It took me a long time to understand the consequences of that single event. Once I did understand the consequences then I was far more able to deal with them. It meant also that I had that material available for conscious thematic use."
Straub taught at a private school before moving with his wife to Ireland, where he studied for his doctorate. Instead of a dissertation, though, he wrote a novel, "Marriages." But after publishing poetry, he tried for more commercial success by writing about the supernatural (given the popularity of "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exorcist"). "Julia," about a mother whose child had died and is haunted by the ghost of another, was a success, and was turned into a film starring Mia Farrow, "The Haunting of Julia."
Straub continued writing about fantasy, horror, murder and the supernatural, with "If You Could See Me Now," "Ghost Story" (which became a 1981 film with John Houseman and Fred Astaire), "Shadowland," "Floating Dragon," "Koko," "Mystery," "The Throat," "The Hellfire Club," "Mr. X," "Lost Boy, Lost Girl," "In the Night Room," and "Dark Matter." He also published several novellas and short story collections. (Neil Gaiman once likened Straub's short fiction to "tiny novels you drown in.") He also edited the Library of America's volume of H.P. Lovecraft tales.
In 1998 he told Locus Magazine, "A recent novella I wrote for 'Murder For Revenge,' an Otto Penzler anthology, 'Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff', is based very loosely on 'Bartleby the Scrivener' by Melville. I reread 'Bartleby' when it came out in one of those 'Penguin 60s' that also included my 'Blue Rose', and to say I was impressed and moved is drastically to understate. I thought it was one of the most beautiful, most profound things I'd ever read. It also addressed and spoke to an interest of mine which could loosely be called 'indeterminacy.' That is, what you know to be part of the greatness of 'Bartleby' is that it's very difficult to describe in any terms but its own. You cannot reduce it to an equation. You cannot extract a comforting little moral from it. It's hard to say exactly what it means, but it is completely profound."
Barbara Ehrenreich
A prolific writer of articles for The Nation, The New York Times, Harper's, Vogue and others, activist Barbara Ehrenreich (August 26, 1941-September 1, 2022) was a teacher and researcher (she received a Ph.D. from Rockefeller University). She became more involved in the feminist movement following the birth of her daughter, Rosa, she explained, as she was appalled by her hospital's treatment of patients.
She authored or co-authored 23 books, her most famous being 2001's "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America," in which she recounted taking on minimum-wage jobs (such as a hotel maid, waitress, cleaning woman, and Wal-Mart sales clerk), and moving into cheap lodging, to find out firsthand about the lives and struggles of the working poor – people she dubbed "the major philanthropists of our society."
She wrote, "They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else."
Other books included "Long March, Short Spring: The Student Uprising at Home and Abroad" (written with her then-husband, John Ehrenreich); "Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class"; "The Worst Years of Our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed"; "This Land is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation"; "Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War"; "Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything"; and "Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer."
In 2011 Ehrenreich, who'd gone through a grueling bout with breast cancer, talked with "Sunday Morning" correspondent Rita Braver about her resistance to the notion of "positive thinking" being a determinant of one's experience, which she characterized as, "If things don't go well, if you get sick, or if you lose your job, or fall into poverty, it must be your fault because you weren't sending the right thoughts out into the universe."
"Well, what's wrong with that attitude? A lot of people have it," said Braver.
"It's wrong because it's not true!" Ehrenreich laughed.
In her book "Bright-Sided," she argued that the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America.
"Is the alternative to positive thinking to be negative or pessimistic or fatalistic?" asked Braver.
"The alternative is to try to see the world as it is more. Realism, I would call that," she replied.
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev (March 2, 1931-August 30, 2022) was the last president of the U.S.S.R., whose efforts to revitalize his country's lagging economy and to advance a staid communist bureaucracy through the introduction of "glasnost" (openness) led to the fall of the Iron Curtain, the breakup of the Soviet Union, and an end to the Cold War. He survived an attempted coup in August 1991, but in a matter of months, after more and more Soviet republics declared their independence, he resigned on December 25, 1991. The next day, the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
During his short tenure (he had risen to become Soviet leader in March 1985), Gorbachev sought reforms freeing political prisoners, expanding the ability of citizens to travel and engage in open debate, and ending religious persecution. He established closer ties with the West, holding summits with leaders such as American Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and moved to reduce nuclear arsenals, while watching Eastern European satellite states pull away from Moscow's influence.
He also oversaw the USSR's ignominious withdrawal from Afghanistan, and initially called Western reports about the effects of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident an "unbridled anti-Soviet campaign."
But the freedoms he promoted became synonymous to many of his countrymen with chaos, as long-suppressed ethnic tensions flared. There were uprisings and wars in the southern Caucasus and Baltic republics. Many seniors lost their life savings because of hyper-inflation. Price increases led to shortages, bread lines, factory shutdowns, and strikes.
"I see myself as a man who started the reforms that were necessary for the country and for Europe and the world," Gorbachev told the Associated Press in 1992. "I am often asked, would I have started it all again if I had to repeat it? Yes, indeed. And with more persistence and determination."
Gorbachev received numerous accolades, including the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize. But his global popularity was not matched back home, where he was blamed for the Soviet Union's collapse, and for the economic turmoil that followed. When he ran for president in 1996, he received less than 1% of the vote.
In his address to the nation upon stepping down from office, Gorbachev reflected, "The process of renovating this country and bringing about fundamental changes in the international community proved to be much more complex than originally anticipated. However, let us acknowledge what has been achieved so far. Society has acquired freedom; it has been freed politically and spiritually. And this is the most important achievement, which we have not fully come to grips with in part because we still have not learned how to use our freedom."
Wolfgang Petersen
German filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen (March 14, 1941-August 12, 2022) burst onto the international scene with his 1981 drama "Das Boot," one of the most compelling war films ever made, which perfectly captured the claustrophobia facing a German submarine crew during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II. What was then the most expensive movie in German film history, "Das Boot" would be nominated for six Academy Awards (including two for Petersen, for direction and screenwriting).
It would launch Petersen (who'd worked extensively in German television, but who grew up enamored by the films of John Ford) towards a Hollywood career, starting with the 1984 children's fantasy "The NeverEnding Story." He later directed the Clint Eastwood Secret Service drama "In the Line of Fire"; the Harrison Ford thriller "Air Force One"; the George Clooney disaster film "The Perfect Storm"; and the historical epic "Troy," starring Brad Pitt.
Other credits include "Enemy Mine," "Shattered," "Outbreak," and "Poseidon." His last film, which he shot back in Germany, was the comedy "Four vs. the Bank."
In 2016 he talked with German broadcaster Deutsche Welle about his fascination with American films while growing up: "It has very much to do with the situation in Germany after the war. We didn't learn about the situation under the Nazis. My parents never really talked about that. And for a kid at the age of 10 or 12, you want an answer. I had the feeling that everything in my world and in Germany around that time was unclear. There was no moral there; there was no understanding of why things happened.
"In these films, there was clarity – especially in Westerns – about what is good and what is bad and about what you have to fight against and why. Clarity is important for a boy, and it was missing from the world around us."
Anne Heche
Actress Anne Heche (May 25, 1969-August 11, 2022) first gained notice on the NBC soap "Another World," in which she played twins Marley and Vicky Hudson, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award. Her subsequent film career included roles opposite Johnny Depp in "Donnie Brasco," Tommy Lee Jones in "Volcano," Harrison Ford in "Six Days, Seven Nights," and Vince Vaughn and Joaquin Phoenix in "Return to Paradise." One of her best performances was as a White House aide opposite media spin doctor Robert De Niro in the 1997 political satire "Wag the Dog."
Other credits included "Walking and Talking," "I Know What You Did Last Summer," the color shot-for-shot remake of "Psycho," "John Q," "Birth," "Cedar Rapids" and "Wild Card." On TV she starred in the comedy series "Men in Trees," "Save Me," "Dig," "Aftermath," "The Brave," and "The Idol," and appeared in "Ally McBeal," "Hung," "The Michael J. Fox Show," "Chicago P.D.," and "All Rise." In 2020 she was a contestant on "Dancing With the Stars."
In her candid 2001 memoir "Call Me Crazy," Heche recounted her peripatetic and oppressive childhood (her family moved nearly a dozen times), and years of sexual abuse by her father. She began acting at age 12 at a N.J. dinner theater to earn money for her family after her father died of complications from AIDS. The following year her 23-year-old brother died by suicide.
At 17 she began therapy for having experienced "a lot of death, and a lot of abuse and homelessness," she told the Associated Press. "I went through eight years of trying to be at peace with who I was and what had happened to me as a child." In her book she described developing a separate personality due to her suffering.
In 1997 she began a relationship with comedian Ellen Degeneres, making them one of Hollywood's first openly-gay couples. (They would be together for three years.) But Heche said it affected her professionally – she claimed the studio threatened her if she brought Degeneres to the "Volcano" premiere afterparty, and that it was Ford's support that kept her from being fired from the rom-com "Six Days, Seven Nights." As media outlets tut-tutted over "how to deal with a gay actress whose career has been built on playing heterosexual roles," Heche claimed to be blacklisted from studio pictures. She continued to work on TV, and on Broadway (in "Proof" and "Twentieth Century").
Heche's mental health issues would also become fodder for the media, as when she had a public breakdown following the end of her relationship with Degeneres. She would go on to have two children, one with husband Coleman Laffoon (whom she divorced in 2009), and one with actor James Tupper.
In 2020 Heche was asked by the magazine Mr. Warburton what advice she would share with a young up-and-comer struggling with insecurity or finding their true self: "Risk is the key. Be yourself. Be brave. Also, the longer I have been in the business, the more I know that everyone pretends to know more than they do. So don't be intimidated!"
Bill Pitman
A member of the elite cadre of Los Angeles session musicians known as the "Wrecking Crew," guitarist Bill Pitman (February 12, 1920-August 11, 2022) played on hundreds of recordings for such artists as Mel Torme, Buddy Rich, Frank Sinatra, The Mamas & the Papas, The Everly Brothers, The Ronettes, Elvis Presley, Jan & Dean, The Monkees, Sam Cooke, James Brown, The Carpenters, and The Beach Boys.
A New Jersey native (his father was a bass player for NBC in New York), Pitman went West after serving in World War II, to study at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and Arts. His session work would lead him to producer Phil Spector (to whom, years earlier, he'd given guitar lessons) and to countless pop and rock songs that helped define the era. He performed on hundreds of recordings (in one year alone he played in 425 recording sessions), such as The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" album (including "Wouldn't It Be Nice"), Frank Sinatra's "Strangers In The Night," The Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man," and Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were."
He also played on TV and movie soundtracks (from "MASH" to "Bonanza" and "Star Trek"). Though his performances were often anonymous, they were nonetheless memorable, whether he was wielding a Daneletro six-string bass guitar (on the theme for the TV series "The Wild, Wild West"), or a ukulele (on the Oscar-winning song from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head").
Olivia Newton-John
Four-time Grammy Award-winning singer Olivia Newton-John (September 26, 1948-August 8, 2022) sold 100 million albums in a career that stretched from radio to the movie screen and Las Vegas, while radiating courage and grace in her years-long battle against cancer.
Born in England, the daughter of a German literature professor and granddaughter of a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Newton-John's family moved to Australia when she was 5, but she returned to England in her teens to live with her mother after her parents split. She won singing contests, and recorded her first single, "Till You Say You'll Be Mine," in 1966.
From the early 1970s, Newton-John had 14 Top 10 singles in the U.S., beginning with several hits on the Adult Contemporary and Country charts (including "If Not For You" and "Let Me Be There," which climbed into the Billboard Top 10). In 1973 she was named the Country Music Association's top artist (beating out Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn), but her music became more associated with the pop genre. She hit #1 with "I Honestly Love You" and "Have You Never Been Mellow."
In 1978 she starred with John Travolta in the film version of the musical "Grease," which featured their #1 duets, "You're the One That I Want" and "Summer Nights," as well as the #2 hit, "Hopelessly Devoted To You." In 1980 she starred in the film "Xanadu," from which the song "Magic" also hit #1.
The following year she topped the charts again with "Physical," which sat at #1 for 10 weeks and was named song of the year by Billboard, despite its being banned by some radio stations due to its somewhat provocative lyrics. Her music video for the song won a Grammy for best video.
At age 43, Newton-John felt a lump during a breast self-examination. She was diagnosed with cancer on the same day her father died. "I had a daughter, I had a child to care about," she told "CBS Sunday Morning" in 2019. "And that was my focus. You know, 'I've gotta get through this for her.'"
Declared cancer-free after chemotherapy, she became an activist and philanthropist, serving as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme, and founding the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre in Melbourne in 2012.
And she continued to perform. Newton-John's later albums included "Stronger Than Before" (2005); the 2012 holiday album "This Christmas" (in which she re-teamed with Travolta); and 2015's "Summer Nights: Live in Las Vegas," which grew out of her three-year-long residency on the Strip.
But her cancer returned in 2013. "Why me? has never been a part of it," she said. "I never felt victimized." She chose instead to deal with it. The cancer went into remission, but in 2017 it returned.
In 2019, she penned an autobiography, "Don't Stop Believin'," and auctioned off hundreds of items from her collection, raising more than $2 million for her cancer center. One of the items sold: her skintight black leather pants from "Grease," which – she proved to "Sunday Morning" in 2019 – still fit her.
In talking about "Grease" to The Telegraph in 2017, she recalled: "Everything about making the film was fun, but if I had to pick a favorite moment, it was the transformation from what I call Sandy 1 to Sandy 2. I got to play a different character and wear different clothes, and when I put on that tight black outfit to sing 'You're the One That I Want,' I got a very different reaction from the guys on the set."
David McCullough
A familiar voice in television documentaries, historian David McCullough (July 7, 1933-August 7, 2022) won two Pulitzer Prizes for his biographies of presidents: the 1992 book "Truman," and the 2001 "John Adams," which became the basis of the HBO miniseries that won 13 Emmy Awards. He also authored books on Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
But McCullough's expertise went beyond the White House. He wrote books on the Johnstown Flood, the Brooklyn Bridge, the building of the Panama Canal, the Revolutionary War, and the settling of the American West.
He narrated documentaries on PBS' "American Experience," and series by Ken Burns (such as "The Civil War," "The Statue of Liberty" and "Brooklyn Bridge"). He also narrated the 2003 film "Seabiscuit," the real-life story of the racehorse that defied everyone's worst expectations.
He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006.
In a 2017 interview on CBS' "Face the Nation," in describing how the nation was living in "clearly a dangerous time," McCullough discussed how America needed to learn the lessons of how it overcame a civil war, the 1918 influenza epidemic and the Great Depression, as well as winning two world wars. "I think we need to remember who we are and how we got to be where we are and how much we owe to those who went before us," McCullough said. "And there's much to be learned from them, much to be learned from history. We are not doing very well or not doing as well as we should in raising our oncoming generations with an appreciation of the story of their country."
In addition to advocating for better teaching of history, McCullough was also active in historical preservation efforts, including, in the 1990s, fighting the Walt Disney Company's proposed theme park near Manassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia. The theme park plans were shelved.
For all of his writings about the successes and failures of America's past, and of its leaders (and despite his criticism of the 45th president's time in office as "disappointing" and "grotesque"), McCullough was an optimist about our country. He told "Sunday Morning" in 2019, "We're just getting started. That's the way I feel. Two hundred years is nothing!"
Dr. Raymond Damadian
In the late 1960s, Dr. Raymond Damadian (March 16, 1936-August 3, 2022) began experimenting at a Brooklyn medical center with nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy – hitting tissue with radio wave pulses within a magnetic field. When he discovered in 1970 that it provided a feasible means to detect cancerous cells in rats, he published his findings, which lead to his construction of the first MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanner.
The very first scan, in a machine he called "Indomitable," was conducted on July 3, 1977, on one of his assistants, he being skinny enough, after an earlier scan on Damadian failed. "I was just too fat for the coil," he told Inc. Magazine in 2011.
Damadian then founded a company, Fondar, to produce a commercial version of the scanner. He was immediately embroiled in legal tussles over infringement of his patents when competing companies tried to market their own MRI scanners; Damadian lost some fights, won others (including a 1997 judgment against General Electric for $128 million). Fonar would later introduce an upright MRI scanner.
Damadian would receive the National Medal of Technology and be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. But when the 2003 Nobel Prize was awarded to two other scientists for the development of magnetic resonance imaging, Damadian launched a campaign to right what he characterized a "shameful wrong."
Melissa Bank
The 1999 New York Times bestseller "The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing," the first book by writer Melissa Bank (October 11, 1960-August 2, 2022), was a collection of seven interconnected stories about a young woman, Jane Rosenal, who ages from 14 to her 30s. It became a tremendous critical and commercial success, selling more than 1.5 million copies, and was translated into dozens of languages.
Bank, a Cornell University masters' graduate and copywriter for an ad firm, won a short-story competition in 1993. The "Girls' Guide" title story was published in 1998 in the magazine Zoetrope, prompting a bidding war for a collection. But it would take Bank 12 years to complete "Girls' Guide," her work interrupted by a bicycle accident from which she suffered short-term memory loss and an inability to remember words.
Upon the collection's publication, Bank was praised for her "exquisite portraits of loneliness," and for her wit and precise language, inspired by such writers as Vladimir Nabokov, John Cheever and Ernest Hemingway. Two stories from "Girls' Guide" were adapted for the 2007 romcom "Suburban Girl."
She also authored the story collection "The Wonder Spot," and taught in the MFA program at Stony Brook University in Southampton, New York.
In a 1999 interview with Salon.com, Bank said she was initially intimidated by other writers' voices: "Remarkably, I felt really freed when I got to college. At a certain point I had this breakthrough – I was really blocked, and I started saying this thing to myself: 'You're the only person who can write this story.' And that signaled more confidence in my voice. I stopped trying to write like other writers, all of whom were male, and just learned to be myself on the page."
Bank said she didn't set out to create in Jane an Everywoman: "I wanted a true character, but I didn't think, 'Oh, here's somebody everyone can relate to'; I wasn't thinking about an audience. You get somebody right by getting all of the little, tiny things right. Somehow that's how you wind up at anything universal."
Vin Scully
"Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good evening to you wherever you may be."
He was the longest tenured broadcaster with a single team in pro sports history, a gracious commentator and storyteller, and a true fan of the game, even when his beloved Dodgers were behind. Vin Scully (November 29, 1927-August 2, 2022) began in the 1950s with the Brooklyn Dodgers, when the "Bums" fielded such stars as Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese, and followed the team to Los Angeles, announcing the exploits of such legends as Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Steve Garvey and Don Sutton. And while the team changed rosters and managers many times over, Scully was in the announcing booth as the Voice of the Dodgers for nearly seven decades, including for six World Series championships.
Born in the Bronx, Scully's family moved to Brooklyn following the death of his father. It was there he played stickball and listened to sports on the radio. He eventually broadcast games for the Fordham University radio station. Hired by the CBS radio affiliate in Washington, D.C. at age 22, Scully was soon picked by announcer Red Barber to sit in the Brooklyn Dodgers' broadcast booth, making his debut on Opening Day in 1950. He stayed with the team for 67 seasons.
During his tenure, he called 18 no-hitters and three perfect games. He was at the mic in 1974 in Atlanta when the Braves' Hank Aaron hit a home run off Dodger Al Downing to break Babe Ruth's all-time record. "A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol," Scully told his audience. "What a marvelous moment for baseball."
In addition to being the voice of the Dodgers, Scully called play-by-play for CBS and NBC for 25 World Series and 12 All-Star Games. He also called NFL games and PGA Tour events.
Scully was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, and in 2010 the American Sportscasters Association voted Scully "the greatest sportscaster of the 20th century." In 2016 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
It was in 2016 that the redhead who started with the Brooklyn Dodgers at 23 retired, just shy of his 89th birthday.
Scully told "Sunday Morning" in 2020 that in retirement he could enjoy watching baseball purely as a fan. "I don't watch it critically," he said. "I'm not listening really to what the announcers say: 'Are they trying to steal my stuff?' You know, I have none of that!"
That same year he auctioned off decades of sports memorabilia, raising more than $2 million, part of which was donated to UCLA for ALS research. He said he did not regret parting with any of his collection, from his Babe Ruth autograph to his 1988 World Series ring. "I would much rather treasure the memories," Scully told the Associated Press.
Bill Russell
"Today, we lost a giant," former President Barack Obama said of the loss of NBA legend Bill Russell (February 12, 1934-July 31, 2022). "On the court, he was the greatest champion in basketball history. Off of it, he was a civil rights trailblazer."
Russell was born in the segregated South and moved to Oakland, California, as a child. As a star player at the University of San Francisco, he led the team to two NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956, and then took home a gold medal from the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. Then he launched a legendary NBA career with the Boston Celtics, racking up a record 11 NBA championships while being named MVP five times and an all-star 12 times. After a decade with the Celtics, Russell took on the role of player-coach — the first Black head coach in NBA history — leading the team to titles in 1968 and '69.
Through it all, Russell stood tall for civil rights and social justice. He was at the March on Washington in 1963, when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, backed Muhammad Ali when the boxer was sidelined for refusing the draft, and refused to be cowed by racist taunts during his playing days in Boston.
"Bill stood for something much bigger than sports: the values of equality, respect and inclusion that he stamped into the DNA of our league," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wrote.
Nichelle Nichols
From her iconic role on "Star Trek" to her real-life role recruiting for NASA, Nichelle Nichols (December 28, 1932-July 30, 2022) was a groundbreaker on multiple fronts.
As Lt. Nyota Uhura, Nichols was one of the first Black actresses to star in a primetime TV show, and she and "Star Trek" made history with television's first interracial kiss in 1968.
In 2015 Nichols, participating in a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" chat, said that she had been ready to leave the show after the first season, after being offered a role on Broadway. But she was convinced to stay by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who told her, "Nichelle, whether you like it or not, you have become a symbol. If you leave, they can replace you with a blonde-haired white girl, and it will be like you were never there. What you've accomplished, for all of us, will only be real if you stay."
"That got me thinking about how it would look for fans of color around the country if they saw me leave," she wrote. "I saw that this was bigger than just me."
She stayed for the original series' three seasons, and returned for six theatrical features.
"She was the third-highest ranking member in the space command," civil rights attorney Ben Crump, an executive producer of the documentary "Women in Motion: Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek and the Remaking of NASA," told "CBS Saturday Morning" in 2021. "I mean, you talk about every little Black boy and girl running to the TV to say, 'Hello that's a Black woman, and she's in charge?'"
The head of NASA took note of her impact and hired Nichols to travel the country to recruit women and people of color for the space program.
Mourning her loss, Nichols' "Star Trek" costar George Takei tweeted, "my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend."
Tony Dow
The role of Wally Cleaver on TV's "Leave It to Beaver" shaped the life of actor Tony Dow (April 13, 1945-July 27, 2022) for years to come.
Dow was 12 years old when he started playing the older brother to Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver (Jerry Mathers) on the hit series that would quickly come to represent an idealized paradigm of mid-century American family life. The show ran from 1957 to 1963, and aired for decades afterwards in reruns. Dow reprised his role in a reunion movie and TV series in the 1980s.
But as he told CBS News' Jim Axelrod in a 2021 interview, it felt "sad to be famous at 12 years old or something, and then you grow up and become a real person, and nothing's happening for you." Depression, he said, is "a very powerful thing. And it's had a lot of effect on my life."
Dow found another creative outlet in art, which became his passion later in life. He credited his work as a sculptor — combined with medication and therapy — for helping him getting a handle on his depression.
In a 2012 interview with the Associated Press, Dow laughed when he recounted the day he decided it was time to take the leap from acting to sculpting. He was up for a role in a TV show and a 28-year-old executive asked, "Have you ever done comedy before," recalled Dow, co-star of one of the most classic TV comedies in history.
"Well, I sort of looked at him and I thought, `Hmmm, maybe it is time for me to retire. Maybe it is time to take the art seriously."'
James Lovelock
British scientist James Lovelock (July 26, 1919-July 26, 2022) popularized the concept of Gaia – that the Earth is a self-regulated living organism – and helped reshape thinking about the environment.
A chemist and inventor who worked as a consultant for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Shell, his ideas helped define what is now referred to as the "Lovelock test," when searching for chemical signs of life on other planets by studying their spectra.
In the 1970s Lovelock and microbiologist Lynn Margulis wrote of our planet as a synergistic body that self-regulates itself – the earth, the oceans and the atmosphere, as well as all living organisms on it. Named after the Greek deity, the holistic Gaia concept was described in journal articles that would form the basis of Lovelock's 1979 book, "Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth."
The Gaia concept would both inspire new studies in earth sciences and environmental activism (including warnings about the effects of man's contributions to climate change), and criticism for being "unscientific" and attributing causation or purpose to its existence.
In a 2021 article for the Guardian, Lovelock warned of "genocidal acts" – the proliferation of man-made greenhouse gases, and the clearcutting of rainforests – that have caused changes on a scale not seen in millions of years.
"My fellow humans must learn to live in partnership with the Earth, otherwise the rest of creation will, as part of Gaia, unconsciously move the Earth to a new state in which humans may no longer be welcome," he wrote. "The virus, COVID-19, may well have been one negative feedback. Gaia will try harder next time with something even nastier."
Paul Sorvino
In an acting career that spanned half a century, Paul Sorvino (April 13, 1939-July 25, 2022) made an indelible impact on screen, whether portraying a gangster or a cop, a communist or a statesman, a leading man or a comic character.
Born in Brooklyn, Sorvino trained in music and theater, making his Broadway debut in 1964 before Carl Reiner cast him in his first film role in "Where's Poppa?" More movies followed, including "The Panic in Needle Park" with Al Pacino, "The Gambler" with James Caan, "Oh, God!," "The Day of the Dolphin," "Bloodbrothers," "That Championship Season," Warren Beatty's "Reds" and "Dick Tracy," and Oliver Stone's "Nixon," playing Henry Kissinger. TV roles included "Bert D'Angelo/Superstar" (a spinoff from his appearance on "The Streets of San Francisco"), "Law & Order" (as NYPD sergeant Phil Cerreta), "Chiefs," "The Oldest Rookie," and "That's Life."
His best-known role was as mobster Paulie Cicero in Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas."
His early dream of being an opera singer was thwarted by asthma, but later in life he starred in a New York City opera production of "The Most Happy Fella." He also appeared in the 2008 film "Repo! The Genetic Opera."
He also had three children who followed him into the entertainment business, including the Oscar-winning actress Mira Sorvino, with whom he costarred in six films.
In a 1992 interview with Charlie Rose, Sorvino spoke of being drawn to performing as a moth is to flame: "If you ask me to weep, I will weep for you. I will not fake it. I won't put glycerin in my eyes. I will find the place in me that causes me to weep."
But for "Goodfellas," he admitted to Rose he had difficulty finding the emotional basis for crime boss Paulie Cicero, and spoke movingly about his personal quest as an actor: "When you ask me to express a certain lethality, to limn the unconscious of a murderer, a killer, a person who could kiss his grandchild and order your death in the next breath, I don't know what that is … When I took the role, I took it expressing to everyone that I knew exactly what to do when I knew nothing of how to do it. …
"I kept talking to myself for two months, day in and day out, looking for the place that would justify this lethality, this coldness and yet maintain a warm side, because just a coldness, that's an automaton. That's one-dimensional, a person who's killed himself off. Paulie Cicero had not killed himself off, but a certain part of him was absolutely dead – cold and dead. And I found that. And when I found that, I scared myself with it. It frightened the hell out of me, because I didn't suspect it, even in me. I did not suspect it was part of my building blocks. And one day I was crossing a mirror as I'd been working on it, I literally was jolted. I saw a dead look in my eyes. I said, 'Now I know the role.'"
Diana Kennedy
Chef and cookbook author Diana Kennedy (March 3, 1923-July 24, 2022) would become known as "the Julia Child of Mexican Cuisine," inspiring others such as José Andrés and Rick Bayless.
Born Diana Southwood in Britain, she studied culinary arts and collected recipes wherever she traveled. After moving to Mexico in the late 1950s (she soon married a New York Times foreign correspondent, Paul Kennedy), she became an authority on local cuisines and techniques, interviewing home cooks and researching local ingredients. She would later teach classes in traditional Mexican cooking.
Her nine books included "The Cuisines of Mexico" (1972), "The Tortilla Book" (1975), "Nothing Fancy: Recipes and Recollections of Soul-Satisfying Food" (1984), "My Mexico" (1998), and "From My Mexican Kitchen - Techniques and Ingredients" (2003).
She received the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame Award in 2014.
In a 2019 New York Times interview, Kennedy defended her reputation for being at time "prickly" with editors. "For God's sake, I'm not trying to win a popularity contest, I'm a cook!" she said. "There's far too much mediocrity in this world, and someone's got to say something."
David Warner
He played evil itself in the fantasy "Time Bandits," not to mention an evil computer program in "Tron," Jack the Ripper in "Time After Time," a Klingon in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," and a sinister henchman in "Titanic." David Warner (July 29, 1941-July 24, 2022) was one of the most dynamic actors of his generation. With numerous memorable appearances in films and TV, he won an Emmy Award as a Roman senator in the 1981 miniseries "Masada."
A student of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London (two of his fellow classmates were John Hurt and Ian McShane), Warner told The AV Club in 2017 that he had fallen into acting by default: "Academically I was hopeless, and athletically I was hopeless. In my Wikipedia entry, it says I had a messy childhood, and that's the truth! But I sort of drifted into the odd school play, and that was one thing that I kind of felt that I had some enthusiasm for."
A member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Warner has played Henry VI, Richard II, Hamlet and King Lear, as well as roles in "Julius Caesar," "Twelfth Nigh
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Eight years of Dateline's Missing in America: 169 still missing
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] |
[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Dateline NBC"
] |
2021-12-05T21:13:00+00:00
|
Dateline NBC's social and digital series 'Missing in America' began on December 5, 2013, following a question the night before to our Facebook community, "Do you know anyone who has simply vanished?" The response was overwhelming. Since that first post, every week we have tried to feature the story of a different missing person brought to our attention by a member of our social communities. But on this eighth anniversary of the series, approximately 40% of those we have featured are still missing. Read and share their stories. Someone, somewhere, saw something. If you know someone who is missing and would like their story featured, send us a message on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or email dateline.contactus@nbcuni.com.
|
en
|
https://nodeassets.nbcnews.com/cdnassets/projects/ramen/favicon/nbcnews/all-other-sizes-PNG.ico/favicon.ico
|
NBC News
|
https://www.nbcnews.com/dateline/eight-years-dateline-s-missing-america-169-still-missing-n1285376
|
Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include developments in multiple cases since this was originally published in December 2021.
---------------------
Dateline NBC's social and digital series 'Missing in America' began on December 5, 2013, following a question the night before to our Facebook community, "Do you know anyone who has simply vanished?"
The response was overwhelming. Since that first post, every week we have tried to feature the story of a different missing person brought to our attention by a member of our social communities. But on this eighth anniversary of the series, approximately 40% of those we have featured are still missing.
Read and share their stories. Someone, somewhere, saw something. If you know someone who is missing and would like their story featured, send us a message on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or email dateline.contactus@nbcuni.com.
Erin Marie Gilbert
Erin Marie Gilbert went on a first date to the Girdwood Forest Fair in Girdwood, Alaska on July 1, 1995. The 24-year-old has been missing ever since. Erin had moved to Alaska the year prior and was working as a nanny. Her sister, Stephanie, told Dateline that Erin left for her date on July 1 with David “Dave” Combs, a man whom Stephanie said Erin had met a few nights earlier at a local bar. They drove to the Girdwood Forest Fair, and according to witness statements to the Alaska State Troopers, Erin was last seen at a beer garden with her date before they left around 6 p.m. In a statement to authorities in 1995, Dave Combs said they walked to his car, but the lights had been left on and it would not start. He told Erin he would walk to a nearby friend’s house for help. He said he walked for about two hours, but was unable to find his friend’s house. When he returned to the car, he said Erin was gone. He told authorities he figured Erin returned to the fair. Combs said when he tried to start the car this time, it worked. He stated he went back to the fair and searched for Erin until about 1 a.m. Lieutenant Randy McPherron, who is the sole investigator in the Alaska State Troopers’ Cold Case Investigation Unit, told Dateline in 2019 they haven’t received any leads in several years, but said he would follow up on any that come in. He added there are no suspects in Erin’s disappearance but said they have attempted to reach Dave Combs multiple times for questioning. McPherron told Dateline in 2021 that there have been no updates in the case. Erin’s sister, Stephanie, started a Facebook page FindingErinMarieGilbert, where she continues to post regularly. At the time of her disappearance, Erin was described as 5’5’, 145 lbs, with brown hair and hazel eyes. She would be 50 years old today. Anyone with information about Erin’s case is asked to call the Alaska State Troopers at 907-428-7200 or Lt. McPherron at 907-269-5611.
Anesha “Duffy” Murnane
Anesha “Duffy” Murnane, 38, was last seen on security video on October 17, 2019, leaving her Homer, Alaska apartment heading to a 1 p.m. doctor’s appointment. She never made it. Police said security cameras captured Duffy leaving the Maintree Apartments on foot around 12:15 p.m. In the video, Duffy is wearing a blue jacket, light blue shirt and blue jeans. For weeks, law enforcement, assisted by K-9 units, searched the area where Duffy was known to frequently travel by foot. Duffy’s family told Dateline that she did not own a car and usually walked everywhere she went. According to Homer Police Department Lieutenant Ryan Browning, search dogs tracked Duffy’s scent into downtown Homer but then lost it, reaching a point search-dog handlers call a “car pick up.” Duffy’s mother, Sara Berg, says the family believes someone picked her up in a vehicle and that she has been abducted. She added that there has been no activity on Duffy’s bank cards and her phone battery was dead at the time of her disappearance. Sara filed a presumptive death petition for her daughter in April, 2021. On June 17, 2021, a six-member jury decided that Duffy can be presumed dead and also determined that her death was a homicide. According to online court records, Homer Superior Court Judge Bride Seifert issued a death certificate for Duffy on June 25. Her parents have long believed that she was murdered, but say they were still surprised to learn her death was a homicide. According to a June 23 press release, Homer Police consider Duffy’s case to be active and under investigation. Police continue to urge people to call the department if they think they’ve had any contact at all with Duffy or have any information about her whereabouts.
“‘Any contact with her’ means just that, anything at all,” the press release stated. “Even seeing her at some type of event without actually speaking with her, walking somewhere or in a vehicle could prove helpful.” Anyone with information about Duffy’s whereabouts should contact the Homer Police Department at 907-235-3150 or Crime Stoppers at 907-283-8477.
Doren Sanford
Doren Sanford was in Fairbanks, Alaska to look at some property that he was interested in purchasing when he went missing on August 28, 2020. He was last known to be in the area of Airport Road where he was searching for his lost Rottweiler, Groot. Both are now missing. Doren, who was 34 at the time, was raised in Tok with his large extended family, and lived in Anchorage where he worked as a heavy equipment operator/laborer. He had recently started his own business, Sanford Home Repair & Remodel. Lieutenant Jess Carson of the Alaska State Troopers told Dateline in March that they continue to look for Doren and believe that finding Groot may lead to more answers on Doren’s whereabouts. He added that troopers suspect foul play in Doren’s disappearance and believe they’ve already spoken to people who know what happened to him. The Alaska State Troopers have been working closely with the Village Public Safety Officers, the Fairbanks Police Department, the FBI, The Tanana Chiefs Conference, and the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Initiative. Doren is described as being 5’10” tall, weighing approximately 140-160 lbs, with brown hair and blue eyes. A Facebook page “Find Doren Sanford” has been created to share developments in the case. If you have any information on Doren’s whereabouts, please contact the Alaska State Troopers (907) 451-5100. A $10,000 reward is being offered by the family for information that leads to Doren.
Najib ‘Jubi’ Monsif
Najib ‘Jubi’ Monsif, 20, was last seen by his father around 2 a.m. on September 23, 2021, at their home in Scottsdale, Arizona. Later that morning, his father discovered Jubi was gone. Jubi has autism and is described as having the mental capacity of an 8-year-old. His belongings were left at home and he did not have a cell phone with him. Jubi’s family says it’s unusual for him to leave the house on his own and believes he was lured out of the house. They are offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information that leads to his whereabouts. Jubi is described as being 5’10”, about 100 lbs, with a thin build. He was most likely wearing all black clothing and moccasins when he went missing. Anyone who believes they have an immediate sighting of Jubi should call 911. Anyone with information about Jubi’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Scottsdale Police at 480-312-5000.
UPDATE: Jubi’s remains were discovered on December 7, 2021, in Mesa, Arizona. Scottsdale Police say there are no apparent signs of foul play.
Alicia Navarro
Fifteen-year-old Alicia Navarro was last seen at her home in Glendale, Arizona, in the very early morning hours of September 15, 2019. When her parents woke up, she was gone and had left a note for them that read, “I ran away. I will be back. I swear. I’m sorry.” Alicia’s laptop was also gone, but the chargers were left behind in her room. Her mother, Jessica Nuñez, told Dateline in 2020 that she is especially worried because her daughter is on the autism spectrum and is known to be shy or anxious in some social situations. Alicia takes medicine and has a compromised immune system and Jessica has been worried that her daughter’s anxiety may have overwhelmed her amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, Glendale Police Sgt. Randy Stewart told Dateline it was not known if Alicia was lured away or if she left on her own, but they were continuing to search for her and said they could use the public’s help for new information. The Glendale Police Department is working with the FBI and the Center for Missing and Exploited Children on the case. Officer Tiffany Ngalula, spokesperson for the Glendale Police Department, told Dateline last month that investigators have received and investigated at least 300 tips since 2019, and continue to receive at least four or five tips a week via social media and phone calls. A Facebook page called Finding Alicia Navarro has been created for anyone wanting to discuss the case or provide information that may lead to her whereabouts. Alicia has brown eyes, brown hair. She was 4’5”, weighed 95 lbs, and had braces at the time of her disappearance. She may have been wearing a sweatshirt, a whitewash denim overall skirt and black and white Vans-type sneakers and carrying a silver Apple MacBook Pro laptop. If you have any information on Alicia’s whereabouts, call the Glendale Police at 623-930-3000.
Daniel Robinson
On June 23, 2021, 24-year-old Daniel Robinson, drove his 2017 blue Jeep Renegade with Arizona license plate NLA2CMA as he left his job site in the desert area west of Sun Valley Parkway just north of Cactus Road in Buckeye, Arizona. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since. Investigators said a ping was established on his cell phone but no location data was available due to the phone being off or out of range. It did not appear he'd made any calls or texts after leaving the work site. After graduating from the College of Charleston in South Carolina in 2019, Daniel was hired as a field geologist for Matrix New World Engineering and moved to Phoenix. He oversees sites located in remote desert areas and often works in extreme conditions, and travels long distances for projects. For months, multiple searches were conducted, but there was no trace of Daniel. In October, Daniel’s Jeep was discovered by a rancher in a ravine on his property about four miles southwest of the jobsite where he was last seen. Police say the Jeep appears to have rolled and landed on its side. Several of Daniel’s belongings were found at the scene, including clothes, his cell phone, wallet, and keys. A ground search was conducted, but nothing was found. In November, human remains were found in the search for Daniel, but were determined to belong to another missing person. Daniel’s father, David Robinson, who traveled cross country to search for him, told Dateline he will not leave Arizona until he finds his son. “It seems like it is simple, but when you are actually on the ground looking, it takes time,” he said. “You know, even with the people that we have it takes time... it’s a lot of time, effort and money to keep things going and I get weary at times that it is going to fade eventually and I won’t have that kind of support anymore, but like I said, as a father my drive is to find my son so I will do whatever it takes to make it happen.” Daniel is described as being 5’8” tall and weighs about 165 lbs. He has black hair and brown eyes. Daniel is missing part of his right arm from the forearm down. Anyone with information on Daniel’s whereabouts is asked to call the Buckeye Police at 623-349-6400 or the Buckeye Police tip line at 623-349-6411.
Brad Allen
Brad Allen, 38, was last seen in the early morning hours of July 18, 2017, on his family’s property in Fountain Hill, Arkansas. Brad’s girlfriend, Megan Coady, told Dateline in 2018 that she and Brad had gotten into an argument the night before and he told her he was going on a walk through the woods to cool off. But when she woke up later that morning and Brad hadn’t returned home, Megan grew concerned. After a few days of searching, the family called authorities to report Brad missing. Police tell Dateline they have interviewed Brad’s family, friends and coworkers, but there are no persons of interest at this time. Foul play is suspected in Brad’s disappearance. If you have any information on Brad’s whereabouts, please contact the Ashley County Sheriff's Office at (870) 853-2040.
Brooke Allensworth
Brooke Allensworth was last seen on July 12, 2018, a day after getting her hair and nails done at a salon in Independence County, Arkansas. She was 37 years old. According to NBC affiliate KARK, Brooke’s father reported her missing on July 26 to the Searcy County Police Department, as Brooke lived in Searcy County at the time. On July 27, police in Independence County got a call that a vehicle registered to Brooke was found under a bridge. Some of her personal belongings were found inside the car. There was no sign of a struggle. A Facebook post by the Independence County Sheriff’s Office said police spoke with “several individuals” who had contact with Brooke in the days preceding her disappearance. Though no information led them to Brooke’s whereabouts, tips started coming in from multiple counties and the case was transferred to the Arkansas State Police Department. There have been no updates in her case. Brooke is described as being 5’8” and weighing 180 lbs. If you have any information on the circumstances surrounding her disappearance, please call the Arkansas State Police at (501) 618-8000.
The California Five
Despite active pursuits on social media for many years now, the families of five young men who went missing in the San Francisco, California area over the past decade still have few answers. Jackson Miller, missing May 15, 2010, Cameron Remmer, missing October 6, 2011, Shawn Dickerson, missing December 2, 2011, Crishtian Hughes, missing February 7, 2013, and Sean Sidi, missing May 21, 2013, all vanished from various areas of San Francisco without a trace. On March 26, 2021, a possible sighting of Jackson Miller at a Target in Woodland, California shined a new light on the cases. A woman called the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office and reported that she had been approached by a man who identified himself as “Jackson” and stated he was a missing person and asked her for a ride. She declined and he left. According to Oxygen.com, the National Center For Missing And Exploited Children has since conducted a forensic cross-analysis of the Target surveillance images. The results came back “inconclusive," John Bischoff, vice president of the Missing Children Division, said. Leads and searches have unearthed virtually no clues in any of their cases, but members of every family have banded together to help in the search efforts and cope with their shared grief. If you have any information regarding any of these five cases, please contact the San Francisco Police Department at (415) 558-5508.
Christina Bastian
High school teacher Christina Bastian and her dog, Coco, were last seen together in the early hours of November 1, 2015, at a friend's home near Apple Valley, California. The 34-year-old’s belongings were later found strewn along Highway 247, near Lucerne Valley. Her truck was located, abandoned, on a dirt road along Highway 62. The next day, her dog Coco was found alive by a stranger nearly 70 miles from where the truck had been located. In the six years since Christina vanished, there have been few clues discovered in the case. Her mother, Cheryl Denny, continues to post on the Facebook page Help Find Christina Bastian and tirelessly searches for her daughter. If you have any information regarding Christina’s case, please call the Apple Valley Police Department at (760) 240-7400.
Nancy Bromet
Nancy Bromet left her father’s home in Sunrise, Florida on November 12, 2015, to head to Bakersfield, California with her boyfriend, a long-haul truck driver. Several days later, the 37-year-old called her sister Laura saying she was in distress and wanted to come home. Soon after that phone call, Nancy was reported missing by her boyfriend, who reportedly told police he dropped her off at a shopping mall outside El Centro, California, while he was finishing deliveries. He said Nancy was not there when he returned, according to police. Few clues have been discovered in the case, and the investigation is still “open and active,” authorities said. If you have any information regarding Nancy’s case, please call the El Centro Police Department at (760) 337-4861.
Cecilia Cabrera
The last images of Cecilia Cabrera were captured on security footage from the Tachi Palace Casino in Lemoore, California. It was just before 1 a.m. on June 9, 2016, when the 31-year-old was seen leaving the casino in her dark grey Chevrolet Malibu. Several hours later, a call came in to the California State Highway Patrol that a burning vehicle had been discovered in an orchard near Goshen, about 30 miles away from the casino. It was Cecilia’s car, but she was not inside. Cecilia was last seen with her husband, Francisco Valdivia. In December of 2016, the Tulare County District Attorney's office filed charges against Valdivia for felony murder and arson. A woman, Rosalina Lopez, who was also married to Valdivia, was charged with one felony count of being an accessory to murder after the fact. Valdivia and Lopez were arraigned at the Tulare County Pretrial Facility on Dec. 14, 2016. There was no bail set for Valdivia and bail for Lopez was set at $500,000. to the Sun Gazette in June 2019, Cecilia’s son, Juan, has joined the Tulare County Sheriff’s Office Explorer Program and plans to pursue a career as a TCSO Deputy Sheriff. As of 2021, Cecilia’s body has still not been found. If you have any information in Cecilia’s case, please call the Tulare County Sheriff's Department at (559) 735-1880.
Donald Cavanaugh
Donald Cavanaugh was one of two men who went missing more than a decade ago after working on the same small horse ranch in California outside Westport, a town with only 60 residents. Donald, then 63, was reported missing in May 2005, in Ukiah, California after a dispute with his nephew, James DeNoyer, who was the ranch owner. David Neily, 69, was reported missing in Westport, California just one year later, also reportedly after a confrontation with DeNoyer. Both men's vehicles were found on DeNoyer's ranch property. DeNoyer denies having any information or involvement in either man’s disappearance and has not been named a suspect. For years, both have been feared dead. In May 2021, human remains were found by an employee at a private nature reserve in an old-growth Douglas-fir forest in Branscomb, about 3.5 miles from where David’s car had been found 15 years ago. DNA analysis of the remains and dental records examined by Jim Wood, a California Assembly member and forensic dentistry expert, determined they belonged to David. The examinations found no evidence of trauma and the sheriff’s office continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding Neily’s disappearance. Donald Cavanaugh is still missing. If you have information about either of these cases, you are encouraged to call the Mendocino County Sheriff's Office at (707) 234-2100.
Dane Elkins
UC Santa Cruz student Dane Elkins, 21, was last known to be in the area of Castaic, California, around 8:20 p.m. on December 21, 2020. His car was found abandoned with a flat tire. His wallet and cell phone were located inside, but there was no sign of Dane. Dane’s mother, Deborah, told Dateline she spoke to her son that day. She added that in the days leading up to his disappearance, Dane had become mentally distressed due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and that he had been driving back and forth between their home in Brentwood and Santa Cruz, where he is an engineering student. He holds 23 national championships as a racquetball player and holds a black belt in Taekwondo. He also spent hours of his free time helping his mother as a volunteer to feed the homeless population in the Los Angeles area. For the past year, Dane’s family has used social media to reach out to the community for information on his whereabouts. A Facebook group Searching for Dane Elkins and the TikTok account @KindnessMom were launched to help with the search. In recent months, there have been reported sightings of Dane that his mother believes are legitimate and gives her hope that he is still alive. She said that anyone who believes they have spotted someone who might be Dane is encouraged to take a photo of the individual and send it to searchingfordaneelkins@gmail.com, which will allow the family to better determine if it actually could be Dane before passing it along to investigators. Dane is described as being 5’11” tall and weighing 170 lbs. He has brown hair and green eyes. His family said he had facial hair in the days before his disappearance. Anyone with information on his location is urged to call the LAPD’s Missing Persons Unit at (213) 996-1800. During non-business hours or on weekends, calls should be directed to 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (877-527-3247). Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477).
Monique Figueroa
Monique Figueroa told her family on May 19, 2015, that she was heading from her father’s home in Littlerock, California to visit friends in Los Angeles. Police recovered her 2004 Mercedes abandoned in a rural area outside Los Angeles several days later. Forensic tests were conducted, but no clues to Monique’s disappearance were uncovered. Several searches conducted over the past six years in relation to the case have not yielded anything significant. “I love my daughter; I would love her remains to be found and this case brought to a closure,” her father Jeff told Dateline. A $20,000 reward for information leading to arrests and conviction in Monique’s disappearance was reestablished by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on April 4, 2021. If you have any information regarding Monique’s case, please call the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department at (323) 890-5500 or Detective Karen Shonka at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5621 and refer to Report No. 015-07325-2661-400.
Diana Rose Alejandre Garcia Gonzalez
Diana Rose Alejandre Garcia Gonzalez had been known to travel between Winterhaven, California, Yuma, Arizona, and Mexico, but when she hadn’t been in contact with her family since April 2020, she was reported missing in that June. The 31-year-old, who was last seen on May 4, 2020, had been living with her girlfriend, Danielle Meeden, in Winterhaven. Diana had left her purse, cell phone and personal belongings behind. Investigator J. Hurtado confirmed to Dateline in 2020 that the sheriff’s office is actively searching for Diana and that it is an ongoing missing persons case. He added that they have interviewed several people about Diana’s disappearance. “There are many stories and rumors around this case right now,” Investigator Hurtado said. “So it’s hard to say at this time if foul play is involved.” Diana is described as being 5'3" tall and weighing approximately 180 lbs, with brown hair and brown eyes. Diana’s family said she dyes her hair often, so it may be a lighter brown or blonde color. Anyone who may have information about Diane’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Imperial County Sheriff’s Office Investigation Unit at 442-265-2105 and reference case #2006-1642.
Max Greenfield
On the night of March 17, 2018, Max Greenfield began messaging his friends asking if anyone wanted to go to the Lucky 7 Casino in Smith River, California. The casino was less than a 15-minute drive from Max’s house in Bookings, Oregon, and family says he went there often with friends. Security footage provided by the casino shows Max, 25, arriving around 1 a.m. A Curry County Sheriff’s Office press release says Max was then seen going outside the casino and waiting near the back door. Around 1:50 a.m., security footage shows Max talking to a white adult male in front of the casino. Max and the man are then seen walking south across the parking lot, parallel to Highway 101, until they go off camera, still walking south. Eighteen minutes later, the man re-enters the casino alone. In a statement to authorities, the man said he and Max “went separate ways after leaving the casino.” After conducting numerous interviews and searches, police tell Dateline they have suspects in the case but are not publicly releasing their names. Authorities say foul play is suspected and Max’s case is being treated as a homicide investigation. If you have any information on Max’s case, please call Detective Jerrin Gill at (707) 465-2468.
Karlie Gusé
On October 12, 2018, 16-year-old Karlie Gusé left her home in Chalfant, California to hang out with friends nearby. Karlie’s stepmother, Melissa, told Dateline she picked Karlie up from town and brought her home around 9 p.m. According to Melissa, they ate dinner together before Karlie went to bed. Karlie’s father, Zachary, told Dateline that Karlie seemed “disoriented” before she went to bed, but would not comment further on her condition. Melissa said she went to Karlie’s room early the next morning to check on her stepdaughter, but Karlie was nowhere to be found. Five months later, Melissa appeared on the Dr. Phil daytime talk show, and told Dr. Phil she had lied to NBC in October when she spoke to Dateline. “Melissa, you told NBC, the next morning that at 5:45 a.m., you did your usual routine of opening up the kids’ doors, saying good morning, getting them ready for school -- that sort of thing. Did you -- she was still in bed at that time -- did you go back and lay down?” Dr. Phil asked Melissa on the show which aired on March 25, 2019. “No. That -- the Dateline NBC?” Melissa answered. “Yeah, that was a false story. Because I wasn’t – it was a lie about checking in on Karlie. Because it was in the beginning, and I didn’t know what to say and – I shouldn’t have even done the interview.” Karlie’s mother, Lindsay Fairley, who lives in Nevada, told Dateline in 2018 that she had been sick to her stomach from the pain her daughter’s disappearance had caused. Authorities say Karlie was last seen wearing a white t-shirt and grey sweatpants. There have been reported sightings of Karlie in the past few years, but none has turned out to be her. If you have any information surrounding Karlie’s disappearance, please call the Mono County Sheriff’s Office at 760-932-7549 and select option 7.
Rico Omarr Harris
Former Harlem Globetrotter Rico Omarr Harris was in the middle of a big life move from California to Oregon in the fall of 2014. He was traveling to visit his girlfriend in Seattle when, on October 10, 2014, he mysteriously disappeared. Rico, then 37, was last seen leaving the home that he shared with his mother in Alhambra, California. Three days later, his vehicle was found in the Yolo County Regional Park area near Rumsey, California, about 450 miles north of Alhambra. His wallet, cell phone and backpack were all located nearby. Anyone with information about Rico should contact the Yolo County Sheriff's Department at (530) 668-5248.
Elaine Park
The last time anyone saw 20-year-old Elaine Park was in the early-morning hours of Saturday, January 28, 2017. Elaine had driven to her on-again, off-again boyfriend’s family’s home in Calabasas, California the previous evening. Elaine’s mother says the young man told her that Elaine had suffered some type of panic attack around 4 a.m. the next morning. He said despite his efforts to have her stay, Elaine drove off in her car. Security images from the property show Elaine’s car leaving the home, although authorities aren’t certain who is driving. Three days later, Elaine’s 2015 Honda Accord was spotted parked on the shoulder of Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. The vehicle was unlocked and the key was still in the ignition. Authorities found Elaine’s cell phone and other personal belongings inside the car. Anyone with information regarding her case is urged to contact the Glendale Police Department at (818) 548-4911.
Lyn Palmer
After working her normal volunteer shift at a local thrift store on April 20, 2018, 71-year-old Lyn Palmer returned to her home in Fall River Mills, California, where her husband of 20 years, Bob Palmer, was waiting for her. The couple was taking care of Bob’s daughter’s dog, a Blue Heeler named Lucy, for a few days. Lyn told her husband she was going to take Lucy on her typical 15-minute walk, leaving her phone, wallet, and purse on the kitchen counter. But she never returned. Four days later, Lucy returned to the house unharmed. Family and authorities have searched tirelessly for Lyn, but nothing of significance has been found and police say there are no signs of foul play. The Secret Witness program of Shasta County, in collaboration with Lyn’s family, is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to Lyn’s whereabouts. If you have any information on Lyn’s disappearance, please call the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office at (530)-245-6540. To leave a tip anonymously, call Secret Witness at (530)-243-2319.
Lance Perkins
Lance Perkins called his mother, Donna, on the night of October 23, 2016, to tell her that he was having blackouts. She told him to call 911 and go to the hospital. The 43-year-old was taken by ambulance from his hotel in San Diego to UCSD in Hillcrest. Three hours later, security cameras showed him walking out of the hospital. He never returned to his hotel, and he never called his mother back. Because of privacy laws, it’s unclear if Lance was treated at the hospital. Officials with the San Diego Police Department are investigating, but little information has been released in connection with the case. Authorities have reportedly conducted several searches, but few clues have been found. Anyone with information regarding Lance’s case is urged to contact the San Diego Police Department at (619) 531-2000.
Heidi Planck
California mother Heidi Planck, 39, was last seen leaving her 10-year-old son’s football game in Downey, California on October 17, 2021. She was first reported missing October 20 when she failed to pick her son up from school, and the case was transferred to robbery-homicide investigators on October 29. Hours after she was last seen, her dog was found on the 28th floor of an apartment building in Downtown Los Angeles. Her ex-husband, Jim Wayne, told Dateline he doesn't know how the dog got into the building and doesn't believe Heidi knew anyone in the building. Police have said their investigation led them to the Chiquita Canyon Landfill, about 40 miles northwest of the downtown location where Heidi was last seen.
“Forensic evidence was located inside the building which has led detectives to believe an incident occurred resulting in Planck’s death,” police said. On November 29, Los Angeles police began searching the California landfill for evidence connected to her disappearance. Police said in a statement that they were looking in "a specific area" of the landfill for human remains. Police said there is still no lead on a suspect in what they believe is a robbery-homicide. The excavation operation is expected to take over a week and police warned of a potential “impact on community members who live around the Chiquita Canyon Landfill, specifically the community of Val Verde.” Police asked for tips from anyone who was at the residential building at 1201 S. Hope St., listed online as the Level Downtown Flower building, on or around Oct. 17.
Heidi is described as being 5’3” and weighs 120 lbs, with blonde hair and blue eyes and was last seen wearing jeans and a grey sweater, driving a 2017 Grey Range Rover with California license plate “U840X0.” Anyone with information on Heidi’s whereabouts is urged to contact the Los Angeles Police Department, Missing Persons Unit, at (213) 996-1800 or 1-877-LAPD-24-7 (877-527-3247). Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call the LA Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (800-222-8477) or go directly to www.lacrimestoppers.org.
May “Maya” Millete
May “Maya” Millete, a defense contractor at Naval Base San Diego and mother of three, was last seen alive on January 7, 2021, by her husband, Larry Millete, at the family’s home in Chula Vista. In July, Larry Millete was named a “person of interest” in the case. He denied any involvement in his wife’s disappearance. By October, he had been arrested and charged with her murder. At a press conference on October 20, authorities released new details, alleging that Larry used a black Lexus to transport Maya’s body on January 8, 2021. San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan revealed other new details, which included the fact that in 2020 Larry had been visiting “spellcasters” — people purporting to wield magical powers of persuasion — in an effort to make Maya want to stay in the relationship. Stephan added that Maya had scheduled an appointment with a divorce lawyer on January 12, but never made it. The last recorded activity on her phone was on January 8. Larry remains in the San Diego County Jail on no bond. Maya’s family continues to hold prayer vigils online and in person. At the press conference, her sister Maricris thanked the community and made a promise to Maya’s children: to find their mother’s body. Chula Vista Police say the “investigation continues to be ongoing and anyone who may have any information regarding Maya’s disappearance is asked to please contact San Diego County Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477, or CVPD at 619-691-5151. No matter how small the detail, we ask the public to share that information with investigators or Crime Stoppers.”
Stacey Smart
Stacey Smart has been missing from the small Trinity County town of Lewiston, California for more than five years. Stacey was last seen on October 12, 2016, at the home the 51-year-old shared with her boyfriend, according to the Trinity County Sheriff’s Office. The details of what happened in the days leading up to her disappearance remain unclear. Stacey is usually in contact with her family daily, but as Halloween approached and nobody had heard from her, the family grew concerned. This remains an active case and police are working on all tips that have come in, but no leads have produced any substantial information. The family is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to her whereabouts. She is described as being 5’8” and 180 lbs. If you have any information regarding Stacey’s disappearance, you are urged to call the Trinity County Sheriff’s Office at (530) 623-3740 or Trinity County Witness Program at 530-623-8138.
Jack Stein
John “Jack” Stein, a 24-year-old California man has been missing since this summer and there have been no updates in his case. He was last seen in the 3700 block of Kanan Road in Agoura Hills, California, on July 13, 2021. His family says he suffers from depression and bipolar disorder and is worried because it’s unlike him to not be in contact with someone. He does not have a cell phone or ID on him, but could have been traveling to Denver or Salt Lake City, where he has friends, or to his hometown in Minnesota. Family members, friends and volunteers have scoured the woods and neighborhoods around Agoura Hills, Westlake, and Thousand Oaks, as well as Venice Beach and Malibu, searching shelters and homeless encampments. They’ve talked to hundreds of pedestrians and shared missing person posters with everyone they’ve come in contact with. A billboard is going up in the area of Venice Beach on December 27, 2021. Jack is described by his family as a kind, beautiful soul who is creative and loves to draw, but also athletic and loves to surf and snowboard. He’s 6’3” tall, weighs about 180 lbs, and has blue eyes and shaggy strawberry-blond hair. He has a tattoo of a sparrow on his upper right thigh and circle tattoos on his chest. He was last seen wearing a navy blue hooded sweatshirt with the words “Tommy Hilfiger” down the arm, black shorts, and gray Nike running shoes. Anyone with information on Jack’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Homicide Missing Person Unit, Det. Shannon Rincon at (323) 890-5500.
Michael Vanzandt
Michael Vanzandt was last seen on the evening of March 5, 2016, while out in downtown Hermosa Beach, California. Vanzandt, 36, was standing in line with friends outside the American Junkie gastropub at about 10:15 p.m., when he began walking toward a nearby liquor store. He has not been seen or heard from since. The Air Force veteran, and father of three, was going through a divorce, but family members said there were absolutely no red flags in his personal life that would have led to his disappearance. Because he is an avid swimmer, they fear he may have gone in the water for a late-night dip. However, none of Michael’s belongings were found on the beach. Authorities say the case is still active and ongoing. If you have any information regarding Michael’s case, please call the Hermosa Beach Police Department at (310) 318-0360.
Matthew Weaver Jr.
Matthew Weaver Jr., 21, was last seen in the early morning hours of August 10, 2018, near Malibu, California. He had hung out with a friend until around 4:30 a.m., and then drove to the Malibu Canyons after dropping the friend at her house. His car was found the next morning off a trail near Malibu. Since Matthew’s disappearance, authorities, friends, and family have conducted multiple searches for the missing young man, but nothing of significance has been found. Family is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to Matthew’s whereabouts. If you have any information on Matthew’s case, please call the Los Angeles Police Department’s Missing Persons Unit at 213-996-1800. Anyone wishing to remain anonymous should call the Los Angeles Regional Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS or go to www.lacrimestoppers.org.
Sydney West
UC Berkeley student Sydney West has been missing since September 30, 2020. The 19-year-old was last seen at the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, California. After Sydney's parents were unable to reach her for several days, they first reported her missing on October 1 in North Carolina where they live and again in San Francisco on October 2. Police released security footage of the missing student from the day she disappeared. After months without answers, Sydney’s parents took to social media to announce a $10,000 reward for information that leads to their daughter’s whereabouts and return. The reward remains in effect more than a year later. Sydney’s great-aunt stressed to Dateline in February that it wasn’t like Sydney to just disappear without telling anyone and that their family is extremely worried. Sydney is described as being 5’10” tall and weighing 130 lbs. She has blonde hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a sweatshirt, dark-colored shorts, and slip-on blue Vans shoes. Anyone with information on Sydney’s whereabouts is asked to call the San Francisco Police Department 24-hour tip line at 1-415-575-4444, text a tip to TIP411 (begin the text message with SFPD.)
Rita Gutierrez-Garcia
Rita Gutierrez-Garcia was 34 years old when she went missing on March 18, 2018, after going out with friends in Longmont, Colorado. She was supposed to attend her sister’s baby shower the next day, but never showed up. In July 2018, police identified 29-year-old Juan Jose Figueroa Jr. as a suspect in Rita’s disappearance as a result of testing from evidence submitted to forensic laboratories. On March 22, 2019, Figueroa was convicted of sexual assault, felony assault and attempted murder in an unrelated 2017 sexual assault case. He was sentenced to 93 years in prison. In June 2021, Figueroa was charged with Rita’s kidnapping and murder, according to court documents, and indicted by a grand jury. Documents show that Figueroa and Rita were together the night she disappeared and that a forensic search of Figueroa’s truck revealed DNA believed to belong to her. Figueroa confided to his cellmate that he had strangled Rita and disposed of her body after she had called him a “weirdo,” according to the documents. He also allegedly told the cellmate that he had buried Rita’s body and that the only way anyone would find it is if police inserted a probe into his brain. In October 2021, Figueroa appeared in Boulder District Court virtually from prison and pleaded not guilty to the charges. His trial is set for early 2022. Rita’s body has never been found. Authorities announced in June that the $10,000 reward for information on where Rita’s body is located is still active. The public can call 303-651-8501, the Longmont Police Department at (303) 774-3700 or email your tips to policetipline@longmontcolorado.gov.
Kara Nichols
Kara Nichols, an aspiring model, was reported missing on October 9, 2012. At the time of her disappearance, the 19-year-old was en route from her home in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she lived with two roommates, to Denver for a modeling shoot. After nine years of searching and countless interviews, the El Paso Sheriff’s Office has been unable to find any significant leads. They told Dateline the case is still considered open and active, but have not said if they believe foul play is involved. Anyone with information about Kara’s case should call the El Paso County Sheriff's Office at (719) 390-5555. Her case number is 12-12983.
UPDATE: In January 2022, a cold case review was being conducted on Kara’s case. This led to a new witness who provided a significant new lead. On February 7, 2022, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office obtained a search warrant and located human remains. The remains were identified as Kara Nicholsby the El Paso County Coroner’s Office. Authorities arrested and charged Joel Hollendorfer with murder and tampering with physical evidence.
Kelsie Schelling
Kelsie Schelling went missing from Pueblo, Colorado on the night of February 4, 2013, after driving there from her home in Denver to meet her boyfriend, Donthe Lucas. The 21-year-old was two months pregnant with the couple's child, a reported stress point in the relationship. Video released by the Pueblo Police Department shows Schelling’s black 2011 Chevrolet Cruze parked in front of a Walmart store around noon the following day. The vehicle had been left there overnight. The next day at 7:20 a.m., an unidentified person can be seen getting into Schelling’s car and driving away. The car was found abandoned a week later at Saint Mary Corwin Medical Center. In November of 2017, tips led police to conduct searches in several different areas of Pueblo in connection with Kelsie’s case, but authorities told Dateline they were unable to find anything of significance. On December 1, 2017, police arrested Donthe Lucas for the first-degree murder of Kelsie. In August of 2018, Lucas pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. The trial was scheduled to start in April 2019, but new evidence found in the case over the summer postponed it until January 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the trial was pushed back to September and again to January 25, 2021. In March 2021, after just a few hours of deliberations, a Pueblo County jury found Donthe Lucas guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced afterward to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Police told Dateline they have searched multiple locations over the years, but have not found Kelsie’s remains. Her family continues to offer a $100,000 reward for any information that could ultimately lead to her body being recovered. If you have any information that can help authorities find Kelsie’s remains, please contact the Pueblo Crime Stoppers at (719) 542-7867.
Charlene Voight
Charlene Voight had just moved to Littleton, Colorado from her family’s home in Southern California when she disappeared. The move, in part, was so she could finally be with her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Jeff Beier. The “always happy” 36-year-old had just graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with a degree in Landscape Architecture, and she was excited to start a new career. After not hearing from their daughter for several days, Charlene’s parents reported her missing on July 8, 2016. In March of 2018, authorities concluded a search of a landfill north of Denver in connection with Charlene’s case and while they did not find her body, they did find some of her clothes and the body of a small dog wrapped in a red sweater believed to have belonged to Charlene’s missing Chihuahua, Toby. The dog had been decapitated. In June 2020, an Arapahoe County grand jury in Colorado indicted Jeffery Scott Beier for Charlene’s murder. According to the affidavit, investigators believe Beier dumped the items at Tower Landfill in Commerce City, Colorado on July 2, 2016. He is charged with first-degree murder, first-degree felony murder, sexual assault, two counts of tampering with evidence, third-degree assault and two counts of attempting to influence a public servant, by misleading authorities about Charlene’s disappearance. He is also charged with aggravated animal cruelty. Shortly after Charlene vanished, Beier moved to Russia, where he was been in custody since 2020 pending a decision on extradition. If convicted, he faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. Charlene’s body has still not been found. If you have any information regarding Charlene’s case, please call the Littleton Police Department at (303) 794-1551.
Nefertiri Trader
Nefertiri Trader was last seen on June 30, 2014, by a neighbor who told police Nefertiri was forced from her home and abducted in her own silver Acura RL around 4 a.m. in New Castle, Delaware. Police have indicated that foul play is involved in this case, but no person of interest or suspect has been named. In a March 2017 court ruling, Nefertiri was declared legally dead in the hope of bringing in new leads to the police. The car, which authorities have also not located, had the Delaware license plate 404893. If you have information regarding Nefertiri’s case, please contact the Delaware Crime Stoppers at (800) TIP-3333.
Kelley Brannon
Kelley Brannon, 36, was last known to be at the Sunshine Inn Hotel in Live Oak, Florida on the evening of July 14, 2020 and into the early morning hours of July 15. Kelley and her boyfriend, Eddie Emerson, had been traveling from Gainesville, Florida to Detroit, Michigan in separate vehicles when Eddie’s truck broke down on July 9, according to Captain Jason Rountree with the Live Oak Police Department. Eddie told police that they got a hotel room while awaiting car repair. After an ongoing argument, Kelley left the hotel room but continued to text her boyfriend. Just before 1 a.m. on July 15, she left a voicemail for her boyfriend stating she was “getting in a car.” Her purse with money and ID were left behind in her own car at the hotel, but her phone and guitar were missing. Captain Rountree told Dateline that several people have been interviewed on multiple occasions, including locals who came into contact with the couple during their time in Suwannee County, the hotel guests, and Kelley’s boyfriend, Eddie, who remains a person of interest because of their relationship. Eddie told Dateline in 2020 that he felt like he should have been there to protect her. Following Kelley’s disappearance, Eddie stayed in Live Oak for four days searching for her, hanging fliers and talking to the locals. Kelley is 5’5”, weighs approximately 130 lbs, and has blue eyes and black hair that is graying. She has a circle tattoo on her right hand near her thumb. She was last seen wearing a white shirt and black shorts, carrying her guitar. If you have any information about Kelley’s whereabouts, please call the Live Oak Police Department Criminal Investigations Division at 386-364-7463 or call the Suwannee County Sheriff’s Office Dispatch at 386-362-2222. There is a $1,000 reward being offered by Suwannee County Crime Stoppers. Call 386-208-8477(TIPS) to remain anonymous.
Leila Cavett
Leila Cavett was reported missing after her two-year-old son, Kamdyn, was found wandering around alone outside an apartment complex in Miramar, Florida on July 26, 2020. The 21-year-old Dawsonville, Georgia mother was last seen in Hollywood, Florida, on July 25, 2020, driving a white mid-to-late 90s Chevy Silverado 3500 pickup truck with a red tailgate and a “Baby on Board” sign on the passenger window. On July 28, Leila’s pickup truck was found abandoned in a Walmart parking lot in Hollywood, two miles from where her son had been found the day before. In August, federal agents arrested Shannon Demar Ryan in Florida and charged him with kidnapping in connection to Leila’s disappearance. Shortly before Ryan’s arrest, he posted a video online discussing how he met up with Leila at a RaceTrac gas station in Hollywood on July 25 to buy her truck before her disappearance. According to the arrest affidavit provided to Dateline, Ryan told investigators he paid $3,000 to Leila for her truck and the three of them left in his 2004 Gold Lexus ES 330 to spend the day at Fort Lauderdale beach, leaving the truck behind. When they returned, he said he parked at the gas pumps at RaceTrac and told investigators that Leila and her son left in a dark sedan with several unknown men. He stated it was the last time he saw her. According to the affidavit, law enforcement reviewed the security footage from the RaceTrac gas station, but it did not show Ryan’s car at the pumps where he described it, and it did not show Leila leaving in a dark sedan. Investigators say a car resembling Ryan’s was spotted on security video in front of the apartment complex in Miramar just minutes before Leila’s son was found. On August 15, law enforcement officials searched Ryan’s Lexus and discovered a half-empty container of all-purpose cleaner with bleach, several black trash bags and a white powdery substance. In October 2020, the FBI in Miami searched the Monarch Hill Landfill in Pompano Beach, but did not release further details in the investigation, or how they were able to zero in on the landfill. “The FBI continues to actively pursue every lead related to this investigation,” the department said in a statement. “We are still seeking information about Leila Cavett’s disappearance.” According to information released by the Hollywood Police Department in May 2021, Ryan is now facing charges of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence in connection to Leila’s disappearance. A charge of child neglect without great bodily harm was added. Shannon Ryan is being held at Broward County Jail without bond. Leila is described as having been 5’4” and weighing about 110 lbs, with brown, shoulder-length hair and brown eyes. She had a tattoo that reads “Kamdyn” on her right arm and a small tattoo of a Christian fish symbol on her right wrist. Anyone with information that might help locate Leila Cavett is asked to call FBI Miami at 800-CALL-FBI or go to FBI.GOV/TIPS.
Donna Chatterton
Donna Chatterton’s mobile home in Lee County, Florida went up in flames on February 4, 2015. There were no remains found in the charred remnants of the home, and no one could find Donna. Authorities have said they believe the fire was accidental, most likely started by a space heater that was left running. However, officials do believe the 46-year-old met with some type of foul play. Family members said authorities came close to charging someone in connection with Donna’s disappearance, but there was not enough evidence to move forward. If you have any information regarding Donna’s case, please call the Lee County Sheriff’s Office at (239) 477-1810.
Lauren Dumolo
Lauren Dumolo, 29, was last seen by her boyfriend at the apartment they share on Coronado Parkway in Cape Coral, Florida on June 19, 2020. On the same day, her purse was found in Four Freedoms Park, a place she was known to frequent. Her cell phone was later found in the apartment. On June 24, police deemed Lauren’s disappearance “suspicious” and the status was changed to missing person endangered, based on their investigation, according to Detective Nick Jones of the Cape Coral Police, who has been working to find Lauren. Police are looking at all leads in the case and Det. Jones confirmed several people have been interviewed, including Lauren’s boyfriend. He would not comment on whether anyone they’ve interviewed is being considered a person of interest in the case. The Cape Coral Police Department says “Lauren’s missing persons case remains an active/open case and our Major Crimes Unit continues to investigate Lauren’s disappearance.” Lauren is described as being 5 feet tall and weighing about 110 pounds. She has brown eyes and light brown hair that, at the time of her disappearance, had been dyed blonde. She has tattoos, including “Namaste” on her right side, a symbol on her wrist, an “NY” symbol on her pelvis, and rosary beads on her ankle. Anyone with any information on Lauren’s whereabouts is asked to contact Cape Coral Police at (239) 574-3223. You can also submit an anonymous tip at www.capecops.com/tips or https://new.tipsubmit.com/en/create-report/anonymous, or call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS. Please reference case number 20-011323.
Noemi Gonzalez
The family of Noemi Gonzalez has gone almost eight years not knowing where the beloved mother and grandmother is. Noemi disappeared from her North Miami, Florida home in the early morning hours of February 12, 2014. Her adult son, Pedrito, was staying with Noemi at the time and says he awoke to find her gone. Her bed was unmade, the front door was unlocked, but her purse and cell phone were still inside. Few clues have ever been found in connection with the case. There is a $20,000 reward for information leading to Noemi’s whereabouts. She is described as 5'1", weighing 160 lbs, with short salt and pepper hair and brown eyes. If you have any information regarding Noemi’s case, please call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at (305) 471-TIPS.
Reny Jose
Reny Jose was a 22-year-old engineering student at Rice University with a 4.0 GPA, when he was reported missing while on spring break in Panama City, Florida. According to the friends with whom he was on the trip, Reny was last seen leaving their rented beach house around 7 p.m. on March 3, 2014. His friends reported him missing the next morning. The exact circumstances of Reny’s disappearance remain a mystery, but police did locate his clothes and cell phone in a trash can behind the house. Authorities confirm the case is still considered open and ongoing. Anyone with information about Reny’s case is encouraged to call the Bay County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 747-4700.
Marsha Lyle
Marsha Lyle disappeared from Jacksonville, Florida on May 8, 2020. That day, the 41-year-old bought gas at the Pilot Gas Station in Jasper, Florida at 12:56 p.m. It was her last known debit card purchase. She was then seen on security video at a Walgreens on Park Street in Jacksonville at 3:35 p.m. Three hours later, at 6:28 p.m., she was seen on security video at a uniform shop on Phillips Highway in Jacksonville. In the video, she is seen walking away from her car. She never returned. Two weeks later, her car was found abandoned in the parking lot of a shopping plaza on Philips Highway in Jacksonville, where the uniform shop is located. Marsha had been living in Seale, Alabama, but was believed to have been traveling to Clewiston, Florida, to visit her family. Her sister, Bernadette, who lives in California, and their mother, Eileen Thompson, who lives in their hometown of Clewiston, Florida, are both Health Care surrogates for Marsha. They say she had been diagnosed with Schizoaffective Disorder, a mix of Bipolar and Schizophrenia, which is believed to have been caused by the inoperable brain tumor Marsha has been living with for years. Her family believes Marsha was trying to get home to their mother in Clewiston, but got confused, even though she was only 30 minutes away. Marsha is a devout Seventh Day Adventist and youth leader for the Pathfinders program at her church. Her family says she loved to be alone with God, and may have gone to a wooded area for peace and quiet, but would never go this long without trying to contact a family member. They added that they believe Marsha has her cell phone with her because it has not been found. There have been no updates in her case, according to Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office authorities. Marsha is described as being 5’4” tall, 140 lbs, and has black hair and brown eyes. She often wears a black or white head covering. Marsha has a scar on her hip from a dog bite as a child and has a scar on her stomach from a feeding tube. She also has scars on her chest from removing breast implants. Her natural hair has a patch of gray at the front. Anyone with information on Marsha’s whereabouts is asked to call the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office at 904-630-0500, or the Russell County Sheriff’s Office in Alabama at 334-664-9855.
Eileen Peluffo
Eileen Peluffo vanished from Daytona Beach, Florida on July 15, 2015, after traveling to the sunshine state from her home in Wilmington, North Carolina. Her fiancé, who had stayed behind at their North Carolina home, was contacted by the Florida Highway Patrol on July 13, 2015 that the car Eileen had been driving, which was registered in his name, had been located on I-95 and impounded. Eileen was spotted a few days later on July 15. On July 16, officers with the Ormond Beach Police Department located Eileen’s purse containing her ID on a sidewalk near the beach. The Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue is investigating, but says there have been no recent updates in her case. When she went missing, Eileen was 54 years old, 5’2”, and weighed about 115 lbs. She has brown eyes and black hair, but may dye her hair burgundy. She has a skin discoloration on her chest and a scar on her elbow from a childhood biking accident. Anyone with information on Eileen’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Volusia County Beach Safety Ocean Rescue at (386) 248-8131 or Volusia County dispatch at (386) 248-1777.
Veronica Marllen Reyes-Diaz
Veronica Marllen Reyes-Diaz was last seen on Saturday, January 18, 2020, when she picked up her children from her sister’s house in Plant City, Florida. She took them home to their house in nearby Dover, Florida. She put them to bed and walked outside. She hasn’t been seen since. Veronica's Chevy Yukon was found parked outside the house. Her car keys and wallet with cash were inside the vehicle. Veronica’s father told Dateline her cell phone pinged in the area over the weekend, but by Monday, it had been turned off because no messages or calls were going through. The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s office now has a podcast called “Unfinished Business” to update the public on details on their cases. Each episode focuses on a missing person or an unsolved murder. Assistant Chief Communications Officer Amanda Granit told Dateline that Veronica’s case is classified as a missing persons case and anyone with information is encouraged to call the authorities. Veronica is described as being 4’11” and 150 lbs. She has hair that has been dyed burgundy and brown eyes. Veronica was last seen wearing a white and grey long sleeve cropped shirt, jeans and sandals. She has a mole near her left eye and may be wearing glasses. A $1,000 reward is being offered for information leading to Veronica’s whereabouts. Anyone with information is asked to call the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office at (813) 247-8200 or email Piocommandcenter@hcso.tampa.fl.us.
Calandra Stallworth
Calandra Stallworth has been missing since March 27, 2017. On the night of her disappearance, the 29-year-old dropped her children off at her grandmother’s house in Crestview, Florida and headed to work at the Hilton Sandestin Beach. She called her grandmother after her shift to let her know that she was on her way to pick up the children. But she never showed up that night. Calandra was dating a man named Antwon Smith and on April 2, police spotted Antwon driving Calandra’s car with another female passenger inside. Antwon was arrested at the scene for cocaine and marijuana possession and for driving with a suspended or revoked license. Antwon Smith is considered a person of interest and has been questioned by police, but has not been charged in Calandra’s disappearance. In October 2020, in an unrelated case, Antwon was charged with capital murder in the shooting deaths of Ryan Frazier and Joshua Carroll. Investigators with the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office say the men were killed and left by the side of the road in Elberta, Alabama on October 8 after a drug deal went bad. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is urged to contact the Crestview Police Department at (850) 682-3544 or (850) 682-2055.
Cieha Taylor
Cieha Taylor was last seen on February 6, 2020, when she dropped her boyfriend off at home in Plant City, Florida, just a few blocks from the call center where she worked. A few hours later, around 7 p.m., Cieha’s black 2000 Toyota Solaris was found abandoned about a mile away on railroad tracks at East Trapnell Road. The engine was still running. Her belongings, including her cell phone and debit card, were in the car. Cieha’s family told Dateline that about three weeks after Cieha went missing, her shoes were discovered on a drainage pipe along the road near the railroad tracks where her car had been found. A flier announcing her disappearance hung on a post next to the shoes. Crystal Clark, the Chief Communications Clerk for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office would not confirm further details to Dateline, but said “Cieha’s disappearance is still an active an open case” and that they are continuing to investigate. Cieha’s family hopes someone with information will call authorities. They have also set up a Facebook page “Finding Cieha,” with the hope of finding answers in her case. The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office has an episode on Cieha’s case in their podcast Unfinished Business. Cieha was last seen wearing a gray, white, blue and red striped dress, possibly with a pink sweater over it. She is described as being approximately 5’6,” and 170 lbs. She has auburn/red shoulder-length hair. Anyone with information on Cieha’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office at 813-247-8200.
Morgan Bauer
Morgan Bauer mysteriously vanished after she moved from Aberdeen, South Dakota to Atlanta, Georgia. According to Sherri Sichmeller, Morgan’s mother, the 19-year-old had arranged to stay with a man she met on Craigslist, offering to clean and do other chores until she settled into a job. But for an unknown reason, Morgan was reportedly kicked out of that temporary home and was living at a local motel. She stopped posting on social media and last spoke with family members and friends on February 29, 2016. Sherri told Dateline in 2016 she continues to fight for her daughter’s case to receive the attention it deserves and posts on the Missing Morgan Facebook page. No suspects or persons of interest have been named in this case. If you have any information regarding Morgan’s case, please call the Atlanta Police Missing Person Unit at (404) 546-4235.
Jenna Van Gelderen
Jenna Van Gelderen was last heard from while pet sitting her parents’ cat in the Druid Hills neighborhood of Atlanta on the night of August 18, 2017. The 25-year-old had plans to meet a friend the next day. But when the friend arrived at Jenna’s house, neither Jenna nor her vehicle was there. Jenna’s brother, Will, was contacted and he found their parents’ home in disarray. Many of Jenna’s belongings were left behind; all that was missing was a WWII tapestry. After three days of not hearing from Jenna, the family reported her missing. Jenna’s dark blue Mazda 6 was found a couple of weeks later parked along a road in northwest Atlanta. According to Detective Shiera Campbell of the DeKalb Police Department, there was nothing left in the car and the gas tank was empty. In August 2021, a memorial service was held at Shearith Israel, the first time Jenna’s family and the community have formally mourned her. Police say the investigation remains ongoing and any tips should be given to the DeKalb Police Department at (770) 724-7600 or https://gbi.georgia.gov.
Ebony Giddens
Ebony Giddens, 27, was last heard from on Sunday, March 11, 2018. When her brother arrived at her Columbus, Georgia apartment the next morning to take her kids to school, Ebony was nowhere to be found. Ebony’s purse, wallet, and keys were inside the apartment, but her cell phone was missing. Family and police have searched extensively for Ebony but have yet to find anything of significance. On October 31, 2019, a Columbus jury found Ebony’s ex-boyfriend, Malcolm Jackson, guilty of assault, possession of a firearm and stalking Ebony. She vanished days after pressing charges against him. Authorities say Jackson is considered a person of interest, but has not been charged in Ebony’s disappearance. Police say detectives in the Special Victims Unit are still investigating. A $10,000 reward is being offered for information leading to Ebony’s whereabouts. If you have any information please call the Columbus Police Department’s Special Victims Unit at (706) 653-3449.
Jessica Vanzant Dietzel
Jessica Vanzant Dietzel, a 21-year-old mother, who had been living in Leesburg, Georgia, was last in contact with her family in mid-February of 2020. She was last seen around the same time in the area of Albany, Georgia near the Flint River. There has been no activity on her social media or bank account. Deputy Daniel Alday with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office told Dateline there is no concrete date of when exactly Jessica disappeared, but they believe it’s in the time frame between February 16 and March 1. The Lee County Sheriff’s Office and the Albany Police Department (APD) are working jointly on the case because Jessica lived in Lee County but was last seen in Albany, which is in Dougherty County. The family is offering a cash reward for anyone who has tips that lead to Jessica’s whereabouts. In early 2021, the reward was increased to $5,000. Albany Police Department Spokesperson Phyllis Banks told Dateline they are doing everything they can to find Jessica, but there have been no updates. Jessica is described as being 5’7”, 150 lbs, with green eyes and long, straight blonde hair. The name “Elena” is tattooed on her left upper chest near her collar bone. She has a nose ring in her right nostril, and a stud immediately below her right lower lip. Anyone with any information on Jessica’s whereabouts is asked to call the Albany Police Department 229-431-2100, the Albany Area Crime Stoppers at 229-436-TIPS or the Lee County Sheriff’s Office at 229-759-6012.
Moreira ‘Mo’ Monsalve
Moreira "Mo" Monsalve was last seen on January 12, 2014, at the house of her ex-boyfriend, Bernard Brown. Mo’s daughter, Alexis, reported her mother missing two days later, on November 14, 2014. Several days after that, Mo's belongings were found just a few miles from her Maui, Hawaii home in a dumpster behind the Wailuku Community Center. On September 20, 2019, Brown was indicted by a grand jury for Mo’s murder. He pleaded not guilty to second degree murder. According to the Associated Press in October, a judge denied a defense request to move his trial away from Maui. Defense attorney Gerald Johnson cited the need “to prevent jury contamination,” given publicity generated during the search for Mo on Maui. The prosecution opposed moving the trial. Judge Peter Cahill decided there was no basis to move the trial at this point. Jury selection for his trial was expected to start in December 2021, but Brown recently fired his attorney. The judge has set a date of December 9 for an appearance of new counsel for Brown. He is being held on a $1 million bail at the Maui Community Correctional Center. Mo’s family and friends created a ‘Mowatch’ page that is dedicated to finding their lost loved one and to helping other families of missing persons in Hawaii spread awareness. Investigators with the Maui Police Department said that “despite a lengthy and detailed investigation,” Mo’s body has not been found. If you have any information on Mo’s case, please contact Detective Oran Satterfield of the Maui Police Department at (808) 244-6431.
Kierra Coles
Kierra Coles, 27, was last seen on October 2, 2018, leaving her apartment on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois. She was three months pregnant at the time. The day she disappeared, Kierra called out sick from her job as a letter carrier at the U.S. Postal Service. Security video showed Kierra leaving her apartment at 82nd Street and Coles Avenue and walking past her car. She is seen wearing her U.S. Postal Service uniform, despite having called in sick. Her mother reported her missing two days later when calls kept going to voicemail. Police went to Kierra’s apartment to conduct a welfare check. Kierra was nowhere to be seen, but her car was still parked out front. Anthony Gugliemi, Chief Communications Officer at the Chicago Police Department told Dateline in 2018 that foul play is suspected in Kierra’s disappearance. In 2021, the family increased the reward to $49,500. Additionally, the National Association of Letter Carriers is offering $3,500. Kierra is described as being 5'4" tall and weighing about 125 lbs, with black hair and brown eyes. Kierra has a tattoo of a heart on her right hand, and a tattoo that says “lucky Libra” on her back. Anyone with information on Kierra’s whereabouts is asked to call the Chicago Police Department’s Area South Special Victims Unit at (312) 747-8274.
Kianna Galvin
Kianna Galvin of South Elgin, Illinois was last seen around 12:30 p.m. on May 6, 2016, leaving her family’s home. The 17-year-old told her younger sister she was headed to a nearby park to meet a friend and would return home in several hours. She never returned. Authorities have exhausted every lead in the case. They do not believe that Kianna ran away. Kianna’s family continues to post on social media pleading for anyone with information to call the police. If you have any information regarding Kianna’s case, please call the South Elgin Police Department at (847) 741-2151.
Jared Hanna
Jared Hanna disappeared on July 2, 2011 while driving through Clinton County, Illinois. A witness told police they believe it was Jared who knocked on their door around 8:30 a.m. asking for directions to a nearby town. The last confirmed sighting of Jared was a few hours later at 11:45 a.m. on security images at a local food mart. His cell phone last pinged off a tower in Centralia, a nearly two-hour drive from that food mart, around 9:30 p.m. that night. After that, the phone was either turned off or died. His 1990 GMC Sierra truck was found abandoned and out of gas on Joliff Bridge Road, an isolated area more than 70 miles from his home. After chasing down numerous leads for more than a decade, police say no significant information has been produced. Clinton County Crime Stoppers is offering a $5,000 reward for information that leads to Jared. If you have any information regarding Jared’s whereabouts please call the Clinton County Sheriff's Department at (618) 594-4555.
Alexis Scott
Alexis Scott was at a party in her hometown of Peoria, Illinois on the night of Friday, September 22, 2017, when she vanished. Partygoers confirmed to police that Alexis was at the party, but nobody knows exactly when she left or if she left with anyone. The 20-year-old was reported missing five days later by her mother, April Allen. April told Dateline her worries grew when she realized her daughter hadn’t posted anything on social media, which she usually did daily. There have been no named suspects or persons of interest in the case. The family, along with community members, runs the Alexis Camry Scott Facebook page to gather tips and organize meetings. If Alexis’s disappearance is felonious, Crime Stoppers is offering a $2,500 reward for information that leads to the arrest and indictment of any suspect. If you have any information regarding Alexis Scott’s disappearance, please call the Peoria Police Department at 309-673-4521 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at (309) 673-9000.
Erica Thompson
Erica Thompson was last seen on September 25, 2019, at Veterans Memorial Circle in Brookfield, Illinois. Erica’s only son, Michael Russo, said that it was unlike his mother to not show up at work, or check in with her family. Erica was employed as a comptroller at Empire Hard Chrome Inc., in Chicago. On October 1, 2019, Michael went to check on his mother, and he found the back door of her home open with the air conditioning “running at full blast.” He said there were moldy dishes in the sink and cat vomit was everywhere. Erica’s vehicle was also missing. It’s a dark purple 2014 Nissan Juke with Illinois license plate #E27 3380. Erica was last seen on security video on September 25, 2019, driving the Nissan near Veterans Memorial Circle in Brookfield. She is considered by police to be an “endangered” missing person. Investigators were able to ping Erica’s phone and discovered that it had traveled through several nearby communities, and as far as Missouri, early on September 26. Police said they knocked on every door in the area surrounding where Erica was last seen, checked video footage and utilized several police K-9s. Family and friends gathered at Veterans Memorial Circle and handed out missing person fliers. The Brookfield Police Department released a statement, “We are committed to providing every resource available to locating Ms. Erica Thompson. We sincerely hope that she is okay and appreciate the help and support of the residents of Brookfield, the general public, and cooperatives like Crime Stoppers in aiding us in our efforts to solve this missing persons case." Erica is described as 5’6”, 130 lbs, with blue eyes and auburn hair that is sometimes dyed. She has tattoos of fairies on her hip and a small blue heart on her foot. Cook County Crime Stoppers is offering up to a $1,000 cash reward for information that results in locating Erica. Call the anonymous tip line at 1-800-535-STOP. Anyone with information about Erica Thompson’s whereabouts is encouraged to contact the Brookfield Police at 708-244-4862 or email mcat@mcatpolice.org.
Vikki Vukelich
In February of 1991, Vikki Vukelich, 32, spent her days running her hair salon, Hair Designs by Vikki. Her daughter, Jill, told Dateline that when her mother got home from work on February 23, 1991, she was ready to go to bed, but her husband wanted to go to a party. When Jill woke up, her mother was nowhere to be found. Vikki’s husband, David, told authorities Vikki left the house on foot and walked toward the highway, according to Illinois State Police Senior Agent Tony Gentry. Gentry said the Glenwood Police Department did interview David shortly after his wife’s disappearance, but seemed to have only collected his timeline of events from the night Vikki was last seen. The Illinois State Police tried to interview David again, but Gentry said David refused to meet. David Vukelich did not respond to Dateline’s request for comment on the case. Gentry told Dateline that David Vukelich is considered a suspect in Vikki’s disappearance, but “in the state of Illinois, if you don’t have a body, you don’t have a crime.” Senior Agent Gentry is retired now, but told Dateline in early 2019 that he still makes calls on Vikki’s case. At the time of her disappearance, Vikki was described as 5’4” tall and weighed about 110 lbs, with blonde hair and blue eyes. If you have any information on the circumstances surrounding Vikki’s disappearance, please call the Illinois State Police at (217) 785-2035.
Marina Boelter
On New Year's Eve in 2014, Marina Boelter was seen leaving the IGA grocery store where she worked in Bloomfield, Indiana around 6 p.m. D.J. Lockhart, Marina's former boyfriend and father of her young son, was reportedly in the parking lot of the store at the time. He told police he saw the 18-year-old being driven away from the store by an older man. Just six weeks after Marina disappeared, Lockhart himself was found stabbed to death. Indiana State Police say, however, they have no evidence to suggest the two incidents are connected in any way. Authorities told Dateline there have been no tips in the case in recent months. Marina’s family continues to search for her and posts updates on the Facebook page Find Marina Boelter. If you have any information that can help bring Marina home, please contact the Indiana State Police at (812) 332-4411.
Diamond Bynum and King Walker
On July 25, 2015, Diamond Bynum, 21, and her nephew, King Walker, 2, went missing from the house where Diamond lived with her stepmother and father, Eugene, in Gary, Indiana. The two reportedly had been taking a nap that afternoon, as had Diamond's stepmother. When the stepmother woke up, she said the two were gone. The family had recently moved to Gary with Diamond, who is described as mentally challenged. The family fears Diamond may have taken King on a walk and gotten lost. At their old home, Diamond was able to go on walks around their neighborhood because she knew the area. Family members have spent more than six years pleading with the public for any information they may have, but few clues have been uncovered. A spokesperson for the Gary Police Department told Dateline in 2021 that there are no new developments in the case, which is still open and all tips received have been followed up on. Friends and family still post on the Help Find Diamond Bynum & King Walker Facebook page asking for help with their search. A $1,000 reward is being offered for their safe return. If you have any information regarding Diamond and King’s cases, please contact the Gary Police Department at (219) 881-1260.
Dawnita Wilkerson
Dawnita Wilkerson told her family she‘d be right back when she walked out of her brother’s house in Evansville, Indiana on Sunday, June 21, 2020. The 44-year-old never returned. Her phone was shut off by the next morning and when she didn’t call her mother or her twin as she usually did, her family became worried and reported her missing. In July, 2020, detectives met with the family to brief them on the case, but the family said they are not authorized to discuss details for fear of harming the investigation. Through donations from the community, thousands of fliers have been printed and two billboards have been purchased and put up at prominent locations in town, with Dawnita’s photos and information. As of November 2021, they have raised $3,500 as a reward for anyone who provides information on Dawnita’s whereabouts. Detective Dexter Wolf with the Evansville Police Department confirmed to Dateline that Dawnita’s case is still an open investigation and police are following up on every tip and lead they receive. Dawnita is 5’3” and weighs approximately 145 lbs, with brown eyes and dark hair. Anyone who may have information on Dawnita’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Evansville Police Department’s Adult Investigative Unit at 812-436-7979 or call the Tip Hotline at 1-800-78-CRIME (1-800-782-7463).
Karena McClerkin
Karena McClerkin was last seen on October 11, 2016. The 18-year-old was reportedly walking in the 1000 block of South Washington Street just south of Kokomo, Indiana’s downtown area. She was reported missing two days later. Little is known about the events leading to Karena’s disappearance. Her grandmother, Gerry McClerkin, told Dateline in 2017 that somewhere along the line, Karena had gotten involved with a number of substance abuse issues, and had been hanging out with an older crowd. However, Karena had allegedly spoken about the possibility of going to a rehabilitation facility in Florida. Family says she had begun filling out the paperwork when she disappeared. On September 26, 2020, Karena’s 22nd birthday, the Kokomo Police Department reminded the public that her case remains an active investigation and they continue to seek assistance from the community. “In the past four years, KPD investigators have pursued numerous leads and tips, but the case remains open. This investigation is ongoing, as we still continue to search for Karena McClerkin. KPD investigators believe this investigation can be resolved and ask that if you know something, say something,” the release from the Kokomo Police Department stated. Anyone with information regarding Karena’s case is urged to contact Sergeant Richard Benzinger at 456-7324 or the Kokomo Police Department at (765) 457-1105.
Detreck Foster
When Detreck Foster, of Independence, Kansas, missed Mother’s Day 2020, his family grew concerned. That concern only grew when, in June, he missed celebrating his 38th birthday with his twin sister and Father’s Day with his daughters, all of which was unusual, according to his family. Independence Police Chief Jerry Harrison told Dateline last year that there were various reports from friends of Detreck, who said they saw him in mid-April in the Independence area. Police believe the last confirmed sighting was on April 12, 2020 in Independence. Chief Harrison would not share any further details on the case and told Dateline it is still an open investigation, but investigators do believe Detreck was murdered. In September 2020, the Kansas Governor signed a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for Detreck’s disappearance and suspected murder. He is described as being 5’9” tall, weighing 190 lbs, with black hair and brown eyes. Investigators urge anyone with information to contact the Independence Police Department at (620) 332-1700 or the Kansas Bureau of Investigation at (785) 296-4017. Tips can also be submitted online at https://www.kbi.ks.gov/sar.
Brookelyn Farthing
Brookelyn Farthing was only 18 when she went missing in the early hours of June 22, 2013. The night she was last seen, Brookelyn went with her younger sister, a cousin and some friends to a party outside Berea, Kentucky. Although her family members decided to leave, Brookelyn chose to stay behind. The details surrounding the rest of the night remain a mystery, but it was around 4 a.m. the next day when Brookelyn sent text messages to friends saying she needed a ride home because she was “scared.” Police arrived at the party house several hours later. The host told police he had left the house in the morning to let some horses out. When he returned home he saw burn damage from a small fire but no sign of Brookelyn. A massive search was launched, but turned up little evidence. As of 2021, police have not named any persons of interest or suspects in the case. Brookelyn’s family has a website, findbrookefarthing.com, and has offered a $14,000 reward "for information leading to the return of Brookelyn Farthing or capture and conviction of those responsible for her disappearance." If you have any information regarding Brookelyn's case, you're urged to call the Kentucky State Police at (859) 623-2404.
Andrea Knabel
Andrea Michelle Knabel, a 37-year-old mother from Louisville, Kentucky, who dedicated her time volunteering for an organization that searches for missing people, was last seen around 1 a.m. on August 13, 2019, walking in the area of the 4000 block of Fincastle Road near her home in Louisville’s Audubon Park. Andrea had been volunteering for the group “Missing in America,” an organization unaffiliated with Dateline’s digital series, which has a mission to locate missing adults and children. Louisville Metro Police said Andrea made some phone calls asking for a ride between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m., in the area where she was last seen. Her cell phone has not been active since then. The organization said Andrea is the first member of their group to have gone missing. In October 2021, the Finding Andrea Facebook page announced that the reward for information leading to direct recovery of Andrea is now $5,000. Andrea Knabel is described as 5’7” tall, approximately 190 lbs, with light brown hair. She was last seen wearing a light-colored tank top and white shorts. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to contact investigator Tracy Leonard at (502) 618-9337, investigator Dan Washington at (502) 722-8181, Missing Person Recovery Specialist Nancy Schaefer Smith at (502) 500-3026 or the Louisville Metro Police Department at (502) 574-LMPD.
Richard Lea
Richard Lea, 62, was enjoying a weekend away with family at Grayson Lake, in Grayson, Kentucky, a place they had been going to for years, when he disappeared. On September 3, 2018, Richard was walking to the boat with family members when he spotted his wife, Leslie, nearby, and walked over to her. He had been diagnosed with dementia in 2015, but when their son, Jacob, saw his father was safe, he continued to the boat. Richard and Leslie took the children to the playground and Richard began walking circles around it. The circles became bigger and Richard was soon out of sight. Richard, who had been nonverbal for the prior year, did not have a cell phone, ID, or credit card on him at the time. State and local agencies arrived that evening to help search for Richard but he was never found. There have been no new updates in his case. Richard is described as being 5’6” tall and weighing 140 lbs. He was last seen wearing a tan shirt, blue cotton shorts, gray shoes and a camouflage hat with a “P” on it. If you have any information on Richard’s whereabouts, please contact the Kentucky State Police at (606) 928-6421.
Crystal Rogers
Crystal Rogers, a mother of five, was last seen on July 3, 2015, at the Bardstown, Kentucky home the 35-year-old shared with her boyfriend, Brooks Houck, and the couple's young son. Two days later, her unlocked Chevy Impala was found along Kentucky's Bluegrass Parkway with a flat tire and her belongings still inside. The Nelson County Sheriff officially named Crystal’s boyfriend a suspect in her disappearance in October of 2015. Houck's brother, who worked as a Bardstown police officer, was terminated from the department after officials say he interfered with the investigation into Crystal's disappearance. Danny L. Singleton, a longtime employee of Houck, was charged with 38 counts of perjury for lying to investigators under oath in December of 2015. Houck was arrested in July of 2018 on four felony theft counts and four misdemeanor theft counts, unrelated to Crystal’s disappearance. He pleaded not guilty to all charges. On April 25, 2019, a jury found Houck not guilty on charges that he stole roofing shingles from a Nelson County Lowe's store. No charges have been filed in connection with Crystal’s disappearance, but officials have said they believe Crystal is dead. In August 2020, the FBI took over as the lead agency in the investigation. More than 150 state and federal law enforcement officers arrived in Bardstown and executed new search warrants at several properties connected to Brooks Houck. In the summer of 2021, FBI agents began excavation efforts at a home in the subdivision built by Houck in Bardstown. In September 2021, the FBI announced in a tweet that it concluded its latest search efforts. According to the statement, several “items of interest” were sent to the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, but the FBI has remained silent on the details of their findings. The FBI urged those who may have information about the case to come forward. The FBI's Crystal Rogers Task force website was created so people can share information regarding the case. There is a $25,000 reward for information that leads to her whereabouts. If you have any information regarding Crystal’s case, please contact the FBI tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI, CrystalRogersTaskForce.com/tips or visit www.crystalrogerstaskforce.com.
Samantha Sperry
Samantha, 25 at the time, was reportedly last seen in Graves County, Kentucky on the morning of Wednesday, March 28, 2018. Authorities told Dateline that the last person to see the young mother alive was her boyfriend’s father, Dusty Holder. Dusty told police that he and Samantha had spent the previous night sleeping on a four-wheeler in the woods. In the morning, he said Samantha took off in one direction and he went in the other. Samantha hasn’t been seen since. The Graves County Sheriff’s Department told Dateline in 2018 that through search warrants, they collected and sent more than 30 pieces of evidence for examination in connection with Samantha’s disappearance. Investigators have conducted laboratory analysis of evidence that was submitted and a detailed review of electronic evidence, but said in an effort to not compromise the integrity of the ongoing investigation, more specific details cannot be released at this time.
Authorities said they worked with the Kentucky State Police to try to triangulate cell phones to get a clear picture of people’s whereabouts at various time frames surrounding Samantha’s disappearance, but it has not led to her location. Police also say they have questioned both Samantha’s boyfriend, Rhen Hendrickson, and his father, Dusty, multiple times and both have passed polygraph tests. In 2020, the FBI and other outside agencies joined the investigation to help with interviewing and re-interviewing witnesses or persons of interest, conduct a detailed and methodical review of all electronic evidence, and laboratory analysis of evidence submitted. There have been no arrests or persons of interest named in connection to Samantha’s disappearance. Despite many searches by local, state and federal officials, investigators have little evidence to lead to her whereabouts, but authorities say the case is still open and active. West Kentucky Crime Stoppers and Samantha’s family are offering a $10,000 reward to the person or persons who provide information to law enforcement that results in discovering Samantha’s location, or results in the arrest and conviction of the person or persons involved with her disappearance. Anyone with information is asked to contact the FBI at 502-263-6000, or West Kentucky Crime Stoppers at 270-443-TELL, Kentucky State Police at 270-856-3721, or the Graves County Sheriff’s Office at 270-247-4501 or at sperrytips@gravescountyky.gov.
Rebecca Pauline Gary
Rebecca Pauline Gary was last heard from on December 27, 1988. She was spending the holidays alone in Baton Rouge, Louisiana after sending her daughter to family about four hours away in Shreveport. She was supposed to pick her daughter up after the holidays, but she never showed up. Family told Dateline in 2017 they waited to report Rebecca missing until January 24, 1989 because they figured she’d show up, eventually. Police say there are no suspects in her disappearance, but it remains an open investigation. For more information on Rebecca’s case, you can visit the Facebook page her daughter runs called Help Find Rebecca Pauline Gary Missing December 27, 1988. Rebecca, who would be 65 years old today, was described as being 5”1’ tall and weighing 105 lbs in 1988. She has green eyes, brown hair, and a birthmark on her right leg. If you have any information on Rebecca’s whereabouts, please call the Baton Rouge Police Department at 225-389-2000.
Jake Latiolais
It was the early morning hours of August 29, 2014, when Jake Latiolais told friends he was headed to West Baton Rouge, Louisiana. That was the last time anyone heard from the 22-year-old. Shortly after, police received an anonymous call about a person going over the railing of the Mississippi Ridge Bridge. Responding officers found Jake’s truck on the shoulder of the bridge. The truck was still running, and Jake’s cell phone was on the pavement next to it. A dive team was called in, but nothing of significance was found. Officials said they are continuing to investigate, but are at a standstill without any new leads. Jake is described as 5’10” tall, weighing 150 lbs, with brown hair and brown eyes. Crime Stoppers is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to Jake’s location. If you have any information regarding Jake’s case, please call Crime Stoppers at (225) 344-STOP.
Russell Burnett
On February 21, 2017, 48-year-old Russell Burnett and his dog, Bev, spent the night at his neighbor’s house in Franklin, Maine. In the morning, Russell told his friend he was going to meet someone who was supposed to take him to the doctor, so he and his dog Bev headed home. But when the friend arrived at Russell’s house to pick him up, Russell and Bev were nowhere to be found. Two weeks later, Bev showed up at a neighbor’s house. According to the friend, the dog appeared to have been washed, fed and well-kept. Russell has not been found, and police say they continue to seek information on his whereabouts. Russell Burnett is described as being 5’7” and weighing 150 lbs, with hazel eyes. At the time of his disappearance, he had a shaved head, and a blond beard. If you have any information on Russell’s disappearance, please call the Maine State Police at (207) 973-3700.
Joanna Clark and Shariece Clark
Joanna Clark, 33, and her daughter Shariece Clark, 15, both went missing on February 4, 2017, but at different times. The exact circumstances of that Saturday afternoon and evening remain unclear, but Shariece was last heard from around 2:30 p.m., after she had finished babysitting her six younger siblings at their family’s home in the Cherry Hill neighborhood of South Baltimore, Maryland. Later that night, her mother, Joanna, was thought to have been spending time with friends. Joanna’s last known communication was between 11 p.m. and midnight. It is unknown if Joanna ever made it home. It wasn’t until Joanna missed two work shifts, the following Monday and Tuesday, that the pair were reported missing by a friend of the family. At the time they disappeared, Joanna Clark was described as 5’3” tall, weighing 140 lbs., with brown hair and hazel eyes. Shariece Clark was described as 5’4” tall, weighing 130 lbs, with black hair and brown eyes. If you have information on their whereabouts, please call the Baltimore Police Department at (443) 984-7385.
Akia Eggleston
Akia Eggleston went missing in Baltimore, Maryland in May of 2017. Akia’s family became alarmed when the 21-year-old failed to show up to her own baby shower on May 3. Calls to Akia went unanswered. Family members visited her apartment to find only a couple of dressers and her bed. They said it looked as if she had moved out. Akia then missed her next prenatal appointment. Akia was eight months into a high-risk pregnancy at the time. Her son would now be four and a half years old. Authorities originally said they did not suspect foul play in connection with her disappearance, but in 2018, told Dateline they now believe foul play is involved. Authorities said they have interviewed more than 100 people, but have not named a suspect. On November 7, 2017, the FBI announced a reward of up to $25,000 for information regarding Akia’s whereabouts. She is described as 4’8” tall, weighing 145 lbs, with black hair and brown eyes. If you have information regarding Akia’s case, please call the Baltimore Police Department at (443) 984-7385 or FBI's Baltimore Field Office at (410) 265-8080.
UPDATE: On Thursday, February 3, 2022, Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby held a press conference to announce the arrest of a suspect in Akia’s case: the purported father of her unborn child, Michael Robertson. Mosby released the full statement of probable cause in Akia’s case. “Based on her pattern of life, the time passed, extensive publicity, multiple searches, and monetary reward for information in this case,” the document stated, “the fact that Eggleston has not returned to her family or been electronically or physically located overwhelmingly indicates that she is in fact, deceased.” Akia’s body has not been found. Robertson faces a maximum penalty of two life sentences in prison if found guilty of all charges which include two counts of First Degree Murder. Akia’s case has officially been ruled a homicide.
Sandra Crispo
Sandra Crispo, 54, moved from Quincy, Massachusetts to Hanson, Massachusetts to be closer to her grandchildren. Three months later, she vanished. Sandra was last seen on Wednesday, August 7, 2019, after dropping her car off at the mechanic to be repaired. Security footage shows Sandra getting out of the car and going into Cumberland Farms to buy cigarettes. A few days later, her daughter went to drop the kids off at Sandra’s home, but no one was there. The back door was unlocked and her mother’s shoes and purse were gone. The lights were on and a watermelon was on the table, cut up, ready to be eaten. In 2020, the Hanson Police Department said they have no reason to believe any foul play is involved, but called in the Massachusetts State Police to assist. In August 2021, on the second anniversary of Sandra’s disappearance, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz said in a statement that, “Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office have been actively working in conjunction with Hanson Police to locate Sandra Crispo.” He explained that the extensive efforts of investigators have included canvassing 16 area streets, reviewing video surveillance available from the area, performing more than 200 door-knock interviews, inquiring with the MBTA and rideshare services operating in the vicinity of Hanson, utilizing canines, the State Police Airwing, and underwater drones for searches of woods and swamp, and following up on any leads received. Sandra is described as 5’9” tall, with hazel eyes and brown hair. If anyone sees someone matching Sandra’s description or has any information on her whereabouts, they are urged to contact the Hanson Police Department at (781) 293-4625 or state police at 508-894-2600.
Abbie Flynn
Abbie Flynn was preparing to host a Super Bowl party at her home in Gloucester, Massachusetts on Sunday, February 22, 2020. But when guests arrived, their host was nowhere to be found. The 59-year-old was last heard from earlier that day, when she had a phone conversation with her son who was away at college. She had told him she might go for a walk in the area of Farrington Avenue before her guests were supposed to arrive for the party. She never returned. Authorities conducted an extensive search of the area with the assistance of the Gloucester Fire Department, U.S. Coast Guard Station Gloucester, Mass State Police, Mass Environmental Police, Gloucester Harbor Master, Rockport Harbor Master and the North Eastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council. The search covered many paths and wooded areas where Abbie might have walked, along with a search of the coastline. Gloucester Police Chief Edward Conley said her case is still open. Abbie is described as being 5’5” tall, approximately 200 lbs, with brown hair. She was possibly wearing a navy blue L.L. Bean puffer jacket, L.L. Bean boots, blue jeans and a flannel shirt. If anyone has any information on Abbie’s whereabouts, please call the Gloucester Police Department at 978-283-1212.
Jessica Heeringa
Jessica Heeringa was working alone at a gas station in Norton Shores, Michigan on April 26, 2013, when she disappeared. A witness told police he saw the 25-year-old mother being forced into a silver Chrysler minivan. Investigators found Jessica's cell phone, keys and purse inside the store. In September 2016, officials charged
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Brief descriptions of each Registry title can be found here, and expanded essays are available for select titles. The authors of these essays are experts in film history, and their works appear in books, newspapers, magazines and online. Some of these essays originated in other publications and are reprinted here by permission of the author. Other essays have been written specifically for this website. The views expressed in these essays are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Library of Congress.
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The Library of Congress
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Brief descriptions of each Registry title can be found here, and expanded essays are available for select titles. The authors of these essays are experts in film history, and their works appear in books, newspapers, magazines and online. Some of these essays originated in other publications and are reprinted here by permission of the author. Other essays have been written specifically for this website. The views expressed in these essays are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Library of Congress.
In most cases, the images linked to Registry titles listed below were selected from the Library's Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, however some are drawn from other Library collections.
View a list of all expanded essays
7th Heaven (1927)
"Seventh Heaven" (also referred to as "7th Heaven"), directed by Frank Borzage and based on the play by Austin Strong, tells the story of Chico (Charles Farrell), the Parisian sewer worker-turned-street cleaner, and his wife Diane (Janet Gaynor), who are separated during World War I, yet whose love manages to keep them connected. "Seventh Heaven" was initially released as a silent film but proved so popular with audiences that it was re-released with a synchronized soundtrack later that same year. The popularity of the film resulted in it becoming one of the most commercially successful silent films as well as one of the first films to be nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award. Janet Gaynor, Frank Borzage, and Benjamin Glazer won Oscars for their work on the film, specifically awards for Best Actress, Best Directing (Dramatic Picture), and Best Writing (Adaptation), respectively. "Seventh Heaven" also marked the first time often-paired stars Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell worked together. Added to the National Film Registry in 1995.
Expanded essay by Aubrey Solomon (PDF, 694KB)
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
Special-effects master Ray Harryhausen provides the hero (Kerwin Mathews) with a villanous magician (Torin Thatcher) and fantastic antagonists, including a genie, giant cyclops, fire-breathing dragons, and a sword-wielding animated skeleton, all in glorious Technicolor. And of course no mythological tale would be complete without the rescue of a damsel in distress, here a princess (Kathryn Grant) that the evil magician shrinks down to a mere few inches. Harryhausen's stunning Dynamation process, which blended stop-motion animation and live-actions sequences, and a thrilling score by Bernard Herrmann ("Psycho," "The Day the Earth Stood Still") makes this one of the finest fantasy films of all time. Added to the National Film Registry in 2008.
Expanded essay by Tony Dalton (PDF, 900KB)
3:10 to Yuma (1957)
Considered to be one of the best westerns of the 1950s, "3:10 to Yuma" has gained in stature since its original release as audiences have recognized the progressive insight the film provides into the psychology of its two main characters that becomes vividly exposed during scenes of heightened tension. Frankie Laine sang the film's popular theme song, also titled "3:10 to Yuma." Often compared favorably with "High Noon," this innovative western from director Delmer Daves starred Glenn Ford and Van Heflin in roles cast against type and was based on a short story by Elmore Leonard. Added to the National Film Registry in 2012.
12 Angry Men (1957)
In the 1950s, several television dramas acted live over the airways won such critical acclaim that they were also produced as motion pictures; among those already honored by the National Film Registry is "Marty" (1955). Reginald Rose had adapted his original stage play "12 Angry Men" for Studio One in 1954, and Henry Fonda decided to produce a screen version, taking the lead role and hiring director Sidney Lumet, who had been directing for television since 1950. The result is a classic. Filmed in a spare, claustrophobic style—largely set in one jury room—the play relates a single juror's refusal to conform to peer pressure in a murder trial and follows his conversion of one juror after another to his point of view. The story is often viewed as a commentary on McCarthyism, Fascism, or Communism. Added to the National Film Registry in 2007.
Expanded essay by Joanna E. Rapf (PDF, 258KB)
12 Years a Slave (2013)
This biographical drama directed by Sir Steve McQueen, and produced by Brad Pitt’s production company, is based on the 1853 slave memoir “Twelve Years a Slave” by Solomon Northup, an African-American free man who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C. by two conmen in 1841, and sold into slavery. He was put to work on plantations in the state of Louisiana for 12 years before being released. The film received nine Academy Award nominations, winning for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay for John Ridley, and Best Supporting Actress for Lupita Nyong’o. Added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
13 Lakes (2004)
James Benning's feature-length film can be seen as a series of moving landscape paintings with artistry and scope that might be compared to Claude Monet's series of water-lily paintings. Embracing the concept of "landscape as a function of time," Benning shot his film at 13 different American lakes in identical 10-minute takes. Each is a static composition: a balance of sky and water in each frame with only the very briefest suggestion of human existence. At each lake, Benning prepared a single shot, selected a single camera position and a specific moment. The climate, the weather and the season deliver a level of variation to the film, a unique play of light, despite its singularity of composition. Curators of the Rotterdam Film Festival noted, "The power of the film is that the filmmaker teaches the viewer to look better and learn to distinguish the great varieties in the landscape alongside him. [The list of lakes] alone is enough to encompass a treatise on America and its history. A treatise the film certainly encourages, but emphatically does not take part in." Benning, who studied mathematics and then film at the University of Wisconsin, currently is on the faculty at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Added to the National Film Registry in 2014.
Expanded essay by Scott MacDonald (PDF, 316KB)
20 Feet from Stardom (2013)
Directed by Morgan Neville and produced by Gil Friesen, “20 Feet from Stardom” uses archival footage and interviews sharing behind-the-scenes experiences, and shining the spotlight on backup singers, including Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Judith Hill, Jo Lawry, Claudia Lennear, and Tata Vega. Archival footage includes performances with Sting, David Bowie, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Elton John, Tom Jones, Ike & Tina Turner, Luther Vandross, and more. A highlight of the film includes an interview with Mick Jagger telling the story of how Merry Clayton came to sing the iconic background vocals on “Gimme Shelter.” Added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
42nd Street (1933)
At a little less than 90 minutes, "42nd Street" is a fast-moving picture that crackles with great dialogue and snappily plays up Busby Berkeley's dance routines and and the bouncy Al Dubin-Harry Warren ditties that include the irrepressably cheerful "Young and Healthy" (featuring the adorable Toby Wing), "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" and the title number. A famous Broadway director (Warner Baxter) takes on a new show despite his ill health, then faces disaster at every turn, including the loss of his leading lady on opening night. The film features Bebe Daniels as the star of the show and Berkeley regulars Guy Kibbee, Ginger Rogers, Dick Powell, and Ruby Keeler, whom Baxter implores, "You're going out a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!" Added to the National Film Registry in 1998.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Stanley Kubrick's landmark epic pushed the envelope of narrative and special effects to create an introspective look at technology and humanity. Arthur C. Clarke adapted his story "The Sentinel" for the screen version and his odyssey follows two astronauts, played by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, on a voyage to Jupiter accompanied by HAL 9000, an unnervingly humanesque computer running the entire ship. With assistance from special-effects expert Douglas Trumbull, Kubrick spent more than two years creating his vision of outer space. Despite some initial critical misgivings, "2001" became one of the most popular films of 1968. Billed as "the ultimate trip," the film quickly caught on with a counterculture audience that embraced the contemplative experience that many older audiences found tedious and lacking substance. Added to the National Film Registry in 1991.
Expanded essay by James Verniere (PDF, 691KB)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916)
Directed by Stuart Paton, the film was touted as "the first submarine photoplay." Universal spent freely on location, shooting in the Bahamas and building life-size props, including the submarine, and taking two years to film. J. E. Williamson's "photosphere," an underwater chamber connected to an iron tube on the surface of the water, enabled Paton to film underwater scenes up to depths of 150 feet. The film is based on Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and to a lesser extent, "The Mysterious Island." The real star of the film is its special effects. Although they may seem primitive by today's standards, 100 years ago they dazzled contemporary audiences. It was the first time the public had an opportunity to see reefs, various types of marine life and men mingling with sharks. It was also World War I, and submarine warfare was very much in the public consciousness, so the life-size submarine gave the film an added dimension of reality. The film was immensely popular with audiences and critics. Added to the National Film Registry in 2016.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Freight handlers Bud Abbott and Lou Costello encounter Dracula and Frankenstein's monster when they arrive from Europe for a house of horrors exhibit. After the monsters outwit the hapless duo and escape, Dracula returns for Costello whose brain he intends to transplant into the monster. Lon Chaney Jr. as the lycanthropic Lawrence Talbot, Bela Lugosi in his final appearance as Dracula and Glenn Strange as the Monster all play their roles perfectly straight as Bud and Lou stumble around them. Throughout the film, Dracula and the Monster cavort in plain view of the quivering Costello who is unable to convince the ever-poised and dubious Abbott that the monsters exist. until the wild climax in Dracula's castle, where the duo are pursued by all three of the film's monstrosities.
Expanded essay by Ron Palumbo (PDF, 424KB)
Ace in the Hole (aka Big Carnival) (1951)
Based on the infamous 1925 case of Kentucky cave explorer Floyd Collins, who became trapped underground and whose gripping saga created a national sensation lasting two weeks before Collins died. A deeply cynical look at journalism, "Ace in the Hole" features Kirk Douglas as a once-famous New York reporter, now a down-and-out has-been in Albuquerque. Douglas plots a return to national prominence by milking the story of a man trapped in a Native American cave dwelling as a riveting human-interest story, complete with a tourist-laden, carnival atmosphere outside the rescue scene. The callously indifferent wife of the stricken miner is no more sympathetic: "I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons." Providing a rare moral contrast is Porter Hall, who plays Douglas' ethical editor appalled at his reporter's actions. Such a scathing tale of media manipulation might have helped turn this brilliant film into a critical and commercial failure, which later led Paramount to reissue the film under a new title, "The Big Carnival."
Expanded essay by Molly Haskell (PDF, 330KB)
Adam's Rib (1949)
With an Oscar-nominated script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, "Adam's Rib" pokes fun at the double standard between the sexes. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn play husband and wife attorneys, each drawn to the same case of attempted murder. Judy Holliday, defending the sanctity of her marriage and family, intends only to frighten her philandering husband (Tom Ewell) and his mistress (Jean Hagen) but tearfully ends up shooting and injuring the husband. Tracy argues that the case is open and shut, but Hepburn asserts that, if the defendant were a man, he'd be set free on the basis of "the unwritten law." As the trial turns into a media circus, the couple's relationship is put to the test. Holliday's first screen triumph propelled her onto bigger roles, including "Born Yesterday," for which she won an Academy Award. The film is also the debut of Ewell, who would become best known for his role opposite Marilyn Monroe in "The Seven Year Itch", and Hagen, who would floor audiences as the ditzy blonde movie star with the shrill voice in "Singin' in the Rain."
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
When Richard the Lion-Hearted is captured and held for ransom, evil Prince John (Claude Rains) declares himself ruler of England and makes no attempt to secure Richard's safe return. A lone knight, Robin Hood (Errol Flynn), sets out to raise Richard's ransom by hijacking wealthy caravans traveling through Sherwood Forest. Aided by his lady love, Maid Marian (Olivia de Havilland), and band of merry men (including Alan Hale and Eugene Pallette) Robin battles the usurper John and wicked Sheriff of Nottingham to return the throne to its rightful owner. Dashing, athletic and witty, Flynn is everything that Robin Hood should be, and his adversaries are memorably villainous, particularly Basil Rathbone with whom Flynn crosses swords in the climactic duel. One of the most spectacular adventure films of all time, and features a terrific performance by the perfectly cast Flynn. Only a spirited and extravagant production could do justice to the Robin Hood legend; this film is more than equal to the task. Erich Wolfgang Korngold's score won an Oscar, as did the editing and art direction.
The African Queen (1951)
Adapted from a novel by C.S. Forester, the film stars Humphrey Bogart in an Oscar-winning portrayal of a slovenly, gin-swilling captain of the African Queen, a tramp steamer carrying supplies to small African villages during World War I. Katharine Hepburn plays a prim spinster missionary stranded when the Germans invade her settlement. Bogart agrees to transport Hepburn back to civilization despite their opposite temperaments. Before long, their tense animosity turns to love, and together they navigate treacherous rapids and devise an ingenious way to destroy a German gunboat. The difficulties inherent in filming on location in Africa are documented in numerous books, including one by Hepburn.
Airplane! (1980)
"Airplane!" emerged as a sharply perceptive parody of the big-budget disaster films that dominated Hollywood during the 1970s. Written and directed by David Zucker, Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams, the film is characterized by a freewheeling style and skewered Hollywood's tendency to push successful formulaic movie conventions beyond the point of logic. One of the film's most noteworthy achievements was to cast actors best known for their dramatic careers, such as Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack and Lloyd Bridges, and provide them with opportunities to showcase their comic talents.The central premise is one giant cliche: a pilot (Robert Hays), who's developed a fear of flying, tries to win back his stewardess girlfriend (Julie Hagerty), boarding her flight so he can coax her around. Due to an outbreak of food poisoning, Hays must land the plane, with the help of a glue-sniffing air traffic controller (Bridges) and and his tyranical former captain (Stack). Supporting the stars is a wacky assemblage of stock characters from every disaster movie ever made.
Expanded essay by Michael Schlesinger (PDF, 477KB)
“¡Alambrista! (1977)
“¡Alambrista!” is the powerfully emotional story of Roberto, a Mexican national working as a migrant laborer in the United States to send money back to his wife and newborn. Director Robert M. Young’s sensitive screenplay refuses to indulge in simplistic pieties, presenting us with a world in which exploitation and compassion coexist in equal measure. The film immerses us in Roberto’s world as he moves across vast landscapes, meeting people he can’t be sure are friend or threat, staying one step ahead of immigration officials. “¡Alambrista!” is as relevant today as it was on its 1977 release, a testament to its enduring humanity. Added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
Expanded essay by Charles Ramírez Berg (PDF, 556KB)
Interview with Edward James Olmos (PDF, 2MB)
Alien (1979)
This film's appeal may lie in its reputation as "a haunted house movie in space." Though not particularly original, "Alien" is distinguished by director Ridley Scott's innovative ability to wring every ounce of suspense out of the B-movie staples he employs within the film's hi-tech setting. Art designer H.R. Giger creates what has become one of cinema's scariest monsters: a nightmarish hybrid of humanoid-insect-machine that Scott makes even more effective by obscuring it from view for much of the film. The cast, including Tom Skerritt and John Hurt, brings an appealing quality to their characters, and one character in particular, Sigourney Weaver's warrant officer Ripley, became the model for the next generation of hardboiled heroines and solidified the prototype in subsequent sequels. Rounding out the cast and crew, cameraman Derek Vanlint and composer Jerry Goldsmith propel the emotions relentlessly from one visual horror to the next.
All About Eve (1950)
Scheming ingénue Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) ingratiates herself with aging Broadway star Margo Channing (Bette Davis) moving in on her acting roles, her friends and her stage director beau. The dialog is often too bitingly perfect with its sarcastic barbs and clever comebacks, but it's still entertaining and quote-worthy. The film took home Academy Awards for best picture, best director (Joseph L. Mankiewicz), best screenplay (Mankiewicz) and costume design (Edith Head and Charles Le Maire). George Sanders won a best supporting actor Oscar for his performance as the acid-tongued theater critic Addison DeWitt. Thelma Ritter as Margo's maid, Celeste Holm as Margo's best friend, and Marilyn Monroe, in a small role as an aspiring actress, give memorable performances.
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All My Babies (1953)
Written and directed by George Stoney, this landmark educational film was used to educate midwives throughout the South. Produced by the Georgia Department of Public Health, profiles the life and work of "Miss Mary" Coley, an African-American midwife living in rural Georgia. In documenting the preparation for and delivery of healthy babies in rural conditions ranging from decent to deplorable, the filmmakers inadvertently captured a telling snapshot at the socioeconomic conditions of the era that would prove fascinating to future generations. Added to the National Film Registry in 2002.
Expanded essay by Joshua Glick (PDF, 391KB)
Watch it here
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
This faithful adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's classic pacifist novel is among the greatest antiwar films ever made, remaining powerful more than 80 years later, thanks to Lewis Milestone's inventive direction. Told from the perspective of a sensitive young German soldier (Lew Ayres) during WWI, recruited by a hawkish professor advocating "glory for the fatherland." The young soldier comes under the protective wing of an old veteran (Louis Wolheim) who teaches him how to survive the horrors of war. The film is emotionally draining, and so realistic that it will be forever etched in the mind of any viewer. Milestone's direction is frequently inspired, most notably during the battle scenes. In one such scene, the camera serves as a kind of machine gun, shooting down the oncoming troops as it glides along the trenches. Universal spared no expense during production, converting more than 20 acres of a large California ranch into battlefields occupied by more than 2,000 ex-servicemen extras. After its initial release, some foreign countries refused to run the film. Poland banned it for being pro-German, while the Nazis labeled it anti-German. Joseph Goebbels, later propaganda minister, publicly denounced the film. It received an Academy Award as Best Picture and Milestone was honored as Best Director.
Expanded essay by Garry Wills (PDF, 713KB)
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All That Heaven Allows (1955)
The rich visual texture, using glorious Technicolor, and a soaring emotional score lend what is essentially a thin story a kind of epic tension. A movie unheralded by critics and largely ignored by the public at the time of its release, All That Heaven Allows is now considered Douglas Sirk's masterpiece. The story concerns a romance between a middle-aged, middle-class widow (Jane Wyman) and a brawny young gardener (Rock Hudson)—the stuff of a standard weepie, you might think, until Sirk's camera begins to draw a deeply disturbing, deeply compassionate portrait of a woman trapped by stifling moral and social codes. Sirk's meaning is conveyed almost entirely by his mise-en-scene—a world of glistening, treacherous surfaces, of objects that take on a terrifying life of their own; he is one of those rare filmmakers who insist that you read the image.
Expanded essay by John Wills (PDF, 187KB)
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All That Jazz (1979)
Director/choreographer Bob Fosse takes a Felliniesque look at the life of a driven entertainer. Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider, channeling Fosse) is the ultimate work (and pleasure)-aholic, as he knocks back a daily dose of amphetamines to juggle a new Broadway production while editing his new movie, an ex-wife Audrey, girlfriend Kate, young daughter, and various conquests. Reminiscent of Fellini's "8 1/2 ," Fosse moves from realistic dance numbers to extravagant flights of cinematic fancy, as Joe meditates on his life, his women, and his death. Fosse shows the stiff price that entertaining exacts on entertainers (among other things, he intercuts graphic footage of open-heart surgery with a song and dance), mercilessly reversing the feel-good mood of classical movie musicals.
All the King's Men (1949)
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Robert Penn Warren and directed by Robert Rossen, "All the King's Men" was inspired by the career of Louisiana governor Huey Long. Broderick Crawford won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Willie Stark, a backwoods Southern lawyer who wins the hearts of his constituents by bucking the corrupt state government. The thesis is basically that power corrupts, with Stark presented as a man who starts out with a burning sense of purpose and a defiant honesty. Rossen, however, injects a note of ambiguity early on (a scene where Willie impatiently shrugs off his wife's dream of the great and good things he is destined to accomplish); and the doubt as to what he is really after is beautifully orchestrated by being filtered through the eyes of the press agent (Ireland) who serves as the film's narrator, and whose admiration for Stark gradually becomes tempered by understanding. In addition to its Oscars for Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge, the film won the Best Picture prize.
All the President's Men (1976)
Based on the memoir by "Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein about uncovering the Watergate break-in and cover up, "All the President's Men" is a rare example of a best-selling book transformed into a hit film and a cultural phenomenon in its own right. Directed by Alan J. Pakula, the film stars Robert Redford as Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein, and features an Oscar-winning performance by Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee. Nominated for numerous awards, it took home an Oscar for best screenplay by William Goldman (known prior to this for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and after for "The Princess Bride"). Pakula's taut directing plays up the emotional roller coaster of exhilaration, paranoia, self-doubt, and courage, without ignoring the tedium and tireless digging, and elevating it to noble determination.
Expanded essay by Mike Canning (PDF, 72KB)
Allures (1961)
Called the master of "cosmic cinema," Jordan Belson excelled in creating abstract imagery with a spiritual dimension that featured dazzling displays of color, light, and ever-moving patterns and objects. Trained as a painter and influenced by the films of Oskar Fischinger, Norman McLaren, and Hans Richter, Belson collaborated in the late 1950s with electronic music composer Henry Jacobs to create elaborate sound and light shows in the San Francisco Morrison Planetarium, an experience that informed his subsequent films. The film, Belson has stated, "was probably the space-iest film that had been done until then. It creates a feeling of moving into the void." Inspired by Eastern spiritual thought, "Allures" (which took a year and a half to make) is, Belson suggests, a "mathematically precise" work intended to express the process of becoming that the philosopher Teilhard de Chardin has named "cosmogenesis."
Amadeus (1984)
Milos Forman directed this deeply absorbing, visually sumptuous film based on the lives and rivalry of two great classical composers — the brash, youthful Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the good, if not truly exceptional, Antonio Salieri. Based upon Peter Shaffer's highly successful play, which Shaffer personally rewrote for the screen, "Amadeus," though ostensibly about classical music, instead shines as a remarkable examination of the concept of genius (Mozart) as well as the jealous obsession from less-talented rivals (Salieri). In an Oscar-winning performance, F. Murray Abraham skillfully lays bare the tortured emotions (admiration and covetous envy) Salieri feels for Mozart's work: "This was the music I had never heard...It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God. Why would God choose an obscene child to be his instrument?"
America, America (1963)
"My name is Elia Kazan. I am a Greek by blood, Turk by birth, American because my uncle made a journey." So begins the film directed, produced and written by Elia Kazan, and the one he frequently cited as his personal favorite. Based loosely on Kazan's uncle, Stavros dreams of going to America in the late 1890s. Kazan, who often hired locals as extras, cast in the lead role a complete novice, Stathis Giallelis, whom he discovered sweeping the floor in a Greek producer's office. Shot almost entirely in Greece and Turkey, Haskell Wexler's cinematography evokes scale and authenticity that combines with Gene Callahan's Oscar-winning art direction to give the film a distinctly European feel. Intended as the first chapter of a trilogy, the epically ambitious "America, America" also earned Oscar nominations for best director, best screenplay and best picture.
American Graffiti (1973)
Fresh off the success of "The Godfather," producer Francis Ford Coppola weilded the clout to tackle a project pitched to him by his friend, George Lucas. The film captured the flavor of the 1950s with ironic candor and a latent foreboding that helped spark a nostalgia craze. Despite technical obstacles, and having to shoot at night, cinematographer Haskell Wexler gave the film a neon glare to match its rock-n-roll soundscape. Lucas' period detail, co-writers Willard Huyck's and Gloria Katz's realistic dialogue, and the film's wistfulness for pre-Vietnam simplicity appealed to audiences amidst cultural upheaval. The film also established the reputations of Lucas (whose next film would be "Star Wars") and his young cast, and furthered the onset of soundtrack-driven, youth-oriented movies.
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An American in Paris (1951)
Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Georges Guetary, (The film was supposed to make Guetary into "the New Chevalier." It didn't.) The thinnish plot is held together by the superlative production numbers and by the recycling of several vintage George Gershwin tunes, including "I Got Rhythm," "'S Wonderful," and "Our Love Is Here to Stay." Highlights include Guetary's rendition of "Stairway to Paradise"; Oscar Levant's fantasy of conducting and performing Gershwin's "Concerto in F" (Levant also appears as every member of the orchestra). "An American in Paris," directed by Vincente Minnelli, cleaned up at the Academy Awards, with Oscars for best picture, screenplay, score, cinematography, art direction, set design, and even a special award for the choreography of its 18-minute closing ballet in which Kelly and Caron dance before lavish backgrounds resembling French masterpieces.
Interview with Leslie Caron (PDF, 1.36MB)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Director Otto Preminger brought a new cinematic frankness to film with this gripping crime-and-trial movie shot on location in Michigan's Upper Peninsula where the incident on which it was based had occurred. Based on the best-selling novel by Robert Traver, Preminger imbues his film with daring dialogue and edgy pacing. Controversial in its day due to its blunt language and willingness to openly discuss adult themes, "Anatomy" endures today for its first-rate drama and suspense, and its informed perspective on the legal system. Starring James Stewart, Ben Gazzara and Lee Remick, it also features strong supporting performances by George C. Scott as the prosecuting attorney, and Eve Arden and Arthur O'Connell. The film includes an innovative jazz score by Duke Ellington and one of Saul Bass's most memorable opening title sequences.
Animal House (1978)
(see "National Lampoon's Animal House")
Annie Hall (1977)
Woody Allen's romantic comedy of the Me Decade follows the up and down relationship of two mismatched New York neurotics. "Annie Hall" blended the slapstick and fantasy from such earlier Allen films as "Sleeper" and "Bananas" with the more autobiographical musings of his stand-up and written comedy, using an array of such movie techniques as talking heads, splitscreens, and subtitles. Within these gleeful formal experiments and sight gags, Allen and co-writer Marshall Brickman skewered 1970s solipsism, reversing the happy marriage of opposites found in classic screwball comedies. Hailed as Allen's most mature and personal film, "Annie Hall" beat out "Star Wars" for Best Picture and also won Oscars for Allen as director and writer and for Keaton as Best Actress; audiences enthusiastically responded to Allen's take on contemporary love and turned Keaton's rumpled menswear into a fashion trend. Added to the National Film Registry in 2001.
Expanded essay by Jay Carr (PDF, 302KB)
Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman (1974)
Directed by Jill Godmilow and Judy Collins, this Oscar-nominated documentary chronicles the life of musician-conductor Antonia Brico and her struggle to become a symphony director despite her gender. Told by many that it was ridiculous for a woman to think of conducting, she admits, "I felt that I'd never forgive myself if I didn't try." And the pain and deprivation which she has known all her life are over-shadowed in this film by her ebullient, forthright warmth. The narrative of her life alternates with glimpses of her at work—rehearsing or teaching. She also reflects on the emotional experience of conducting— including the acute separation pangs that follow a concert.
Expanded essay by Diane Worthey (PDF, 458KB)
The Apartment (1960)
Billy Wilder is purported to have hung a sign in his office that read, "How Would Lubitsch Do It?" Here, that Lubitsch touch seems to hover over each scene, lending a lightness to even the most nefarious of deeds. One of the opening shots in the movie shows Baxter as one of a vast horde of wage slaves, working in a room where the desks line up in parallel rows almost to the vanishing point. This shot is quoted from King Vidor's silent film "The Crowd" (1928), which is also about a faceless employee in a heartless corporation. Cubicles would have come as revolutionary progress in this world. By the time he made this film, Wilder had become a master at a kind of sardonic, satiric comedy that had sadness at its center. Wilder was fresh off the enormous hit "Some Like it Hot," his first collaboration with Lemmon, and with "The Apartment" Lemmon showed that he could move from light comedian to tragic everyman. This movie was the summation of what Wilder had done to date, and the key transition in Lemmon's career. It was also a key film for Shirley MacLaine, who had been around for five years in light comedies, but here emerged as a serious actress who would flower in the 1960s.
Expanded essay by Kyle Westphal (PDF, 428KB)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The chaotic production also experienced shut-downs when a typhoon destroyed the set and star Sheen suffered a heart attack; the budget ballooned and Coppola covered the overages himself. These production headaches, which Coppola characterized as being like the Vietnam War itself, have been superbly captured in the documentary, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. Despite the studio's fears and mixed reviews of the film's ending, Apocalypse Now became a substantial hit and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Duvall's psychotic Kilgore, and Best Screenplay. It won Oscars for sound and for Vittorio Storaro's cinematography. This hallucinatory, Wagnerian project has produced admirers and detractors of equal ardor; it resembles no other film ever made, and its nightmarish aura and polarized reception aptly reflect the tensions and confusions of the Vietnam era.
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Applause (1929)
This early sound-era masterpiece was the first film of both stage/director Rouben Mamoulian and cabaret/star Helen Morgan. Many have compared Mamoulian's debut to that of Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" because of his flamboyant use of cinematic innovation to test technical boundaries. The tear-jerking plot boasts top performances from Morgan as the fading burlesque queen, Fuller Mellish Jr. as her slimy paramour and Joan Peters as her cultured daughter. However, the film is remembered today chiefly for Mamoulian's audacious style. While most films of the era were static and stage-bound, Mamoulian's camera reinvigorated the melodramatic plot by prowling relentlessly through sordid backstage life.
Apollo 13 (1995)
The extreme challenges involved in space travel present compelling cinema storylines, and one cannot imagine a more harrowing scenario than the near tragic Apollo 13 space mission. Director Ron Howard’s retelling is equally meticulous and emotional, a master class in enveloping the audience into a complicated technological exercise in life-and-death problem-solving. Based on the 1994 book “Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13” by astronaut Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger, “Apollo 13” blends skillful editing, crafty special effects, a James Horner score, and a well-paced script to detail the quick-thinking heroics of both the astronaut crew and NASA technicians as they improvise and work through unprecedented situations. The talented cast includes Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris and Kathleen Quinlan. Howard went to great lengths to create a technically accurate movie, employing NASA's assistance in astronaut and flight-controller training for his cast, and obtaining permission to film scenes aboard a reduced-gravity aircraft for realistic depiction of the weightlessness experienced by the astronauts in space. Added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
John Huston's brilliant crime drama contains the recipe for a meticulously planned robbery, but the cast of criminal characters features one too many bad apples. Sam Jaffe, as the twisted mastermind, uses cash from corrupt attorney Emmerich (Louis Calhern) to assemble a group of skilled thugs to pull off a jewel heist. All goes as planned — until an alert night watchman and a corrupt cop enter the picture. Marilyn Monroe has a memorable bit part as Emmerich's "niece."
Atlantic City (1980)
Aided by a taut script from playwright John Guare, director Louis Malle celebrates his wounded characters even as he mercilessly reveals their dreams for the hopeless illusions they really are. Malle reveals the rich portraits he paints of wasted American lives, through the filter of his European sensibilities. He is exceptionally well served by his cast and his location--a seedy resort town supported, like the principal characters, by memories of glories past. Burt Lancaster, in a masterful performance, plays an aging small-time criminal who hangs around Atlantic City doing odd jobs and taking care of the broken-down moll of the deceased gangster for whom Lou was a gofer. Living in an invented past, Lou identifies with yesteryear's notorious gangsters and gets involved with sexy would-be croupier (Susan Sarandon) and her drug-dealing estranged husband.
The Atomic Café (1982)
Produced and directed by Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader and Pierce Rafferty, the influential film compilation "The Atomic Cafe" provocatively documents the post-World War II threat of nuclear war as depicted in a wide assortment of archival footage from the period (newsreels, statements from politicians, advertisements, training, civil defense and military films). This vast, yet entertaining, collage of clips serves as a unique document of the 1940s-1960s era and illustrates how these films—some of which today seem propagandistic or even patently absurd ("The House in the Middle")—were used to inform the public on how to cope in the nuclear age.
Expanded essay by John Willis (PDF, 45KB)
Attica (1974)
The September 1971 Attica prison uprising is the deadliest prison riot in U.S. history. To protest living conditions, inmates took over the facility, held hostages, issued a manifesto demanding better treatment, and then engaged in four days of fruitless negotiations. On Day 5, state troopers and prison authorities retook the prison in a brutal assault, leaving 43 inmates and hostages dead. Cinda Firestone’s outstanding investigation of the tragedy takes us through the event, what caused it, and the aftermath. She uses first-hand interviews with prisoners, families and guards, assembled surveillance and news camera footage, and video from the McKay Commission hearings on the massacre. An ex-inmate ends the film with a quote hoping to shake public lethargy on the need for prison reform: “Wake up, because nothing comes to a sleeper, but a dream.”
The Augustas (1930s-1950s)
Scott Nixon, a traveling salesman based in Augusta, Ga., was an avid member of the Amateur Cinema League who enjoyed recording his travels on film. In this 16-minute silent film, Nixon documents some 38 streets, storefronts and cities named Augusta in such far-flung locales as Montana and Maine. Arranged with no apparent rhyme or reason, the film strings together brief snapshots of these Augustas, many of which are indicated at pencil-point on a train timetable or roadmap. Nixon photographed his odyssey using both 8mm and 16mm cameras loaded with black-and-white and color film, amassing 26,000 feet of film that now resides at the University of South Carolina. While Nixon's film does not illuminate the historical or present-day significance of these towns, it binds them together under the umbrella of Americana. Whether intentionally or coincidentally, this amateur auteur seems to juxtapose the name's lofty origin—'august,' meaning great or venerable—with the unspectacular nature of everyday life in small-town America.
View this film at Moving Image Research Collections, University of South Carolina External
The Awful Truth (1937)
Leo McCarey's largely improvised film is one of the funniest of the screwball comedies, and also one of the most serious at heart. Cary Grant and Irene Dunne are a pair of world-weary socialites who each believe the other has been unfaithful, and consequently enter into a trial divorce. The story began life as a 1922 stage hit and was filmed twice previously. McCarey maintained the basic premise of the play but improved it greatly, adding sophisticated dialogue and encouraging his actors to improvise around anything they thought funny. "The Awful Truth" was in the can in six weeks, and was such a success that Grant and Dunne were teamed again in another comedy, "My Favorite Wife" and in a touching tearjerker, "Penny Serenade." The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
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Baby Face (1933)
Smart and sultry Barbara Stanwyck uses her feminine wiles to scale the corporate ladder, amassing male admirers who are only too willing to help a poor working girl. One of the more notorious melodramas of the pre-Code era, a period when the movie industry relaxed its censorship standards, films such as this one led to the imposition of the Production Code in 1934. This relative freedom resulted in a cycle of gritty, audacious films that resonated with Depression-battered audiences.
Expanded essay by Gwendolyn Audrey Foster (PDF, 819KB)
Back to the Future (1985)
Writer/director Robert Zemeckis explored the possibilities of special effects with the 1985 box-office smash "Back to the Future." With his writing partner Bob Gale, Zemeckis tells the tale of accidental time-tourist Marty McFly. Stranded in the year 1955, Marty (Michael J. Fox)—with the help of his friend eccentric scientist Dr. Emmett Brown (played masterfully over-the-top by Christopher Lloyd)—must not only find a way home, but also teach his father (Crispin Glover) how to become a man, repair the space/time continuum and save his family from being erased from existence. All this, while fighting off the advances of his then-teenaged mother (Lea Thompson). The film generated a popular soundtrack and two enjoyable sequels.
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
Vincente Minnelli directed this captivating Hollywood story of an ambitious producer (Kirk Douglas)as told in flashback by those whose lives he's impacted: an actress (Lana Turner), a writer (Dick Powell) and a director (Barry Sullivan). Insightful and liberally sprinkled with characters modeled after various Hollywood royalty from David O. Selznick to Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, witty, with one of Turner's best performances. Five Oscars include Supporting Actress (Gloria Grahame), Screenplay (Charles Schnee). David Raksin's score is another asset.
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Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Though only 81 minutes in length, "Bad Day" packs a punch. Spencer Tracy stars as Macreedy, a one-armed man who arrives unexpectedly one day at the sleepy desert town of Black Rock. He is just as tight-lipped at first about the reason for his visit as the residents of Black Rock are about the details of their town. However, when Macreedy announces that he is looking for a former Japanese-American Black Rock resident named Komoko, town skeletons suddenly burst into the open. In addition to Tracy, the standout cast includes Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and Dean Jagger. Director John Sturges displays the western landscape to great advantage in this CinemaScope production.
Badlands (1973)
Stark, brutal story based on the Charles Starkweather-Carol Fugate murder spree through the Midwest in 1958, with Martin Sheen as the killer lashing out against a society that ignores his existence and Sissy Spacek as his naive teenage consort. Sheen is forceful and properly weird as the mass murderer, strutting around pretending to be James Dean, while Spacek doesn't quite understand what he's all about, but goes along anyway. Director Terrence Malick neither romanticizes nor condemns his subjects, maintaining a low-key approach to the story that results in a fascinating character study. The film did scant box office business, but it remains one of the most impressive of directorial debuts.
Ball of Fire (1941)
In this Howard Hawks-directed screwball comedy, showgirl and gangster's moll Sugarpuss O'Shea (Barbara Stanwyck) hides from the law among a group of scholars compiling an encyclopedia. Cooling her heels until the heat lets up, Sugarpuss charms the elderly academics and bewitches the young professor in charge (Gary Cooper). Hawks deftly shapes an effervescent, innuendo-packed Billy Wilder-Charles Brackett script into a swing-era version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or "squirrely cherubs," as Sugarpuss christens them. Filled with colorful period slang and boogie-woogie tunes and highlighted by an energetic performance from legendary drummer Gene Krupa, the film captures a pre-World War II lightheartedness.
The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1982)
Directed by Robert M. Young, produced by Moctesuma Esparza, and co-produced by Edward James Olmos, who stars as Gregorio, some of the film’s most beautiful scenes come from acclaimed cinematography Reynoldo Villalobos. “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” is one of the key feature films from the 1980s Chicano film movement. Edward James Olmos was a working actor but not yet a star when he and several friends, meeting at what would become the Sundance Film Festival, decided to make a film about a true story of injustice from the Texas frontier days.
Shot on a tiny budget for PBS, “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” accurately tells the story of a Mexican-American farmer who in 1901 was falsely accused of stealing a horse. Cortez killed the sheriff who tried to arrest him, outran a huge posse for more than a week, barely escaped lynching and was eventually sentenced to more than a decade in prison. The incident became a famous corrido, or story-song, that is still sung in Mexico and Texas. While some characters speak in Spanish and others in English, the filmmakers decided not to use subtitles to give audiences the same experience as those caught up in the unfolding tragedy.
“This film is being seen more today than it was the day we finished it,” Olmos said in a 2022 interview with the Library of Congress. “‘The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez’ is truly the best film I’ve ever been a part of in my lifetime.”
Interview with Edward James Olmos (PDF, 2MB)
Bambi (1942)
One of Walt Disney's timeless classics (and his own personal favorite), this animated coming-of-age tale of a wide-eyed fawn's life in the forest has enchanted generations since its debut nearly 70 years ago. Filled with iconic characters and moments, the film features beautiful images that were the result of extensive nature studies by Disney's animators. Its realistic characters capture human and animal qualities in the time-honored tradition of folklore and fable, which enhance the movie's resonating, emotional power. Treasured as one of film's most heart-rending stories of parental love, "Bambi" also has come to be recognized for its eloquent message of nature conservation.
Expanded essay by John Wills (PDF, 360KB)
Expanded essay by Gail Alexander (wife of Stan Alexander - “Flower”) (PDF, 371KB)
Original drawing of Bambi
Bamboozled (2000)
Mixing elements of “A Face in the Crowd,” “The Producers,” “Network” and “Putney Swope,” Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled” showcases his unique talents, here blending dark comedy and satire exposing hypocrisy. An African American TV executive (Damon Wayans) grows tired of his ideas being rejected by his insincere white boss, who touts himself with an “I am Black People” type of vibe. To get out of this untenable situation, Wayans proposes an idea he feels will surely get him fired: a racist minstrel show featuring African American performers donning blackface. The show becomes a smash hit while at the same time sparking outrage, including militant groups leading to violence. As with the best satire, the focus is not on believable plot but rather how the story reveals the ills of society, in this case how Hollywood and television have mistreated African Americans over the decades. Added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
The Band Wagon (1953)
Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan star in this sophisticated backstage toe-tapper directed by Vincente Minnelli, widely considered one of the greatest movie musicals of all time. Astaire plays a washed-up movie star (in reality he'd been a succesful performer for nearly 30 years) who tries his luck on Broadway, under the direction of irrepressible mad genius Buchanan. Musical highlights include "Dancing in the Dark" and "That's Entertainment" (written for the film by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz) and Astaire's sexy Mickey Spillane spoof "The Girl Hunt" danced to perfection by Charisse. Fred Astaire would only make three more musicals after "The Band Wagon," before turning to a film and television career that included the occasional turn as a dramatic actor.
Lobby card
Additional artwork
The Bank Dick (1940)
Perhaps more than any other film comedian in the early days of movies, W.C. Fields is an acquired taste. His absurdist brand of humor, at once dry and surreal, endures for the simple reason that the movies bear up under repeated viewings; in fact, it's almost a necessity to watch them over and over, if only to figure out why they're so funny. In his second-to-last feature, The Bank Dick (which he wrote under the moniker "Mahatma Kane Jeeves"), Fields as unemployed layabout Egbert Souse -- Soosay, if you don't mind -- replaces drunk movie director A. Pismo Clam on a location shoot in his hometown of Lompoc, California before chance lands him in the job of bank detective -- after which the movie becomes a riff on the comic possibilities of his new-found notoriety. The stellar comic supporting cast includes future Stooge Shemp Howard as the bartender at Fields' regular haunt, The Black Pussy, and Preston Sturges regular Franklin Pangborn as bank examiner J. Pinkerton Snoopington.
Expanded essay by Randy Skretvedt (PDF, 401KB)
The Bargain (1914)
After beginning his career on the stage (where he originated the role of Messala in "Ben-Hur" in 1899), William S. Hart found his greatest fame as the silent screen's most popular cowboy. His 1914 "The Bargain," directed by Reginald Barker, was Hart's first film and made him a star. The second Hart Western to be named to the National Film Registry, the film was selected because of Hart's charisma, the film's authenticity and realistic portrayal of the Western genre and the star's good/bad man role as an outlaw attempting to go straight. Added to the National Film Registry 2010.
Expanded essay by Brian Taves (PDF, 1692KB)
Watch it here
The Battle of the Century (1927)
"Battle of the Century" is a classic Laurel and Hardy silent short comedy (2 reels, ca. 20 minutes) unseen in its entirety since its original release. The comic bits include a renowned pie-fighting sequence where the principle of "reciprocal destruction" escalates to epic proportions. "Battle" offers a stark illustration of the detective work (and luck) required to locate and preserve films from the silent era. Only excerpts from reel two of the film had survived for many years. Critic Leonard Maltin discovered a mostly complete nitrate copy of reel one at the Museum of Modern Art in the 1970s. Then in 2015, film collector and silent film accompanist Jon Mirsalis located a complete version of reel two as part of a film collection he purchased from the Estate of Gordon Berkow. The film still lacks brief scenes from reel one, but the film is now almost complete, comprising elements from MoMA, the Library of Congress, UCLA and other sources. It was restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive in conjunction with Jeff Joseph/SabuCat. The nearly complete film was preserved from one reel of 35mm nitrate print, one reel of a 35mm acetate dupe negative and a 16mm acetate print. Laboratory Services: The Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory, Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, Cineaste Restoration/Thad Komorowksi, Point 360/Joe Alloy. Special Thanks: Jon Mirsalis, Paramount Pictures Archives, Richard W. Bann, Ray Faiola, David Gerstein.
The Battle of San Pietro (1945)
John Huston's documentary about the WW II Battle of San Pietro Infine was considered too controversial by the U.S. military to be seen in its original form, and was cut from five reels to its released 33 minute-length. powerful viewing, vivid and gritty. Some 1,100 men died in the battle. scenes of grateful Italian peasants serve as a fascinating ethnographic time capsule. Filmed by Jules Buck. Unlike many other military documentaries, Huston's cameramen filmed alongside the Army's 143rd regiment, 36th division infantrymen, placing themselves within feet of mortar and shell fire. The film is unflinching in its realism and was held up from being shown to the public by the United States Army. Huston quickly became unpopular with the Army, not only for the film but also for his response to the accusation that the film was anti-war. Huston responded that if he ever made a pro-war film, he should be shot. Because it showed dead GIs wrapped in mattress covers, some officers tried to prevent troopers in training from seeing it, for fear of morale. General George Marshall came to the film's defense, stating that because of the film's gritty realism, it would make a good training film. The depiction of death would inspire them to take their training seriously. Subsequently the film was used for that purpose. Huston was no longer considered a pariah; he was decorated and made an honorary major.
Expanded essay by Ed Carter (PDF, 423KB)
View this film at National Film Preservation Foundation External
The Beau Brummels (1928)
Al Shaw and Sam Lee were an eccentrically popular vaudeville act of the 1920s. In 1928 they made this eight-minute Vitaphone short for Warner Bros. The duo later appeared in more than a dozen other films, though none possessed the wacky charm of "The Beau Brummels." As Jim Knipfel has observed: "If Samuel Beckett had written a vaudeville routine, he would have created Shaw and Lee." Often considered one of the quintessential vaudeville comedy shorts, the film has a simple set-up—Shaw and Lee stand side by side with deadpan expressions in non-tailored suits and bowler hats as they deliver their comic routine of corny nonsense songs and gags with a bit of soft shoe and their renowned hat-swapping routine. Shaw's and Lee's reputation has enjoyed a recent renaissance and their brand of dry, offbeat humor is seen by some as well ahead of its time. The film has been preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" is an animated, musical retelling of the fairy tale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince du Beaumont. The film follows Belle (voiced by Paige O'Hara), an intelligent and rebellious young French woman, who is forced to live with a hideous monster, the Beast (voiced by Robby Benson), after offering to take her father's place as the Beast's prisoner. Unaware that the Beast is actually an enchanted prince, Belle falls in love with him. "Beauty and the Beast" was the first animated film nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Picture category. Alan Menken won an Oscar for his original score, and he and lyricist Howard Ashman (posthumously) earned Oscars for the film's theme song "Beauty and the Beast."
Movie poster
Becky Sharp (1935)
Actress Miriam Hopkins had a long and successful movie career, appearing in many classics, including "Trouble in Paradise" and "Design for Living." However, it is as this film's titular heroine that she received her only Academy Award best-actress nomination. Based upon Thackeray's novel "Vanity Fair," "Becky" is the story of a socially ambitious woman and her destructive climb up the class system. "Becky Sharp" merits historical note as the first feature-length film to utilize the three-strip Technicolor process, which, even today, gives the film a shimmering visual appeal. The lengthy, complicated restoration process of "Becky Sharp" by the UCLA Film and Television Archive marked one of the earliest archival restorations to garner widespread public attention. Partners in this painstaking effort included the National Telefilm Associates Inc., Fondazione Scuola Nazionale di Cinema, Cineteca Nazionale (Rome), British Film Institute, The Film Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Paramount and YCM Laboratories. More information can be found at https://cinema.ucla.edu/restoration/becky-sharp-restoration External.
Before Stonewall (1984)
In 1969, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village. After years of harassment, this infamous act proved a tipping point and led to three days of riots. The Stonewall riots are credited with launching the modern gay civil rights movement in the U.S. Narrated by Rita Mae Brown, "Before Stonewall" provides a detailed look at the history and making of the LGBTQ community in 20th-century America through archival footage and interviews with those who felt compelled to live secret lives during that period. Elements, prints and a new 2016 digital cinema package are held in the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Behind Every Good Man (1967)
This pre-Stonewall UCLA student short by Nikolai Ursin offers a stunning early portrait of Black, gender fluidity in Los Angeles and the quest for love and acceptance. Following playful street scene vignettes accompanied by a wistful, baritone voice-over narration, the film lingers tenderly on our protagonist preparing for a date who never arrives. The film is preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Preservation funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation on behalf of the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project. Special thanks to John Campbell, Stephen Parr and Norman Yonemoto.
Being There (1979)
Chance, a simple-minded gardener (Peter Sellers) whose only contact with the outside world is through television, becomes the toast of the town following a series of misunderstandings. Forced outside his protected environment by the death of his wealthy boss, Chance subsumes his late employer's persona, including the man's cultured walk, talk and even his expensive clothes, and is mistaken as "Chauncey Gardner," whose simple adages are interpreted as profound insights. He becomes the confidant of a dying billionaire industrialist (Melvyn Douglas, in an Academy Award-winning performance) who happens to be a close adviser to the U.S. president (Jack Warden). Chance's gardening advice is interpreted as metaphors for political policy and life in general. Jerzy Kosinski, assisted by award-winning screenwriter Robert C. Jones, adapted his 1971 novel for the screenplay which Hal Ashby directed with an understatement to match the subtlety and precision of Sellers' Academy Award-nominated performance. Shirley MacLaine also stars as Douglas's wife, then widow, who sees Chauncey as a romantic prospect. Film critic Robert Ebert said he admired the film for "having the guts to take this totally weird conceit and push it to its ultimate comic conclusion." That conclusion is a philosophically complex film that has remained fresh and relevant.
Expanded essay by Jerry Dean Roberts (PDF, 118KB)
Ben-Hur (1925)
Adapted from General Lew Wallace's popular novel "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" published in 1880, this epic featured one of the most exciting spectacles in silent film: the chariot race that was shot with 40 cameras on a Circus Maximus set costing a staggering (for the day) $300,000. In addition to the grandeur of the chariot scene, a number of sequences shot in Technicolor also contributed to the epic status of "Ben-Hur," which was directed by Fred Niblo and starred Ramon Novarro as Judah Ben-Hur and Francis X. Bushman as Messala. While the film did not initially recoup its investment, it did help to establish its studio, MGM, as one of the major players in the industry.
Expanded essay by Fritzi Kramer (PDF, 254KB)
Lobby card
Ben-Hur (1959)
This epic blockbuster stars Charlton Heston in the title role of a rebellious Israelite who takes on the Roman Empire during the time of Christ. Featuring one of the most famous action sequences of all time -- the breathtaking chariot race -- the film was a remake of the impressive silent version released in 1925. Co-starring Stephen Boyd as Judah Ben-Hur's onetime best friend and later rival, it also featured notable performances by Hugh Griffith and Jack Hawkins. Directed by Oscar-winner William Wyler, who found success with "Mrs. Miniver" "The Best Years of Our Lives" and others, "Ben-Hur" broke awards records, winning 11 Oscars, including best picture, director, actor, supporting actor, and score. Famed stuntman Yakima Canutt was brought in to coordinate all the chariot race stunt work and train the driver The race scene alone cost is reported to have cost about $4 million, or about a fourth of the entire budget, and took 10 weeks to shoot.
Expanded essay by Gabriel Miller (PDF, 499KB)
Bert Williams Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1913)
In 1913, a stellar cast of African-American performers gathered in the Bronx, New York, to make a feature-length motion picture. The troupe starred vaudevillian Bert Williams, the first African-American to headline on Broadway and the most popular recording artist prior to 1920. After considerable footage was shot, the film was abandoned. One hundred years later, the seven reels of untitled and unassembled footage were discovered in the film vaults of the Museum of Modern Art, and are now believed to constitute the earliest surviving feature film starring black actors. Modeled after a popular collection of stories known as "Brother Gardener's Lime Kiln Club," the plot features three suitors vying to win the hand of the local beauty, portrayed by Odessa Warren Grey. The production also included members of the Harlem stage show known as J. Leubrie Hill's "Darktown Follies." Providing insight into early silent-film production (Williams can be seen applying his blackface makeup), these outtakes or rushes show white and black cast and crew working together, enjoying themselves in unguarded moments. Even in fragments of footage, Williams proves himself among the most gifted of screen comedians.
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
A moving and personal story directed by real-life veteran William Wyler, the film depicts the return to civilian life by three World War II servicemen, portrayed by Dana Andrews, Fredric March and Harold Russell. Adapted by Robert Sherwood from MacKinlay Kantor's novel "Glory for Me," Gregg Toland's deep-focus cinematography is memorable for emotionally evokative long dolly shots. It also starred Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, Cathy O'Donnell, and Virginia Mayo. The film won nine Oscars including Best Picture, as well as two awards for Russell, who lost his hands in the war.
Expanded essay by Gabriel Miller (PDF, 319KB)
Betty Tells Her Story (1972)
Liane Brandon’s classic documentary explores the layers of storytelling and memory - how telling a story again can reveal previously hidden details and context. In this poignant tale of beauty, identity and a dress, the filmmaker turns the storytelling power over to the subject. Deceptively simple in its approach, the director in two separate takes films Betty recalling her search for the perfect dress for an upcoming special occasion. During the first take, Betty describes in delightful detail how she found just the right one, spent more than she could afford, felt absolutely transformed … and never got to wear it. Brandon then asks her to tell the story again, and this time her account becomes more nuanced, personal and emotional, revealing her underlying feelings. Though the facts remain the same, the story is strikingly different. “Betty Tells Her Story” was the first independent documentary of the Women’s Movement to explore the ways in which clothing and appearance affect a woman’s identity. It is used in film studies, psychology, sociology, women’s studies, and many other academic disciplines as a perceptive look at how our culture views women in the context of body image, self-worth and beauty in American culture. The film was restored with a grant from New York Women in Film & Television’s Women's Film Preservation Fund.
Inductees' Gallery - Liane Brandon, producer and director
Big Business (1929)
As gifted in their repartee as they were in their physical antics, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were the perfect team for the transition from silent film comedy to sound. Their legendary career spanned from 1921 to 1951 and included more than 100 films. This two-reeler finds the duo attempting to sell Christmas trees in sunny California. Their run-in with an unsatisfied customer (played by James Finlayson) lays the groundwork for a slapstick melee eventually involving a dismantled car, a wrecked house and an exploding cigar. The film was produced by the team's long-time collaborator, Hal Roach, the king of no-holds-barred comedy.
Expanded essay by Randy Skretvedt (PDF, 308KB)
The Big Heat (1953)
One of the great post-war noir films, "The Big Heat" stars Glenn Ford, Lee Marvin and Gloria Grahame. Set in a fictional American town, the film tells the story of a tough cop (Ford) who takes on a local crime syndicate, exposing tensions within his own corrupt police department as well as insecurities and hypocrisies of domestic life in the 1950s. Filled with atmosphere, fascinating female characters, and a jolting—yet not gratuitous—degree of violence, "The Big Heat," through its subtly expressive technique and resistance to formulaic denouement, manages to be both stylized and brutally realistic, a signature of its director Fritz Lang.
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The Big Lebowski (1998)
From the unconventional visionaries Joel and Ethan Coen (the filmmakers behind "Fargo" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?") came this 1998 tale of kidnapping, mistaken identity and bowling. As they would again in the 2008 "Burn After Reading," the Coens explore themes of alienation, inequality and class structure via a group of hard-luck, off-beat characters suddenly drawn into each other's orbits. Jeff Bridges, in a career-defining role, stars as "The Dude," an LA-based slacker who shares a last name with a rich man whose arm-candy wife is indebted to shady figures. Joining Bridges are John Goodman, Tara Reid, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Steve Buscemi and, in a now-legendary cameo, John Turturro. Stuffed with vignettes—each staged through the Coens' trademark absurdist, innovative visual style—that are alternately funny and disturbing, "Lebowski" was only middling successful at the box office during its initial release. However, television, the Internet, home video and considerable word-of-mouth have made the film a highly quoted cult classic.
Expanded essay by J.M. Tyree & Ben Walters (PDF, 354KB)
The Big Parade (1925)
One of the first films to deglamorize war with its startling realism, "The Big Parade" became the largest grossing film of the silent era. From a story by Laurence Stallings, director King Vidor crafted what "New York Times" critic Mordaunt Hall called "an eloquent pictorial epic." The film, which Hall said displayed "all the artistry of which the camera is capable," depicts a privileged young man (John Gilbert) who goes to war seeking adventure and finds camaraderie, love, humility and maturity amid the horrors of war. Along the way he befriends two amiable doughboys (Karl Dane and Tom O'Brien) and falls for a beautiful French farm girl (Renée Adorée). Vidor tempered the film's serious subject matter with a kind of simple, light humor that flows naturally from new friendships and new loves. A five-time nominee for Best Director, Vidor was eventually recognized by the Academy in 1979 with an honorary lifetime achievement award. Both stars continued to reign until the transition to talking pictures, which neither Gilbert nor Adorée weathered successfully. Their careers plummeted and both died prematurely.
The Big Sleep (1946)
Howard Hawks directed this Raymond Chandler story featuring private eye Philip Marlowe, played by Humphrey Bogart. Appearing opposite him in only her second film was a former model named Lauren Bacall, with whom Bogart had fallen in love (and vice versa) during filming of "To Have and Have Not" earlier that year. Hawks and his writers attempted to untangle the threads of Chandler's complicated plot which caused frequent production delays. More than a month behind schedule and about $50,000 over budget, the film was ready in mid-summer1945, and that version was distributed to servicemen overseas. Shortly thereafter "To Have and Have Not" was released, and audiences loved the Bogart-Bacall chemistry, so the wide release of "The Big Sleep" was further delayed the wide release by rewriting scenes to heighten the chemistry and bring out Bacall's "insolent" quality that audiences found so appealing the pair's earlier film. The pre-release cut is only two minutes longer, but contains 18 minutes of scenes missing from the final picture. The first "draft" was discovered at the UCLA Film and Television Archive where both versions have since been preserved.
The Big Trail (1930)
This taming of the Oregon Trail saga comes alive thanks to the majestic sweep afforded by the experimental Grandeur wide-screen process developed by the Fox Film Corporation. Audiences marveled at the sheer scope of the panoramic scenes before them and delighted in the beauty of the vast landscapes. Hollywood legend has it that director Raoul Walsh was seeking a male lead for a new Western and asked his friend John Ford for advice. Ford recommended an unknown actor named John Wayne because he "liked the looks of this new kid with a funny walk -- like he owned the world." When Wayne professed inexperience, Walsh told him to just "sit good on a horse and point."Wayne's starring role in "The Big Trail" did not catapult him to stardom, and he languished in low-budget pictures until John Ford cast him in the 1939 classic "Stagecoach."
Expanded essay by Marilyn Ann Moss (PDF, 375KB)
The Birds (1963)
"The Birds" was the fourth suspense hit by Alfred Hitchcock—following "Vertigo," "North by Northwest" and "Psycho"—revealing his mastery of his craft. Hitchcock transfixed both critics and mass audiences by deftly moving from anxiety-inducing horror to glossy entertainment and suspense, with bold forays into psychological terrain. Marked by a foreboding sense of an unending terror no one can escape, the film concludes with its famous, final scene, which only adds to the emotional impact of "The Birds."
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
This landmark of American motion pictures is the story of two families during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Director D.W. Griffith's depiction of the Ku Klux Klan as heroes stirred controversy that continues to the present day. But the director's groundbreaking camera technique and narrative style advanced the art of filmmaking by leaps and bounds. Profoundly impacted by the novel "The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan," Griffith hired its author Thomas F. Dixon Jr. to adapt it as a screenplay. At the heart of the story are two pairs of star-crossed lovers on either side of the conflict: Southerner Henry B. Walthall courts Northerner Lillian Gish, and the couple's siblings, played by Elmer Clifton and Miriam Cooper, are also in love. The ravages of war and the chaos of reconstruction take their toll on both families. The racist and simplistic depictions of blacks in the film is difficult to overlook, but underneath the distasteful sentiment lies visual genius.
Expanded essay by Dave Kehr (PDF, 599KB)
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Black and Tan (1929)
In one of the first short musical films to showcase African-American jazz musicians, Duke Ellington portrays a struggling musician whose dancer wife (Fredi Washington in her film debut) secures him a gig for his orchestra at the famous Cotton Club where she's been hired to perform, at a risk to her health. Directed by Dudley Murphy, who earned his reputation with "Ballet mécanique," which is considered a masterpiece of early experimental filmmaking, the film reflects the cultural, social and artistic explosion of the 1920s that became known as the Harlem Renaissance. Ellington and Washington personify that movement, and Murphy—who also directed registry titles "St. Louis Blues" (1929), another musical short, and the feature "The Emperor Jones" (1933) starring Paul Robeson—cements it in celluloid to inspire future generations. Washington, who appeared with Robeson in "Emperor Jones," is best known as "Peola" in the 1934 version of "Imitation of Life."
The Black Pirate (1926)
This swashbuckling tour-de-force by Douglas Fairbanks, king of silent action adventure pictures, is most significant for having been filmed entirely in two-strip Technicolor, a process still being perfected at the time, and the precursor to Technicolor processes that would become commonplace by the 1950s. Fairbanks plays a nobleman who has vowed to avenge the death of his father at the hands of pirates, and once upon the pirates' vessel, protects a damsel in distress (Bessie Love)taken hostage by the band of thieves. Fairbanks wrote the original story under a pseudonym, and Albert Parker directed.
Expanded essay by Tracey Goessel (PDF, 356 KB)
The Black Stallion (1979)
When a ship carrying young Alec Ramsey (Kelly Reno) and a black Arabian stallion sinks off the coast of Africa, Alec and the horse find themselves stranded on a deserted island. Upon their rescue, Alec and horse trainer/former jockey Henry Dailey (Mickey Rooney) begin training the horse to become a formidable racer. Directed by Carroll Ballard and based on the Walter Farley novel of the same name, the film was executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola who finally persuaded United Artists to release the film after shelving it for two years. The film's supervising sound editor, Alan Splet, received a Special Achievement Award for his innovations including affixing microphones around the horse's midsection to pick up the sound of its hoof beats and breathing during race sequences. "The Black Stallion" was nominated for two Academy Awards, one for Best Supporting Actor for Mickey Rooney and one for Best Film Editing for Robert Dalva.
Expanded essay by Keith Phipps (PDF, 375 KB)
Blackboard Jungle (1955)
In a 1983 interview, writer-director Richard Brooks claimed that hearing Bill Haley and the Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" in 1954 inspired him to make a rock & roll-themed picture. The result was "Blackboard Jungle," an adaptation of the controversial novel by Evan Hunter about an inner-city schoolteacher (played in the film by Glenn Ford) tackling juvenile delinquency and the lamentable state of public education— common bugaboos of the Eisenhower era. Retaining much of the novel's gritty realism, the film effectively dramatizes the social issues at hand, and features outstanding early performances by Sidney Poitier and Vic Morrow. The film, however, packs its biggest wallop even before a word of dialog is spoken. As the opening credits roll, Brooks' original inspiration for the film – the pulsating strains of "Rock Around the Clock" – blasts across theater speakers, bringing the devil's music to Main Street and epitomizing American culture worldwide.
Blacksmith Scene (1893)
Not blacksmiths but employees of the Edison Manufacturing Company, Charles Kayser, John Ott and another unidentified man are likely the first screen actors in history, and "Blacksmith Scene" is thought to be the first film of more than a few feet to be publicly exhibited. The 30-second film was photographed in late April 1893 by Edison's key employee, W.K.L. Dickson, at the new Edison studio in New Jersey. On May 9, audiences lined up single file at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences to peer through a viewing machine called a kinetoscope where glowed images of a blacksmith and two helpers forging a piece of iron, but only after they'd first passed around a bottle of beer. A Brooklyn newspaper reported the next day, "It shows living subjects portrayed in a manner to excite wonderment."
First Motion Picture Copyright Found
National Film Preservation Foundation - Blacksmithing Scene External
Blade Runner (1982)
A blend of science fiction and film noir, "Blade Runner" was a box office and critical flop when first released, but its unique postmodern production design became hugely influential within the sci-fi genre, and the film gained a significant cult following that increased its stature. Harrison Ford stars as Rick Deckard, a retired cop in Los Angeles circa 2019. L.A. has become a pan-cultural dystopia of corporate advertising, pollution and flying automobiles, as well as replicants, human-like androids with short life spans built for use in dangerous off-world colonization. Deckard, a onetime blade runner – a detective that hunts down rogue replicants – is forced back into active duty to assassinate a band of rogues out to attack earth. Along the way he encounters Sean Young, a replicant who's unaware of her true identity, and faces a violent confrontation atop a skyscraper high above the city.
Expanded essay by David Morgan (PDF, 358 KB)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
This riotously funny, raunchy, no-holds-barred Western spoof by Mel Brooks is universally considered one of the funniest American films of all time. The movie features a civil-rights theme (the man in the white hat (Cleavon Little ) turns out to be an African-American who has to defend a bigoted town), and its furiously paced gags and rapid-fire dialogue were scripted by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg and Alan Unger. Little as the sheriff and Gene Wilder as his recovering alcoholic deputy have great chemistry, and the delightful supporting cast includes Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens, and Madeline Kahn as a chanteuse modelled on Marlene Dietrich. As in "Young Frankenstein," "Silent Movie," and "High Anxiety," director/writer Brooks gives a burlesque spin to a classic Hollywood movie genre.
Expanded essay by Michael Schlesinger (PDF, 662 KB)
Bless Their Little Hearts (1984)
Part of the vibrant New Wave of independent African-American filmmakers to emerge in the 1970s and 1980s, Billy Woodberry became a key figure in the movement known as the L.A. Rebellion. Woodberry crafted his UCLA thesis film, "Bless Their Little Hearts," which was theatrically released in 1984. The film features a script and cinematography by Charles Burnett. This spare, emotionally resonant portrait of family life during times of struggle blends grinding, daily-life sadness with scenes of deft humor. Jim Ridley of the "Village Voice" aptly summed up the film's understated-but- real virtues: "Its poetry lies in the exaltation of ordinary detail."
The Blood of Jesus (1941)
Also known as "The Glory Road," this was among the approximately 500 "race movies" produced between 1915 and 1950 for African-American audiences and featuring all-black casts. In this film, a deeply devout woman (Cathryn Caviness) faces a spiritual crossroads after being accidentally shot, and is forced to choose between heaven and hell. Spencer Williams, who wrote, directed and starred in the film, produced the film in response to a need for spiritually-based films that spoke directly to black audiences. Long thought lost, prints were discovered in a warehouse in Tyler, Texas, in the mid-1980s.
Expanded essay by Mark S. Giles (PDF, 256 KB)
View this film at Southern Methodist University Central University Libraries External
The Blue Bird (1918)
Maurice Tourneur's beautiful expressionist adaptation of Maurice Maeterlink's play remains one of the most aesthetically pleasing films. The film is a sumptuously composed pictorial entrance into a fantasy world, which tries to teach us not to overlook the beauty of what is close and familiar.
Expanded essay by Kaveh Askari (PDF, 445 KB)
The Blues Brothers (1980)
Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, then both best known for their star-turns as part of the "Not Ready for Prime-Time Players" troupe on TV's "Saturday Night Live," took their recurring "Blues Brothers" SNL sketch to the big screen in this loving and madcap musical misadventures of Jake and Elwood Blues on a mission from God. An homage of sorts to various classic movie genres — from screwball comedy to road movie — "The Blues Brothers" serves as a tribute to the lead duo's favorite city (Chicago) as well as a lovely paean to great soul and R&B music. In musical cameos, such legends as Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and John Lee Hooker all ignite the screen. Added to the National Film Registry in 2020.
Interview with Dan Aykroyd (PDF, 2MB)
Interview with John Landis (PDF, 2MB)
Body and Soul (1925)
One of the truly unique pioneers of cinema, African-American producer/director/writer/distributor Oscar Micheaux somehow managed to get nearly 40 films made and seen despite facing racism, lack of funding, the capricious whims of local film censors and the independent nature of his work. Most of Micheaux's films are lost to time or available only in incomplete versions, with the only extant copies of some having been located in foreign archives. Nevertheless, what remains shows a fearless director with an original, daring and creative vision. Film historian Jacqueline Stewart says Micheaux's films, though sometimes unpolished and rough in terms of acting, pacing and editing, brought relevant issues to the black community including "the politics of skin color within the black community, gender differences, class differences, regional differences especially during this period of the Great Migration." For "Body and Soul," renaissance man Paul Robeson, who had gained some fame on the stage, makes his film debut displaying a blazing screen presence in dual roles as a charismatic escaped convict masquerading as a preacher and his pious brother. The George Eastman Museum has restored the film from a nitrate print, producing black-and-white-preservation elements and later restoring color tinting using the Desmet method.
Bohulano Family Film Collection (1950s-1970s)
Delfin Paderes Bohulano and Concepcion Moreno Bohulano recorded their family life for more than 20 years. Shot primarily in Stockton, California, their collection documents the history of the Filipinx community (once the largest in the country) during a period of significant immigration. The couple moved to the United States following American military service during World War II. They were involved in the local Filipino American community, including the building of Stockton's new Filipino Center in the early 1970s. The movies record community events, family gatherings, trips to New York, Atlantic City, and Washington, DC, as well as the family's 1967 visit to the Philippines. The 15-reel collection is shot on Super 8mm, 8mm, and 16mm, and in color and silent. Preserved by the Center for Asian American Media. Added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Setting filmmaking and style trends that linger today, "Bonnie and Clyde" veered from comedy to social commentary to melodrama and caught audiences unaware, especially with its graphic ending. The violence spawned many detractors, but others saw the artistry beyond the blood and it earned not only critical succes which eventually showed at thebox office. Arthur Penn deftly directs David Newman and Robert Benton's script, aided by the film's star and producer Warren Beatty, who was always eager to push the envelope. Faye Dunaway captures the Depression-era yearning for glamour and escape from poverty and hopelessness.
Expanded essay by Richard Schickel (PDF, 530KB)
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Born Yesterday (1950)
Judy Holliday's sparkling lead performance as not-so-dumb "dumb blonde" Billie Dawn anchors this comedy classic based on Garson Kanin's play and directed for the screen by George Cukor. Kanin's satire on corruption in Washington, D.C., adapted for the screen by Albert Mannheimer, is full of charm and wit while subtly addressing issues of class, gender, social standing and American politics. Holliday's work in the film (a role she had previously played on Broadway) was honored with the Academy Award for Best Actress and has endured as one of the era's most finely realized comedy performances.
Expanded essay by Ariel Schudson (PDF, 394KB)
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Boulevard Nights (1979)
"Boulevard Nights" had its genesis in a screenplay by UCLA student Desmond Nakano about Mexican-American youth and the lowrider culture. Director Michael Pressman and cinematographer John Bailey shot the film in the barrios of East Los Angeles with the active participation of the local community (including car clubs and gang members). This street-level strategy using mostly non-professional actors produced a documentary-style depiction of the tough choices faced by Chicano youth as they come of age and try to escape or navigate gang life ("Two brothers...the street was their playground and their battleground"). In addition to "Boulevard Nights," this era featured several films chronicling youth gangs and rebellion — "The Warriors" (1979), "Over the Edge" (1979), "Walk Proud" (1979) and "The Outsiders" (1983). The film faced protests and criticism from some Latinos who saw outsider filmmakers, albeit well-intentioned, adopting an anthropological perspective with an excessive focus on gangs and violent neighborhoods. Nevertheless, "Boulevard Nights" stands out as a pioneering snapshot of East L.A. and enjoys semi-cult status in the lowrider community.
Boys Don't Cry (1999)
Director Kimberly Peirce made a stunning debut with this searing docudrama based on the infamous 1993 case of a young Nebraska transgender man who is brutally raped and murdered (along with two other people) in a small Nebraska town. Released a year after the killing of Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, the film brought the issue of hate crimes clearly into the American public spotlight. Sometimes compared to Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy," "Boys" raised issues that are still relevant 20 years later: intolerance, prejudice, the lack of opportunity in small towns, conceptions of self, sexual identity, diversity and cultural, sexual and social mores. New York Times' critic Janet Maslin lauded the film for not taking the usual plot routes: "Unlike most films about mind-numbing tragedy, this one manages to be full of hope." Several things helped create that result, particularly the performance of 22-year-old Hilary Swank, who won an Oscar as Brandon.
Boyz N the Hood (1991)
In his film debut, John Singleton wrote and directed this thought-provoking look at South Central L.A.'s black community. A divorced father (Larry Fishburne) struggles to raise his son, Tre (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) in a world where violence is a fact of life. Tre is torn by his desire to live up to his father's expectations and pressure from friends pushing him toward the gang culture. Roger Ebert praised the film for its "maturity and emotional depth," calling it "an American film of enormous importance." The lead players are backed by strong supporting performances from Ice Cube, Morris Chestnut, Tyre Ferrell, Angela Bassett and Nia Long.
Brandy in the Wilderness (1969)
This introspective "contrived diary" film by Stanton Kaye features vignettes from the relationship of a real-life couple, in this case the director and his girlfriend. An evocative 1960s time capsule—reminiscent of Jim McBride's "David Holzman's Diary"—this simulated autobiography, as in many experimental films, often blurs the lines between reality and illusion, moving in non-linear arcs through the ever-evolving and unpredictable interactions of relationships, time and place. As Paul Schrader notes, "it is probably quite impossible (and useless) to make a distinction between the point at which the film reflects their lives, and the point at which their lives reflect the film." "Brandy in the Wilderness" remains a little-known yet key work of American indie filmmaking.
This article by director Paul Schrader originally appeared in the Fall 1971 issue of "Cinema Magazine." (PDF, 1764KB)
Bread (1918)
Billed as a "sociological photodrama, "Bread" tells the story of a naïve young woman in a narrow-minded town who journeys to New York to become a star but faces disillusionment when she learns that sex is demanded as the price for fame. Ida May Park, director and scenarist of "Bread," was among more than a half-dozen prolific women directors working at the Universal Film Manufacturing Company during the period in which Los Angeles became the home of America's movie industry. Park directed 14 feature-length films between 1917 and 1920, and her career as a scenarist lasted until 1931. She reasoned that because the majority of movie fans were women, "it follows that a member of the sex is best able to gauge their wants in the form of stories and plays." In an essay Park contributed to the book "Careers for Women," she stated that women were advantaged as motion picture directors because of "the superiority of their emotional and imaginative faculties." In the two surviving reels of "Bread," one of only three films Park directed that are currently known to exist, she displays an accomplished ability to knowingly vivify her protagonist's plight as she fends off an attacker and places her frail hopes in a misshapen loaf of bread that has come to symbolize for her the good things in life.
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
Truman Capote's acclaimed novella—the bitter story of self-invented Manhattan call girl Holly Golightly—arrived on the big screen purged of its risqué dialogue and unhappy ending. George Axelrod's screenplay excised explicit references to Holly's livelihood and added an emotionally moving romance, resulting, in Capote's view, in "a mawkish valentine to New York City." Capote believed that Marilyn Monroe would have been perfect for the film and judged Audrey Hepburn, who landed the lead, "just wrong for the part." Critics and audiences, however, have disagreed. The Los Angeles Times stated, "Miss Hepburn makes the complex Holly a vivid, intriguing figure." Feminist critics in recent times have valued Hepburn's portrayals of the period as providing a welcome alternative female role model to the dominant sultry siren of the 1950s. Hepburn conveyed intelligent curiosity, exuberant impetuosity, delicacy combined with strength, and authenticity that often emerged behind a knowingly false facade. Critics also have lauded the movie's director Blake Edwards for his creative visual gags and facility at navigating the film's abrupt changes in tone. Composer Henry Mancini's classic "Moon River," featuring lyrics by Johnny Mercer, also received critical acclaim. Mancini considered Hepburn's wistful rendition of the song on guitar the best he had heard.
The Breakfast Club (1985)
John Hughes, who had previously given gravitas to the angst of adolescence in his 1984 film, "Sixteen Candles," further explored the social politics of high school in this comedy/character study produced one year later. Set in a day-long Saturday detention hall, the film offers an assortment of American teen-age archetypes such as the "nerd," "jock," and "weirdo." Over the course of the day, labels and default personas slip away as members of this motley group actually talk to each other and learn about each other and themselves. "The Breakfast Club" is a comedy that delivers a message with laughs. Thirty years later, the movie's message is still vivid. Written and directed by Hughes, the film's cast includes Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez and Ally Sheedy.
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Director James Whale took his success with "Frankenstein," added humor and thus created a cinematic hybrid that perplexed audiences at first glance but captivated them by picture's end. Joined eventually by a mate (Elsa Lanchester), the Frankenstein monster (Boris Karloff reprising his role and investing the character with emotional subtlety) evolves into a touchingly sympathetic character as he gradually becomes more human. Ernest Thesiger as Dr. Pretorious is captivatingly bizarre. Many film historians consider "Bride," with its surreal visuals, superior to the original.
Expanded essay by Richard T. Jameson, (PDF, 672KB) examines "Frankenstein" and "Bride of Frankenstein" in a single entry.
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The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
At the heart of David Lean's antiheroic war epic about a band of British POWs forced to build a bridge in the wilds of Burma is the notion of men clinging to their sanity by clinging to military tradition. The film's cast, which reflects a broad spectrum of acting styles, includes Alec Guinness as the British commanding officer and Sessue Hayakawa as his Japanese counterpart, and William Holden as an American soldier who escapes from the camp and Jack Hawkins as the British major who convinces him to return and help blow up the bridge. Lean elects to keep the musical score to a minimum and instead plays up tension with nature sounds punctuating the action. For many film critics and historians, "Bridge on the River Kwai" signals a shift in Lean's directorial style from simpler storytelling toward the more bloated epics that characterized his later career.
Sessue Hayakawa and Alec Guinness in a scene from "The Bridge On The River Kwai"
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
In this fast-paced screwball comedy from director Howard Hawks, Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn), an eccentric heiress with a pet leopard named Baby, proves a constant irritant to paleontologist David Huxley (Cary Grant), who is trying to raise $1 million to complete his dinosaur skeleton reconstruction project. Based on a short story by Hagar Wilde, Hawks worked closely with Wilde and screenwriter Dudley Nichols to perfect the script, in which the role of Susan Vance was written specifically with Hepburn in mind. Although now considered a cinematic classic, "Bringing Up Baby" received mixed critical reviews upon release and performed well in only certain areas of the United States, thus reaffirming the film industry's then-current view of Hepburn as "box office poison." Significantly, "Bringing Up Baby" is possibly the first American film to use the term "gay" as a reference to homosexuality.
Expanded essay by Michael Schlesinger (PDF, 25KB)
Broadcast News (1987)
James L. Brooks wrote, produced and directed this comedy set in the fast-paced, tumultuous world of television news. Shot mostly in dozens of locations around the Washington, D.C. area, the film stars Holly Hunter, William Hurt and Albert Brooks. Brooks makes the most of his everyman persona serving as Holly Hunter's romantic back-up plan while she pursues the handsome but vacuous Hurt. Against the backdrop of broadcast journalism (and various debates about journalist ethics), a grown-up romantic comedy plays out in a smart, savvy and fluff-free story whose humor is matched only by its honesty.
Expanded essay by Brian Scott Mednick (PDF, 432KB)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
"Brokeback Mountain," a contemporary Western drama that won the Academy Award for best screenplay (by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana) and Golden Globe awards for best drama, director (Ang Lee) and screenplay, depicts a secret and tragic love affair between two closeted gay ranch hands. They furtively pursue a 20-year relationship despite marriages and parenthood until one of them dies violently, reportedly by accident, but possibly, as the surviving lover fears, in a brutal attack. Annie Proulx, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the short story upon which the film was based, described it as "a story of destructive rural homophobia." Haunting in its unsentimental depiction of longing, lonesomeness, pretense, sexual repression and ultimately love, "Brokeback Mountain" features Heath Ledger's remarkable performance that conveys a lifetime of self-torment through a pained demeanor, near inarticulate speech and constricted, lugubrious movements. In his review, Newsweek's David Ansen wrotes that the film was "a watershed in mainstream movies, the first gay love story with A-list Hollywood stars." "Brokeback Mountain" has become an enduring classic.
Broken Blossoms (1919)
Most associated with epics such as "Intolerance" and "The Birth of a Nation," D.W. Griffith also helmed smaller films that struck a chord with silent era audiences. "Broken Blossoms," Griffith's first title for his newly formed United Artists, is one example. Set in the slums of London, it concerns an abused 15-year-old girl, Lucy, portrayed by Lillian Gish and the former missionary turned shopkeeper Cheng Huan (Richard Barthelmess) who rescues her from her brutal father. More than a tender but chaste love story, "Broken Blossoms" entreats audiences to denounce racism and poverty.
Expanded essay by Ed Gonzalez (PDF, 495KB)
Lobby card
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A Bronx Morning (1931)
Part documentary and part avant-garde, this renowned city symphony was filmed by Jay Leyda when he was 21. It features sensational and stylish use of European filmmaking styles The images movingly show the resilience of people persevering with style and enthusiasm during the early years of the depression. "A Bronx Morning" won Leyda a scholarship to study with the renowned Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein. Added to the National Film Registry in 2004.
Expanded essay by Scott Simmon for the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) (PDF, 284KB)
Watch it here
Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
"The best Wim Wenders documentary to date and an uncommonly self-effacing one, this 1999 concert movie about performance and lifestyle is comparable in some ways to "Latcho Drom," the great Gypsy documentary/musical. In 1996, musician Ry Cooder traveled to Havana to reunite some of the greatest stars of Cuban pop music from the Batista era (who were virtually forgotten after Castro came to power) with the aim of making a record, a highly successful venture that led to concerts in Amsterdam and New York. The players and their stories are as wonderful as the music, and the filmmaking is uncommonly sensitive and alert," wrote film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.
The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man (1975)
This powerful documentary by the Kentucky-based arts and education center Appalshop represents the finest in regional filmmaking, providing important understanding of the environmental and cultural history of the Appalachian region. The 1972 Buffalo Creek Flood Disaster, caused by the failure of a coal waste dam, killed more than 100 people and left thousands in West Virginia homeless. Local citizens invited Appalshop to come to the area and to film a historical record, fearing that the Pittston Coal Co.'s powerful influence in the state would lead to a whitewash investigation and absolve it of any corporate culpability. Newsweek hailed the film as "a devastating expose of the collusion between state officials and coal executives."
Expanded essay by the film's director Mimi Pickering (PDF, 793KB)
Bullitt (1968)
The winding streets and stunning vistas of San Francisco, backed by a superb Lalo Schifrin score, play a central role in British director Peter Yates' film renowned for its exhilarating 11-minute car chase, arguably the finest in cinema history. In one of his most famous roles, Steve McQueen stars as tough-guy police detective Frank Bullitt. The story, based on Robert L. Pike's cr
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He was “the warlord” and once held a man down while another gang member used a hot pan to burn off the victim’s gang tattoo.
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DELTONA — At one time, Luis Toledo was the state’s third highest-ranking Latin King, according to a former statewide prosecutor.
He was known as “the warlord” and once held a man down while another gang member wielded a hot pan to burn off the victim’s gang tattoo, said Anne Wedge-McMillen, the former prosecutor who prosecuted Toledo’s former gang boss.
Today, Toledo is accused of killing his wife and her two children. Their bodies have not been found.
Toledo, 32, is charged with second-degree murder in the killing of his wife, Yessenia Suarez, 28, and two counts of first-degree murder in the killings of her children, Thalia Otto, 9, and Michael Otto, 8.
Toledo was the Latin King’s No. 3 in the state, a position known as the enforcer or the warlord, said Wedge-McMillen, a former assistant statewide prosecutor in Orlando who prosecuted a Latin King leader on racketeering and other charges.
“He had a talent for not leaving behind evidence, so much so that unlike other Kings he did not face charges,” Wedge-McMillen said of Toledo. “In other words, there was no DNA, there were no fingerprints, there was nothing at any of these crime scenes that implicated him.”
Suarez and her two children were reported missing Oct. 23, a day after Toledo slapped Suarez at her workplace during a confrontation over an affair she was having with a coworker, according to police reports.
After his arrest, Toledo asked to speak to Wedge-McMillen, who at the time was putting in her last week as an assistant statewide prosecutor and is now a criminal defense attorney with the Umansky Law Firm in Orlando. Wedge-McMillen said Toledo was one of the gang members she called to testify against Jose Perez, aka “King Goofy,” who from 2008 to 2010 was the “Inca” or leader of Florida’s Latin Kings.
Toledo, or “King Semi,” talked about life as a member of the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation, part of the “People Nation,” an alliance of certain gangs. Toledo talked about a Ghost Tribe of Latin Kings who were known as “Black Knights” and went on secret “Black Rose” missions that often resulted in killing someone, Wedge-McMillen said.
The former prosecutor said Toledo, to show the criminal activity of the gang, described during Perez’s trial holding down an excommunicated gang member while Perez burned off the man’s gang tattoo. The gang also used a knife to cut the tattoo off. Toledo spoke about traveling with other Latin Kings to Melbourne and bursting into a man’s house to dish out a beat down.
Toledo was a true believer in the Latin King Manifesto, the former prosecutor said.
“He believed in that word for word,” Wedge-McMillen said. “He treated it like a bible, so he believed that it was supposed to be this empowerment of brown men and women for the Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation.”
The Kings put the “Nation’s” laws over United States laws, she said. Wedge-McMillen said prosecutors would have liked to have charged Toledo with racketeering but did not have enough evidence. She credited clever law enforcement tactics for convincing Toledo to testify against others, although a defense attorney would have told him that he did not need to take the stand.
She said she was not sure whether Toledo is still a King or not. He claims he is a former Latin King. But the missing mother and her two children reminded Wedge-McMillen of the trial where she put away Perez.
“The theme of my trial was once a King always a King,” Wedge-McMillen said. “So really if I have to look back on it and think about it now, of course, that was just too much who he was — and that lifestyle of violence and entitlement.”
About 181 Latin King gang members are in that lifestyle in Deltona and Volusia County, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, which declined to provide details about the gang’s activities. Sheriff’s spokesman Gary Davidson said some of those gang members are most likely from out of town and were documented here because they did something or had some contact with law enforcement in Volusia.
Toledo is not the first Latin King to be accused of a heinous crime. Investigators found an “Underworld” scrapbook in Toledo’s house with a clipping about another notorious Latin King: Troy Victorino.
While Toledo was doing time in prison, Victorino recruited three other men and on Aug. 6, 2004, broke into a Telford Lane home in Deltona and beat six people and a dog to death with bats. The men then slashed the victims’ throats.
Victorino is on death row. One of his accomplices, Jerone Hunter, is also on death row for the murders while Anthony Salas and Robert Cannon are serving life sentences for their roles in the killings.
Deltona’s mayor, John Masiarczyk, said that sheriff’s Capt. David Brannon provides updates on gangs in the city.
“I don’t consider it a big problem, but we have concerns always and there is a constant threat of them,” Masiarczyk said.
Masiarczyk said he does not believe there has been an increase in gangs or gang activity in Deltona.
But information provided by the Sheriff’s Office to The News-Journal shows the Latin King gang is only one of 86 documented street gangs in Volusia.
Gang members and associates have been identified all over east and west Volusia and documentation by the Sheriff’s Office shows an increase in their activities — from 24 cases reported in 2004 to 294 cases in 2011 — the latest figures made available.
The Kings in Volusia were run by a man who believed in keeping a low profile, said Wedge-McMillen.
“They have a pretty good presence in Volusia County,” she said.
Flagler County has had “minimal Latin King activity” over the past few years and currently does not have any documented members, said Lt. Bob Weber with the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office. Less than 50 documented gang members are in Flagler County, Weber said.
Wedge-McMillen had a rapport with Toledo because he was a prosecution witness against Perez. She had met Yessenia Suarez. Toledo had never said he was having marital problems, Wedge-McMillen said. Thalia and Michael Otto had been to Wedge-McMillen’s office.
“I had the children in my office coloring pictures,” Wedge-McMillen said.
After the family members’ disappearances, Toledo asked to speak to Wedge-McMillen, who met with him on Oct. 28 during her last week at the Attorney General’s office. The meeting was at the Sheriff’s Office.
“I think everyone was still of the desperate hope at that time that maybe the children were still alive,” Wedge-McMillen said. “And I truly believed that because I had seen him with them. I knew how much he loved them, how much he appeared to love them.”
Toledo told Wedge-McMillen that he killed Suarez but that it was an accident and denied it was premeditated. The gang warlord said he felt “cornered” by the woman whom he claimed was coming at him during a fight.
“He kind of lashed out with his arm and apparently he didn’t even know how it happened, but he thinks he connected with her windpipe,” Wedge-McMillen said, recalling Toledo’s explanation to her.
Toledo said he asked another man who was present to take the kids out of the room so they wouldn’t see their mother die. That person, Toledo said, panicked and killed the children because they were witnesses. Toledo said that person also disposed of the bodies, but Toledo said he doesn’t know where and that’s why he has been unable to tell law enforcement.
The State Attorney’s Office declined comment on Friday when asked about Toledo’s account.
But Wedge-McMillen said Toledo’s story didn’t make sense, adding that no evidence supported it and that she told him it was “ludicrous.”
Wedge-McMillen wouldn’t detail Toledo’s description of how the children died, citing the open investigation, but she said it did not add up.
“I will tell you that it was in a very, very violent manner, a manner that should have had a great deal of blood,” she said.
Investigators found spots of 9-year-old Thalia’s blood in the master bathroom, according to reports. The girl’s blood was also found on Toledo’s left black Timberland boot. Thalia’s blood was also found on the trunk mat for Suarez’s Honda Accord.
Toledo’s neighbor Tyshawn Jackson, 21, contacted law enforcement to tell them about Toledo’s odd behavior starting at 6:11 a.m. Oct. 23. That’s when Toledo knocked on Jackson’s window and asked him to follow in Toledo’s Saturn to a Publix in Seminole County. Toledo drove Suarez’s Honda to the Publix.
Jackson told investigators that Toledo wiped down Suarez’s car. Then he got into his Saturn and with Jackson now sitting in the passenger seat Toledo drove to a garbage bin in Sanford and threw away cleaning supplies, clothing, his boots and the trunk mat from his wife’s car. Jackson took deputies to the Dumpster.
Jackson also declined comment last week at his home, saying “I will talk about it in court.”
Investigators say they believe that the mother and her two children disappeared between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. Oct. 23 from their home on Covent Gardens Place. Toledo is accused of disposing of the bodies but so far nothing indicates that other Latin Kings helped, Wedge-McMillen said.
“If he didn’t do it himself which, it is kind of hard to imagine that he would have the time to thoroughly clean a crime scene to the extent that crime scene was cleaned and thoroughly and permanently dispose of three bodies,” she said. “So if he somehow did have the time to do that he would know exactly how to do it. He certainly would know how to do it. And if he didn’t do it himself he certainly would have other resources that he could tap into.”
But she added there are no signs he had help.
“There isn’t any evidence as of now that he did have help from them,” she said.
The gang does not approve of killing children, she said.
“That’s never sanctioned by the Kings,” Wedge-McMillen said.
But killing an unfaithful wife would be different in the gang’s eyes, Wedge-McMillen said.
“According to basically the Latin King code, everything being about reputation and respect, to have an affair would obviously be a huge disrespect,” she said. “There’s a lot of Kings in prison who have killed their wives or girlfriends. They are not going to be punished for that (by other gang members) in prison.”
Semi was a family nickname given to Toledo when he was a boy. The gang members put “King” in front of the names, like King Goofy for Perez, the leader who was convicted in September of racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering and directing a criminal gang. Perez was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
Toledo joined the gang while in prison doing time for armed burglary, robbery with a gun/deadly weapon and kidnapping out of Broward County in 1999. Toledo, using the alias Michael Garcia, served four years in prison. He gained power in the gang while in prison, Wedge-McMillen said.
“He was kind of someone that was looked up to within the organization and, according to him, he was able to negotiate peace treaties between rival gangs in the prison,” she said. “He was seen as someone who had a lot of authority.”
Toledo was released in 2008, headed to Orlando and went on to gain a “stone” position, or leadership position, in the gang on the outside.
Investigators searching Toledo’s home found Latin King papers and a scrapbook, apparently put together by Toledo. The scrapbook contains pictures of scantily-dressed women along with what appear to be pictures of family and/or friends.
The scrapbook also contained some newspaper clippings from the Tampa Tribune about the Latin Kings and a story from The Daytona Beach News-Journal about Victorino’s murder trial.
There is one picture of a barely dressed woman holding a crown on Toledo’s head.
Toledo took part in gang activities he would later testify about in Orange County court during Perez’s trial. Toledo was there in August 2009 when Latin Kings from Central and South Florida converged on Clearwater to mete out some gang justice.
The Clearwater tribe and its leadership had violated King rules. The other Latin Kings severely beat the Clearwater group, but Perez thought one person in particular was the prime offender and needed to have his tattoo removed.
“(Toledo) is the guy who held down the man over in Clearwater while Jose Perez tried to burn the tattoo off his chest. And he was there when they pulled out the knife and cut through the burned flesh,” Wedge-McMillen said.
Cutting out the tattoo is like excommunication. Sometimes, people are allowed instead to cover up the tattoo with another design. That’s what Toledo said he thought was going to happen then because a Latin King tattoo artist was present with his tattoo gun, she said.
Toledo was also among gang members who in October 2008 attacked a man in Melbourne, the former prosecutor said. The Latin King Inca at the time, Emilio Rosa, felt the man had disrespected his daughter at a wedding.
The plan was to knock on the door and when the man answered pull him outside before beating him. That way the Kings could not be charged with home invasion, Wedge-McMillen said. But in the excitement the Kings rushed in and beat the man with just about any object they could find. Toledo used a child’s scooter that was in the house, she said. An entertainment center was toppled over on the man.
But when the Kings were done, Toledo took the scooter because he didn’t want to leave it behind with his fingerprints. He also ran back to use his T-shirt to wipe down the door frame where he thought he touched it, she said.
Toledo had also been part of what was called a Ghost Tribe or a Black Knight. It’s a hand-selected group that goes on Black Rose missions in which they are sworn to secrecy.
“It’s almost always a homicide mission or it’s a mission to make something or someone disappear,” she said.
— Staff Writer Patricio G. Balona contributed to this report.
A Look At Gangs In Volusia County GANG MEMBERS: From 2007 to today, 629 street gang members have been documented in Volusia County, along with 325 gang associates. WHERE THEY ARE: Gang members have been identified in all Volusia County regions. In Flagler County, there have been gang-related arrests and conviction but no gang activity was being reported this week. MURDERS Murders linked to known gang members: Oct. 23, 2013: Latin King Luis Toledo is accused of killing his wife and her two children in their Covent Gardens Place home in Deltona. Aug. 6, 2004: Latin King Troy Victorino and three other men murdered six people in a Telford Lane home in Deltona. Dec. 9, 2005: Four teens from the Click Tight Gang said they beat a homeless man to death in Holly Hill out of boredom. Nov. 8, 2009: Crips gang member stabs 16-year-old Robin Munsch of South Daytona during a fight at the Oceanfront Bandshell. REPORTING GANGS DAYTONA BEACH: Daytona Beach has unveiled a new anonymous gang hot line, 386-671-5270; text to CRIMES (274637) and messages should begin with DBTIPS. elsewhere in VOLUSIA, AND FLAGLER: In other parts of Volusia County and in Flagler County, gangs can be reported anonymously by calling Crime Stoppers, 888-277-TIPS (8477); text to CRIMES (274637) and messages should begin with Tip231. To speak with Volusia sheriff’s gang investigators, call 386-254-1537 and ask for either Investigator Kyle Powell or Investigator Joel Hernandez. SOURCES: Volusia County Sheriff’s Office, Flagler County Sheriff’s Office, Daytona Beach Police Department
Gang facts compiled by Volusia County Sheriff’s Office
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https://beatzone.cz/artist/The-Queen-Killing-Kings
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The Queen Killing Kings
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"The Queen Killing Kings",
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The Queen Killing Kings are an American rock band based out of New Haven, Connecticut. Originally a duo started in 2006 by lead singer/song writer/pianist Co...
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en
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https://beatzone.cz/themes/beatzone/img/icon.ico
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https://beatzone.cz/artist/The-Queen-Killing-Kings
|
The Queen Killing Kings are an American rock band based out of New Haven, Connecticut. Originally a duo started in 2006 by lead singer/song writer/pianist Coley O'Toole, the band has expanded into a four piece with the release of their debut album, Tidal Eyes.
Growing up in Shelton, Connecticut, frontman Coley O'Toole cited the rock music of Neil Young, Elton John, Supertramp, and the Doors along with the energy of the mid- to late-1990s Connecticut music scene as having a great influence on him.
In 2006, after a decade of playing in various projects based in Connecticut, O'Toole formed the Queen Killing Kings with drummer Jon Scerbo. The duo was met with praise in the local venues and media.
With performances in Los Angeles and New York City, the band's initial success was extended beyond the local area, gaining them industry attention. After entering the Manhattan's Pyramid Studios to record what would become their debut album, former Hot Rod Circuit member and O'Toole's childhood friend Joe Ballaro joined the band on bass. Scerbo left the band early in the recording process, prompting O'Toole to bring in former Hot Rod Circuit drummer Dan Duggins. After signing to Wind-up Records, Zac Clark joined to play Fender Rhodes and organ, making the band a quartet.
The band's debut album, Tidal Eyes, was released digitally by Wind-up Records on July 14, 2009.
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https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/2A*.html
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en
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LacusCurtius ⢠Diodorus Siculus â Book II Chapters 1â34
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Part of an English translation of Diodorus. Books 1â32 are complete on this site, which contains many classical texts and related material.
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(Vol. I) Diodorus Siculus
Library of History
 p349 Book II (beginning)
On Ninus, the first king in Asia, and his deeds (chaps. 1â3).
On the birth of Semiramis and her rise (chaps. 4â5).
How King Ninus married Semiramis because of her outstanding ability (chap. 6).
How Semiramis, ascending the throne on the death of Ninus, accomplished many great deeds (chap. 7).
The founding of Babylon and an account of its building (chaps. 7â9).
On the hanging garden, as it is called, and the other astonishing things in Babylonia (chaps. 10â13).
The campaign of Semiramis against Egypt, Ethiopia, and India (chaps. 14â20).
On her descendants who were kings in Asia and their luxury and sluggishness (chaps. 21â22).
How Sardanapallus, the last king, because of his luxuriousness lost his throne to Arbaces the Mede (chaps. 23â28).
On the Chaldaeans and their observation of the stars (chaps. 29â31).
On the kings of Media and the disagreement of historians upon them (chaps. 32â34).
On the topography of India and the products of the land, and on the customs of the Indians (chaps. 35â42).
 p117 On the Scythians, Amazons, and Hyperboreans (chaps. 43â47).
On Arabia, and the products of the land and its legends (chaps. 48â54).
On the islands which have been discovered to the south in the ocean (chaps. 55â60).
1 1Â The preceding Book, being the first of the whole work, embraces the facts which concern Egypt, among which are included both the myths related by the Egyptians about their gods and about the nature of the Nile, and the other marvels which are told about this river, as well as a description of the land of Egypt and the acts of each of their ancient kings. Next in order came the structures known as the pyramids, which are listed among the seven wonders of the world. 2Â After that we discussed such matters connected with the laws and the courts of law, and also with the animals which are considered sacred among the Egyptians, as excite admiration and wonder, also their customs with respect to the dead, and then named such Greeks as were noted for their learning, who, upon visiting Egypt and being instructed in many useful things, thereupon transferred them to Greece. 3Â And in this present Book we shall set forth the events which took place in Asia in the ancient period, beginning with the time when the Assyrians were the dominant power.
4 In the earliest age, then, the kings of Asia were native-born, and in connection with them no memory is preserved of either a notable deed or a personal name. The first to be handed down by tradition to history and memory for us as one who achieved great deeds is Ninus, king of the Assyrians, and of him  p351 we shall now endeavour to give a detailed account. For being by nature a warlike man and emulous of valour, he supplied the strongest of the young men with arms, and by training them for a considerable time he accustomed them to every hardship and all the dangers of war. 5 And when now he had collected a notable army, he formed an alliance with Ariaeus, the king of Arabia, a country which in those times seems to have abounded in brave men. Now, in general, this nation is one which loves freedom and under no circumstances submits to a foreign ruler; consequently neither the kings of the Persians at a later time nor those of the Macedonians, though the most powerful of their day, were ever able to enslave this nation. 6 For Arabia is, in general, a difficult country for a foreign army to campaign in, part of it being desert and part of it waterless and supplied at intervals with wells which are hidden and known only to the natives.1 7 Ninus, however, the king of the Assyrians, taking along the ruler of the Arabians as an ally, made a campaign with a great army against the Babylonians whose country bordered upon his â in those times the present city of Babylon had not yet been founded, but there were other notable cities in Babylonia â and after easily subduing the inhabitants of that region because of their inexperience in the dangers of war, he laid upon them the yearly payment of fixed tributes, but the king of the conquered, whom he took captive along with his children, he put to death. 8 Then, invading Armenia in great force and laying waste some of its cities, he struck terror  p353 into the inhabitants; consequently their king Barzanes, realizing that he was no match for him in battle, met him with many presents and announced that he would obey his every command. 9 But Ninus treated him with great magnanimity, and agreed that he should not only continue to rule over Armenia but should also, as his friend, furnish a contingent and supplies for the Assyrian army. And as his power continually increased, he made a campaign against Media. 10 And the king of this country, Pharnus, meeting him in battle with a formidable force, was defeated, and he both lost the larger part of his soldiers, and himself, being taken captive along with his seven sons and wife, was crucified.
2 1 Since the undertakings of Ninus were prospering in this way, he was seized with a powerful desire to subdue all of Asia that lies between the Tanaïs2 and the Nile; for, as a general thing, when men enjoy good fortune, the steady current of their success prompts in them the desire for more. Consequently he made one of his friends satrap of Media, while he himself set about the task of subduing the nations of Asia, and within a period of seventeen years he became master of them all except the Indians and Bactrians. 2 Now no historian has recorded the battles with each nation or the number of all the peoples conquered, but we shall undertake to run over briefly the most important nations, as given in the account of Ctesias of Cnidus.3
3 Of the lands which lie on the sea and of the others  p355 which border on these, Ninus subdued Egypt and Phoenicia, then Coele-Syria, Cilicia, Pamphylia, and Lycia, and also Caria, Phrygia, and Lydia; moreover, he brought under his sway the Troad, Phrygia on the Hellespont, Propontis, Bithynia, Cappadocia, and all the barbarian nations who inhabit the shores of the Pontus as far as the Tanaïs; he also made himself lord of the lands of the Cadusii, Tapyri, Hyrcanii, Drangi, of the Derbici, Carmanii, Choromnaei, and of the Borcanii, and Parthyaei; and he invaded both Persis and Susiana and Caspiana, as it is called, which is entered by exceedingly narrow passes, known for that reason as the Caspian Gates. 4 Many other lesser nations he also brought under his rule, about whom it would be a long task to speak. But since Bactriana was difficult to invade and contained multitudes of warlike men, after much toil and labour in vain he deferred to a later time the war against the Bactriani, and leading his forces back into Assyria selected a place excellently situated for the founding of a great city.
3 1 For having accomplished deeds more notable than those of any king before him, he was eager to found a city of such magnitude, that not only would it be the largest of any which then existed in the whole inhabited world, but also that no other ruler of a later time should, if he undertook such a task, find it easy to surpass him. 2 Accordingly, after honouring the king of the Arabians with gifts and rich spoils from his wars, he dismissed him and his contingent to  p357 return to their own country and then, gathering his forces from every quarter and all the necessary material, he founded on the Euphrates river a city4 which was well fortified with walls, giving it the form of a rectangle. The longer sides of the city were each one hundred and fifty stades in length, and the shorter ninety. 3 And so, since the total circuit comprised four hundred and eighty stades, he was not disappointed in his hope, since a city its equal, in respect to either the length of its circuit or the magnificence of its walls, was never founded by any man after his time. For the wall had a height of one hundred feet and its width was sufficient for three chariots abreast to drive upon; and the sum total of its towers was one thousand five hundred, and their height was two hundred feet. 4 He settled in it both Assyrians, who constituted the majority of the population and had the greatest power, and any who wished to come from all other nations. And to the city he gave his own name, Ninus, and he included within the territory of its colonists a large part of the neighbouring country.
4 1Â Since after the founding of this city Ninus made a campaign against Bactriana, where he married Semiramis,5 the most renowned of all women of whom we have any record, it is necessary first of all to tell how she rose from a lowly fortune to such fame.
 p359 2 Now there is in Syria a city known as Ascalon, and not far from it a large and deep lake, full of fish. On its shore is a precinct of a famous goddess whom the Syrians call Derceto;6 and this goddess has the head of a woman but all the rest of her body is that of a fish, the reason being something like this. 3 The story as given by the most learned of the inhabitants of the region is as follows: Aphrodite, being offended with this goddess, inspired in her a violent passion for a certain handsome youth among her votaries; and Derceto gave herself to the Syrian and bore a daughter, but then, filled with shame of her sinful deed, she killed the youth and exposed the child in a rocky desert region, while as for herself, from shame and grief she threw herself into the lake and was changed as to the form of her body into a fish; and it is for this reason that the Syrians to this day abstain from this animal and honour their fish as gods. 4 But about the region where the babe was exposed a great multitude of doves had their nests, and by them the child was nurtured in an astounding and miraculous manner; for some of the doves kept the body of the babe warm on all sides by covering it with their wings, while others, when they observed that the cowherds and other keepers were absent from the nearby steadings, brought milk therefrom in their beaks and fed the babe by putting it drop  p361 by drop between its lips. 5 And when the child was a year old and in need of more solid nourishment, the doves, pecking off bits from the cheeses, supplied it with sufficient nourishment. Now when the keepers returned and saw that the cheeses had been nibbled about the edges, they were astonished at the strange happening; they accordingly kept a look-out, and on discovering the cause found the infant, which was of surpassing beauty. 6 At once, then, bringing it to their steadings they turned it over to the keeper of the royal herds, whose name was Simmas; and Simmas, being childless, gave every care to the rearing of the girl, as his own daughter, and called her Semiramis, a name slightly altered from the word which, in the language of the Syrians, means "doves," birds which since that time all the inhabitants of Syria have continued to honour as goddesses.
5 1Â Such, then, is in substance the story that is told about the birth of Semiramis. And when she had already come to the age of marriage and far surpassed all the other maidens in beauty, an officer was sent from the king's court to inspect the royal herds; his name was Onnes, and he stood first among the members of the king's council and had been appointed governor over all Syria. He stopped with Simmas, and on seeing Semiramis was captivated by her beauty; consequently he earnestly entreated Simmas to give him the maiden in lawful marriage and took her off to Ninus, where he married her and begat two sons, Hyapates and Hydaspes. 2Â And since the other qualities of Semiramis were in keeping with the beauty of her countenance, it turned out that her husband became completely enslaved by her, Â p363Â and since he would do nothing without her advice he prospered in everything.
3Â It was at just this time that the king, now that he had completed the founding of the city which bore his name, undertook his campaign against the Bactrians. And since he was well aware of the great number and the valour of these men, and realized that the country had many places which because of their strength could not be approached by an enemy, he enrolled a great host of soldiers from all the negotiations under his sway; for as he had come off badly in his earlier campaign, he was resolved on appearing before Bactriana with a force many times as large as theirs. 4Â Accordingly, after the army had been assembled from every source, it numbered, as Ctesias has stated in his history, one million seven hundred thousand foot-soldiers, two hundred and ten thousand cavalry, and slightly less than ten thousand six hundred scythe-bearing chariots.
5 Now at first hearing the great size of the army is incredible, but it will not seem at all impossible to any who consider the great extent of Asia and the vast numbers of the peoples who inhabit it. For if a man, disregarding the campaign of Darius against the Scythians with eight hundred thousand7 men and the crossing made by Xerxes against Greece with a host beyond number,8 should consider the events which have taken place in Europe only yesterday or the day before, he would the more quickly come to regard the statement as credible. 6 In Sicily, for instance, Dionysius led forth on his  p365 campaigns from the single city of the Syracusans one hundred and twenty thousand foot-soldiers and twelve thousand cavalry, and from a single harbour four hundred warships, some of which were quadriremes and quinqueremes;9 7 and the Romans, a little before the time of Hannibal, foreseeing the magnitude of the war, enrolled all the men in Italy who were fit for military service, both citizens and allies, and the total sum of them fell only a little short of one million; and yet as regards the number of inhabitants a man would not compare all Italy with a single one of the nations of Asia.10 Let these facts, then, be a sufficient reply on our part to those who try to estimate the populations of the nations of Asia in ancient times on the strength of inferences drawn from the desolation which at the present time prevails in its cities.
6 1 Now Ninus in his campaign against Bactriana with so large a force was compelled, because access to the country was difficult and passes were narrow, to advance his army in divisions. 2 For the country of Bactriana, though there were many large cities for the people to dwell in, had one which was the most famous, this being the city containing the royal palace; it was called Bactra, and in size and in the strength of its acropolis was by far the first of them all. The king of the country, Oxyartes, had  p367 enrolled all the men of military age, and they had been gathered to the number of four hundred thousand. 3 So taking this force with him and meeting the enemy at the passes, he allowed a division of the army of Ninus to enter the country; and when he thought that a sufficient number of the enemy had debouched into the plain he drew out his own forces in battle-order. A fierce struggle then ensued in which the Bactrians put the Assyrians to flight, and pursuing them as far as the mountains which overlooked the field, killed about one hundred thousand of the enemy. 4 But later, when the whole Assyrian force entered their country, the Bactrians, overpowered by the multitude of them, withdrew city by city, each group intending to defend its own homeland. And so Ninus easily subdued all the other cities, but Bactra, because of its strength and the equipment for war which it contained, he was unable to take by storm.
5Â But when the siege was proving a long affair the husband of Semiramis, who was enamoured of his wife and was making the campaign with the king, sent for the woman. And she, endowed as she was with understanding, daring, and all the other qualities which contribute to distinction, seized the opportunity to display her native ability. 6Â First of all, then, since she was about to set out upon a journey of many days, she devised a garb which made it impossible to distinguish whether the wearer of it was a man or a woman. This dress was well adapted to her needs, as regards both her travelling in the heat, for protecting the colour of her skin, and her convenience in doing whatever she might wish to do, since it was quite pliable and suitable to a young person, and, Â p369Â in a word was so attractive that in later times the Medes, who were then dominant in Asia, always wore the garb of Semiramis, as did the Persians after them.11 7Â Now when Semiramis arrived in Bactriana and observed the progress of the siege, she noted that it was on the plains and at positions which were easily assailed that attacks were being made, but that no one ever assaulted the acropolis because of its strong position, and that its defender had left their posts there and were coming to aid of those who were hard pressed on the walls below. 8Â Consequently, taking with her such soldiers as were accustomed to clambering up rocky heights, and making her way with them up through a certain difficult ravine, she seized a part of the acropolis and gave a signal to those who were besieging the wall down in the plain. Thereupon the defenders of the city, struck with terror at the seizure of the height, left the walls and abandoned all hope of saving themselves.
9 When the city had been taken in this way, the king, marvelling at the ability of the woman, at first honoured her with great gifts, and later, becoming infatuated with her because of her beauty, tried to persuade her husband to yield her to him of his own accord, offering in return for this favour to give him his own daughter Sosanê to wife. 10 But when the man took his offer with ill grace, Ninus threatened to put out his eyes unless he at once accede to his commands. And Onnes, partly out of fear of the  p371 king's threats and partly out of his passion for his wife, fell into a kind of frenzy and madness, put a rope about his neck, and hanged himself. Such, then, were the circumstances whereby Semiramis attained the position of queen.
7 1Â Ninus secured the treasures of Bactra, which contained a great amount of both gold and silver, and after settling the affairs of Bactriana disbanded his forces. After this he begat by Semiramis a son Ninyas, and then died, leaving his wife as queen. Semiramis buried Ninus in the precinct of the palace and erected over his tomb a very large mound, nine stades high and ten wide, as Ctesias says. 2Â Consequently, since the city lay on a plain along the Euphrates, the mound was visible for a distance of many stades, like an acropolis; and this mound stands, they say, even to this day, though Ninus was razed to the ground by the Medes when they destroyed the empire of the Assyrians.12
Semiramis, whose nature made her eager for great exploits and ambitious to surpass the fame of her predecessor on the throne, set her mind upon founding a city in Babylonia, and after securing the architects of all the world and skilled artisans and making all the other necessary preparations, she gathered together from her entire kingdom two million men to complete the work.13 3 Taking the  p373 Euphrates river into the centre she threw about the city a wall with great towers set at frequent intervals, the wall being three hundred and sixty stades14 in circumference, as Ctesias of Cnidus says, but according to the account of Cleitarchus and certain of those who at a later time crossed into Asia with Alexander, three hundred and sixty-five stades;15 and these latter add that it was her desire to make the number of stades the same as the days in the year. 4 Making baked bricks fast in bitumen she built a wall with a height, as Ctesias says, of fifty fathoms, but, as some later writers have recorded, of fifty cubits,16 and wide enough for more than two chariots abreast to drive upon; and the towers numbered two hundred and fifty, their height and width corresponding to the massive scale of the wall. 5 Now it need occasion no wonder that, considering the great length of the circuit wall, Semiramis constructed a small number of towers; for since over a long distance the city was surrounded by swamps, she decided not to build towers along that space, the swamps offering a sufficient natural defence. And all along between the dwellings and the walls a road was left two plethra wide.
 p375 8 1 In order to expedite the building of these constructions she apportioned a stade to each of her friends, furnishing sufficient material for their task and directing them to complete their work within a year. 2 And when they had finished these assignments with great speed she gratefully accepted their zeal, but she took for herself the construction of a bridge17 five stades long at the narrowest point of the river, skilfully sinking the piers, which stood twelve feet apart, into its bed. And the stones, which were set firmly together, she bonded with iron cramps, and the joints of the cramps18 she filled by pouring in lead. Again, before the piers on the side which would receive the current she constructed cutwaters whose sides were rounded to turn off the water and which gradually diminished to the width of the pier, in order that the sharp points of the cutwaters might divide the impetus of the stream, while the rounded sides, yielding to its force, might soften the violence of the river.19 3 This bridge, then, floored as it was with beams of cedar and cypress and with palm logs of exceptional size and having a width of thirty feet, is considered to have been inferior in technical skill to none of the works of Semiramis. And on each side of the river she built an expensive  p377 quay20 of about the same width as the walls and one hundred and sixty stades long.
Semiramis also built two palaces on the very banks of the river, one at each end of the bridge, her intention being that from them she might be able both to look down over the entire city and to hold the keys, as it were, to its most important sections. 4 And since the Euphrates river passed through the centre of Babylon and flowed in a southerly direction, one palace faced the rising and the other the setting sun, and both had been constructed on a lavish scale. For in the case of the one which faced west she made the length of its first or outer circuit wall sixty stades, fortifying it with lofty walls, which had been built at great cost and were of burned brick. And within this she built a second, circular in form,21 in the bricks of which, before they were baked, wild animals of every kind had been engraved, and by the ingenious use of colours these figures reproduced the actual appearance of the animals themselves; 5 this circuit wall had a length of forty stades, a width of three hundred bricks, and a height, as Ctesias says, of fifty fathoms; the height of the towers, however, was seventy fathoms. 6 And she built within these two yet a third circuit wall, which enclosed an acropolis whose circumference was twenty stades in length, but the height and width of the structure surpassed the dimensions of the middle circuit wall.  p379 On both the towers and the walls there were again animals of every kind, ingeniously executed by the use of colours as well as by the realistic imitation of the several types; and the whole had been made to represent a hunt, complete in every detail, of all sorts of wild animals, and their size was more than four cubits. Among the animals, moreover, Semiramis had also been portrayed, on horseback and in the act of hurling a javelin at a leopard, and nearby was her husband Ninus, in the act of thrusting his spear into a lion at close quarters.22 7 In this wall she also set triple gates, two of which were of bronze and were opened by a mechanical device.
Now this palace far surpassed in both size and details of execution the one on the other bank of the river. For the circuit wall of the latter, made of burned brick, was only thirty stades long, and instead of the ingenious portrayal of animals it had bronze statues of Ninus and Semiramis and their officers, and one also of Zeus, whom the Babylonians call Belus;23 and on it were also portrayed both battle-scenes and hunts of every kind, which filled those who gazed thereon with varied emotions of pleasure.
9 1 After this Semiramis picked out the lowest spot in Babylonia and built a square reservoir, which was three hundred stades long on each side; it was constructed of baked brick and bitumen, and had a  p381 depth of thirty-five feet. 2 Then, diverting the river into it, she built an underground passage-way from one palace to the other; and making it of burned brick, she coated the vaulted chambers on both sides with hot bitumen until she had made the thickness of this coating four cubits. The side walls of the passage-way were twenty bricks thick and twelve feet high, exclusive of the barrel-vault, and the width of the passage-way was fifteen feet. 3 And after this construction had been finished in only seven days she let the river back again into its old channel, and so, since the stream flowed above the passage-way, Semiramis was able to go across from one palace to the other without passing over the river. At each end of the passage-way she also set bronze gates which stood until the time of the Persian rule.
4 After this she built in the centre of the city a temple24 of Zeus whom, as we have said, the Babylonians call Belus. Now since with regard to this temple the historians are at variance, and since time has caused the structure to fall into ruins, it is impossible to give the exact facts concerning it. But all agree that it was exceedingly high, and that in it the Chaldaeans made their observations of the stars, whose risings and settings could be accurately observed by reason of the height of the structure. 5 Now the entire building was ingeniously constructed at great expense  p383 of bitumen and brick, and at the top of the ascent Semiramis set up three statues of hammered gold, of Zeus, Hera, and Rhea. Of these statues that of Zeus represented him erect and striding forward, and, being forty feet high, weighed a thousand Babylonian talents; that of Rhea showed her seated on a golden throne and was of the same weight as that of Zeus; and at her knees stood two lions, while near by were huge serpents of silver, each one weighing thirty talents. 6 The statue of Hera was also standing, weighing eight hundred talents, and in her right hand she held a snake by the head and in her left a sceptre studded with precious stones. 7 A table for all three statues, made of hammered gold, stood before them, forty feet long, fifteen wide, and weighing five hundred talents. Upon it rested two drinking-cups, weighing thirty talents. 8 And there were censers as well, also two in number but weighing each three hundred talents, and also three gold mixing bowls, of which the one belonging to Zeus weighed twelve hundred Babylonian talents and the other two six hundred each. 9 But all these were later carried off as spoil by the kings of the Persians,25 while as for the palaces and the other buildings, time has either entirely effaced them or left them in ruins; and in fact of Babylon itself but a small part is inhabited at this time, and most of the area within its walls is given over to agriculture.
10 1 There was also, because the acropolis, the Hanging  p385 Garden, as it is called, which was built, not by Semiramis, but by a later Syrian king to please one of his concubines; for she, they say, being a Persian by race and longing for the meadows of her mountains, asked the king to imitate, through the artifice of a planted garden, the distinctive landscape of Persia.26 2 The park27 extended four plethra on each side, and since the approach to the garden sloped like a hillside and the several parts of the structure rose from one another tier on tier, the appearance of the whole resembled that of a theatre. 3 When the ascending terraces had been built, there had been constructed beneath them galleries which carried the entire weight of the planted garden and rose little by little one above the other along the approach; and the uppermost gallery, which was fifty cubits high, bore the highest surface of the park, which was made level with the circuit wall of the battlements of the city. 4 Furthermore, the walls, which had been constructed at great expense, were twenty-two feet thick, while the passage-way between each two walls was ten feet wide. The roofs of the galleries were covered over with beams of stone sixteen feet long, inclusive of the overlap, and four feet wide. 5 The roof above these beams had first a layer of reeds laid in great quantities of bitumen, over this two courses of baked brick bonded by cement, and as a third layer a covering of lead, to the end that the moisture from the soil might not penetrate beneath. On all this again earth had been  p387 piled to a depth sufficient for the roots of the largest trees; and the ground, which was levelled off, was thickly planted with trees of every kind that, by their great size or any other charm, could give pleasure to beholder. 6 And since the galleries, each projecting beyond another, all received the light, they contained many royal lodgings of every description; and there was one gallery which contained openings leading from the topmost surface and machines for supplying the garden with water, the machines raising the water in great abundance from the river, although no one outside could see it being done. Now this park, as I have said, was a later construction.28
11 1 Semiramis founded other cities also along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, in which she established trading-places for the merchants who brought goods from Media, Paraetacenê, and all the neighbouring region. For the Euphrates and Tigris, the most notable, one may say, of all the rivers of Asia after the Nile and Ganges, have their sources in the mountains of Armenia and are two thousand five hundred stades apart at their origin, 2 and after flowing through Media and Paraetacenê they enter Mesopotamia, which they enclose between them, thus  p389 giving this name to the country.29 After this they pass through Babylonia and empty into the Red Sea.30 3 Moreover, since they are great streams and traverse a spacious territory they offer many advantages to men who follow a merchant trade; and it is due to this fact that the regions along their banks are filled with prosperous trading-places which contribute greatly to the fame of Babylonia.
4 Semiramis quarried out a stone from the mountains of Armenia which was one hundred and thirty feet long and twenty-five feet wide and thick; 5 and this she hauled by means of many multitudes of yokes of mules and oxen to the river and there loaded it on a raft, on which she brought it down the stream to Babylonia; she then set it up beside the most famous street, an astonishing sight to all who passed by. And this stone is called by some an obelisk31 from its shape, and they number it among the seven wonders of the world.
12 1 Although the sights to be seen in Babylonia are many and singular, not the least wonderful is the enormous amount of bitumen which the country produces; so great is the supply of this that it not only suffices for their buildings, which are numerous and large, but the common people also, gathering at the place,32 draw it out without any restriction, and  p391 drying it burn it in place of wood. 2 And countless as is the multitude of men who draw it out, the amount remains undiminished, as if derived from some immense source. Moreover, near this source there is a vent-hole, of no great size but of remarkable potency. For it emits a heavy sulphurous vapour which brings death to all living creatures that approach it, and they meet with an end swift and strange; for after being subjected for a time to the retention of the breath they are killed, as though the expulsion of the breath were being prevented by the force which has attacked the processes of respiration; and immediately the body swells and blows up, particularly in the region about the lungs. 3 And there is also across the river a lake whose edge offers solid footing, and if any man, unacquainted with it, enters it he swims for a short time, but as he advances towards the centre he is dragged down as though by a certain force; and when he begins to help himself and makes up his mind to turn back to shore again, though he struggles to extricate himself, it appears as if he were being hauled back by something else; and he becomes benumbed, first in his feet, then in his legs as far as the groin, and finally, overcome by numbness in his whole body, he is carried to the bottom, and a little later is cast up dead.
Now concerning the wonders of Babylonia let what has been said suffice.
13 1 After Semiramis had made an end of her building operations she set forth in the direction of Media with a great force. And when she had arrived at  p393 the mountain known as Bagistanus,33 she encamped near it and laid out a park, which had a circumference of twelve stades and, being situated in the plain, contained a great spring by means of which her plantings could be irrigated. 2 The Bagistanus mountain is sacred to Zeus and on the side facing the park has sheer cliffs which rise to a height of seventeen stades. The lowest part of these she smoothed off and engraved thereon a likeness of herself with a hundred spearmen at her side. And she also put this inscription on the cliff in Syrian34 letters: "Semiramis, with the pack-saddles of the beasts of burden in her army, built up a mound from the plain and thereby climbed this precipice, even to this very ridge."
3 Setting forth from that place and arriving at the city of Chauon in Media, she noticed on a certain high plateau a rock both of striking height and mass. Accordingly, she laid out there another park of great size, putting the rock in the middle of it, and on the rock she erected, to satisfy her taste for luxury, some very costly buildings from which she used to look down both upon her plantings in the park and on the whole army encamped on the plain. 4 In this place she passed a long time and enjoyed to the full every device that contributed to luxury; she was unwilling, however, to contract a lawful marriage, being afraid  p395 that she might be deprived of her supreme position, but choosing out the most handsome of the soldiers she consorted with them and then made away with all who had lain with her.
5 After this she advanced in the direction of Ecbatana and arrived at the mountain called Zarcaeus;35 and since this extended many stades and was full of cliffs and chasms it rendered the journey round a long one. And so she became ambitious both to leave an immortal monument of herself and at the same time to shorten her way; consequently she cut through the cliffs, filled up the low places, and thus at great expense built a short road, which to this day is called the road of Semiramis. 6 Upon arriving at Ecbatana, a city which lies in the plain, she built in it an expensive palace and in every other way gave rather exceptional attention to the region. For since the city had no water supply and there was no spring in its vicinity, she made the whole of it well watered by bringing to it with much hardship and expense an abundance of the purest water. 7 For at a distance from Ecbatana of about twelve stades is a mountain, which is called Orontes and is unusual for its ruggedness and enormous height, since the ascent, straight to its summit, is twenty-five stades. And since a great lake, which emptied into a river, lay on the other side, she made a cutting through the base of this mountain. 8 The tunnel was fifteen feet wide and forty feet high; and through it she brought in the river  p397 which flowed from the lake, and filled the city with water. Now this is what she did in Media.
14 1Â After this she visited Persis and every other country over which she ruled throughout Asia. Everywhere she cut through the mountains and the precipitous cliffs and constructed expensive roads, while on the plains she made mounds, sometimes constructing them as tombs for those of her generals who died, and sometimes founding cities on their tops. 2Â And it was also her custom, whenever she made camp, to build little mounds, upon which setting her tent she could look down upon all the encampment. As a consequence many of the works she built throughout Asia remain to this day and are called Works of Semiramis.36
3 After this she visited all Egypt, and after subduing most of Libya she went also to the oracle of Ammon37 to inquire of the god regarding her own end. And the account runs that the answer was given her that she would disappear from among men and receive undying honour among some of the peoples of Asia, and that this would take place when her son Ninyas should conspire against her. 4 Then upon her return from these regions she visited most of Ethiopia, subduing it as she went and inspecting the wonders of the land. For in that country, they say, there is a lake, square in form, with a perimeter of some hundred and sixty feet, and its water is like cinnabar in colour and the odour of it is exceedingly sweet, not unlike that of  p399 old wine; moreover, it has a remarkable power; for whoever has drunk of it, they say, falls into a frenzy and accuses himself of every sin which he had formerly committed in secret. However, a man may not readily agree with those who tell such things.
15 1Â In the burial of their dead the inhabitants of Ethiopia follow customs peculiar to themselves; for after they have embalmed the body and have poured a heavy coat of glass over it they stand it on a pillar, so that the body of the dead man is visible through the glass to those who pass by. This is the statement of Herodotus.38 2Â But Ctesias of Cnidus, declaring that Herodotus is inventing a tale, gives for his part this account. The body is indeed embalmed, but glass is not poured about the naked bodies, for they would be burned and so completely disfigured that they could no longer preserve their likeness. 3Â For this reason they fashion a hollow statue of gold and when the corpse has been put into this they pour the glass over the statue, and the figure, prepared in this way, is then placed at the tomb, and the gold, fashioned as it is to resemble the deceased, is seen through the glass. 4Â Now the rich among them are buried in this wise, he says, but those who leave a smaller estate receive a silver statue, and the poor one made of earthenware; as for the glass, there is enough of it for everyone, Â p401Â since it occurs in great abundance in Ethiopia and is quite current among the inhabitants. 5Â With regard to the custom prevailing among the Ethiopians and the other features of their country we shall a little later set forth those that are the most important and deserving of record, at which time we shall also recount their early deeds and their mythology.39
16 1 But after Semiramis had put in order the affairs of Ethiopia and Egypt she returned with her force to Bactra in Asia. And since she had great forces and had been at peace for some time she became eager to achieve some brilliant exploit in war. 2 And when she was informed that the Indian nation was the largest one in the world and likewise possessed both the most extensive and the fairest country, she purposed to make a campaign into India.40 Stabrobates at that time was king of the country and had a multitude of soldiers without number; and many elephants were also at his disposal, fitted out in an exceedingly splendid fashion with such things as would strike terror in war. 3 For India is a land of unusual beauty, and since it is traversed by many rivers it is supplied with water over its whole area and yields two harvests each year; consequently it has such an abundance of the necessities of life that at all times it favours its inhabitants with a bounteous enjoyment of them. And it is said that because of the favourable climate in those parts the country has never experienced a famine or a destruction of crops. 4 It also has an unbelievable number of elephants, which both in courage and in strength of body far surpass those of  p403 Libya, and likewise gold, silver, iron, and copper; furthermore, within its borders are to be found great quantities of precious stones of every kind and of practically all other things which contribute to luxury and wealth.41
When Semiramis had received a detailed account of these facts she was led to begin her war against the Indians, although she had been done no injury by them. 5Â And realizing that she needed an exceedingly great force in addition to what she had she despatched messengers to all the satrapies, commanding the governors to enrol the bravest of the young men and setting their quota in accordance with the size of each nation; and she further ordered them all to make new suits of armour and to be at hand, brilliantly equipped in every other respect, at Bactra on the third year thereafter. 6Â She also summoned shipwrights from Phoenicia, Syria, Cyprus, and the rest of the lands along the sea, and shipping thither an abundance of timber she ordered them to build river boats which could be taken to pieces. 7Â For the Indus river, by reason of its being the largest in that region and the boundary of her kingdom, required many boats, some for the passage across and others from which to defend the former from the Indians; and since there was no timber near the river the boats had to be brought from Bactriana by land.
8 Observing that she was greatly inferior because of her lack of elephants, Semiramis conceived the plan of making dummies like these animals, in the hope that the Indians would be struck with terror because  p405 of their belief that no elephants ever existed at all apart from those found in India. 9 Accordingly she chose out three hundred thousand black oxen and distributed their meat among her artisans and the men who had been assigned to the task of making the figures, but the hides she sewed together and stuffed with straw, and thus made dummies, copying in every detail the natural appearance of these animals. Each dummy had within it a man to take care of it and a camel and, when it was moved by the latter, to those who saw it from a distance it looked like an actual animal. 10 And the artisans who were engaged in making these dummies for her worked at their task in a certain court which had been surrounded by a wall and had gates which were carefully guarded, so that no worker within could pass out no one from outside could come in to them. This she did in order that no one from the outside might see what was taking place and that no report about the dummies might escape to the Indians.
17 1 When the boats and the beasts had been prepared in the two allotted years, on the third she summoned her forces from everywhere to Bactriana. And the multitude of the army which was assembled, as Ctesias of Cnidus has recorded, was three million foot-soldiers, two hundred thousand cavalry, and one hundred thousand chariots. 2 There were also men mounted on camels, carrying swords four cubits long, as many in number as the chariots. And river boats which could be taken apart she built to the number of two thousand, and she had collected camels to carry the vessels overland. Camels also bore the dummies  p407 of the elephants, as has been mentioned; and the soldiers, by bringing their horses up to these camels, accustomed them not to fear the savage nature of the beasts.42 3 A similar thing was also done many years later by Perseus, the king of the Macedonians, before his decisive conflict with the Romans who had elephants from Libya.43 But neither in his case did it turn out that the zeal and ingenuity displayed in such matters had any effect on the conflict, nor in that of Semiramis, as will be shown more precisely in our further account.
4Â When Stabrobates, the king of the Indians, heard of the immensity of the forces mentioned and of the exceedingly great preparations which had been made for the war, he was anxious to surpass Semiramis in every respect. 5Â First of all, then, he made four thousand river boats out of reeds; for along its rivers and marshy places India produces a great abundance of reeds, so large in diameter that a man cannot easily put his arms about them;44 and it is said, furthermore, that ships built of these are exceedingly serviceable, since this wood does not rot. 6Â Moreover, he gave great care to the preparation of his arms and by visiting all India gathered a far greater force than that which had been collected by Semiramis. 7Â Furthermore, Â p409Â holding a hunt of the wild elephants and multiplying many times the number already at his disposal, he fitted them all out splendidly with such things as would strike terror in war; 8Â and the consequence was that when they advanced to the attack the multitude of them as well as the towers upon their backs made them appear like a thing beyond the power of human nature to understand.
18 1 When he had made all his preparations for the war he despatched messengers to Semiramis, who was already on the road, accusing her of being the aggressor in the war although she had been injured in no respect; then, in the course of his letter, after saying many slanderous things against her as being a strumpet and calling upon the gods as witnesses, he threatened her with crucifixion when he had defeated her. 2 Semiramis, however, on reading his letter dismissed his statements with laughter and remarked, "It will be in deeds45 that the Indian will make trial of my valour." And when her advance brought her with her force to the Indus river she found the boats of the enemy ready for battle. 3 Consequently she on her side, hastily putting together her boats and manning them with her best marines, joined battle on the river, while the foot-soldiers which were drawn up along the banks also participated eagerly in the contest. 4 The struggle raged for a long time and both sides fought spiritedly, but finally Semiramis was victorious and destroyed about a thousand of the boats, taking also not a few men prisoners. 5 Elated now by her victory, she reduced to  p411 slavery the islands in the river and the cities on them and gathered in more than one hundred thousand captives.
After these events the king of the Indians withdrew his force from the river, giving the appearance of retreating in fear but actually with the intention of enticing the enemy to cross the river. 6Â Thereupon Semiramis, now that her undertakings were prosperous as she wished, spanned the river with a costly and large bridge, by means of which she got all her forces across; and then she left sixty thousand men to guard the pontoon bridge, while with the rest of her army she advanced in pursuit of the Indians, the dummy elephants leading the way in order that the king's spies might report to the king the multitude of these animals in her army. 7Â Nor was she deceived in this hope; on the contrary, when those who had been despatched to spy her out reported to the Indians the multitude of elephants among the enemy, they were all at a loss to discover from where such a multitude of beasts as accompanied her could have come. 8Â However, the deception did not remain a secret for long; for some of Semiramis' troops were caught neglecting their night watches in the camp, and these, in fear of the consequent punishment, deserted to the enemy and pointed out to them their mistake regarding the nature of the elephants. Encouraged by this information, the king of the Indians, after informing his army about the dummies, set his forces in array and turned about to face the Assyrians.
 p413 19 1 Semiramis likewise marshalled her forces, and as the two armies neared each other Stabrobates, the king of the Indians, despatched his cavalry and chariots far in advance of the main body. 2 But the queen stoutly withstood the attack of the cavalry, and since the elephants which she had fabricated had been stationed at equal intervals in front of the main body of troops, it came about that the horses of the Indians shied at them. 3 For whereas at a distance the dummies looked like the actual animals with which the horses of the Indians were acquainted and therefore charged upon them boldly enough, yet on nearer contact the odour which reached the horses was unfamiliar, and then the other differences, which taken all together were very great, threw them into utter confusion. Consequently some of the Indians were thrown to the ground, while others, whence their horses would not obey the rein, were carried with their mounts pell-mell into the midst of the enemy. 4 Then Semiramis, who was in the battle with a select band of soldiers, made skilful use of her advantage and put the Indians to flight. But although these fled towards the battle-line, King Stabrobates, undismayed, advanced the ranks of his foot-soldiers, keeping the elephants in front, while he himself, taking his position on the right wing and fighting from the most powerful of the beasts, charged in terrifying fashion upon the queen, whom chance had placed opposite him. 5 And since the rest of the elephants followed his example, the army of Semiramis withstood but a short time the attack of the beasts; for the animals, by virtue of their extraordinary courage and the confidence which they felt  p415 in their power, easily destroyed everyone who tried to withstand them 6 Consequently there was a great slaughter, which was effected in various ways, some being trampled beneath their feet, others ripped up by their tusks, and a number tossed into the air by their trunks. And since a great multitude of corpses lay piled one upon the other and the danger aroused terrible consternation and fear in those who witnessed the sight, not a man had the courage to hold his position any longer.
7 Now when the entire multitude turned in flight the king of the Indians pressed his attack upon Semiramis herself. And first he let fly an arrow and struck her on the arm, and then with his javelin he pierced the back of the queen, but only with a glancing blow; and since for this reason Semiramis was not seriously injured she rode swiftly away, the pursuing beast being much inferior in speed. 8 But since all were fleeing to the pontoon bridge and so great a multitude was forcing its way into a single narrow space, some of the queen's soldiers perished by being trampled upon by one another and by cavalry and foot-soldiers being thrown together in unnatural confusion, and when the Indians pressed hard upon them a violent crowding took place on the bridge because their terror, so that many were pushed to either side of the bridge and fell into the river. 9 As for Semiramis, when the largest part of the survivors of the battle had found safety by putting the river behind them, she cut the fastenings which held the bridge together; and when these were loosened the pontoon bridge, having been broken apart at many points and bearing great numbers of pursuing Indians, was carried down in haphazard fashion by the violence of the current  p417 and caused the death of many of the Indians, but for Semiramis it was the means of complete safety, the enemy now being prevented from crossing over against her. 10 After these events the king of the Indians remained inactive, since heavenly omens appeared to him which his seers interpreted to mean that he must not cross the river, and Semiramis, after exchanging prisoners, made her way back to Bactra with the loss of two-thirds of her force.
20 1Â Some time later her son Ninyas conspired against her through the agency of a certain eunuch; and remembering the prophecy given her by Ammon,46 she did not punish the conspirator, but, on the contrary, after turning the kingdom over to him and commanding the governors to obey him, she at once disappeared, as if she were going to be translated to the gods as the oracle had predicted. 2Â Some, making a myth of it, say that she turned into a dove and flew off in the company of many birds which alighted on her dwelling, and this, they say, is the reason why the Assyrians worship the dove as a god, thus deifying Semiramis. Be that as it may, this woman, after having been queen over all Asia with the exception of India, passed away in the manner mentioned above, having lived sixty-two years and having reigned forty-two.
3 Such, then, is the account that Ctesias of Cnidus has given about Semiramis; but Athenaeus47 and certain other historians say that she was a comely courtesan and because of her beauty was loved by the king of the Assyrians. 4 Now at first she was accorded only a moderate acceptance in the palace, but later, when  p419 she had been proclaimed a lawful wife, she persuaded the king to yield the royal prerogatives to her for a period of five days.48 5 And Semiramis, upon receiving the sceptre and the regal garb, on the first day held high festival and gave a magnificent banquet, at which she persuaded the commanders of the military forces and all the greatest dignitaries to coâoperate with her; and on the second day, while the people and the most notable citizens were paying her their respects as queen, she arrested her husband and put him in prison; and since she was by nature a woman of great designs and bold as well, she seized the throne and remaining queen until old age accomplished many great things. Such, then, are the conflicting accounts which may be found in the historians regarding the career of Semiramis.
21 1 After her death Ninyas, the son of Ninus and Semiramis, succeeded to the throne and had a peaceful reign, since he in no wise emulated his mother's fondness for war and her adventurous spirit. 2 For in the first place, he spent all his time in the palace, seen by no one but his concubines and the eunuchs who attended him, and devoted his life to luxury and idleness and the consistent avoidance of any suffering or anxiety, holding the end and aim of a happy reign to be the enjoyment of every kind of pleasure without restraint. 3 Moreover, having in view the safety of his crown and the fear  p421 he felt with reference to his subjects, he used to summon each year a fixed number of soldiers and a general from each nation and to keep the army, 4 which had been gathered in this way from all his subject peoples, outside his capital, appointing as commander of each nation one of the most trustworthy men in his service; and at the end of the year he would summon from his peoples a second equal number of soldiers and dismiss the former to their countries. 5 The result of this device was that all those subject to his rule were filled with awe, seeing at all times a great host encamped in the open and punishment ready to fall on any who rebelled or would not yield obedience. 6 This annual change of the soldiers was devised by him in order that, before the generals and all the other commanders of the army should become well acquainted with each other, every man of them would have been separated from the rest and have gone back to his own country; for long service in the field both gives the commanders experience in the arts of war and fills them with arrogance, and, above all, it offers great opportunities for rebellion and for plotting against their rulers. 7 And the fact that he was seen by no one outside the palace made everyone ignorant of the luxury of his manner of life, and through their fear of him, as of an unseen god, each man dared not show disrespect of him even in word. So by appointing generals, satraps, financial officers, and judges for each nation and arranging all other matters as he felt at any time to be to his advantage, he remained for his lifetime in the city of Ninus.
8 The rest of the kings also followed his example, son  p423 succeeding father upon the throne, and reigned for thirty generations down to Sardanapallus; for it was under this ruler that the Empire of the Assyrians fell to the Medes, after it had lasted more than thirteen hundred years,49 as Ctesias of Cnidus says in his Second Book.
22 1 There is no special need of giving all the names of the kings and the number of years which each of them reigned because nothing was done by them which merits mentioning. For the only event which has been recorded is the despatch by the Assyrians to the Trojans of an allied force, which was under the command of Memnon the son of Tithonus. 2 For when Teutamus, they say, was ruler of Asia, being the twentieth in succession from Ninyas the son of Semiramis, the Greeks made an expedition against Troy with Agamemnon, at a time when the Assyrians had controlled Asia for more than a thousand years. And Priam, who was king of the Troad and a vassal of the king of the Assyrians, being hard pressed by the war, sent an embassy to the king requesting aid; and Teutamus despatched ten thousand Ethiopians and a like number of the men of Susiana along with two hundred chariots, having appointed as general Memnon the son of Tithonus.50 3 Now Tithonus, who  p425 was at that time general of Persis, was the most highly esteemed of the governors at the king's court, and Memnon, who was in the bloom of manhood, was distinguished both for his bravery and for his nobility of spirit. He also built the palace in the upper city of Susa which stood until the time of the Persian Empire and was called after him Memnonian; moreover, he constructed through the country a public highway which bears the name Memnonian to this time. 4 But the Ethiopians who border upon Egypt dispute this, maintaining that this man was a native of their country, and they point out an ancient palace which to this day, they say, bears the name Memnonian. 5 At any rate, the account runs that Memnon went to the aid of the Trojans with twenty thousand foot-soldiers and two hundred chariots; and he was admired for his bravery and slew many Greeks in the fighting, but was finally ambushed by the Thessalians and slain; whereupon the Ethiopians recovered his body, burned the corpse, and took the bones back to Tithonus. Such is the account concerning Memnon that is given in the royal records, according to what the barbarians say.
23 1 Sardanapallus, the thirtieth in succession from Ninus, who founded the empire, and the last king of the Assyrians, outdid all his predecessors in luxury and sluggishness.51 For not to mention the fact that he was not seen by any man residing outside the palace, he lived the life of a woman, and spending his days  p427 in the company of his concubines and spinning purple garments and working the softest of wool, he had assumed the feminine garb and so covered his face and indeed his entire body with whitening cosmetics and the other unguents used by courtesans, that he rendered it more delicate than that of any luxury-loving woman. 2 He also took care to make even his voice to be like a woman's, and at his carousals not only to indulge regularly in those drinks and viands which could offer the greatest pleasure, but also to pursue the delights of love with men as well as women; for he practised sexual indulgence of both kinds without restraint, showing not the least concern for the disgrace attending such conduct. 3 To such an excess did he go of luxury and of the most shameless sensual pleasure and in temperance, that he composed a funeral dirge for himself and commanded his successors upon the throne to inscribe it upon his tomb after his death; it was composed by him in a foreign language but was afterwards translated by a Greek as follows:
4 Because he was a man of this character, not only did he end his own life in a disgraceful manner, but he  p429 caused the total destruction of the Assyrian Empire, which had endured longer than any other known to history.
24 1 The facts are these:52 A certain Arbaces, a Mede by race, and conspicuous for his bravery and nobility of spirit, was the general of the contingent of Medes which was sent each year to Ninus. And having made the acquaintance during this service of the general of the Babylonians, he was urged by him to overthrow the empire of the Assyrians. 2 Now this man's name was Belesys, and he was the most distinguished of those priests whom the Babylonians call Chaldaeans. And since as a consequence he had the fullest experience of astrology and divination, he was wont to foretell the future unerringly to the people in general; therefore, being greatly admired for this gift, he also predicted to the general of the Medes, who was his friend, that it was certainly fated for him to be king over all the territory which was then held by Sardanapallus. 3 Arbaces, commending the man, promised to give him the satrapy of Babylonia when the affair should be consummated, and for his part, like a man elated by a message from some god, both entered into a league with the commanders of the other nations and assiduously invited them all to banquets and social gatherings, establishing thereby a friendship with each of them. 4 He was resolved also to see the king face to face and to observe his whole manner of life. Consequently he gave one of the eunuchs a golden  p431 bowl as a present and gained admittance to Sardanapallus; and when he had observed at close hand both his luxuriousness and his love of effeminate pursuits and practices, he despised the king as worthy of no consideration and was led all the more to cling to the hopes which had been held out to him by the Chaldaean. 5 And the conclusion of the matter was that he formed a conspiracy with Belesys, whereby he should himself move the Medes and Persians to revolt while the latter should persuade the Babylonians to join the undertaking and should secure the help of the commander of the Arabs, who was his friend, for the attempt to secure the supreme control.
6 When the year's time of their service in the king's army53 had passed and, another force having arrived to replace them, the relieved men had been dismissed as usual to their homes, thereupon Arbaces persuaded the Medes to attack the Assyrian kingdom and the Persians to join in the conspiracy, on the condition of receiving their freedom.54 Belesys too in similar fashion both persuaded the Babylonians to strike for their freedom, and sending an embassy to Arabia, won over the commander of the people of that country, a friend of his who exchanged hospitality with him, to join in the attack. 7 And after a year's time all these leaders gathered a multitude of soldiers and came with all their forces to Ninus, ostensibly bringing up replacements, as was the custom, but in fact with the intention of destroying the empire of the Assyrians. 8 Now when these four nations had gathered into one place the whole number of them amounted to four hundred thousand  p433 men, and when they had assembled into one camp they took counsel together concerning the best plan to pursue.
25 1Â As for Sardanapallus, so soon as he became aware of the revolt, he led forth against the rebels the contingents which had come from the rest of the nations. And at first, when battle was joined on the plain, those who were making the revolt were defeated, and after heavy losses were pursued to a mountain which was seventy stades distant from Ninus; 2Â but afterwards, when they came down again into the plain and were preparing for battle, Sardanapallus marshalled his army against them and despatched heralds to the camp of the enemy to make this proclamation: "Sardanapallus will give two hundred talents of gold to anyone who slays Arbaces the Mede, and will make a present of twice that amount to anyone who delivers him up alive and will also appoint him governor over Media." 3Â Likewise he promised to reward any who would either slay Belesys the Babylonian or take him alive. But since no man paid any attention to the proclamation, he joined battle, slew many of the rebels, and pursued the remainder of the multitude into their encampment in the mountains.
4 Arbaces, having lost heart because of these defeats, now convened a meeting of his friends and called upon them to consider what should be done. 5 Now the majority said that they should retire to their respective countries, seize strong positions, and so far as possible prepare there whatever else would be  p435 useful for the war; but Belesys the Babylonian, by maintaining that the gods were promising them by signs that with labours and hardship they would bring their enterprise to a successful end, and encouraging them in every other way as much as he could, persuaded them all to remain to face further perils. 6 So there was a third battle, and again the king was victorious, captured the camp of the rebels, and pursued the defeated foe as far as the boundaries of Babylonia; and it also happened that Arbaces himself, who had fought most brilliantly and had slain many Assyrians, was wounded. 7 And now that the rebels had suffered defeats so decisive following one upon the other, their commanders, abandoning all hope of victory, were preparing to disperse each to his own country. 8 But Belesys, who had passed a sleepless night in the open and had devoted himself to the observation of the stars, said to those who had lost hope in their cause, "If you will wait five days help will come of its own accord, and there will be a mighty change to the opposite in the whole situation; for from my long study of the stars I see the gods foretelling this to us." And he appealed to them to wait that many days and test his own skill and the good will of the gods.
26 1Â So after they had all been called back and had waited the stipulated time, there came a messenger with the news that a force which had been despatched from Bactriana to the king was near at hand, advancing with all speed. 2Â Arbaces, accordingly, decided to go to meet their generals by the shortest route, Â p437Â taking along the best and most agile of his troops, so that, in case they should be unable to persuade the Bactrians by arguments to join in the revolt, they might resort to arms to force them to share with them in the same hopes. 3Â But the outcome was that the new-comers gladly listened to the call to freedom, first the commanders and then the entire force, and they all encamped in the same place.
4 It happened at this very time that the king of the Assyrians, who was unaware of the defection of the Bactrians and had become elated over his past successes, turned to indulgence and divided among his soldiers for a feast animals and great quantities of both wine and all other provisions. Consequently, since the whole army was carousing, Arbaces, learning from some deserters of the relaxation and drunkenness in the camp of the enemy, made his attack upon it unexpectedly in the night. 5 And as it was an assault of organized men upon disorganized and of ready men upon unprepared, they won possession of the camp, and after slaying many of the soldiers pursued the rest of them as far as the city. 6 After this the king named for the chief command Galaemenes, his wife's brother, and gave his own attention to the affairs within the city. But the rebels, drawing up their forces in the plain before the city, overcame the Assyrians in two battles, and they not only slew Galaemenes, but of the opposing forces they cut down some in their flight, while others, who had been shut out from entering the city and forced to leap into  p439 the Euphrates river, they destroyed almost to a man. 7 So great was the multitude of the slain that the water of the stream, mingled with the blood, was changed in colour over a considerable distance. Furthermore, now that the king was shut up in the city and besieged there, many of the nations revolted, going over in each case to the side of liberty.
8Â Sardanapallus, realizing that his entire kingdom was in the greatest danger, sent his three sons and two daughters together with much of his treasure to Paphlagonia to the governor Cotta, who was the most loyal of his subjects, while he himself, despatching letter-carriers to all his subjects, summoned forces and made preparations for the siege. 9Â Now there was a prophecy which had come down to him from his ancestors: "No enemy will ever take Ninus by storm unless the river shall first become the city's enemy." Assuming, therefore, that this would never be, he held out in hope, his thought being to endure the siege and await the troops which would be sent from his subjects.
27 1Â The rebels, elated at their successes, pressed the siege, but because of the strength of the walls they were unable to do any harm to the men in the city; for neither engines for throwing stones, nor shelters for sappers,55 nor battering-rams devised to overthrow walls had as yet been invented at that time. Moreover, Â p441Â the inhabitants of the city had a great abundance of all provisions, since the king had taken thought on that score. Consequently the siege dragged on, and for two years they pressed their attack, making assaults on the walls and preventing inhabitants of the city from going out into the country; but in the third year, after there had been heavy and continuous rains, it came to pass that the Euphrates, running very full, both inundated a portion of the city and broke down the walls for a distance of twenty stades. 2Â At this the king, believing that the oracle had been fulfilled and that the river had plainly become the city's enemy, abandoned hope of saving himself. And in order that he might not fall into the hands of the enemy, he built an enormous pyre56 in his palace, heaped upon it all his gold and silver as well as every article of the royal wardrobe, and then, shutting his concubines and eunuchs in the room which had been built in the middle of the pyre, he consigned both them and himself and his palace to the flames. 3Â The rebels, on learning of the death of Sardanapallus, took the city by forcing an entrance where the wall had fallen, and clothing Arbaces in the royal garb saluted him as king and put in his hands the supreme authority.
28 1 Thereupon, after the new king had distributed among the generals who had aided him in the struggle gifts corresponding to their several deserts, and as he was appointing satraps over the nations, Belesys the Babylonian, who had foretold to Arbaces that he would be king of Asia, coming to him, reminded him  p443 of his good services, and asked that he be given the governorship of Babylonia, as had been promised at the outset. 2 He also explained that when their cause was endangered he had made a vow to Belus that, if Sardanapallus were defeated and his palace went up in flames, he would bring its ashes to Babylon, and depositing them near the river and the sacred precinct of the god he would construct a mound which, for all who sailed down the Euphrates, would stand as an eternal memorial of the man who had overthrown the rule of the Assyrians. 3 This request he made because he had learned from a certain eunuch, who had made his escape and come to Belesys and was kept hidden by him, of the facts regarding the silver and gold. 4 Now since Arbaces knew nothing of this, by reason of the fact that all the inmates of the palace had been burned along with the king, he allowed him both to carry the ashes away and to hold be able without the payment of tribute. Thereupon Belesys procured boats and at once sent off to Babylon along with the ashes practically all the silver and gold; and the king, having been informed of the act which Belesys had been caught perpetrating, appointed as judges the generals who had served with him in the war. 5 And when the accused acknowledged his guilt, the court sentenced him to death, but the king, being a magnanimous man and wishing to make his rule at the outset known for clemency, both freed Belesys from the danger threatening him and allowed him to keep the silver and gold which he had carried off; likewise, he did not even take from him the governorship over Babylon which had originally  p445 been given to him, saying that his former services were greater than his subsequent misdeeds. 6 When this act of clemency was noised about, he won no ordinary loyalty on the part of his subjects as well as renown among the nations, all judging that a man who had conducted himself in this wise towards wrongdoers was worthy of the kingship. 7 Arbaces, however, showing clemency towards the inhabitants of the city, settled them in villages and returned to each man his personal possessions, but the city he levelled to the ground. Then the silver and gold, amounting to many talents, which had been left in the pyre, he collected and took off to Ecbatana in Media.
8Â So the empire of the Assyrians, which had endured from the time of Ninus through thirty generations, for more than one thousand three hundred years, was destroyed by the Medes in the manner described above.
29 1 But to us it seems not inappropriate to speak briefly of the Chaldaeans of Babylon and of their antiquity, that we may omit nothing which is worthy of record. 2 Now the Chaldaeans, belonging as they do to the most ancient inhabitants of Babylonia, have about the same position among the divisions of the state as that occupied by the priests of Egypt; for being assigned to the service of the gods they spend their entire life in study, their greatest renown being in the field of astrology. But they occupy themselves largely with soothsaying as well, making predictions about future events, and in some cases by purifications, in others by sacrifices, and in others by some other charms they attempt to effect the averting of evil things and the fulfilment of the good. 3 They are  p447 also skilled in soothsaying by the flight of birds, and they give out interpretations of both dreams and portents. They also show marked ability in making divinations from the observation of the entrails of animals, deeming that in this branch they are eminently successful.
The training which they receive in all these matters is not the same as that of the Greeks who follow such practices. 4Â For among the Chaldaeans the scientific study of these subjects is passed down in the family, and son takes it over from father, being relieved of all other services in the state. Since, therefore, they have their parents for teachers, they not only are taught everything ungrudgingly but also at the same time they give heed to the precepts of their teachers with a most unwavering trust. Furthermore, since they are bred in these teachings from childhood up, they attain a great skill in them, both because of the ease with which youth is taught and because of the great amount of time which is devoted to this study.
5 Among the Greeks, on the contrary, the student who takes up a large number of subjects without preparation turns to the higher studies only quite late, and then, after labouring upon them to some extent, gives them up, being distracted by the necessity of earning a livelihood; and but a few here and there really strip for the higher studies and continue in the pursuit of them as profit-making business, and these are always trying to make innovations in connection with the most important doctrines instead of following in the path of their predecessors. 6 The result of this is that the barbarians, by sticking to the same things always, keep a firm hold on every detail, while the Greeks, on  p449 the other hand, aiming at the profit to be made out of the business, keep founding new schools and, wrangling with each other over the most important matters of speculation, bring it about that their pupils hold conflicting views, and that their minds, vacillating throughout their lives and unable to believe at all with firm conviction, simply wander in confusion. It is at any rate true that, if a man were to examine carefully the most famous schools of the philosophers, he would find them differing from one another to the uttermost degree and maintaining opposite opinions regarding the most fundamental tenets.
30 1 Now, as the Chaldaeans say, the world is by its nature eternal, and neither had a first beginning nor will at a later time suffer destruction; furthermore, both the disposition and the orderly arrangement of the universe have come about by virtue of a divine providence, and toâday whatever takes place in the heavens is in every instance brought to pass, not at haphazard nor by virtue of any spontaneous action, but by some fixed and firmly determined divine decision. 2 And since they have observed the stars over a long period of time and have noted both the movements and the influences of each of them with greater precision than any other men, they foretell to mankind many things that will take place in the future. 3 But above all in importance, they say, is the study of the influence of the five stars known as planets, which they call "Interpreters"57 when speaking of them as a group, but if referring to them singly, the one named Cronus58 by the Greeks, which is the most conspicuous and presages more events and such as are of greater importance than the others,a  p451 they call the star of Helius, whereas the other four they designate as the stars of Ares, Aphrodite, Hermes, and Zeus,59 as do our astrologers. 4 The reason why they call them "Interpreters" is that whereas all the other stars are fixed and follow a singular circuit in a regular course, these alone, by virtue of following each its own course, point out future events, thus interpreting to mankind the design of the gods. For sometimes by their risings, sometimes by their settings, and again by their colour, the Chaldaeans say, they give signs of coming events to such as are willing to observe them closely; 5 for at one time they show forth mighty storms of winds, at another excessive rains or heat, at times the appearance of comets, also eclipses of both sun and moon, and earthquakes, and in a word all the conditions which owe their origin to the atmosphere and work both benefits and harm, not only to whole peoples or regions, but also to kings and to persons of private station.
6 Under the course in which these planets move are situated, according to them, thirty stars,60 which they designate as "counselling gods"; of these one half oversee the regions above the earth and the other half those beneath the earth, having under their purview the affairs of mankind and likewise those of the heavens; and every ten days one of the stars above is sent as a messenger, so to speak, to the stars  p453 below, and again in like manner one of the stars below the earth to those above, and this movement of theirs is fixed and determined by means of an orbit which is unchanging for ever. 7 Twelve of these gods, they say, hold chief authority, and to each of these the Chaldaeans assign a month and one of the signs of the zodiac, as they are called. And through the midst of these signs, they say, both the sun and moon and the five planets make their course, the sun completing his cycle in a year and the moon traversing her circuit in a month.
31 1Â Each of the planets, according to them, has its own particular course, and its velocities and periods of time are subject to change and variation. These stars it is which exert the greatest influence for both good and evil upon the nativity of men; and it is chiefly from the nature of these planets and the study of them that they know what is in store for mankind. 2Â And they have made predictions, they say, not only to numerous other kings, but also to Alexander, who defeated Darius, and to Antigonus and Seleucus Nicator who afterwards became kings, and in all their prophecies they are thought to have hit the truth. But of these things we shall write in detail on a more appropriate occasion.61 3Â Moreover, they also foretell to men in private station what will befall them, and with such accuracy that those who have made trial of them marvel at the feat and believe that it transcends the power of man.
4 Beyond the circle of the zodiac they designate  p455 twenty-four other stars, of which one half, they say, are situated in the northern parts and one half in the southern, and of these those which are visible they assign to the world of the living, allow those which are invisible they regard as being adjacent to the dead, and so they call them "Judges of the Universe." 5 And under all the stars hitherto mentioned the moon, according to them, takes her way, being nearest the earth because of her weight and completing her course in a very brief period of time, not by reason of her great velocity, but because her orbit is so short. 6 They also agree with the Greeks in saying that her light is reflected and that her eclipses are due to the shadow of the earth. Regarding the eclipse of the sun, however, they offer the weakest kind of explanation, and do not presume to predict it or to define the times of its occurrence with any precision. 7 Again, in connection with the earth they make assertions entirely peculiar to themselves, saying that it is shaped like a boat and hollow, and they offer many plausible arguments about both the earth and all other bodies in the firmament, a full discussion of which we feel would be alien to our history. 8 This point, however, a man may fittingly maintain, that the Chaldaeans have of all men the greatest grasp of astrology, and that they bestowed the greatest diligence upon the study of it. 9 But as to the number of years which, according to their statements, the order of the Chaldaeans has spent on the study of the bodies of the universe, a man can scarcely believe them; for they reckon that, down to  p457 Alexander's crossing over into Asia, it has been four hundred and seventy-three thousand years, since they began in early times to make their observations of the stars.
10Â So far as the Chaldaeans are concerned we shall be satisfied with what has been said, that we may not wander too far from the matter proper to our history; and now that we have given an account of the destruction of the kingdom of the Assyrians by the Medes we shall return to the point at which we digressed.
32 1 Since the earliest writers of history are at variance concerning the mighty empire of the Medes, we feel that it is incumbent upon those who would write the history of events with a love for truth to set forth side by side the different accounts of the historians. 2 Now Herodotus, who lived in the time of Xerxes,62 gives this account: After the Assyrians had ruled Asia for five hundred years they were conquered by the Medes, and thereafter no king arose for many generations to lay claim to supreme power, but the city-states, enjoying a regimen of their own, were administered in a democratic fashion; finally, however, after many years a man distinguished for his justice, named Cyaxares,63 was chosen king among the Medes. 3 He was the first to try to attach to himself the neighbouring peoples and became for the Medes the founder of their universal empire; and after him his descendants extended the kingdom by continually adding a great deal of the adjoining country, until the reign of Astyages worth was conquered by Cyrus and  p459 the Persians. We have for the present given only the most important of these events in summary and shall later give a detailed account of them one by one when we come to the periods in which they fall; for it was in the second year of the Seventeenth Olympiad, according to Herodotus, that Cyaxares was chosen king by the Medes.64
4Â Ctesias of Cnidus, on the other hand, lived during the time when Cyrus65 made his expedition against Artaxerxes his brother, and having been made prisoner and then retained by Artaxerxes because of his medical knowledge, he enjoyed a position of honour with him for seventeen years.66 Now Ctesias says that from the royal records, in which the Persians in accordance with a certain law of theirs kept an account of their ancient affairs, he carefully investigated the facts about each king, and when he had composed his history he published it to the Greeks. 5Â This, then, is his account: After the destruction of the Assyrian Empire the Medes were the chief power in Asia under their king Arbaces, who conquered Sardanapallus, as has been told before.67 6Â And when he had reigned twenty-eight years his son Maudaces succeeded to the throne and reigned over Asia fifty years. After him Sosarmus ruled for thirty years, Artycas for fifty, the king known as Arbianes for twenty-two, and Artaeus for forty years.
33 1 During the reign of Artaeus a great war broke  p461 out between the Medes and the Cadusii, for the following reasons. Parsondes, a Persian, a man renowned for his valour and intelligence and every other virtue, was both a friend of the king's and the most influential of the members of the royal council. 2 Feeling himself aggrieved by the king in a certain decision, he fled with three thousand foot-soldiers and a thousand horsemen to the Cadusii, to one of whom, the most influential man in those parts, he had given his sister in marriage. 3 And now that he had become a rebel, he persuaded the entire people to vindicate their freedom and was chosen general because of his Severus. Then, learning that a great force was being gathered against him, he armed the whole nation of the Cadusii and pitched his camp before the passes leading into the country, having a force of no less than two hundred thousand men all told. 4 And although the king Artaeus advanced against him with eight hundred thousand soldiers, Parsondes defeated him in battle and slew more than fifty thousand of his followers, and drove the rest of the army out of the country of the Cadusii. And for this exploit he was so admired by the people of the land that he was chosen king, and he plundered Media without ceasing and laid waste every district of the country. 5 And after he had attained great fame and was about to die of old age, he called to his side his successor to the throne and required of him an oath that the Cadusii should never put an end to their enmity towards the Medes, adding that, if peace were ever made with them, it meant the destruction of his line and of the whole race of the Cadusii. 6 These, then, were the reasons why the Cadusii were always inveterate enemies of the Medes, and had never been  p463 subjected to the Median kings up to the time when Cyrus transferred the Empire of the Medes to the Persians.
34 1Â After the death of Artaeus, Ctesias continues, Artynes ruled over the Medes for twenty-two years, and Astibaras for forty. During the reign of the latter the Parthians revolted from the Medes and entrusted both their country and their city to the hands of the Sacae. 2Â This led to a war between the Sacae and the Medes, which lasted many years, and after no small number of battles and the loss of many lives on both sides, they finally agreed to peace on the following terms, that the Parthians should be subject to the Medes, but that both peoples should retain their former possessions and be friends and allies for ever.
3 At that time the Sacae were ruled by a woman named Zarina, who was devoted to warfare and was in daring and efficiency by far the foremost of the women of the Sacae. Now this people, in general, have courageous women who share with their husbands the dangers of war, but she, it is said, was the most conspicuous of them all for her beauty and remarkable as well in respect to both her designs and whatever she undertook. 4 For she subdued such of the neighbouring barbarian peoples as had become proud because of their boldness and were trying to enslave the people of the Sacae, and into much of her own realm she introduced civilized life, founded not a few cities, and, in a word, made the life of her people happier. 5 Consequently her countrymen after her  p465 death, in gratitude for her benefactions and in remembrance of her virtues, built her a tomb which was far the largest of any in their land; for they erected a triangular pyramid, making the length of each side three stades and the height one stade, and bringing it to a point at the top; and on the tomb they also placed a colossal gilded statue of her and accorded her the honours belonging to heroes, and all the other honours they bestowed upon her were more magnificent than those which had fallen to the lot of her ancestors.
6Â When, Ctesias continues, Astibaras, the king of the Medes, died of old age in Ecbatana, his son Aspandas, whom the Greeks call Astyages, succeeded to the throne. And when he had been defeated by Cyrus the Persian, the kingdom passed to the Persians. Of them we shall give a detailed and exact account at the proper time.68
7Â Concerning the kingdoms of the Assyrians and of the Medes, and concerning the disagreement in the accounts of the historians, we consider that enough has been said; now we shall discuss India and then, in turn, recount the legends of that land.
The Loeb Editor's Notes:
1 Arabia and its peoples are more fully described in chaps. 48 ff.
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2 The Don.
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3 On Ctesias see the Introduction, pp. xxviâxxvii.
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4 The city of Nineveh, which lay on the east bank of the Tigris, not on the Euphrates. Strabo (16.1.3) says that it was "much greater" than Babylon, whose circuit, as given below (7.3), was 360Â stades.
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5 It is believed with reason that behind the mythical figures of Semiramis, made famous by Greek and Roman legend, "a sort of Assyrian Catherine II, distinguished equally in war and for sensuality" (How and Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus, 1 p143), lies the historical Sammu-rmat, who was queen-regent in the opening years of the reign of her son Adapted-nirari III, 811â782 B.C. About her in the course of the centuries gathered many attributes of the Babylonian goddess Ishtar; her son greatly extended the Assyrian power (see The Cambridge Ancient History, 3 pp27 f., 183â4).
Thayer's Note: The figure of Semiramis and the mythical accretions to her are nicely covered at Livius.Org.
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6 Another name for the Phoenician Astarte. Herodotus (1.105) calls the goddess of Ascalon the "Heavenly Aphrodite."
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7 Herodotus (4.87) makes the number 700,000, exclusive of the fleet.
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8 Cp. Book 11.3.
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9 Diodorus assumes that his readers are familiar with the fact that the vessel constituting the body of this fleet was the trireme, the standard warship of the period of Dionysius (fourth century B.C.); the quadriremes and quinqueremes were the next two larger classes. The complement of the trireme was at least 200 men, which makes a minimum for the fleet of 80,000 rowers and marines. The larger vessels would, of course, carry larger crews. According to Polybius (1.26) the quinqueremes of the Romans in the third century B.C. carried 300 rowers and 120 marines.
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10 Polybius (2.24.16) estimates the total number of Romans and allies capable of bearing arms at this time (c. 225 B.C.) as 700,000 foot-soldiers and 70,000 cavalry.
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11 The Median dress was distinguished from that of the Greeks by its covering for the head, a long coat with sleeves extending to the hands, trousers, and boots. Strabo (11.13.9) expressed the contempt generally felt for it by the Greek with when, in observing that the Persians adopted this garb, he adds that "they submitted to wear feminine robes instead of going naked or lightly clad, and to cover their bodies all over with clothes."
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12 In 612Â B.C.
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13 The following picture of Babylon serves to show the impression which this great city, whose "circuit was that more of a nation than of a city" (Aristotle, Politics, 3.3.5), made upon the Greeks. The older city was badly damaged by the sack of Sennacherib (c. 689 B.C.). The same ruler, however, commenced the work of rebuilding it, a task which was continued by successive kings of Assyria. The Chaldaean Nebuchadrezzar (605â562 B.C.) further embellished it, making it the most magnificent city of Asia, and it is his city which was known to the classical writers.
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14 â¢About forty miles.
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15 Herodotus (1.178) makes the circuit of the walls 480 stades, Strabo (16.1.5) 385, although this number has been generally taken by editors to be an error of the MSS. for 365, thus bringing him into agreement with Cleitarchus and Quintus Curtius 5.4.
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16 i.e. either 300 feet high or 75 feet high. Herodotus, l.c., gives the height as 200 "royal cubits" (c. 335 feet).
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17 Some of the piers of this "most ancient stone bridge of which we have any record" have been discovered. They are twenty-one metres long, nine wide, and are placed nine metres apart. An inscription of Nebuchadrezzar ascribes this bridge to his father Nabopolassar (R. Koldewey, The Excavations at Babylon (Eng. transl.), pp197â99).
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18 Or "of the stones" (so Liddell-Scott-Jones). But the use of cramps and dowels, sunk into the stones and made fast by pouring molten lead, was the accepted bonding method in the classic period of Greek architecture, and dove-tailed wooden cramps laid in bitumen have been found in Babylon (Koldewey, l.c., p177).
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19 The sides of the piers, as remains show, were convex at the north ends and then sharply receded to a point.
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20 Cp. Herodotus 1.180.
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21 Koldewey (l.c., p130) holds that the Greek word may not be translated "circular," preferring "annular, enclosed in itself, not open on one side, like the outer peribolos," his reason being that a "circular peribolos is found nowhere in Babylon."
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22 Koldewey (l.c., pp129â131) identifies this palace with what he calls the Persian Building, and finds traces of the three circuit walls (periboloi). It is a striking coincidence that among the fragments of glazed bricks depicting a chase of wild animals there was found only one human face, that of a woman in white enamel. "We can scarcely doubt, therefore," he says, "that Diodorus was describing the enamels of the Persian building, and that the white face of a woman is the same that Ctesias recognized as a portrait of Semiramis."
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23 "Zeus Belus" was the name by which the Babylonian Bel-Marduk was known among the Greeks.
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24 What follows is a description of the great ziggurat, or stage-tower, of Eâtemen-anaâki, the "foundation stone of heaven and earth." According to Herodotus (1.181) it had eight stories, but E. Unger (Babylon (1931), pp191 ff.) finds evidence for only seven (cp. the Reconstruction, p383). The height of this great structure was nearly 300 feet, and in the course of time there gathered about it the Hebrew myth of the Tower of Babel (cp. The Cambridge Ancient History, I, pp503 ff.).
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25 Babylon was taken by the Persians in 539 B.C.
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26 The "Hanging Gardens" were built by the Chaldaean Nebuchadrezzar (605â562Â B.C.) for his wife Amyhia, a Median princess.
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27 Paradeisos, "park," a word borrowed from the Persian, meant no more than a wooded enclosure.
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28 Koldewey (l.c., pp91â100) would identify a vaulted building in a corner of Nebuchadrezzar's palace with this "hanging garden." Certain considerations speak strongly for this: (1) hewn stone, rarely found elsewhere in Babylon, was used in its construction; (2) the walls, especially the central ones, are unusually thick, as if to bear some heavy burden; (3) the presence of a well, unique among the many found in the ruins of the city, which consists of three adjoining shafts, the two outer and oblong ones presumably being used for an endless chain of buckets, and the central and square shaft serving as an inspection-chamber. L. W. King (A History of Babylon, pp46â50) recognizes the force of these arguments, but is inclined "to hope for a more convincing site for the gardens." E. Unger (Babylon, pp216 ff.) accepts the identification of Koldewey.
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29 Meaning the "region between the rivers." Neither of the rivers touches either Media or Paraetacenê, which lies between Media and Persia.
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30 i.e. the Persian Gulf. For Diodorus, as for Herodotus (cp. 1.1), the "Red Sea" was all the water south of Asia. Our "Red Sea" is the "Arabian Gulf" of Diodorus (cp. 1.33.8).
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31 Obelisk is a diminutive of obelos ("a spit").
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32 According to Herodotus (1.179) the place was eight days' journey from Babylon at the source of the river Is, which was a tributary of the Euphrates.
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33 This is the earliest mention of the modern Behistun, near the "Gate of Asia" on the old highway between Babylon and Ecbatana, Diodorus preserving the original form of the name Bagistana, "place of the Gods" or "of God." The great inscription, which became the Rosetta Stone of cuneiform, was placed there about 516 B.C. to recount the defeat by Darius of the rebellion which broke out in the reign of Cambyses. It stands about five hundred feet above the ground and the magnificent sculptures represent the rebellious satraps, two attendants of the king, and Darius making the gesture of adoration before the sacred symbol of Ahuramazda. See L. W. King and R. C. Thompson, The Inscription of Darius the Great at Behistun.
Thayer's Note: See The Behistun Inscription at Livius.Org (53Â photoillustrated webpages giving the complete text of the inscription â in cuneiform, in transliteration, in translation â and an exhaustive background on the monument and the history it tells).
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34 i.e. Assyrian.
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35 The Zagros range.
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36 This is obviously an attempt to explain the many mounds which dotted the landscape of this region in the time of Diodorus as well as toâday and are the remains of ancient dwelling sites.
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37 The shrine of Zeus-Ammon in the Oasis of Siwah, which is described in Book 17.50, in connection with the celebrated visit to it of Alexander.
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38 Herodotus (3.24) says nothing of the sort. According to him the body is shrunk and covered with gypsum, which is painted in such a way as to make it resemble a living man; then "they set it within a hollow pillar of hyelos." It is difficult to understand how some translators and commentators take this word to mean "porcelain," for Herodotus goes on to say that "it is quarried by them in abundance and is easy to work." In Herodotus' day it probably meant some transparent stone, perhaps alabaster (cp. M. L. Trowbridge, Philological Studies in Ancient Glass (University of Illinois Studies in Language and Literature, 1928), pp23 ff.); but by the time of Diodorus hyelos how the term used for "glass." Strabo (17.2.3) agrees with Diodorus in saying that in one manner of burial the Ethiopians "poured glass over" the bodies of the dead.
Thayer's Note: For further discussion of á½Î±Î»Î¿Ï, see the article Vitrum in Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities.
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39 This is done in Book 3.5 ff.
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40 This campaign was doubted already by the ancient writers; cp. Strabo 15.1.5 f.
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41 India is more fully described in chaps. 35 ff.
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42 i.e. the elephants.
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43 In the Third Macedonian War, 171â167Â B.C., Polyaenus (4.20) says that Perseus constructed wooden dummies of elephants, and that a man within them imitated th
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Saluting the legends of Beale Street
The Beale Street Brass Notes offer a tangible tribute to the many talented people who had put Memphis music and Beale Street on the world map.
Recipients in alphabetic order by last name or group name.
Emerson Able (1931-2015)
Note ceremony 11/14/12. Former band director at Manassas High School and outstanding sax player with a great group, Able spans Memphis music history from Jimmie Lunceford to Isaac Hayes and beyond.
Lamar Alexander (1940- )
The former governor and current senator of Tennessee, Lamar Alexander, is also a classically trained pianist. This benefited Alexander during campaign fundraisers across the state early in his career. A supporter of Memphis music, Alexander has twice performed at the Memphis in May Sunset Symphony.
Lyman Aldrich
Note ceremony 5/2/2013. Lyman Aldrich is a founder of the Memphis In May International Festival, which has produced the Beale Street Music Festival for 36 years. He is also the founder of Memphis Music, Inc., which brought all of the music studios in Memphis together to promote Memphis music worldwide.
Ardent Studios (founded 1958)
When high school buddies John Fry, John King, and Fred Smith decided to gather up a band and rent a studio in 1958, they were met with a disappointing outcome. Dissatisfied with the studio, Fry converted his parent's garage into his music space. The threesome built their own equipment and eventually picked out a name that would encompass the passion and the spirit they had for their studio: Ardent. While recording the first Big Star album in 1971, Ardent moved to Madison Avenue, where they are still located today. The studio established a name for itself with early classics by Sam & Dave, Led Zeppelin, Isaac Hayes, Leon Russell, and The Staples Singers, then scored hits in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s with such artists as James Taylor, ZZ Top, R.E.M., George Thorogood, The Allman Brothers, Bob Dylan, and Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan. The legacy continues in the new millennium with hits recorded by The White Stripes, 3 Doors Down, Cat Power, North Mississippi Allstars, The Raconteurs, and award-winning music for such films as Hustle and Flow and Black Snake Moan. To date, Ardent has amassed over 70 gold and platinum albums and singles.
Lil' Hardin Armstrong (1898-1971)
Lillian "Lil" Hardin Armstrong was a jazz pianist, composer, arranger, singer, and bandleader. She was the second wife of Louis Armstrong, with whom she collaborated on many recordings in the 1920s. Her compositions include "Struttin' with Some Barbecue," "Don't Jive Me," "Two Deuces," "Knee Drops," "Doin' the Suzie-Q," "Just for a Thrill" (which was a hit when revived by Ray Charles in 1959), "Clip Joint," and "Bad Boy" (a hit for Ringo Starr in 1978). Armstrong was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2014. She was born Lillian Hardin in Memphis, Tennessee, where she grew up in a household with her grandmother, Priscilla Martin, a formerly enslaved person from near Oxford, Mississippi. Hardin first received piano instruction from her third-grade teacher, Violet White. Her mother then enrolled her in Mrs. Hook's School of Music. At Fisk University, a college for African Americans in Nashville, she was taught a more acceptable approach to the instrument. She received a diploma from Fisk, returning to Memphis in 1917. In August 1918, she moved to Chicago with her mother and stepfather. By then, she had become proficient in reading music, a skill that helped her get a job as a sheet music demonstrator at Jones Music Store.
Earl 'The Pearl" Banks (1936- )
Note ceremony 8/3/2013. Veteran bluesman Earl "The Pearl" has played with various notables, including O.V. Wright, Albert King, Koko Taylor, and many more. He has played for over 50 years on Beale Street and truly connects the district to its musical heritage.
The Bar-Kays (formed 1964)
The Bar-Kays, which consisted of guitarist Jimmy King, trumpeter Ben Cauley, organist Ronnie Caldwell, saxophonist Phalon Jones, bassist James Alexander, and drummer Carl Cunningham, were formed in Memphis in 1968. The Bar-Kays caught the attention of Stax Records, which signed them in 1967. After serving as a backup band, the Bar-Kays released their own hit called "Soul Finger." Shortly after that, all the band members except James Alexander and Ben Cauley were tragically killed in the same plane crash that took the life of recording artist Otis Redding. Alexander reformed the Bar-Kays, which backed Isaac Hayes' hit "Hot Buttered Soul." The new group consisted of Alexander on bass, Willie Hall on drums, Winston Stewart on organ, Barry Wilkins and Vernon Burch on guitar, Harvey Henderson on the saxophone, and vocalist Larry Dodson. This group had some success and remained intact until 1988. A third ensemble was assembled in 1990 by Alexander and Dodson. Alexander's son is the award-winning rapper and record producer Phalon "Jazze Pha" Alexander, named after Phalon Jones.
Beale Street Flippers (formed 1988)
The Beale Street Flippers began with Rarecas Bonds. In 1988, Bonds made his way to Beale Street, where the excitement of Memphis in May sent him into a tumbling frenzy. After Bonds started receiving tip money for his flipping, he visited Beale Street daily. Scoring popularity and a cameo appearance in "The Firm," Bonds began encountering competition. Instead of battling his competition, Bonds asked the guys to join him. Over the years, they have performed at many national events, including NBA games and on TV's America's Got Talent.
Robert “Wolfman” Belfour (1940-2015)
He was an American blues musician - born in Red Banks, Mississippi. His father taught him the guitar at a young age, and he continued his tutelage in the blues from musicians Otha Turner, R. L. Burnside, and Junior Kimbrough. Kimbrough, in particular, had a profound influence on him. His music is deeply rooted in Mississippi Hill Country traditions, in contrast to those of delta blues. His playing is characterized by a profoundly percussive attack and alternate tunings. His father died when Belfour was thirteen, and his music was relegated to what free time he had, as his energy went to help his mother provide for the family. In 1959, he married Noreen Norman and moved to Memphis, Tennessee, where he would work in construction for the next 35 years. In the 1980s, Belfour began playing on Beale Street. In 1994, he had eight songs featured on David Evans's compilation album, The Spirit Lives On, Deep South Country Blues, and Spirituals in the 1990s, released by the German Hot Fox label. This led him to Fat Possum Records, and his first album, "What's Wrong With You," released in 2000.
William Bell (1939- )
Note ceremony 8/5/10. Born in Memphis, Bell began recording with Stax in 1961. A composer of dozens of songs, Bellco wrote "Born Under a Bad Sign" with Albert King and had a hit himself with "I Forgot to be Your Lover," which has been sampled by several artists since. In 1997, he received the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's R&B Pioneer Award.
Big Star (founded 1971)
Note ceremony 11/13/10. The pop power group produced three critically acclaimed albums and included Alex Chilton, Jody Stephens, Andy Hummel, and Chris Bell. An American garage band response to the British invasion, the complex harmonies, and thoughtful lyrics made the band a cult classic.
Bill Black (1926-1965)
Note ceremony 7/5/2014. Born in Memphis, Bill Black honed his skills playing cigar box guitar as a teen. After a stint in the Army during WWII, Black returned to Memphis and began performing as a bass fiddle player. He connected with Scotty Moore, and they played with several musicians around town. Sam Phillips asked them to back Elvis Presley for a recording session, resulting in "That's Alright Mama." Black toured with Elvis for a few years before leaving to find the Bill Black Combo. He opened a recording studio. The Combo was asked to tour with the Beatles in 1964, although Black was too ill to participate, and he passed away in 1965.
J. Blackfoot (born John Colbert; 1946-2011)
J. Blackfoot was an American soul singer. A member of The Soul Children in the late 1960s and 1970s, he subsequently had a moderately successful solo career. His biggest hit was "Taxi," which reached the US and UK charts in 1984. John Colbert was born in Greenville, Mississippi, and moved with his family as a child to Memphis, Tennessee. Generally known as "J." or "Jay," he acquired the nickname "Blackfoot" as a child for his habit of walking barefoot on the tarred sidewalks. In 1965, while spending some time at Tennessee State Penitentiary in Nashville for car theft, he met Johnny Bragg, the founder of The Prisonaires vocal group. After leaving prison, Colbert recorded a single under his own name for the small Sur-Speed label before returning to Memphis. There, David Porter of Stax Records heard him singing in a street-corner group. After the plane crash that claimed the lives of Otis Redding and four members of The Bar-Kays, Colbert joined the reconstituted group as lead singer. He performed with them for several months but did not record. In 1968, after Sam & Dave had moved from Stax to Atlantic Records, Porter and his songwriting and production partner Isaac Hayes decided to put together a new vocal group of two men and two women. They recruited Blackfoot, together with Norman West, Anita Louis, and Shelbra Bennett, to form The Soul Children. Between 1968 and 1978, The Soul Children had 15 hits on the R&B chart, including three that crossed over to the Billboard Hot 100, and recorded seven albums. The Soul Children disbanded in 1979. Blackfoot worked with bands in the Memphis area and recorded solo for the local Prime Cut label. In 1983, he began working again with writer and producer Homer Banks, with whom he had recorded with The Soul Children. He recorded "Taxi," a song originally written for Johnnie Taylor but not recorded by him. Blackfoot's record rose to no. 4 on the R&B chart and no. 90 on the pop chart, also reaching no. 48 in the UK. Colbert recorded several albums and had several more R&B hits on Banks' Sound Town label before moving to the Edge label formed by Al Bell in 1986. In 1987, he had another significant hit, "Tear Jerker," a duet with Ann Hines, reaching no. 28 on the R&B chart. He later moved to the Basix label, continuing to release albums into the new millennium. In 2007, Blackfoot and West reformed the Soul Children with Hines and fourth member Cassandra Graham. In 2010, Blackfoot appeared as part of David Porter's music revue.
The Blackwood Brothers (formed 1934)
The Blackwood Brothers are an American southern gospel quartet. Pioneers of the Christian music industry, they are 8-time Grammy Award winners in addition to winning 7 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards. They are also members of the Memphis Music Hall of Fame, the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, the Southern Gospel Museum, and Hall of Fame. The Blackwood Brothers Quartet was formed in 1934 amid the Great Depression when preacher Roy Blackwood (1900–71) moved his family back home to Choctaw County, Mississippi. His brothers, Doyle Blackwood (1911–74) and 15-year-old James Blackwood (1919–2002), already had some experience singing with Vardaman Ray and Gene Catledge. After adding Roy's 13-year-old son, R.W. Blackwood (1921–54), to sing baritone, the brothers began to travel and sing locally. By 1940, they were affiliated with the Stamps-Baxter Music Company to sell songbooks. They were appearing on the 50,000-watt radio station KMA (AM) in Shenandoah, Iowa. Doyle left in 1942 and was replaced by Don Smith. After Doyle left, The Quartet relocated to Memphis, Tennessee in 1950. The move proved to be successful for the group as they began to appear on television station WMCT in the coming years. In 1952, they signed a major recording contract with RCA Victor. After the move to Memphis, Roy left and was replaced by Calvin Newton, who was replaced with Cat Freeman. After Freeman left, Alden Toney was hired to sing tenor. In 1951, Alden Toney and Don Smith left and were replaced by Dan Huskey and Bill Lyles. In 1952, Dan Huskey left and was replaced by Bill Shaw. On June 14, 1954, the Blackwood Brothers lineup of Bill Shaw (tenor), James Blackwood (lead), R.W. Blackwood (baritone), Bill Lyles (bass), and Jackie Marshall (piano) won the Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts competition on national television with their rendition of "Have You Talked To The Man Upstairs?" The win propelled them into the national spotlight beyond just the Southern United States.
Bobby "Blue" Bland (1930-2013)
Robert Calvin Bland was born in 1930 in Rosemark, Tennessee. When he and his mother later moved to Memphis, Bland took his love for singing to Beale Street, where he met B.B. King and Johnny Ace and formed the Beale Streeters. When Bland came home from the Army in 1955, he saw that his former bandmates were becoming successful, so Bland quickly jumped back into the music scene and began recording with saxophonist Bill Harvey's band. His "It's My Life, Baby" recording was his first hit. It has been followed by the release of a steady string of classic blues standards supporting his long and successful career in the music industry. He received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997.
Barbara Blue (1937- )
Note ceremony 5/8/2015. From meeting Silky on the sidewalk and an impromptu audition to reigning keyboard queen of Beale after 18 years in Silky O'Sullivan, Barbara is an amazing entertainer.
Booker T. and the M.G.'s (formed 1962)
Booker T. & the M.G.'s is an instrumental R&B/funk band that influenced the sound of Southern soul and Memphis soul. The original members of the group were Booker T. Jones (organ, piano), Steve Cropper(guitar), Lewie Steinberg (bass), and Al Jackson Jr. (drums). In the 1960s, as members of the house band of Stax Records, they played on hundreds of recordings by artists such as Wilson Pickett, Otis Redding, Bill Withers, Sam & Dave, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, and Albert King. They also released instrumental records under their own name, best known as the 1962 hit single "Green Onions." As originators of the unique Stax sound, the group was one of its era's most prolific, respected, and imitated. By the mid-1960s, bands on both sides of the Atlantic were trying to sound like Booker T. & the M.G.'s. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992, the Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2008, and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2012.
Dennis Brooks (1950-2009)
Note ceremony 2/3/11. Brooks was one of the key figures behind the Beale Street Blues Society, a longtime member of The Blues Foundation, a frequent judge for the International Blues Competition, and a board member of the Arkansas Blues Trail Marker Association. He also served as a concert promoter, manager, and booking agent for several popular Memphis blues artist artists, including Billy Gibson, Blind Mississippi Morris, and the late Sean Costello, among others.
The Blues Brothers (formed 1978)
When comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi teamed up to create a Saturday Night Live skit by singing the blues in 1978, they had no idea their performance would become so popular. Not only was much of the music from Memphis, but the band they assembled for the subsequent 1980 film had direct Memphis roots, featuring Stax greats Steve Cropper on guitar and Donald "Duck" Dunn on bass. The movie, two albums, and a sequel renewed interest in Memphis music.
Rev. W. Herbert Brewster (1897-1987)
William Herbert Brewster was born in Somerville, Tennessee, on July 2, 1897. After graduating from Roger Williams College in Nashville in 1922, Brewster settled in Memphis, where he became the minister of East Trigg Avenue Baptist Church. Reverend Brewster wrote over 200 compositions, including Mahalia Jackson's first hit in 1948, "Move On Up A Little Higher," and The Ward Singers hit "Surely, God Is Able." These songs credited Brewster with the first million-selling black gospel records. Brewster is also known for his African-American religious dramas, including "Sowing in Tears, Reaping in Joy," for which he was honored by the Smithsonian Institution in 1982. In February 2007, the Memphis City Schools posthumously honored Brewster, naming the new school in the Binghamton community Dr. William Herbert Brewster Elementary School.
Jeremiah Buckley (1922-2003)
Known as "The Admiral," Buckley was an Ambassador for Beale Street, bringing in dignitaries and hosting events often in the company of Silky Sullivan and Maynard the Goat. Born in Jackson Heights, New York, Buckley worked for 45 years as a cosmetics salesman. Faberge, his employer, relocated him to Memphis, where he quickly became involved in the community. He served on the Liberty Bowl board for 11 years, often going to cities dressed as the mascots of their participating teams to drum up fan trips to Memphis. In later years, he was known as "The Irish Admiral," chief promoter for Silky O'Sullivan's, and an enthusiastic ambassador of Beale Street.
R.L. Burnside (1926-2006)
R. L. Burnside was born near Oxford, Mississippi, and grew up a sharecropper in Marshall County. Moving to Chicago to escape that system, he found more misery there when his brother and uncle were both murdered within the span of one month. He returned to Mississippi in 1959, where he farmed during the week and played music on the weekends. He was influenced by John Lee Hooker and "Mississippi" Fred McDowell. Burnside made his first record in 1967 and spent the 1970s and 1980s playing with his family band, Sound Machine. Burnside became famous after being featured in a 1990s documentary based on Robert Palmer's book, Deep Blues.
Lucie Campbell 1885-1962)
Born in 1885, Lucie Eddie Campbell moved to Memphis with her mother and eight siblings. Receiving her first piano lessons at home, she attended school to earn her teaching degree. Lucie continued her education to receive her master's at Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial State College. Upon her graduation, Campbell organized the "Music Club" on Beale Street, and in 1919, Lucie published her first song. She went on to publish more than a hundred songs, including "The Lord Is My Shepherd," "Heavenly Sunshine,"" The King's Highway," "Touch Me Lord Jesus," and "He Understands, He'll Say Well Done."
Gus Cannon & Cannon's Jug Stompers (1883-1979)
Born in Redbanks, Mississippi, Cannon moved to Clarksdale at a young age, where he fashioned a banjo out of an old bread pan and a discarded broken guitar neck. After touring the region on the medicine show circuit, Cannon joined the Memphis Jug Band, and later, he formed his own jug band, Cannon's Jug Stompers. He composed the song "Walk Right In" in 1913. It was revived and made a hit for a group called the Rooftop Singers in 1963, which brought him some fame but hardly any money. He made several recordings in the 1920s and recorded an album for Stax in 1963.
Sandy Carroll
Note ceremony 10/28/10. Longtime Beale singer Carroll was also a partner in Lafayette's Corner and a talented songwriter. In 1989, Albert King recorded Sandy's, 'If You Got It,' which appeared on his final studio album, "Red House." She then started writing songs for her own full-length debut album, "Southern Woman," released in 1993.
Johnny Cash (1932-2003)
Johnny Cash grew up in the Dyess Colony in northeast Arkansas. His love for music began in the cotton fields, where his family sang while they worked. When Cash was discharged from the Air Force in 1954, he moved to Memphis and auditioned for Sam Phillips' Sun Records. The second single he produced at Sun made it to the Billboard Top 20. In 1956, Cash was invited to perform on the Grand Ole Opry, and in 1957, he switched to Columbia Records in search of more artistic freedom. Cash continued to release chart-making hits and made appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show and The Tonight Show. He also had his own weekly show on ABC. In addition to his successful solo career, he's also noted for a number of high-profile musical collaborations with artists such as Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson (as The Highwaymen); Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins (to create the album Class of '55); as well as Nine Inch Nails and others. His life was brought to the big screen in the 2005 film "Walk the Line."
Ben Cauley (1947-2015)
Ben Cauley was an American trumpet player, vocalist, songwriter, and founding member of the Stax recording group, The Bar-Kays. He was the only survivor of the 1967 plane crash that claimed the lives of soul singer Otis Redding and four members of the Bar-Kays.
Bud Chittom (1951-2018)
Bud Chittom opened about fifty restaurants in Memphis, including Blues City Cafe. Chittom was a veteran in the restaurant industry. During his career, he won the F&B contract for Beale Street Landing. His brass note on Beale Street calls him "a man you don't meet every day."
Joyce Cobb (1945- )
Born in Oklahoma and raised in Nashville, Cobb sang in her grandmother's church. Joyce Cobb signed with a Stax Records subsidiary and later worked with RCA Records. Cobb has released dozens of songs, including "Dig The Gold," which made it to the Top 40 charts. She has also opened for bands like The Temptations, Muddy Waters, and Al Jarreau, toured Europe, and performed with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Joyce also starred in local productions of Ain't Misbehavin' and Beale Street Saturday Night. In the early 1990s, she had her own club on Beale Street. In 2004 and 2006, Joyce received rave reviews and was nominated for Ostrander Awards for her performance in Theatre Memphis' one-woman musical plays Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill and The Devil's Music: The Life and Times of Bessie Smith.
George Coleman (1935- )
Born in Memphis, Coleman learned to play sax in his teens. His schoolmates included Harold Mabern, Frank Strozier, Hank Crawford, and Charles Lloyd. Coleman worked with Ray Charles, BB King, Max Roach, Slide Hampton, Miles Davis, Lionel Hampton, Chet Baker, Charles Mingus, Ahmad Jamal, and more. And he continues playing today.
James Cotton (1935-2017)
James Cotton was born in Tunica, Mississippi, in 1935. Cotton grew up working in the cotton fields with his mother. As a child, he would listen to his mother play the harmonica and later heard harmonica played on the radio station KFFA by the star of KFFA's radio show King Biscuit Time, Sonny Boy Williamson. Williamson became his mentor, taking Cotton to play at juke joints. When Williamson moved to Milwaukee, Cotton moved to Memphis. He later teamed with Howlin' Wolf. At age fifteen, Cotton released four songs at Sun Records. Cotton then played with Muddy Waters for twelve years. In 1958, Cotton began to record at Chess Records, where he and Muddy released "Sugar Sweet" and "Close To You." Cotton received many nominations and was a Grammy award-winning blues artist.
Hank Crawford (1934-2009)
Bennie Ross "Hank" Crawford, Jr. was born in 1934 in Memphis, Tennessee. Crawford began to study the piano at age nine, but the saxophone soon became his instrument of choice. After playing in early recordings for B.B. King, Crawford went to college at Tennessee State University, majoring in music theory and composition. Crawford played in the Tennessee State Jazz Collegians and his rock 'n' roll quartet, "Little Hank and the Rhythm Kings." While playing in his quartet, he met Ray Charles and was invited to join his band, first playing baritone sax and then alto. In 1963, Crawford became Charles' musical director, as well. Crawford left Ray Charles to form his septet and spend time as an arranger, soloist, and composer. He wrote for such notables as Jimmy McGriff and Dr. John and also found time to cut several albums of his own.
Steve Cropper (1941- )
Stephen Lee Cropper was born October 21, 1941, in Willow Springs, Missouri, and his family moved to Memphis in 1950. At age fourteen, Cropper received a guitar, which he mastered by playing with local bands. Cropper and friends formed The Royal Spades (later renamed The Mar-Keys), which released their first hit single, "Last Night," in 1961 through Stax Records. Cropper soon began to play guitar in Booker T. & the M.G.'s and co-wrote many hit singles with other artists. He also played on Ringo Starr's 1973 album. Cropper and Donald "Duck" Dunn went on to become members of Levon Helm's RCO All-Stars before joining The Blues Brothers Band. He has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
B. B. Cunningham (1942-2012)
Note ceremony 5/29/2013. B.B. Cunningham was a bass player with Jerry Lee Lewis, guitarist with The Hombres, and recording engineer. From trading riffs with future Mar-Kays to recording "Let It All Hang Out" to engineering studio sessions, the versatile Cunningham made an indelible mark on Memphis music from his teen years at Messick until his tragic death in 2012.
The Dempseys (founded 1994; disbanded 2009)
Note ceremony 8/12/2014. Brad Birkedahl, Joe Fick, and Ron Perrone Jr. were high school friends in Tacoma, WA. They formed the band in 1994 while still in high school. Brad, an Elvis fan as a kid, was a member of the Elvis Chicago Style Fan Club. He mailed them a demo tape of the band performing some Elvis songs. The guys were shocked when the fan club asked them to open for Carl Perkins at a Memphis show in 1996.
A Graceland executive saw them and asked them to perform at the grand opening of Elvis Presley's Memphis on Beale Street in 1997 and later asked them to serve as the house band at the new nightclub, so they moved to Memphis in early 1998 and played 5-6 nights a week at the new nightclub, from 1998-2003. The Dempseys built an international reputation for high-quality, high-octane, authentic rockabilly, playing festivals around the country, casinos, private events, and other nightclubs around the region.
When Elvis Presley's Memphis closed in 2003, the band moved a half-block east to Blues City Café. They played there 4-5 nights a week from 2003-2009.
Jim Dickinson (1941-2009)
Note ceremony 3/4/11. Dickinson built a worldwide reputation as a session player for the likes of Dylan and The Rolling Stones, a producer for influential groups including Big Star and The Replacements, a sometime solo artist, and the patriarch of a small musical dynasty through his sons, Cody and Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars. Dickinson's reach and impact on Memphis music over the last four decades is significant; perhaps more than anyone, he was uniquely connected to the city's historic past and its present.
O'Landa Draper (1963-1998)
O'Landa Draper's family settled in Memphis when he was thirteen years old. Draper's mother was a gospel promoter and recording artist. Draper wrote his own gospel songs in high school, and at Memphis State University, he was credited with forming a mass choir called The Associates. The Associates performed with musicians such as Shirley Caesar, The Winans, and many others. They had just begun to record for Word/Epic at the time of his death due to kidney failure.
Little Laura Dukes (1907-1992)
Note Ceremony 2013. Her father, a Memphis musician and associate of W.C. Handy, had her on stage at age five. Performing was in her blood, and she began as a dancer. She later learned the guitar from Robert Nighthawk in St. Louis in 1933. Soon, she switched to the banjo-ukulele and then ukulele, which was more suitable to her 4'7", 85-pound stature. She performed throughout her lifetime and was a fixture at Blues Alley well into the 1980s.
John Elkington (1949- )
Note ceremony 9/27/10. A redeveloper of Beale Street, Elkington took the two blocks of boarded-up buildings between Second and Fourth and created a premier entertainment district in 1983, which now attracts thousands of tourists and employs many musicians. John initiated the Brass Note Walk of Fame in 1986.
Sleepy John Estes (1904-1977)
Note ceremony 11/14/10. From Ripley, TN, Estes grew up in Brownsville, TN, and played guitar with a distinctive vocal accompaniment. He first recorded in Memphis in 1929 and made several sides over the next decade.
Tom Ferguson (1932-2013)
A key part of the University of Memphis Basketball tradition is the University's Pep Band. This band was established by the late Dr. Tom Ferguson during his tenure as director of bands from 1962 to 1974. "In 1963, when the Tigers were invited to the NIT, Dr. Ferguson took 40 Band members to support the basketball team. Nicknamed 'The Mighty Sound of the South,' they became the first such band to perform at the NIT tournament and are believed to be the first to perform at Madison Square Gardens," said David Bradford, board member of the Mid-South Jazz Foundation and member of the Brass Note Committee. Tiger Fans should also be aware that Dr. Ferguson wrote the Tigers Fight song and established the University's Jazz Studies Program.
Eddie Floyd (1937- )
Eddie Floyd is an American soul/R&B singer and songwriter best known for his work on the Stax record label in the 1960s and 1970s, including the #1 R&B hit song "Knock on Wood."
DJ Fontana (1931-2018)
Dominic Joseph Fontana was an American musician best known as the drummer for Elvis Presley for 14 years. In 1955, he was hired to play drums for Presley, which marked the beginning of a 15-year relationship. He played on over 460 RCA cuts with Elvis.
Fred Ford/ Honeymoon Garner Trio
Ford (1930-1999), Garner (1931-2002), Tyus (1938-1995)
Serving as the house jazz trio at the Peabody Hotel for many years, The Fred Ford/Honeymoon Garner Trio were very talented players, both individually and as a group. Fred Ford graduated from Douglass High School in the 1940s and began playing baritone sax with Onzie Horne's big band. Ford's amazing versatility brought him to play with performers as varied as Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Little Richard, Alex Chilton, Big Mama Thornton, and Charlie Rich. Robert "Honeymoon" Garner was a graduate of Manassas High School. He played piano and sang professionally at age 15 and later switched to organ. He was a DJ on WDIA from 1956 to 1968 and later worked as a jingle singer at the William B. Tanner Company. He played with Phineas Newborn, Jr., Bill Harvey, Onzie Horne, and many others. Later in his career, he was the announcer for a 13-part Public Radio International series entitled Memphis: Cradle of Rock' n' Soul. Bill Tyus was more than a great drummer; he was a true percussionist. Like Garner, Bill Tyus was a graduate of Douglass High School. Tyus majored in music at the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff and came back to the area as band director at Munford High School. Tyus played in Emerson Able's band Maestros Incorporated before becoming part of the Fred Ford/Honeymoon Garner Trio.
Aretha Franklin (1942-2018)
Aretha Franklin was an American singer, songwriter, actress, pianist, and civil rights activist. Franklin began her career as a child singing Gospel at New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, where her father, C. L. Franklin, was a minister. At the age of 18, she embarked on a secular music career as a recording artist for Columbia Records. While Franklin's career did not immediately flourish, she found acclaim and commercial success after signing with Atlantic Records in 1966. Hit songs such as "I Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You)," "Respect," "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman," "Chain of Fools," "Think," and "I Say a Little Prayer" propelled her past her musical peers. By the end of the 1960s, Aretha Franklin had come to be known as the "Queen of Soul." Franklin recorded 112 charted singles on Billboard, including 77 Hot 100 entries, 17 top-ten pop singles, 100 R&B entries, and 20 number-one R&B singles. Besides the foregoing, Franklin's well-known hits also include "Ain't No Way," "Call Me," "Don't Play That Song (You Lied)," "Spanish Harlem," "Rock Steady," "Day Dreaming," "Until You Come Back to Me (That's What I'm Gonna Do)," "Something He Can Feel," "Jump to It," "Freeway of Love," "Who's Zoomin' Who", and "I Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)" (a duet with George Michael). She won 18 Grammy Awards, including the first eight awards given for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance (1968–1975). Franklin is one of the best-selling music artists of all time, having sold more than 75 million records worldwide. Franklin received numerous honors throughout her career. She was awarded the National Medal of Arts and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 1987, she became the first female performer to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She also was inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005 and into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 2012. In 2010, Rolling Stone magazine ranked her number one on its list of the "100 Greatest Singers of All Time" and number nine on its list of "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". The Pulitzer Prize jury in 2019 awarded Franklin a posthumous special citation "for her indelible contribution to American music and culture for more than five decades."
FreeWorld (founded on Beale Street in 1987).
Note ceremony 10/6/2012. FreeWorld is an ever-evolving Memphis musical ensemble that celebrated its 35th anniversary of playing up and down Beale Street - and in particular every Sunday night at Blues City Cafe - in 2022. Heavily influenced by the breadth and depth of their Memphis musical heritage, FreeWorld has remained a consistently entertaining and informed voice on the Memphis music scene since the group's inception. Led by Richard Cushing and Dr. Herman Green, FreeWorld has also served as a "music school" of sorts, mentoring hundreds of young musicians up through their ranks over the decades.
John Fry (1944-2014)
Note ceremony 2014. He gave Memphis recording a new era with Ardent and recorded great talents, including REM, ZZ Top, Led Zeppelin, Gin Blossoms, and many more. He also nurtured local talent such as Big Star and brought together talented producers and engineers such as Terry Manning, Jim Gaines, and Jim Dickinson. He was involved in many aspects of the music industry, supporting programs such as NARAS, the Visible School, and the University of Memphis.
Jim Gaines (1955- )
Note ceremony 10/28/10. Gaines recorded Huey Lewis & the News' demo that resulted in his first album and produced the group's first four albums. Since then, Grammy-winning Gaines has recorded a diverse array of blues artists, from Sandy Carroll and Ana Popovic to Stevie Ray Vaughn and Luther Allison.
Eric Gales (1974- )
Also known as Raw Dawg, Eric Gales is an American blues-rock guitarist who was once hailed as a child prodigy. As of 2019, Gales has recorded eighteen albums for major record labels and has done session and tribute work. He has also contributed vocals on several records by the Memphis rap groups Prophet Posse and Three 6 Mafia under the name Lil E. Gales picked up the guitar at age four. His older siblings, Eugene and Manuel (Little Jimmy King), taught him songs and licks when he was young, in the style of Jimi Hendrix, Albert King, B.B. King, and others. In 1985, the young Gales began to play at blues competitions, with his brother Eugene backing him on bass. Although Gales plays a right-handed guitar "upside-down" (with the bass E string on the bottom), he is not naturally left-handed; he was taught by his brother, who is left-handed and never second-guessed the untraditional technique. In 1994, Gales performed with Carlos Santana at Woodstock '94. In 1995, Gales teamed up with both of his brothers to record an album, Left Hand Brand (released in 1996), as the Gales Brothers. In 2001, Gales released his album That's What I Am on MCA Records. In February 2013, Magna Carta Records released the album Pinnick Gales Pridgen, produced by Mike Varney and featuring Gales on guitar and vocals, Doug Pinnick on bass and vocals, and Thomas Pridgen on drums. The 13-track album featured one cover song, "Sunshine of Your Love," originally by Cream, one short instrumental based on Ludwig van Beethoven's "Für Elise," and the remaining songs written by some combination of Pinnick, Gales, Pridgen, and Varney. The follow-up album, PGP2, was released in July 2014. In 2017, Gales released his fifteenth studio effort, Middle of the Road, featuring numerous artists, including Gary Clark Jr., Lauryn Hill, and others, as well as his own brother and mother. The album became his first to chart on Billboard's Top Blues Album chart, peaking at No. 4, and Gales' next album, The Bookends, topped the chart at No. 1. On May 9, 2019, he won the Blues Music Award for 'Blues Rock Artist of the Year.' In his acceptance speech, he said he was celebrating three years of sobriety. In May 2020, Gales won his second consecutive Blues Music Award as the 'Blues Rock Artist of the Year.'
The Gentrys
Note ceremony 9/7/12. Memphis pop stars of the 1960s, the band which included Jimmy Hart, Larry Raspberry, and others, had a big hit with "Keep On Dancin'."
Mike Glenn
Note ceremony 12/18/10. Longtime music promoter and operator of the New Daisy Theater, Mike has deep roots in downtown and Beale Street. He has discovered and nurtured talent regionally while bringing national acts to the Memphis audience.
Lillie Mae Glover aka Ma Rainey II (1906-1985)
Born in Columbia, Tennessee, in 1906, Lillie Mae Hardison moved with her family to Nashville as a young child. At age fourteen, Lillie Mae ran off to join a traveling medicine show, hoping to spark a career as a singer. She married a preacher named Willie Glover, and they settled in Memphis in the 1920s. Known by many pseudonyms, including "Big Memphis Ma Rainey," she was a fixture of Beale Street until urban renewal stalled the nightlife. She came out of retirement in the mid-1970s, singing locally and with the traveling Memphis Blues Caravan. She recorded an album entitled Memories of Beale Street: Prince Gabe and the Millionaires with the Original Memphis Sound. Glover's pace was slowed a bit after she had heart surgery, but she kept performing until her death in 1985.
Ray Glover (1954- )
A 1984 semi-final winner of the West Tennessee Metropolitan Opera auditions alongside Kallen Esperian, Glover now lends his baritone voice to jazz standards in cabaret settings and larger venues. He served as the first artist in residence for the Memphis Arts Council. He has performed with the Memphis Symphony, Memphis Slim, Carla Thomas, Rufus Thomas, and many others throughout the United States and 19 additional countries. Equally adept at accompanying himself on piano or bass guitar, the smooth voice of Memphian Ray Glover currently captivates audiences at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
Harry Godwin (1907-1986)
Born in New Jersey, Harry Godwin grew up in Virginia and Chicago, where he saw Louis Armstrong, Kid Ory, Baby Dodds, King Oliver, and other early jazz greats. He moved to Memphis in the early 1950s. Knowing of his love for and connection to jazz and blues, he was asked to help pull together a lineup for the Cotton Carnival. Later versions became the Memphis Jazz & Blues Festival. His first show featured Furry Lewis, Gus Cannon, Little Laura Dukes, Bukka White, and more. From that point on, he worked his day job as a manufacturer's rep, mainly to support his family and his love of music history. He collected stories, memorabilia, and taped interviews. He also wrote a few songs. For a time, he served as manager for Memphis Slim. He had a weekly radio show on WLYX (Rhodes College). His avocation made him a resource for researchers and a treasure for the city.
Rosco Gordon (1934-2002)
Note ceremony 2/2/11. Born in Memphis, Gordon played piano in a unique boogie-woogie style with unusual rhythms and beats in the 1940s and 1950s. He was part of an informal group known as the Beale Streeters, which included Johnny Ace and Bobby "Blue" Bland. Gordon began recording with Sam Phillips in 1951 and had several successful records over the next decade. He moved to New York in the early 1960s, where his music career dwindled, and he pursued other business interests. He began performing again in the mid-1980s and was featured in a 2002 documentary, which was made in conjunction with that year's W.C. Handy Blues Music Awards. He died six weeks later.
James Govan (1949-2014)
James Govan was born in McComb, Mississippi, in 1949 and started playing guitar at age 13. Govan began performing vocals and percussion on Beale Street in 1989 and has served as the frontman for the Boogie Blues Band at the Rum Boogie Café since 1994. From 1993 to 1997, Govan performed a tribute to Otis Redding at the Porretta Soul Festival in Italy.
Al Green (1946- )
Albert Greene was born in Forrest City, Arkansas, and began performing at age ten in the family quartet, the Green Brothers. The group toured extensively throughout the South in the 1950s until his family moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan. In 1967, he formed a new group called Al Greene & the Soul Mates, and the single "Back Up Train" was released on Hot Line Music. Greene became Green when he signed with Willie Mitchell's Hi Records in 1969. A string of hits came from the Hi years until Green focused his attention on becoming pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis in 1976. Since that time, he has appeared on Broadway, written a book, produced more music with Mitchell, and won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Dr. Herman Green (1930-2020)
Dr. Green began his musical career playing on Beale Street with the Newborn family in 1945. Returning to Memphis from a stint in the military in 1955, Green had a layover in San Francisco and became immersed in the music scene there. He stayed in San Francisco and became the bandleader for a club called The Blackhawk. From 1955 to 1957, Herman played with artists such as Cannonball Adderley, Miles Davis, Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane, and the Modern Jazz Quartet. After meeting Lionel Hampton, Herman was offered a job playing with his band. Herman stayed with Hampton's band for eight years before returning home to Memphis, where he then directed the jazz studies program at LeMoyne-Owen College for a number of years. Green played with many groups around Memphis over the years, perhaps his longest tenure being with FreeWorld, a Beale Street fixture.
Mickey Gregory (1938- )
Note ceremony 5/18/2015. Mickey Gregory was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He attended Manassas and studied music under the direction of Onzie Horne. He has played in backup bands for Willie Mitchell's Hi-Recording, Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers, Rufus Thomas, OV Wright commemorative concert band, and Stax studio band. Mickey toured internationally as a member of the Isaac Hayes Movement. Mickey Gregory is the recipient of numerous music awards, including the 2002 recipient of the Memphis Handy Awards. Presently, he is part of the Early Grove Baptist Church Music Department and a member of Elmo and the Shades.
Jimmy Griffin (1943-2005)
Note ceremony 10/20/10. A graduate of Kingsbury High School, Griffin was a co-founder of the pop-soft rock band Bread. Bread had 10 singles in Billboard's top 20. He attended high school and later worked with Dorsey and Johnny Burnette. He had small roles in two films, "For Those Who Think Young" and Frank Sinatra's "None But the Brave". He was a prolific songwriter and won an Oscar for co-writing "For All We Know," a song from the movie Lovers and Other Strangers. Griffin lived and recorded at Shoe Studio in Memphis. He recorded originally for Reprise, then went on to Imperial, Viva, Elektra, Polydor, and BNA, as well as on the Shoe label over a more than 40-year career.
Peter Guralnick (1943- )
Peter Guralnick is an American music critic, author, and screenwriter. Specializing in early Rock 'n' Roll, Blues, and soul music, Guralnick has published work highlighting the careers of Elvis Presley, Sam Phillips, and Sam Cooke.
After receiving a master's degree in creative writing from Boston University, Peter Guralnick began writing about music. Guralnick's writing is characterized by its colloquial approach, and he has been called the "Dean of Rock' n' Roll Storytellers." In addition to his many books, Guralnick has written for Living Blues and Rolling Stone. In 1994, he won a Grammy for his liner notes in Sam Cooke: Live at the Harlem Square Club. Guralnick also wrote the scripts for Grammy-winning documentary Sam Cooke: Legend and Martin Scorsese's Feel Like Going Home.
John Hampton (1953-2014)
John Hampton was a Grammy Award-winning producer and engineer at the famous Ardent Studios. Over the course of a 40-year career, Hampton collaborated with some of music's most celebrated acts. He mixed records for all three of Jack White's bands, specifically The White Stripes Get Behind Me Satan, The Dead Weather's Sea of Cowards, and The Raconteurs' "Broken Boy Soldiers" and "Hands." He also engineered a pair of archival records for The Replacements and recorded with John Hiatt, Alex Chilton, The Cramps, The Afghan Whigs, and Jimmie Vaughn. For his efforts, Hampton earned two Grammy Awards.
W.C. Handy (1873-1958)
William Christopher Handy was born in Florence, Alabama, in 1873. Growing up, he received lessons on the cornet in the local barbershop. Handy was teaching school by age nineteen but left for a high-paying job at a factory in Bessemer, Alabama. Wishing to rekindle his flame with music, he organized a quartet that performed at the Chicago World's Fair and toured for a short time afterward. Later, Handy joined Mahara's Minstrels playing the cornet. Handy formed his own marching band in 1902, which combined various elements from popular dance music and performed for both white and black audiences alike. Touring and traveling, he heard and recalled music made by rural people. He particularly recalled the strange-sounding music he heard a man playing at a train station in Tutwiler, Mississippi: The Blues. Handy received his first big break when his band was asked to play for Memphis political boss Edward H. Crump. Handy's band had a song called "Mr. Crump." The title was later changed to "The Memphis Blues," which was the first blues ballad Handy ever wrote and arguably the first blues ballad in history. After publishing the song himself in 1912, "The Memphis Blues" became popular all over the United States. Handy went on to open up a Memphis-based music publishing firm and, in 1917, moved the company to New York City.
Bob Harding (1946-2013)
Bob Harding was a long-time operator of the famed Beale Street retail shop Tater Red's Lucky Mojos & Black Diamond. Bob was deeply committed to seeing the overall success of the revitalization of the Beale Street Historic District.
Isaac Hayes (1942-2008)
Isaac Hayes was born in 1942 in Covington, Tennessee, and was raised by his maternal grandparents. He and his family moved to Memphis, where he discovered a talent for performing during high school. Later, he got a job as a pianist at the Plantation Inn in West Memphis, Arkansas. Because bandleader Floyd Newman also worked for Stax Records, Hayes was given his first co-writing gig in 1963 as a session man at Stax Records. Hayes and lyricist David Porter soon became a notable songwriting team at Stax. Hayes released his first album, "Introducing Isaac Hayes," in 1967 but did not gain a following until his "Hot Buttered Soul" album made the pop and R&B charts in 1969. From 1969 to 1975, Hayes released a string of Top Twenty albums. Hayes' Oscar-winning hit, "Theme from 'Shaft'" topped the charts for two weeks in 1971, and he made his television debut in Wattstax, a concert film featuring Stax artists. Isaac Hayes also served as the voice of "Chef" on Comedy Central's South Park until his death on August 10, 2008.
Hi Rhythm Section (founded late 1960s)
The Hi Rhythm Section was the house band for Willie Mitchell's Hi Records label in the 1970s and recorded many successful soul albums with artists including Al Green and Ann Peebles. Mitchell initially organized the band at his Royal Recording Studio during the late 60s. Members of the group include brothers Mabon "Teenie" Hodges on guitar, Leroy Hodges on bass, and Charles Hodges on keyboards, with Al Jackson, Jr. or Howard Grimes on drums.
Clyde Hopkins (1921-2017)
Clyde Hopkins was a member of W.C. Handy's Orchestra and grew up in a roadhouse operated by his mother in Tunica, Mississippi. After leaving the Handy organization, he started his own band. In 1965, Hopkins bought Johnnie Currie's Club Tropicana in North Memphis and renamed it El Morocco. He kept a talented house band, including, over the years, Dr. Herman Green, Emerson Able, Floyd Newman, and many other noteworthy musicians. El Morocco also attracted big-name traveling R&B acts. After leaving the club business, he continued to perform with large and small groups locally and on tour. He still continues to play and record.
Dawn Hopkins
Dawn worked out of Sounds Unreel Studio for 16 years. Within that time, she was privileged to work with great producers Don C. Smith, Jim Dickinson, Jim Gaines, David Z, and Jack Holder, just to name a few. She also became a producer herself. She engineered sessions for local and touring artists, such as Jimmy Davis, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Reba Russell, Eden Brent, and Jimmy Thackery. Dawn did what she calls "a ten-year tour of Beale Street" in the 1990s. She landed the house gig at B.B. King's Blues Club, where she was fortunate to work with the likes of The King, himself, Albert Collins, Luther Allison, and many more blues and R&B legends. The tour continued down the street to The Black Diamond, where she continued to mix great blues acts from Memphis and around the country. Dawn also toured with the late Isaac Hayes for 6 years as stage manager, monitor engineer, and later, road manager, and basically anything "Boss" needed to be done. She is now the house engineer for the newly renovated Levitt Shell in Memphis. Dawn Hopkins has managed to surround herself with some of the best talent in the world. She is the co-owner, co-producer, and engineer for BEB Productions, which has proudly produced 8 records for The Reba Russell Band. Dawn also co-produced and engineered the Blues Music Award-winning album "Mississippi Number 1" with Eden Brent. She continues to record for the syndicated radio show, "Beale St. Caravan," and The Blues Foundation still makes records and loves to mix a great live show. Dawn Hopkins respectfully borrows a quote from the late, great Willie Mitchell, "I'll get your sound!"
Onzie Horne Sr. (1924-1973)
Onzie Horne was an arranger and a band leader with the versatility to lead high school groups at Woodstock and Manassas High Schools, as well as play with stars ranging from Lionel Hampton to Ma Rainey II. He also arranged music for B.B. King and Al Jackson. For the last two and half years of his life, he was the arranger and bandleader for Isaac Hayes.
Maurice Hulbert Sr. (1896-1984)
Maurice "Fess" Hulbert Sr. was born on July 17, 1896. Racism was very heavy in the South, and Mr.Hulbert had to overcome a mountain of obstacles to get to the point where he was known for his volunteerism, philanthropy, and charitable work within the community. Maurice Hulbert Sr. made a strong impact in the history of Memphis, especially on Beale Street and within Black Memphis. Mr. Hulbert was considered an elegant & elite dancer who opened the first black dancing studio in Memphis. He also owned successful restaurants and nightclubs, including the Flamingo, the Manhattan, and the Harlem House. One of his best-known musical contributions was his music group combo and band known as Hulbert's Lo-Down Houns, where he was the bandleader and a musician. Coming from humble beginnings, his travels and business entertainment connections allowed him the opportunity to invite and book talents such as Ethel Waters, Duke Ellington, and black baseball teams. His charitable contributions allowed him the opportunity to support and fund community projects such as the Robert R. Elks Lodge No. 1477. In 1951, at the 14th Annual Blues Bowl game, he was crowned king. W.C. Handy also attended the 14th Annual Blues Bowl. Maurice Hulbert Sr. also owned Hulbert's Printing Company, which gave business owners, especially African Americans, the opportunity to print their business materials. Mr. Hulbert's printing shop was located in the heart of one of the African-American communities close to Beale Street.
George Hunt (1940-2020)
George Hunt was born more than 60 years ago of humble beginnings, and over a lifetime of living, learning, watching, growing, creating and translating his visions into paintings, he has emerged as one of the most important African-American artists in the South. George Hunt has made a significant mark on not just African-American art but American art as a whole. Memphis artist George Hunt was born in rural Louisiana, near Lake Charles, and his grandmother noted early in life that he had a special power to "see things." In addition to large doses of indigenous music, one of the things he saw was the civil rights movement and that experience became a painting in 1997, which in turn, became a US Postage Stamp issued in 2005 as part of the United States Postal Service series, "To Form A More Perfect Nation." George Hunt was honored for his painting, "America Cares/Little Rock Nine" at ceremonies in Little Rock and Memphis. The painting was originally commissioned for the Central High School Museum but first spent five years hanging in the White House in Washington, D.C. First Lady Hillary Clinton, in a personal note to Mr. Hunt, wrote, "We are grateful that our visitors and staff have such a powerful image of hope and freedom to greet, inspire and inform them."Alberta Hunter (1895-1984)
Alberta Hunter was born in 1895 in Memphis but left for Chicago as a teenager, where she peeled potatoes and worked hard to get her foot in the door with local club owners. Hunter got her first break in 1917 when she landed a five-year association with the Dreamland ballroom. Her career skyrocketed in the 1920s as she made regular appearances in clubs and on stage in musicals in New York, Paris, and London. She wrote several songs, including the critically acclaimed "Downhearted Blues." In 1928, Hunter played Queenie in the first London production of Show Boat. After her mother's death in 1954, Hunter sought a career change, which led her to the medical profession. Hunter was working at a New York hospital in 1961 when a record producer approached her about taking a break from nursing to record again. In 1978, after retiring from the hospital, Hunter agreed to a two-week gig at the Greenwich Village Club. The gig served as a major comeback for Hunter and caught the attention of Columbia Records. She performed until shortly before her death in October 1984.
Cordell Jackson (1923-2004)
Cordell Jackson was born in Pontotoc, Mississippi, in 1923 and grew up playing music with encouragement from her father. At age twelve, she was performing on the guitar, piano, and upright bass in her father's band and appeared on her father's radio show in Tupelo, Mississippi. She later added the mandolin, banjo, and harmonica to her repertoire. Of all the instruments she played, Cordell was most noted for the electric guitar. After marrying William Jackson in 1943, she settled in Memphis, where she set up equipment in her living room and began to record demos and send them to Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records. Unable to break into the Sun Records label's stable of male artists, Jackson created Moon Records in 1956 to record her own single, "Beboppers Christmas," which led her to release additional rockabilly singles by other small bands and is widely thought to be the first woman to produce, engineer, arrange and promote music on her own rock and roll music label. Though she never stopped recording until her death, her career had waned somewhat until it was rejuvenated in the 1980s when Alex Chilton and Tav Falco recorded some of her Moon Records songs. The "Rock-and-Roll Granny" achieved notoriety with appearances on the David Letterman Show and in a Bud Light commercial with Brian Setzer.
Al James
Al James has long worked for the management of the Beale Street Historic District since the 1980s. The Beale Street Historic District would not have had its continued success without his hard work.
Mark James (1940- )
Note ceremony 8/14/2014. A staff songwriter with Chips Moman, James produced hits such as Hooked on Feeling for BJ Thomas and Suspicious Minds for Elvis Presley. His songs were also recorded by artists as varied as Brenda Lee, Willie Nelson, and the Pet Shop Boys.
Roland Janes (1933-2013)
Note ceremony 11/7/2013. After serving in the Korean War, Janes moved to Memphis and became a studio musician for Sam Phillips at Sun Studios. He left Sun to open his own Sonic Recording in 1963. He worked at Memphis Sounds studio as an engineer and producer in 1977 and worked again with Phillps at Sam Phillips Recording in 1982. In his long career in production, he worked with a host of various artists before passing away in 2013.
Jimi Jamison (1951-2014)
Note ceremony 10/26/2014. From fronting Target early in his career to Cobra and then Survivor, Jamison continued to broaden the audience for his sound. Perhaps his biggest audience would be fans of Baywatch who heard him sing the theme on that program.
Roosevelt Jamison (1936-2013)
Note ceremony 9/9/11. Roosevelt Jamison was born in Olive Branch, Mississippi. During his childhood years, Jamison lived on Beale Street, where he delivered groceries and pharmacy items on a bike to help support his mother and siblings. He graduated from Booker T. Washington High School. Jamison managed local musical groups and rehearsed them out of the back of the Interstate Blood Bank he ran on Beale Street. It was through these groups that he discovered O.V. Wright and James Carr. Jamison was a music manager, publicist and songwriter. His first and most notable composition was "That's How Strong My Love Is," recorded by O.V. Wright and released on Quinton Claunch's Goldwax record label in 1964. The song has since been much covered, most notably by Otis Redding, appearing on his 1965 album The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads and on Out of Our Heads by The Rolling Stones, also in 1965. In 1973 Humble Pie included it on their album Eat It. The song has also been covered on albums by Taj Mahal, Candi Staton, Percy Sledge, and Buddy Miller, as well as by Roland Gift on the Beautiful Girls movie soundtrack.
Robert Leroy Johnson (1911-1938)
Robert Leroy Johnson was born in 1911 in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, and grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. Around this time, blues musician Son House moved to Robinsonville, and Johnson followed him around, trying to learn the guitar. When Johnson left Robinsonville and reappeared a few months later, he had tremendous guitar technique. From this came the legend that he sold his soul to the Devil at the legendary "crossroads" (the intersection of Mississippi Highways 61 and 49) in exchange for his great talent. He made just two sets of recordings in Texas in 1936 and 1937 before dying in 1938 at age 27 near Greenwood, Mississippi. Johnson was among the first musicians inducted into the Rock' n' Roll's Hall of Fame "Early Influence" category in 1986. Robert Johnson was also ranked #5 in Rolling Stone's list of the top 100 Guitarists of All Time.
Fred Jones Jr. (1948- )
Note ceremony 9/10/10. Concert promoter in Memphis for over 40 years, founder of the Southern Heritage Classic football game, and part of the founding ownership group of the Memphis Grizzlies. Fred Jones began his career in entertainment as a road manager with Isaac Hayes. Returning to Memphis, Jones began booking acts such as Lou Rawls, Nancy Wilson, Ray Charles, Count Basie, B.B. King, Sarah Vaughan, John Davidson, Tina Turner and Bill Cosby. In 1977, Jones was named national tour manager for the Isley Brothers. He spent two years with the Isleys while continuing to bring shows to Memphis. Jones created Summitt Management Corporation.
Bob Kelley (1946-1998)
Music promoter Bob Kelly founded Mid-South Concerts and was responsible for bringing great shows and big-name artists to Memphis for 25 years, from the 1970s through the 1990s. He regularly booked world-class talent for the Mid-South Coliseum, Mud Island Amphitheater, Pyramid, and Beale Street Music Festival.
Junior Kimbrough (1930-1998)
David "Junior" Kimbrough lived near Holly Springs, Mississippi, where he was a musician and juke joint proprietor. He began playing guitar in the 1950s, developing a unique style of syncopation. Beginning in 1960, he recorded a few singles of note – particularly two with Charlie Feathers in 1969 – but achieved true recording fame with his 1992 album All Night Long, produced by Robert Palmer.
King Beez (founded 1964)
Note ceremony 9/30/2014. Serving as ambassadors of Memphis soul and blues, the high-energy house band of B.B. King's Blues Club has entertained countless thousands of tourists from around the world in the 20 years of playing at the western anchor of the Beale Street entertainment district. Venturing outside the club, the band has played numerous parties, galas, and festivals in the Mid-South. The current lineup of the group includes Solomon McDaniel on keyboards, Charlton Johnson on guitar, James Jackson on bass guitar, Lafayette Adair on drums, Mike Krepper on sax, and vocalists Ricky & Angela Adkisson. Alumni of the group include over a dozen well-known Memphis musicians, such as Preston Shannon, Lannie McMillan, and Melvin Rodgers,
Albert King (1923-1992)
Albert King was born in 1923 in Indianola, Mississippi. He first discovered music by singing in the church choir and listening to his father play guitar. Because he was left-handed, Albert would flip guitars upside down so the low E string was on the bottom. This led to his custom-made, left-handed guitar with reversed strings. Albert King recorded his first album in Chicago in 1953, but his first hit didn't come until 1959 with "I'm A Lonely Man," which was co-written with Little Milton. In 1966, Albert King signed with the Stax record label, where he recorded many sides, such as "Crosscut Saw." King also played at promoter Bill Graham's Fillmore venues. In the 1970s, King teamed up with members of the Bar-Kays and The Movement, including bassist James Alexander and drummer Willie Hall, to produce the hit "I'll Play the Blues For You." King played his final concert in Los Angeles on December 19, 1992. He died two days later in Memphis after suffering a sudden heart attack.
B.B. King (1925-2015)
Riley B. King, born in 1925 in Indianola, Mississippi, has become better known as B.B. King. As a child, King sang in a local gospel group, and at twelve years old, he was given his first guitar by his older cousin, "Bukka" White. Making his way to Memphis, King worked at radio station WDIA as a singer and disc jockey. This is where he was given the nickname "Beale Street Blues Boy," which he later shortened to "B.B." In 1949, King began recording with Los Angeles-based RPM Records. Many of his earliest singles were produced by Sam Phillips, founder of Sun Records. King opened for The Rolling Stones on their 1969 American tour. He won a Grammy Award for "The Thrill Is Gone," which was later marked number 183 in Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. He has recorded many albums of his own and collaborated with artists ranging from U2 to Eric Clapton.
Little Jimmy King (1968-2002)
Born in Memphis in 1968 as Manuel Gales, he grew up as a left-handed guitar player. Renaming himself after his guitar heroes, Jimi Hendrix and Albert King, Little Jimmy King released his self-titled debut album in 1991 through the Rounder/Bull's-eye Blues label. After recording with his brothers, King released his third album with producer Willie Mitchell and called it Soldier for the Blues. Little Jimmy King died due to a heart attack on July 19, 2002, at the young age of 34.
George Klein (1935-2019)
George Klein was a radio personality whose career spans over six decades. Klein hosted programs on WMPS, WHBQ, and WMC. He also hosted a television series called Dance Party. Klein was a classmate of Elvis Presley at Humes High School, where they became lifelong friends. Klein was a member of Elvis' "Memphis Mafia" entourage and later hosted an Elvis-centered program on Sirius satellite radio. Klein received numerous awards during his career, including "Number One Disc Jockey" from Billboard magazine and the "Memphis Legend Award" from Harrah's Casino.
Marty Lacker (1937-2017)
Note ceremony 11/6/10. Marty Lacker was a radio DJ who started a recording studio in the 1960s. He led Elvis to record at American Studios with Chips Moman, from which "Suspicious Minds,"" Kentucky Rain," and other hits were produced. Lacker also produced and directed the legendary Memphis Music Awards in the 1970s. He was a founder of the NARAS chapter and the Memphis-Shelby County Music Commission.
Preston Lamm (1947- )
Note ceremony 10/21/10. Lamm originally worked on the team with John Elkington to develop the Beale Street Entertainment District but branched off to open his own club, Rum Boogie Cafe, which still continues today as one of the most successful live entertainment night spots in the city. Creating River City Management, Lamm owns or manages several clubs and restaurants in Memphis and Southaven.
Shawn Lane (1963-2003)
Shawn Lane was born in Memphis, Tennessee; Lane began playing piano with his sisters at the age of eight but did not play guitar seriously until he was ten. At age 12–13, he began to practice heavily. At fourteen, he became the lead guitarist for Black Oak Arkansas (BOA) and, alongside members, including drummer Tommy Aldridge, toured over the next four years, opening shows for bands including REO Speedwagon, Ted Nugent, Outlaws, Cheap Trick, Molly Hatchet, and Blue Öyster Cult. During 1979, Shawn played in The Streets, recording studio demos with Andy Tanas on bass, Chris Craig on drums, and Jimmy Henderson on guitar, almost securing a deal with Epic Records. He was an American musician who released two studio albums and collaborated with a variety of musicians including Ringo Starr, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Reggie Young, Joe Walsh, Jonas Hellborg, and many others. After studying the piano, he mastered the guitar, which he played with exceptional speed.
Booker T. Laury (1914-1995)
Lawrence "Booker T." Laury was born in 1914 in Memphis. Laury grew up with Peter Chatman, also known as "Memphis Slim." Along with friend Mose Vinson, Laury and Chatman began playing in the clubs and card rooms of the city. Even with the pinky finger of his left hand missing from a machine saw accident, Laury was an accomplished keyboard player. In 1935, Laury and Chatman caught the attention of a musical talent scout who invited them to come to Chicago. Chatham went and subsequently had an international music career. Laury stayed in Memphis and continued to play gambling halls and clubs the rest of his life, not achieving fame until a cameo appearance in the film "Great Balls of Fire." He began recording when he was 80 years old.
Furry Lewis (1893-1981)
Born Walter E. Lewis in 1893 in Greenwood, Mississippi, his family moved to Memphis when he was seven. By 1908, Lewis was playing solo for parties, in clubs, and on the street. He also played several dates with W.C. Handy's Orchestra. Even with the loss of a leg after a railroad accident in 1917, Lewis was able to travel, meeting performers like Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Texas Alexander. While he cut records in 1927 and 1929, Lewis did not garner attention for his recordings until 1962, when he was recorded by the folklorist George Mitchell. In 1969, producer Terry Manning recorded Lewis in his Beale Street apartment. In 1972, Lewis was the featured performer in the Memphis Blues Caravan. Before he died of pneumonia in 1981, Lewis opened twice for The Rolling Stones, appeared on Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show, and had a role in a Burt Reynolds movie, W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings, and a profile in Playboy magazine.
Jerry Lee Lewis (1935-2022)
Born in 1935 in Ferriday, Louisiana, Jerry Lee Lewis was given his first piano at age eight after his parents mortgaged their farm to purchase it. Lewis learned to play the piano in two weeks. Lewis grew up listening to as many country music broadcasts as he could. He also spent a lot of time hiding behind the bar at Haney's Big House, absorbing the sounds of eighteen-year-old B.B. King. In 1956, 21-year-old Jerry Lee read a story about how Elvis made his way to Memphis to speak to Sam Phillips at Sun Records. Jerry Lee followed suit, and by July 1957, he was performing on The Steve Allen Show. Lewis' "Whole Lotta Shakin'" made its way to the #3 spot on the Pop, Country, Western, and R&B charts. He followed that with the #2 hit, "Great Balls of Fire." He released dozens of albums and continued to delight audiences across the globe with his high-energy performances late into his life. Lewis passed at age 87 at his home in Nesbit, Mississippi, after suffering from a stroke.
Booker Little (1938-1961)
Booker Little was a Memphis native and graduate of Manassas High School, where he was classmates with George Coleman, Charles Lloyd, Frank Strozier, Harold Mabern, and Hank Crawford. Little grew up playing on Beale Street, performing with Phineas Newborn and others by the age of 12. He went to the Chicago Conservatory and then to New York and served as a mentor to the younger Memphis musicians who followed--Coleman, Mabern, and Lloyd all cite him as a major influence and teacher about the business. He played on many notable and adventurous records with Max Roach, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, and MJT +3, in addition to recordings with his fellow Memphians. He also headlined an influential quartet at the Five Spot in New York. He died in 1963 at the age of 23; his influence and the amount of recordings he made at that time are stunning. Many people cite him as the reason that Memphis jazz music is often seen as progressive and even bordering on avant-garde. Charles Lloyd said - "There needs to be a statue of Booker Little in Memphis."
Charles Lloyd (1938- )
Note ceremony 4/11/12. He began playing the saxophone at the age of 9. Pianist Phineas Newborn became his mentor and took him to Irvin Reason for lessons. Lloyd worked in Phineas Sr's band and, from the age of 12, worked as a sideman in the blues bands of B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, Johnnie Ace, Bobbie "Blue" Bland, and others. His closest friend in high school was trumpeter Booker Little. In 1956, Lloyd moved to Los Angeles and earned a Master's degree from the University of Southern California. During this period, Lloyd played in Gerald Wilson's big band, and he also had his own group that included Billy Higgins, Don Cherry, Bobby Hutcherson, and Terry Trotter. Lloyd joined Chico Hamilton in 1960, though the band was known for playing "chamber jazz" at the beginning of Lloyd's tenure. His influence as a composer and a player quickly pushed it in a more progressive post-bop direction, especially after Hamilton asked him to be the group's "music director." Lloyd's key musical partner in the band was Hungarian guitarist Gabor Szabo. In 1964, Lloyd left Hamilton's group to join alto saxophonist Cannonball Adderly. During this period, he recorded two albums as a leader for Columbia Records; his sidemen were other young musicians, including Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter, and Tony Williams. Through 1965- 1969, Lloyd led a quartet with pianist Keith Jarrett, bassist Cecil McBee (later Ron McClure), and drummer Jack DeJohnette. The quartet's music was an interesting fusion of straight-ahead post-bop, free jazz, and world music, which quickly caught the attention of both jazz fans and critics.
Jimmie Lunceford (1902-1947)
At the height of his career from 1937 to 1941, Lunceford led a big band with the polish, showmanship, and musicianship comparable to that seen in the bands of Count Basie, Earl Hines, and Duke Ellington. A native of Denver, he graduated from Fisk University in 1926 with a degree in music and then came to work as band director at Manassas High School in Memphis. In 1927, he organized a superb student band, which toured and later turned professional. By 1934, they were playing Harlem's Cotton Club, touring cross country, and recording for Decca Records. Lunceford died of a heart attack in 1947.
Harold Mabern (1936- )
Mabern is an American jazz pianist and composer, principally in the hard bop, post-bop, and soul jazz fields. He is one of jazz's most enduring and dazzlingly skilled pianists. He was born in Memphis, a city that produced saxophonists George Coleman and Charles Lloyd, pianist Phineas Newborn Jr. and trumpeter Booker Little. He was an unsung hero of the 1960s hardbop scene, performing and recording with many of its finest artists, and only in recent years has he begun to garner appreciation for his long-running legacy in jazz and the understated power of his talent. Like fellow Memphis jazz artists George Coleman, Booker Little, and Frank Strozier, Mabern attended Manassas High School, and after an early attempt at playing the drums, he taught himself piano and fell under the spell of pianist Phineas Newborn Jr., an influence that would shape and linger with Mabern for the rest of his life.
Bobby Manuel (1945- )
Bobby Manuel is one of the longest-working musicians in the Memphis scene. Bobby Manuel is in his sixth decade of creating music. Manuel's guitar has been prominent in Memphis music since the 1960s. He joined Stax Records as an engineer and quickly began doing session work as a guitarist. He played/recorded with Isaac Hayes, Elvis Presley, Al Green, Mavis Staples, Solomon Burke, Albert King, Rufus and Carla Thomas, The Barkays, Little Milton, Shirley Brown, Leon Russell, Billy Joel, and dozens more. He has worked as an engineer and producer and is a composer with over 150 songs to his credit. He produced the number-one hit Disco Duck for Rick Dees. In 1977, Manuel and Stax Records founder Jim Stewart established Daily Planet, a studio and production company. At Mr. Stewart's retirement, Manuel founded High Stacks Records with an initial release of a CD featuring former Stax artists, including the great Rance Allen. In 2004, he played the epic "Stax Comes Home" concert at the Orpheum to honor the Stax Museum. He played guitar for "Memphis Soul, In Performance at the White House" for President Obama in 2013, which was shown on PBS. In 2017, he played in the all-star Royal Studios 60th Anniversary concert at the Orpheum, and he also released a new album, "Soulsauce."
Martha Ellen Maxwell (1928-2014)
First director of the Memphis Film and Music Commission – she was a long-time director of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. For decades, she hosted a show promoting Memphis Music on the Library Cable Channel.
Fred McDowell (1904-1972)
Note ceremony 2/2/12. Born in Rossville, Tennessee, McDowell began playing the guitar at age 14. He moved to Memphis to work a variety of jobs and play music in 1926 and then moved to Como, Mississippi, around 1940. He developed a distinctive style of bottleneck guitar. He was recorded in 1959 by Alan Lomax and subsequently played at many festivals and clubs. In spite of his album entitled I Do Not Play Rock & Roll, many rock musicians were influenced by him. The Rolling Stones covered one of his songs on a 1971 album.
Don McMinn (1942-2018)
Don McMinn helped create the rebirth of Beale Street by fronting the house band at the Rum Boogie Café for nine years, beginning with its opening in 1985. His blend of Delta blues and R&B quickly made Rum Boogie a must-visit destination for musicians traveling through Memphis. In addition to his prowess as a stage host, his musical abilities led him to record with such stars as Memphis Slim, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bobby "Blue" Bland, and many more.
The Memphis Boys (founded 1964)
Note ceremony 8/13/12. The American Sound Studios House Band, including Tommy Cogbill, Gene Chrisman, Bobby Emmons, Mike Leech, Bobby Wood, and Reggie Young, provided backing on major hits for Elvis and others under the direction of Chips Moman.
Will Shade & the Memphis Jug Band (1898-1966)
The Memphis Jug Band played in the 1920s and 1930s, recording over 100 songs between 1927 and 1934. The central figure of the band was Will Shade. The rest of the band, both personnel and instrumentation, was a continuous ebb and flow. At times, the instruments featured might include rhythm guitar, kazoo, mandolin, harmonica, violin, an empty gallon jug, or whatever else a musician might have on hand on any given day. Shade played, among other things, a "bullfiddle" made from a washtub, broom handle, and string. The public lost interest in jug bands, and the Memphis Jug Band disbanded in 1935. Shade continued to assemble novelty bands until his death in 1966.
The Memphis Horns (founded 1969)
The Memphis Horns, originally a six-piece backup group, became famous for their work with Stax Records. For most of their tenure, the group has been a duo, Wayne Jackson and Andrew Love. They appear on recordings with Stax artists, including Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Rufus Thomas, Sam & Dave, and others. They also later worked with Robert Cray, The Doobie Brothers, U2, and others. Love has retired, but Jackson continues to record and perform with former members Jack Hale and Tom McGinley. Still in demand, in 2008, they played with Jack White and Alicia Keys.
Memphis Minnie (1897-1973)
Lizzie Douglas, known as Memphis Minnie, was born in 1897 in Algiers, Louisiana. As a child, Lizzie "Kid" Douglas played guitar in nightclubs before joining the Ringling Brothers circus. After marrying singing partner Kansas Joe McCoy in 1929, Columbia Records picked up Minnie and her husband and released their first hit, "Bumble Bee." McCoy and Minnie broke up soon after moving to Chicago in the 1930s, and by 1939, Minnie was recording with her new husband, "Little Son" Joe Lawlers. The two recorded nearly 200 records together, including some of Minnie's most enduring work. She retired from performing and recording in the 1950s due to failing health.
Memphis Slim (1915-1988)
John Len Chatman, later known as "Memphis Slim," was born in Memphis in 1915. Growing up with a musically inclined father, Slim began performing in honky tonks in the 1930s. Slim teamed up with Big Bill Broonzy in 1939 and performed in Chicago clubs. He recorded and performed steadily throughout the 1940s and 50s with big bands and small groups. He set out on a European tour with Willie Dixon in 1960. He moved to Paris in 1962, playing and touring Europe for the remainder of his life.
Bowlegs Miller (1934-1987)
Note ceremony 1/22/11. Gene "Bowlegs" Miller was a trumpeter and band leader. He grew up on Beale Street and, as a child, was a street dancer along with his brother "Baby Ray" Miller," dancing for tips. He played in bands led by Finis Newborn and Tuff Green and later led bands of his own, playing at legendary clubs such as Club Paradise, Club Handy, Curry's Tropicana, and the Flamingo Room, as well as at concerts organized by WDIA. He helped promote the careers of Ann Peebles, Peabo Bryson, and many others.
Little Milton (1934-2005)
Born Milton Campbell in Inverness, Mississippi, "Little Milton" first recorded with Sam Phillips at Sun Records before moving to East St. Louis and Bobbin Records, where his career became more successful. His career took off when Chess Records signed him, and a series of hit singles followed. With the demise of Chess in 1969, Little Milton moved to Stax Records. He continued to perform and record up until his death in 2005.
Andrew "Sunbeam" Mitchell (1906-1989)
Note ceremony 1/30/13 at Schwab's. The music promoter and club owner was a powerful force in Memphis music for decades, operating venues such as Club Ebony, Club Handy, Club Paradise, and the Mitchell Hotel. The list of performers who played his clubs is long and legendary – B.B. King as an opening act for Louis Jordan, Bobby "Blue" Bland, Johnny Ace, Ike and Tina Turner, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Fred Ford, Stan Kenton, Lou Rawls, Little Richard, Denise LaSalle, Joe Simon, Count Basie, Albert King and Tyrone Davis.
Boo Mitchell (1971- )
Lawrence "Boo" Mitchell is an American musician, songwriter, audio engineer, record producer, and owner of Royal Studios in Memphis, Tennessee. He is best known for his work with Al Green, Bruno Mars, Bobby Rush, William Bell, Solomon Burke, Anthony Hamilton, Rod Stewart, John Mayer, 8 Ball, Lamont Dozier, William Bell, and Cody Chesnutt. Mitchell began working with his father at a young age, accumulating rare credits and abilities. His own career began at age 17 when he played keyboard on one of Al Green's gospel albums, which later won a Grammy award. Mitchell continued to work on albums alongside his father. He has been a producer/engineer at Royal Studios from the early 90s through the present. Lawrence Boo Mitchell won a Grammy for his engineering work on the 2016 Record of the Year, Uptown Funk. Mitchell joined Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars onstage when they accepted the award at the ceremony in Los Angeles in May 2016.
Willie Mitchell (1928-2010)
Born March 23, 1928, in Ashland, Mississippi, Mitchell was raised in Memphis, where he began to play the trumpet. After he was discharged from the military in 1954, he became a popular trumpet-playing bandleader. In 1959, Mitchell signed on with Hi Records and released a string of singles. When studio owner Joe Cuoghi died in 1970, Mitchell found himself the new boss of Hi Records. Mitchell and Hi had great success with Al Green and Ann Peebles and was known for its Hi Rhythm Section, featuring the Hodges brothers. Mitchell left Hi at the end of his contract. He continued in the recording business, running his Royal Recording Studios until his death. Al Green recorded again with Mitchell in 2003 and 2005.
Chips Moman (1936-2016)
Note ceremony 11/6/10. Musician, producer, writer, and champion of music, Moman has had an amazing career. He has produced records for a wide variety of artists, including Carla Thomas, Elvis Presley, Ringo Starr, B.J. Thomas, Neil Diamond, Dusty Springfield, and The Box Tops. His versatile ability as a songwriter made hits for artists from Aretha Franklin (Do Right Woman, Do Right Man) to Waylon Jennings (Luckenbach Texas). In 1985, he produced the Class of '55 album with Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins.
Arnold "Gatemouth" Moore (1913-2004)
Born on November 8, 1913, in Topeka, Kansas, Arnold Dwight "Gatemouth" Moore is noted for his series of blues compositions, including "Did You Ever Love A Woman," "I Ain't Mad At You, Pretty Baby," and "Somebody's Got To Go," and was employed by bandleaders Tommy Douglas and Walter Barnes in the 30s and 40s. Moore went on to become a minister, where he left his love of blues to concentrate on gospel music. Moore's later recordings were heard around the gospel circuit on many religious radio stations and television programs. In 1977, Moore recorded his first full album, Great R&B Oldies.
Scotty Moore (1931-2016)
Scott "Scotty" Moore III was an American guitarist and recording engineer. He is best known for his backing of Elvis Presley in the first part of his career, between 1954 and the beginning of Elvis's Hollywood years. Rock critic Dave Marsh credits Moore with the invention of power chording on the 1957 Presley song "Jailhouse Rock," the intro of which Moore and drummer D.J. Fontana, according to the latter, "copped from a '40s swing version of 'The Anvil Chorus.'" [2] Moore was ranked 29th in Rolling Stone magazine's list of 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time in 2011. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 and the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2015. The Rolling Stones lead guitarist Keith Richards had said of Moore, "When I heard "Heartbreak Hotel," I knew what I wanted to do in life. It was as plain as day. All I wanted to do in the world was to be able to play and sound like that. Everyone else wanted to be Elvis; I wanted to be Scotty."
Blind Mississippi Morris (1955- )
A native of Clarksdale, MS, and blind since age 4, Blind Mississippi Morris is the embodiment of the Delta bluesman. Rated one of the ten best harmonica players in the world by Bluzharp Magazine, Morris has taken the Delta blues worldwide from his Memphis home. As a duo, he and his guitarist are peerless — they instinctively know each other's every move. And when Morris fronts the Pocket Rockets, get ready for a classic R&B "throw-down" from some of Memphis' finest players. When he's not traveling the world playing blues festivals, Morris is often found on stage at B.B. King's and Blues City Cafe on Beale Street.
Mud Boy and the Neutrons (founded 1973)
In 1973, Lee Baker, Jim Dickinson, Sid Selvidge, and Jimmy Crosthwait joined forces to create one of the area's most noted – and notorious – super groups called Mud Boy and the Neutrons, which influenced the Memphis alternative rock scene from the 1970s through the 1990s. The group was best known for deliberately making their offbeat public performances rare, special events. Dickinson worked to get Mud Boy and the Neutrons a recording contract through Warner Brothers, but their demo was never released. Meanwhile, each of the members had successful individual careers. They eventually released three albums on labels like New Rose Records (France) and Koch International. After the murder of Baker in 1996, the band temporarily disbanded before performing a couple of retirement shows.
Charlie Musselwhite (1944- )
Charlie Musselwhite was born on January 31, 1944, in Kosciusko, Mississippi, and his musically inclined family moved to Memphis when he was three years old. Charlie later headed to Chicago, hanging out with Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Howlin' Wolf, and Big Walter Horton. After playing the guitar and harmonica in a couple of shows with a long-time buddy, John Lee Hooker, Charlie started his own band which released the famous Stand Back! Here Comes Charley Musselwhite's Southside Band album in 1966. Since then, Charlie has released more than twenty albums. He has won eighteen W.C. Handy Blues Music Awards and has received six Grammy nominations as well as multiple Lifetime Achievement Awards.
Newborn Family (founded 1947)
In the mid-1940s, the Newborn Orchestra included father and bandleader Finas on drums, older son Phineas on piano, and younger son Calvin on guitar. They played for a few years at the Plantation Inn in West Memphis, leaving to tour with Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats. Each was a fine musician in his own right. Phineas moved to New York in 1956 and became one of the finest jazz pianists in the nation, playing with Oscar Pettiford, Wild Bill Davis, Joe Jones, and others. He toured Europe and worked on the West Coast before physical and mental health problems sidelined his career. Calvin's leaping stage antics were a sight to behold, and he later toured with Lionel Hampton and Count Basie, among many others.
Floyd Newman (1931-2023)
Note ceremony 11/1/2015. Floyd Newman was a bandleader, instructor, and saxophonist. At the legendary Plantation Inn in West Memphis, he led a band that featured a young Isaac Hayes on keyboards and famed Hi Rhythm Section drummer Howard Grimes. He was a mainstay at Stax, playing with Otis Redding, Booker T & the MGs, Isaac Hayes, and more. He also played with Jackie Brenston, BB King, Sam Cooke, and many others.
Jimmy Ogle
Jimmy Ogle is a lifelong Memphian who has worked in history, museums, tourism, parks, and recreation over the past forty years in the public scene. He has managed Tom Lee Park, Mud Island River Park, Memphis Riverboats, Beale Street Entertainment District, Memphis Rock 'n' Soul Museum, and Beale Street Landing during his time and was the sixth Duckmaster ever at The Peabody Hotel. In his spare time, he also operated the scoreboard for all basketball games at The Pyramid and FedEx Forum for 20 years. Jimmy was appointed the third-ever Shelby County Historian by the Shelby County Commission in 2014. Beginning in 2008, Jimmy has conducted over 150 free talks and tours annually around the Memphis area for schools, senior citizen residences, and civic groups, as well as offering over 50 free public walking tours in Midtown, Downtown, and along the Riverfront.
Herbie O’Mell (1935-2018)
Note ceremony 6/10/12. O'Mell has had a long and varied career in entertainment in Memphis and the Mid-South as a music promoter and publisher, nightclub operator, casino insider, travel agent, and movie location scout. His involvement and contributions have been historic, and he continues to be active in promoting Memphis music and entertainment culture. He was a founding member of the Memphis NARAS Chapter, and he put together the city's first integrated band. He has served on the Memphis & Shelby County Film and Television Commission for 25 years, six of them as chairman. He's been the personal manager to Jerry Lee Lewis, Ronnie Milsap, and Jim Dickinson. He was the business manager of Dan Penn and for Chips Moman and his 3-Alarm Studio. He is also the producer of the TV show "Memphis Sounds with George Klein."
Corey Osborn (1985-2008)
Corey Osborn was born in 1985. At age 15, the guitar prodigy entered the International Blues Challenge competition, which opened the door to Beale Street performances. The Corey Osborn Band played regular shows in B.B. King's Blues Club from 2003 to 2008, with Corey even being invited onstage to perform songs with B.B. King himself. The Corey Osborn Band released their only album in 2004, as Osborne was killed in an untimely automobile accident on November 28, 2008.
Kevin Paige (1966- )
Kevin Paige, a talented singer and musician, began playing on Beale Street in the late 1980s at Club Handy and then at Alfred's, where he has continued to perform weekly for over 20 years. He had several Top 40 hits of his own in the 1990s and served as Debbie Gibson's opening act on her world tour in the early 90s. Since then, he has performed on songs recorded by such artists as Martina McBride, 3 Doors Down, Better Than Ezra, and Todd Agnew. In addition to his continuing club work on Beale, Paige also leads music for the contemporary worship service at Lindenwood Christian Church in Midtown Memphis.
Pete Pedersen (1925-2002)
Pete Pedersen had a hit record with "Peg O My Heart" in 1947 as a member of the Harmonicats. He played with various groups before going solo in the mid-1950s. Over the years, Pedersen would perform at countless music festivals and harmonica-related events. He moved to Memphis in 1969 to become a writer for William B. Tanner (later known as Media General), where he wrote, arranged, and recorded thousands of classic jingles, songs, and scores. Acknowledged as one of the world's finest harmonica players, he also wrote two concertos for harmonica.
Ann Peebles (1947- )
Note ceremony 10/12/2013. Recording at Hi Records, Peebles had hits with "I Can't Stand the Rain," "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down," and more. From working with Bowlegs Miller and Willie Mitchell then to Cyndi Lauper now, Peebles has maintained a great voice and talent.
Judy Peiser (1945- )
Peiser is the American co-founder and executive director of the Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis, Tennessee, United States. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Illinois and a master's degree from the University of Memphis. Peiser founded the Center for Southern Folklore in 1972 along with William Ferris. Peiser has produced and edited documentary films, including Fannie Bell Chapman: Gospel Singer, Gravel Springs Fife and Drum, and Ray Lum: Mule Trader, available on the Folkstreams project's website. In interviews, she has cited a desire to meet and understand different people as one of the main motivators for her work.
Carl Perkins (1932-1998)
Note ceremony 8/13/10. From the cotton fields of West Tennessee, Perkins heard blues music, and from this family radio, he heard the country music of the Grand Ole Opry. From these influences, he pioneered rockabilly. His hit "Blue Suede Shoes" made him famous. He recorded at Sun Studios.
Tommy Peters (1955-2021)
Note ceremony 5/3/11. Opening the west end anchor to Beale in 1993, Peters' highly successful B.B. King's Blues Club offers top-quality music and food. He has since opened similar clubs in other cities.
Dewey Phillips (1926-1968)
"Daddy-O" Dewey Phillips was one of rock 'n' roll's pioneering disk jockeys. Dewey's career began at Memphis' WHBQ-AM, where he was the city's leading radio personality for nine years and was the first to simulcast his "Red, Hot & Blue" show on both radio and television. Phillips' on-air "hillbilly" persona included a frantic delivery and entertaining sense of humor. However, he also had a keen ear for music the listening public would enjoy, and he embraced both black and white music, which was abundant in post-World War II Memphis. He played a great deal of rhythm and blues, country music, boogie-woogie, and jazz, as well as Sun & Stax Records artists. In July 1954, he was the first DJ to broadcast the young Elvis Presley's debut record. When the station eventually adopted a Top 40 format, Phillips' freeform style was phased out. After working at smaller radio stations for a while, Phillips died of heart failure at age 42.
The Phillips Family
There may be no more important family intertwined in the history of Memphis, the history of Memphis music, and credited with the success of music legends than the Phillips family. Through their many ventures, such as Memphis Recording Service, Sun Records & Sun Studio, they worked with countless music legends such as B.B. King, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, Howlin' Wolf, Rufus Thomas, Ike Turner, and many more. Members of the Phillips family are members in the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, Country Music Hall of Fame, Blues Hall of Fame, Memphis Music Hall of Fame, and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.
Knox Phillips (1945-2020)
His long involvement with Memphis music production included engineer, producer, and studio owner. He was involved with hits for Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Amazing Rhythm Aces, John Prine, Jerry Lee Lewis, and many more. He also worked placing songs in television and film. Knox was instrumental in the founding of the NARAS – Memphis chapter.
Sam Phillips (1923-2003)
Samuel Cornelius Phillips was born in Florence, Alabama, in 1923. Phillips majored in broadcasting and landed his first job at a radio station in Alabama. The radio station's open format allowed Phillips to play music by both white and black musicians, which would later inspire his work in Memphis. On January 3, 1950, Phillips opened up the "Memphis Recording Service" where he created his label, Sun Records. At Sun, he recorded and helped launch the careers of many world-renowned artists such as B.B. King, Junior Parker, Howlin' Wolf, Jackie Brenston, Rosco Gordon, Little Milton, Bobby "Blue" Band, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, and many more.
Charles "Skip" Pitts (1947-2012)
Note ceremony 12/5/10. Skip Pitts is best known for the wah-wah guitar intro to Isaac Hayes' "Theme from 'Shaft.'" He was born in Washington, DC, and moved to Memphis in 1970 while playing with the Isley Brothers. He spent over 35 years recording and touring with Isaac Hayes. He also played with Al Green, Rufus Thomas, Teenie Hodges, Wilson Pickett, and many others. Pitts has given back to the community by serving as a music instructor for the Stax Music Academy. He was currently playing with The Bo-Keys.
David Porter (1941- )
Born November 21, 1941, David Porter started his music career as a Stax house composer. Joined later by Isaac Hayes, the songwriting duo created hits such as "Soul Man, ""When Something Is Wrong With My Baby, "and "Hold On, I'm Comin'". When Hayes decided to pursue a solo performing career, Porter began to release singles for Stax and later other labels, sometimes under other names and sometimes in partnership with Ronnie Williams. David Porter was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on June 9, 2005.
Elvis Presley (1935-1977)
Born in Tupelo, Mississippi, Elvis Aaron Presley moved with his parents to Memphis in 1948. His curiosity and fascination with music began at a young age, leading him to explore all kinds of music and learn from performers of all styles. Elvis met Sam Phillips at Sun Studios in 1953 when he came to record two songs for his mother's belated birthday present. With manager Col. Tom Parker, Elvis gained national exposure performing on The Steve Allen Show and The Ed Sullivan Show. During his time in the U.S. Army, Elvis met his future wife, Priscilla. Elvis Presley's career included significant accomplishments in the music world and in Hollywood films. Elvis charted more songs on Billboard's Hot 100 than any artist before him. The King of Rock and Roll died in Memphis in 1977 but continues to be a worldwide icon and an inspiration to the music world. His home, Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee, attracts over 500,000 visitors each year.
Di Anne Price (1952-2013)
Note ceremony h7/21/2013. Singer, pianist, entertainer, and beloved soul who passed too soon.
Norbert Putnam (1942- )
Norbert Putnam is a legendary Producer, musician, and Nashville and Muscle Shoals studio musician. He played on 126 Elvis hits, and if you have a favorite artist from the '60s or '70s, he probably produced them or played on their hits.
Larry Raspberry & The Highsteppers (formed 1969)
Note ceremony 9/12/15. Larry Raspberry was previously honored with a Beale Street Note for being the leader of the Memphis-based band The Gentrys, who charted several hit records in the 60s. In 1969, he started the Highsteppers and has been playing worldwide ever since. Many of Memphis' best musicians have played with the Highsteppers. Alums of the Highsteppers include Keith Sykes, Bill Marshall, Joel Williams, Doug McMinn, Tommy Cathy, Josh Haynes, Susan Marshall, Jackie Johnson, Reba Russell, Robert Nighthawk, Jim Spake, and at least 50 other names.
Reba Russell Band (formed 1980s)
Reba Russell is synonymous with the Memphis Music scene. Beginning early in the 1980s (with bands Visions, Portrait, and Reba and the Portables) and currently fronting the Reba Russell Band, Reba has covered most bases in the music industry. She is a published songwriter, vocalist, guitarist, backing vocalist, bandleader, producer, and touring and recording artist. Reba Russell and her band tour throughout the United States and Europe and have released 8 Independent Albums. She is a highly respected Memphis studio/session vocalist and perhaps more popularly known as a powerful live performer.
Richard Ranta (1944- )
Dr. Richard Ranta, the founding Dean of the College of Communication and Fine Arts at the University of Memphis retired from that post after 39 years; he has spent a total of 44 years on staff at U of M. He joined the faculty in 1972. During this time, he made a tremendous impact in music, both on and beyond campus. He was responsible for the University's Rudi Scheidt School of Music. He started Blue Tom Records and was the General Manager of High Water Records. He has served on the Memphis/Shelby Coun
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Overview of the judiciary
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Read more about the history of the legal system in England and Wales
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Courts and Tribunals Judiciary
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https://www.judiciary.uk/about-the-judiciary/history-of-the-judiciary-in-england-and-wales/history-of-the-judiciary/
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An ancient system
The English and Welsh legal system has evolved over more than a 1,000 years and is still changing to meet the needs of modern society. It is widely regarded as one of the best and most independent in the world.
A real ordeal
Justice in Anglo-Saxon times (and even after the Norman invasion of 1066) was a combination of local and royal government. Local courts were presided over by a lord or one of his stewards, whereas the King’s court – the Curia Regis – was (initially at least) presided over by the King himself.
Until the end of the 12th century, guilt or innocence in criminal cases was determined through the process of ‘trial by ordeal’. Under this system, the accused would undergo a painful and dangerous ‘ordeal’. They might be forced to pick up a red-hot bar of iron, pluck a stone out of a cauldron of boiling water, or something equally as painful. If their hand had begun to heal after 3 days, they were considered to have God on their side – thus proving their innocence.
Another extremely popular ordeal involved water. The accused would be tied up and thrown into lake or another body of water. If innocent, they were expected to sink.
The number of ‘not guilty’ verdicts recorded under the ‘trial by ordeal’ system is not known. William II (1087-1100) eventually banned trial by ordeal – reportedly because 50 men accused of killing his deer had passed the test – and it was condemned by the Church in 1216.
Fighting for freedom?
Criminal and civil disputes could also be decided by trial by combat, but this gradually fell into disuse for civil cases. It was banned outright in 1818, when a litigant insisted that it was allowed for his dispute, and it was realised that trial by combat was technically still an option!
The earliest judges and seeds of modern justice
During this period, judges gradually gained independence from the monarch and the government. The very first judges, back in the 12th century, were court officials who had particular experience in advising the King on the settlement of disputes. From that group evolved the ‘justices in Eyre’, who possessed mixed administrative and judicial powers. The justices in Eyre were not popular, and in fact came to be regarded as instruments as oppression.
Seeds of change
The seeds of the modern justice system were sown by Henry II (1154-1189), who established a jury of 12 local knights to settle disputes over the ownership of land. When Henry came to the throne, there were just 18 judges in the country – compared to more than 40,000 today.
In 1166, Henry issued a Declaration at the Assize of Clarendon (an assize was an early form of the King’s Bench). The Assize of Clarendon ordered the remaining non-King’s Bench judges to travel the country – which was divided into different areas known as circuits – deciding cases.
To decide cases, they would use the laws made by the judges in Westminster, a change that meant many local customs were replaced by new national laws. These national laws applied to everyone and so were common to all. Even today, we know them as the ‘common law’.
The system of judges sitting in London while others travelled round the country became known as the ‘assizes system’. Incredibly, it survived until 1971. The circuits remain in place today.
Origins of the King’s Bench
In 1178, Henry II first chose 5 members of his personal household – 2 clergy and 3 lay – “to hear all the complaints of the realm and to do right”. This, supervised by the King and “wise men” of the realm, was the origin of what was known as the Court of Common Pleas.
Eventually, a new permanent court, the Court of the King’s Bench, evolved, and judicial proceedings before the King came to be seen as separate from proceedings before the King’s Bench. Changes evolved slowly; even in the middle of the 14th century, under Edward III, there could be close collaboration between the Court of King’s Bench and the King’s Council. A 3rd common law court of justice, the Court of Exchequer, eventually emerged as the financial business of the Royal Household was split off to a specialist group of officials. The Chancellor of the Exchequer used to be a judge of that court.
The first professional judges and magistrates
Martin de Pateshull, Archdeacon of Norfolk and Dean of St Paul’s, became a Justice of the bench in 1217. By the time he died in 1229 he was known as one of the finest lawyers in England – even 60 years after his death, his judgments were being referenced.
Like Martin, many judges of this era were members of the clergy – although this did not necessarily mean they were parish priests. In an era when the church was rich and the King poor, joining the clergy was often just seen as a sensible means of support.
By the middle of the 13th century, knights had begun to join members of the clergy on the bench. The first professional judges were appointed from the order of serjeants-at-law. These were advocates who practised in the Court of Common Pleas. Lawrence de Brok, a serjeant, became a judge in 1268, starting the tradition, which lasted until 1875, of serjeants being the group from which judges were chosen.
This was important, because it meant that the judiciary now had real professional experience of the law before moving on to the bench.
Over the years, serjeants were overtaken in popularity by barristers, solicitors and members of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives. Today these are the groups from which the judiciary is appointed.
Growth of independence
Even though bribes and payments were commonplace during this era, in the mid-13th century the judiciary was openly accused of corruption.
In 1346, judges were obliged to swear that “they would in no way accept gift or reward from any party in litigation before them or give advice to any man, great or small, in any action to which the King was a party himself”.
Judicial salaries were also increased, possibly to make them less dependent on other forms of income.
This didn’t always help; in 1350 the Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, William de Thorpe, was sentenced to death for bribery (he was later pardoned, but demoted).
The first Magistrates’ courts
Meanwhile, a new type of court began to evolve, which we now recognise as the Magistrates’ court. Magistrates’ courts hark back to the Anglo-Saxon moot court and the manorial court, but their official birth came in 1285, during the reign of Edward I – when ‘good and lawful men’ were commissioned to keep the King’s peace.
From that point, and continuing today, magistrates (also known as Justices of the Peace) have undertaken the majority of the judicial work carried out in England and Wales (today, about 95% of criminal cases are dealt with by magistrates).
Until the introduction of our modern system of councils in the 19th century, Justices of the Peace also governed the country at a local level.
Problems with politics
During the 14th century, members of the judiciary were still involved in politics to some extent. For example, Edward III’s Chancellors were common-law judges for a period of 10 years.
In 1387, 6 judges advised Richard II that a parliamentary commission set up to limit his own powers was ‘invalid and traitorous’. They were all impeached, convicted and sentenced to death. Although only 1 was executed, the rest were banished to Ireland.
Unsurprisingly, for the 2 centuries which followed, the judiciary kept almost entirely away from politics.
Moving away from politics
During the turbulent 15th century – the Wars of the Roses – judges stood apart from both the warring Houses of Lancaster and York and were largely unaffected by the changes in government.
From 1540 onwards, Henry VIII had no judges in the Privy Council – his advisory body. While his son Edward VI and daughter Mary I did include judges on their own Privy Councils, Mary I removed 3 judges from office, while Elizabeth I then excluded them entirely for 40 years.
Slowly, the judiciary were becoming separate from the government. Although it was generally accepted at this time that even the King was subject to the laws of the land, the Reformation added to the sovereign’s powers – the state had taken over the Church’s privilege to define the laws of God and had removed the influence of the Pope as the ultimate arbiter on Earth.
So, the King remained principal lawmaker, with the judges as interpreters of that law, a potentially uneasy relationship.
Meanwhile, by the Elizabethan and early Stuart periods, assize judges on the 6 circuits in England were mainly dealing with the most serious crimes not normally handled by the local Quarter Sessions, run by Justices of the Peace. They also took a role in local administration, although this was much reduced following the English Civil War.
A risky business
On the face of it, the judiciary was becoming steadily more independent – in 1642, Charles I was forced to agree to the appointment of judges “during good behaviour”, and in 1645, their salaries were raised from under £200 to £1,000 a year.
On the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, all judges – and there were just 12 at this point, 4 in each of the common law courts – remained in office.
But in 1668 the system of appointments “during pleasure” was reintroduced, and in the last 11 years of his reign Charles II sacked 11 of his judges. The next king, Charles’s brother, James II, sacked 12 in just 3 years.
This was bound to affect the quality and independence of the judiciary; judges knew very well their jobs were at risk if the sovereign did not like their judgments.
A new independence…
The day after the House of Commons resolved that James II had abdicated, a parliamentary committee drew up Heads of Grievances to be presented to the new King and Queen, William III and Mary II.
This document contained, among other things: items on paying judges’ salaries out of public funds, and preventing judges being removed or suspended from office, “unless by due cause of law”. These grievances eventually appeared in much the same form in the Act of Settlement (1701) and have remained in place ever since.
When common law failed
As the judiciary and its associated independence developed, so did the avenues of redress open to aggrieved parties. The common law system was an improvement on what had gone before, but it was still slow, highly technical, and vulnerable to corruption, especially when civil juries were used.
Fortunately, those who felt they had been failed by the common law system could still petition the King with their grievances. Gradually, these cases were delegated to the King’s Council, and eventually to one individual – the Lord Chancellor. Because of this, the Lord Chancellor came to be known as the ‘Keeper of the King’s conscience’, and began to preside over his own court, the Court of Chancery. This dealt only with civil disputes (for example property and contract cases) and applied the law of equity – even-handedness or fairness.
By the time of Henry VIII, the Court of Chancery had become a rival to the common law courts.
But as the years went by, the Court of Chancery began to be known for the same problems it had been set up to combat: complexity, expense and delay. Also, the Lord Chancellor was free to give whatever ruling he liked in a Chancery court, unbound by the law – which made it almost impossible for lawyers to advise their clients correctly.
Changes to the system
It was not until 1830 that there was any change to the 300-year-old assize courts.
By the Law Terms Act of that year, the Court of Great Sessions was abolished, and the Welsh counties and Chester were brought into the general circuit system. Shortly afterwards, the new Central Criminal Court – the Old Bailey – was set up, unifying the administration of justice in London and surrounding areas.
In 1856, judges of the Central Criminal Court were also given the right to hear cases outside the court’s ordinary jurisdiction, to ensure a fair trial where local prejudice existed or when it could offer an early trial and so avoid the delay involved in waiting for the next assizes.
County Courts, dealing with civil cases, were created under the County Courts Act 1846. In 2013 the individual County Courts were unified to form a single County Court for England and Wales.
The Judicature Act 1873 and after
In 1873, Parliament passed the Judicature Act which merged both the common law and equity and the common law courts and Court of Chancery. Although one of the Divisions of the High Court is still called the Chancery Division, all courts could now administer both equity and common law – with equity to reign supreme in any dispute.
The same Act established the High Court and the Court of Appeal and provided a right of appeal in civil cases to the Court of Appeal. Criminal appeal rights remained limited until the establishment of a Court of Criminal Appeal under the Criminal Appeal Act 1907.
The Court of Criminal Appeal sat for nearly 60 years, until its existence as a separate body was ended by the Criminal Appeal Act 1966. Its power passed to the Court of Appeal.
The Crown Court is created
Crown Courts as we know them today were not actually established until 1956, and then only in Liverpool and Manchester. These courts also took over the quarter sessions work in their cities.
The Royal Commission on Assizes and Quarter Sessions, 1966-1969, led to the abolition of courts of assize and quarter sessions and the establishment of a new unified Crown Court to deal with business from both, under the terms of the Courts Act 1971.
…But still not separate
Hundreds of years of evolution may have resulted in an independent judiciary – but that doesn’t mean they were entirely separated from government. For example, Lord Mansfield was Lord Chief Justice and also occupied a position in the Cabinet between 1757 and 1765. More recently, Lord Cave was Home Secretary for a couple of months at the end of the First World War whilst also a serving Lord of Appeal in Ordinary.
Additionally, until 2006, the Lord Chancellor was part of the government, Parliament, and the judiciary. The Lord Chancellor’s role changed drastically on 3 April 2006 as a result of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. This major change has been described as the most significant to affect the justice system since Magna Carta. The Act establishes the Lord Chief Justice as President of the Courts of England and Wales and Head of its Judiciary, a role that from 1873 had been performed by the Lord Chancellor. For the first time an express statutory duty was placed on the Lord Chancellor and other Ministers of the Crown to protect the independence of the judiciary. For the first time in its 1,000-year history, the judiciary is officially recognised as fully independent from the government and Parliament and a fully equal branch of the State.
Bibliography
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Burke, Williams & Sorensen, LLP
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Pronouns: she, her, hers Deepa Sharma provides litigation and advisory services to public agency clients throughout California. Deepa has extensive
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Pronouns: she, her, hers
Deepa Sharma provides litigation and advisory services to public agency clients throughout California.
Deepa has extensive experience advising clients and litigating in the areas of land use, planning and zoning, inverse condemnation, CEQA, municipal taxation, elections, and constitutional law issues such as due process, equal protection, and the First Amendment. She is also experienced in advising public agency clients on rent stabilization issues, and the implementation of California’s new housing laws.
While in law school, Deepa served as a law clerk in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration (FTA), which oversees federal grants to state and local transit providers. She interned at the State of California’s Office of Legislative Counsel, where she assisted in drafting legislation in the areas of energy, environmental, transportation, and education law. Deepa also served as a judicial extern to the Honorable Maria P. Rivera of the California Court of Appeal, and was a staff editor and executive board member for the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly.
Before law school, Deepa served as a policy aide in the California State Legislature, and worked as a political consultant to various local and statewide campaigns.
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California Fish and Wildlife Journal - Contents
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The Department of Fish and Wildlife manages California's diverse fish, wildlife, and plant resources, and the habitats upon which they depend, for their ecological values and for their use and enjoyment by the public.
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Announcement!
In an effort to increase the accessibility and visibility of the California Fish and Wildlife Journal, it is now being published in HTML! This change from PDF to HTML will allow the Journal to be more accessible to those with disabilities and more easily translated into languages other than English. HTML is also mobile-friendly allowing our readers to use multiple types of devices to access the Journal’s content. CDFW is excited to deliver the Journal to a variety of new audiences who may be interested in scientific research in California. Thank you for supporting the Journal through this transition. For questions, comments, or concerns please email the current Editor-in-Chief. We would love to hear from you.
If materials are reproduced, please acknowledge the author(s) and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Available online: 2008–current, see below.Search Articles(opens in new tab)
If you need an article of CFWJ that is not available on our website, issues from 1915–1994 can be found through the Biodiversity Heritage Library(opens in new tab), and you can email our publication office to obtain a copy of any other issue. All article titles and authors are listed below, and print versions can be found at the State Depository Libraries.
.(opens in new tab)
The views, opinions, and conclusions within the content of this publication are solely the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Scanned Articles (1914–2007)
2007
California Fish and Game 93(4). Fall 2007.
A re-evaluation of age, growth, and batch fecundity in the California barracuda, Sphyraena argentea, from southern California based on specimens taken from 2000 to 2002. David J. Bottinelli and Larry G. Allen
Cold temperature-induced osmoregulatory failure: the physiological basis for tilapia winter mortality in the Salton Sea? Brian A. Sardella and Colin J. Brauner
Relation between mortality of prickly sculpin and diurnal extremes in water quality at Rodeo Lagoon, Marin County, California. Barbara A. Martin, Michael K. Saiki, and Darren Fong
Inconsistencies in historical geographic range maps: the gray wolf as example. Stephanie L. Shelton and Floyd W. Weckerly
California Fish and Game 93(3). Summer 2007.
Non-indigenous aquatic organisms in the coastal waters of California. Stephen F. Foss, Peter R. Ode, Michael Sowby, and Marian Ashe
Historic accounts, recent abundance, and current distribution of threatened chinook salmon in the Russian River, California. Shawn D. Chase, David J. Manning, David G. Cook, and Sean K. White
Abundance and impacts of fallow deer leks at Point Reyes National Seashore. Gary M. Fellers and Michael S. Osbourn
Occurrence of a eulachon, Thaleichthys pacificus, in the lower Sacramento River, California. Robert F. Vincik and Robert G. Titus
California Fish and Game 93(2). Spring 2007.
Proliferative kidney disease (Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae) in Merced River Hatchery juvenile chinook salmon:mortality and performance impairment in 2005 smolts. Scott Foott, R. Stone, and K. Nichols
Size differences in wild and farmed red abalone: developing enforcement tools to combat illegal commercialization. Laura Rogers-Bennett and Arthur S. Melvin
Life history and ecological characteristics of the Santa Ana sucker, Catostomus santaanae. Michael K. Saiki, Barbara A. Martin, Glen W. Knowles, and Patrick W. Tennant
Marking of novel objects by kit foxes. Howard O. Clark, Jr.
First record of the occurrence of the California grunion, Leuresthes tenuis, in Tomales Bay, California:a northern extension of the species. Dale Roberts, Robert N. Lea, and Karen L. M. Martin
California Fish and Game 93(1). Winter 2007.
Diets of age-0 striped bass in the San Francisco estuary, 1973-2002. Marade E. Bryant and Jane D. Arnold
The ecology of over-water nesting ducks in northeastern California. Sabrina M. Wright-Myers and Raymond J. Bogiatto
Feeding preferences and size-related dietary shifts of treefish (Scorpaenidae: Sebastes serriceps) off Southern California. Ellen T. Kosman, Madhavi A. Colton, and Ralph J. Larson
Consideration of the common name for Gila (Siphateles) bicolor vaccaceps, a tui chub in the Cow Head Basin of northeastern California. Stewart B. Reid
First record of the wolf-eel, Anarrhichthys ocellatus (Pisces: Anarhichadidae), from Baja California, Mexico. Richard F. Feeney, Robert N. Lea, Sean Dyer, and Scott Gietler
2006
California Fish and Game 92(4). Fall 2006.
California recrational abalone fishery catch and effort estimates for 2002 from a combined report card and telephone survey. Peter E. Kalvass and John J. Geibel
A survey of the fishes of the Cabrillo National Monument, San Diego, California. Matthew T. Craig and Daniel J. Pondella, II
Estimating relative numbers of salt marsh harvest mice, Reithrodontomys raviventris, in tidal marshes by trapping the high marsh zone. Ronald R. Duke and Howard S. Shellhammer
Potential prey resources for marbled murrelets in central California. Laird A. Henkel and James T. Harvey
California Fish and Game 92(3). Summer 2006.
Observations on the behavior of white sharks scavenging from a whale carcass at Point Reyes, California. Tobey H. Curtis, John T. Kelly, Karl L. Menard, R. Karl Laroche, Robert E. Jones, and A.. Peter Klimley
The use of eastern Sacramento Valley vernal pools by ducks. Raymond J. Bogiatto and John D. Karnegis
Using flushing counts and plumage development to assess juvenile production in pheasants. Chester M. Hart, Edward S. Smith, and Chad A. Fien
Light-trapping of larval and juvenile northern pike, Esox lucius, from Lake Davis, California, Spring 2003. Ryan M. Brown
California Fish and Game 92(2). Spring 2006.
Demography of desert mule deer in southeastern California. Jason P. Marshal, Leon M. Lesicka, Vernon C. Bleich, Paul R. Krausman, Gerald P. Mulcahy, and Nancy G. Andrew
Off-highway vehicle impact on the flat-tailed horned lizard, Phrynosoma mcallii, in the Colorado Desert of southern California. Michael C. McGrann, Gavin R. Wright, Roman J. Dial, and Amy M. McGrann
Influence of surface-water withdrawal on juvenile steelhead and their habitat in a south-central California nursery stream. Anthony P. Spina, Matthew R. McGoogan, and Thomas S. Gaffney
New records of the flag cabrilla, Epinephelus labriformis (Serranidae: Epinephelinae), from the Pacific Coast of Baja California, Mexico, and San Diego, California, USA, with notes on the distribution of other groupers in California. Matthew T. Craig, Daniel J. Pondella II, and Robert N. Lea
Captive breeding of spotted sand bass, Paralabrax maculatofasciatus, in southern California. Eric F. Miller and Larry G. Allen
Distribution of tui chub in the Cow Head Basin, Nevada and California. G. Gary Scoppettone and Peter H. Rissler
California Fish and Game 92(1). Winter 2006.
Life History Traits of the Greenstriped Rockfish, Sebastes elongatus. Franklin R. Shaw and Donald R. Gunderson
Variance in survival of young mule deer in the Sierra Nevada, California. Vernon C. Bleich, Becky M. Pierce, Jennifer L. Jones, and R. Terry Bowyer
Restoration efforts augment range extension of a federally- threatened plant, Suaeda californica (S. Watson 1874). Michael Walgren
A diet analysis of the barn owl, Tyto alba, in northeastern California with notes on comparative methodologies. Raymond J. Bogiatto, Eve A. Bruce, Umberto F. Salinas, Mellisa J. Silvestrini, and Brian A. Sardella
Ectoparasites found on salt marsh harvest mice in the northern salt marshes of Grizzly Bay, California. Howard O. Clark, Jr., Howard S. Shellhammer, and Stephen D. Gaimari
2005
California Fish and Game 91(4). Fall 2005.
Historical status of coho salmon in streams of the urbanized San Francisco estuary, California. Robert A. Leidy, Gordon Becker, and Brett N. Harvey
Giant garter snake surveys at some areas of historic occupation in the Grassland Ecological Area, Merced Co., and Mendota Wildlife Area, Fresno Co., California. Catherine Dickert
Pintail distribution and selection of marsh types at Mendota Wildlife Area during fall and winter. Joseph P. Fleskes, David S. Gilmer, and Robert L. Jarvis
A simple one-way door design for passive relocation of western burrowing owls. Howard O. Clark, Jr. and David L. Plumpton
California Fish and Game 91(3). Summer 2005.
Mountain sheep and mining: implications for conservation and management. Michael W. Oehler, Sr., Vernon C. Bleich, R. Terry Bowyer, and Matthew C. Nicholson
Domoic acid in the Santa Cruz wharf fishery. Spencer E. Fire and Mary W. Silver
Total mercury concentrations in fillets of bluegill, redear sunfish, largemouth bass, and other fishes from Lake Natoma, Sacramento County, California. Michael K. Saiki, Barbara A. Martin, Thomas W. May, and Charles N. Alpers
Change in area of winter-flooded and dry rice in the northern Central Valley of California determined by satellite imagery. Joseph P. Fleskes, William M. Perry, Kevin L. Petrik, Ruth Spell, and Fritz Reid
Correct nomenclature for Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep. John D. Wehausen, Vernon C. Bleich, and Rob R. Ramey II
California Fish and Game 91(2). Spring 2005.
Off-highway vehicle impact on Astragalus magdalenae var. peirsonii, and other critical plant species of the Algodones Dunes, California. Amy M. McGrann, Michael C. McGrann, and Roman Dial
Description and identification of larval and juvenile cyprinids (fathead minnow, tui chub, and blue chub) from Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon. Stacy Remple and Douglas F. Markle
Territory occupancy, reproductive success, and nest site characteristics of goshawks on managed timberlands in central and northern California 1993-2000. David J. Richter
Acute oral and dermal toxicity of aquatic herbicides and a surfactant to garter snakes. Robert C. Hosea, Kalen Z. Bjurstrom, and Edward E. Littrell
Leopard shark mating observed off La Jolla, California. Susan E. Smith
Population density and body weight influences on home range size of feral hogs. Shane J. Kiefer and Floyd W. Weckerly
A protective housing for instream data temperature loggers. Anthony P. Spina
California Fish and Game 91(1). Winter 2005.
Responses of forest squirrels to group-selection timber harvesting in the central Sierra Nevada. Barrett A. Garrison, Robin L. Wachs, and Matthew L. Triggs
Fish by-catch in dungeness crab, Cancer magister, research trawls off northern California 1966-1969. Daniel W. Gotshall and John J. Geibel
An assessment of the hazard of a mixture of the herbicide Rodeo® and the non-ionic surfactant R-11® to aquatic invertebrates and larval amphibians. Joel Trumbo
The effect of dietary supplemented L-arginine on the growth of juvenile hatchery reared white seabass, Atractoscion nobilis. Eric F. Miller and Michael P. Franklin
Modifications to an agricultural water diversion to permit fish entrainment sampling. Zoltan Matica and Matt Nobriga
Records of chameleon goby, Tridentiger trigonocephalus, in San Diego Bay, California. Daniel J. Pondella II and Zachary K. J. Chinn
2004
California Fish and Game 90(4). Fall 2004.
An annotated check list of the amphibians and reptiles of California and adjacent waters. Mark R. Jennings
California Fish and Game 90(3). Summer 2004.
Conservation of Paiute cutthroat trout:the genetic legacy of population transplants in an endemic California salmonid. Jan F. Cordes, Joshua A. Israel, and Bernie May
Origin and distribution of leopard frogs, Rana pipiens complex, in California. Mark R. Jennings and Michael M. Fuller
Current satus of southern steelhead/rainbow trout in San Mateo Creek, California. Tim E. Hovey
Record of nesting by fulvous whistling-ducks, southern San Joaquin Valley, California. Greg Gerstenberg and Carl D. Rey
First record of the cape cigarfish, Cubiceps capensis (Family Nomeidae), from California waters. John E. McCosker, Shane Anderson, John Richards, and Milton Love
California Fish and Game 90(2). Spring 2004.
Harbor seal, Phoca vitulina richardii, population trends in the San Francisco Bay estuary, 1970-2002. Emma K. Grigg, Sarah G. Allen, Deborah E. Green, and Hal Markowitz
Effect of water temperature on non-specific immune function and ceratomyxosis in juvenile chinook salmon and steelhead from the Klamath River. J. Scott Foott, Rick Harmon, and Ronald Stone
Persistence of identifiable remains of white sturgeon juveniles in digestive tracts of northern pikeminnow. Dena M. Gadomski and Conrad N. Frost
Predation by a golden eagle, Aquila chrysaetos, on a juvenile mountain sheep, Ovis canadensis. Vernon C. Bleich, E. Frances Cassirer, Victor L. Coggins, Lloyd E. Oldenburg, and David E. Hunter
The occurrence of the Japanese mitten crab, Eriocheir japonica (De Haan), on the west coast of North America. Gregory C. Jensen and David A. Armstrong
California Fish and Game 90(1). Winter 2004.
Setting priorities for native fish conservation: an example from the south Yuba River watershed. Mark Gard and Paul Randall
Habitat selection by female northern pintails wintering in the Grassland Ecological Area, California. Joseph P. Fleskes, David S. Gilmer, and Robert L. Jarvis
Potential for restoration of a California stream native fish assemblage. Mark Gard
Acanthocephala cystacanth infections in sand crabs from Bodega Bay, California. Laura Royal, Murray Dailey, Richard Demaree, and Judy Sakanari
Sexual dimorphism in wing measurements of common snipe. F. B. Edelmann
Unusual predatory behavior of a southern sea otter. Carol B. Maehr
2003
California Fish and Game 89(4). Fall 2003.
Responses of land birds to group selection logging in the central Sierra Nevada. Barrett A. Garrison, Robin L. Wachs, and Matthew L. Triggs
Environmental variables associated with a chinook salmon redd in Deer Creek, California. Mark D. Bowen and S. Mark Nelson
The occurrence of the white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, at the Point Reyes headlands, California. John T. Kelly and A. Peter Klimley
Records of the exotic freshwater amphipod, Crangonyx pseudogracilis, in San Luis Obispo County, California. Richard L. Bottorff, Braelin A. Hamill, and Whittaker I. Hamill
First record of the Pacific dog snapper, Lutjanus novemfasciatus, in California. Marc T. Tognazzini
California Fish and Game 89(3). Summer 2003.
Fecundity and recruitment potential of coastal cutthroat trout in Oregon and Washington. Richard S. Wydoski
Mark loss rate in hatchery-reared striped bass, Morone saxatilis, in the Sacramento-San Joaquin estuary, California. Samandha H. Vu and David W. Kohlhorst
Diets of bullfrogs in relation to predation on giant garter snakes at Colusa National Wildlfe Refuge. David Aurioles-Gamboa, Alejandro Marin, and Sergio Aguiniga
Assimilation of pelagic red crabs, Pleuroncodes planipes, by western gulls, Larus occidentalis. David Aurioles-Gamboa, Alejandro Marin, and Sergio Aguiniga
New host record of avian tuberculosis in an American white pelican, Pelecanus erythrorhynchos. Pauline Nol, Roger E. Brannian, Brenda M. Berlowski, Mark J. Wolcott, and Tonie E. Rocke
California Fish and Game 89(2). Spring 2003.
Forty-one years of vegetation change on permanent transects in northeastern California: implications for wildlife. Robert J. Schaefer, Douglas J. Thayer, and Timothy S. Burton
The bird community of an oak woodland stream. Gregory A. Giusti, Robert J. Keiffer, and Charles E. Vaughan
Habitat associations of steelhead trout near the southern extent of their range. Anthony P. Spina
A temporal, sex-specific occurrence pattern among white sharks at the South Farallon Islands, California. Scot D. Anderson and Peter Pyle
Responses of San Joaquin kit foxes to an oil-gas well fire. Howard O. Clark, Jr.
California Fish and Game 89(1). Winter 2003.
Historical analysis of Diazinon from the San Joaquin River watershed with implications for exceeding water quality targets. Lenwood W. Hall, Jr.
The physiological performance of golden trout at water temperatures of 10-19° C. Christopher A. Myrick and Joseph J. Cech, Jr.
Spatial, seasonal, and size-dependent variation in the diet of Sacramento pikeminnow in the Ell River, northwestern California. Rodney J. Nakamoto and Brett C. Harvey
Occurrence of Baylisascaris procyonis in Marin, Sonoma, and Alameda counties in northern California. Valkyrie P. Kimball, Danielle Young, Ron Keith, Kevin R. Kazacos, and Jody Sakanari
First reported occurrence of Porocephalus crotali (Pentastomida: Porocephalidae) in the Santa Catalina Island rattleless rattlesnake. Stephen R. Goldberg, Charles R. Bursey, and Kent R. Beaman
2002
California Fish and Game 88(4). Fall 2002.
Larval delta smelt diet composition and feeding incidence: environmental and ontogenetic influences. Matthew L. Nobriga
Sampling methods and trapping success trends for the Mojave ground squirrel, Spermophilus mohavensis. Matthew L. Brooks and John R. Matchett
First record of the armed grunt, Conodon serrifer (Haemulidae), in southern California. Robert H. Moore and Kevin T. Herbinson
Newly discovered food and habitat use by California red tree voles. Theodore Wooster and Pamela Town
Time allocation by Aleutian canada geese during the nonbreeding season in California. Henning C. Stabins, Christian E. Grue, David A. Manuwal, and Stuart L. Paulus
California Fish and Game 88(3). Summer 2002.
Seasonal feeding habits, growth, and movement of steelhead trout in the lower Mokelumne River, California. Joseph E. Merz
The spotted ratfish, Hydrolagus colliei: notes on its biology with a redescription of the species (Holocephali: Chimaeridae). Dominique A. Didier and Lisa J. Rosenberger
Structure, sampling gear and environmental associations, and historical changes in the fish assemblage of the southern Sacramento-San Joaquin delta. Frederick Feyrer and Michael P. Healey
The Pacific golden-eyed tilefish, Caulolatilus affinis Gill (Teleostei: Malacanthidae), first occurrence in California. H. J. Walker, Jr., Philip A. Hastings, and Robert H. Steele
Economical tripod rifle mount. Jason A. Hubbart
New records of the Aleutian skate, Bathyraja aleutica, from northern California. Gerald R. Hoff
California Fish and Game 88(2). Spring 2002.
Adult recoveries of winter and summer steelhead by release location on the Lewis River, Washington. Jack M. Tipping and Todd. D. Hilson
Incidence of white sturgeon deformities in two reaches of the Columbia River. Lisa C. Burner and Thomas A. Rien
Records of the Shokihaze goby, Tridentiger barbatus (Gunther), newly introduced into the San Francisco Estuary. Thomas A. Greiner
Distribution of female northern pintails in relation to hunting and location of hunted and non-hunted habitats in the Grassland Ecological Area, California. Joseph P. Fleskes, David S. Gilmer, and Robert L. Jarvis
California Fish and Game 88(1). Winter 2002.
Trends in California black bass fishing tournaments, 1990-1994, and comparisons with 1985-1989 data. Ivan L. Paulsen, Walt Beer, and Dennis P. Lee
Nocturnal and diurnal haul-out patterns of harbor seals (Phoca vitulina richardsi) at Castro Rocks, San Francisco Bay, California. Emma K. Grigg, Deborah E. Green, Sarah G. Allen, and Hal Markowitz
Seasonal diets of wild pigs in oak woodlands of the central coast region of California. Ron E. Loggins, Jeffery T. Wilcox, Dirk H. VanVuren, and Rick A. Sweitzer
Growth of American River fall-run chinook salmon in California’s Central Valley: temperature and ration effects. Christopher A. Myrick and Joseph J. Cech, Jr.
Record of the shoulderspot grenadier, Caerlorinchus scaphopsis, from northern California, U.S.A. Gerald R. Hoff
2001
California Fish and Game 87(4). Fall 2001.
Survey of fishes and environmental conditions in Abbotts Lagoon, Point Reyes National Seashore, California. Michael K. Saiki and Barbara A. Martin
Analysis of maturity in lingcod, Ophiodon elongatus. Kelly R. Silberberg, Thomas E. Laidig, and Peter B. Adams
Museum collection records of mountain lions in California. Eric S. Long and Richard Sweitzer
California Fish and Game 87(3). Summer 2001.
Observations of cleaning behavior by gian kelpfish, Heterostichus rostratus, island kelpfish, Alloclinus holderi, bluebanded goby, Lythrypnus dalli, and kelp bass, Paralabrax clathratus, on giant sea bass, Stereolepis gigas. Kathy deWet-Oleson and Milton Love
Differences in mourning dove productivity among three time perids at Gray Lodge Wildlife Area, California. Michael R. Miller, Casey L. Stemler, Julie L. Yee, and Daniel S. Blankenship
Diet of juvenile fall-run chinook salmon in the lower Mokelumne River, California. Joseph E. Merz
Use of a car alarm sequence in the northern mockingbird repertoire. Howard O. Clark, Jr.
First eastern Pacific records of the longfin mako shark, Isurus paucus, Guitar-Manday, 1966. David A. Ebert
California Fish and Game 87(2). Spring 2001.
Trace metal concentrations in San Joaquin kit foxes from the southern San Joaquin Valley of California. Kristin G. Charlton, David W. Hird, and Linda K. Spiegel
Association of fall-run chinook salmon redds with woody debris in the lower Mokelumne River, California. Joseph E. Merz
First observations of spawining behavior in the giant sea bass. Tim E. Hovey
A self-contained mobile surgical table for fish. Tim E. Hovey
An economical safe-house for small mammals in pitfall traps. Tim E. Hovey
In memoriam – William A. Dill (1910-2000). William Ellis Ripley
California Fish and Game 87(1). Winter 2001.
Invertebrate drift and feeding habits of juvenile chinook salmon in the upper Sacramento River, California. Pamela A. Petrusso and Daniel B. Hayes
Condition of juvenile chinook salmon in the upper Sacramento River, California. Pamela A. Petrusso and Daniel B. Hayes
Gut contents of juvenile chinook salmon from the upper Sacramento River, California, during Spring 1998. Barbara A. Martin and Michael K. Saiki
2000
California Fish and Game 86(4). Fall 2000.
Water and nutrient content of forage in Sonoran pronghorn habitat, Arizona. Lisa M. Fox, Paul R. Krausman, Michael L. Morrison, and Robert M. Kattnig
Prevalance of Mycobacterium in wild and captive delta smelt. Dolores B. Antonio, Christina Swanson, Joseph J. Cech, Jr., Randy C. Mager, Sergei Doroshov, and Ronald P. Hedrick
A list of freshwater, anadromous, and euryhaline fishes of California. Peter B. Moyle and Liam H. Davis
Discovery of Shasta salamanders in atypical habitat. Len Lindstrand III
California Fish and Game 86(3). Summer 2000.
Mineral content of Sonoran pronghorn forage. Lisa M. Fox, Paul R. Krausman, Michael L. Morrison, and Ted H. Noon
Description of laboratory-reared larvae of California grunion and comparisons with larvae of topsmelt and jacksmelt. Lourdes Vasquez-Yeomans, Martha Valdez-Moreno, and William J. Richards
Annotated list of the birds of California. California Bird Records Committee
Preliminary observations of the behavior of male, flat-tailed horned lizards before and after an off-highway vehicle race in California. Nancy C. Nicolai and Jeffrey E. Lovich
Observation of the prickly shark, Echinorhinus cookei, from the oxygen minimum zone in Santa Barbara Basin, California. James P. Barry and Norman Maher
California Fish and Game 86(2). Spring 2000.
DNA-based genetic markers in black-tailed and mule deer for forensic applications. Kenneth C. Jones, Kenneth F. Levine, and James D. Banks
Survivorship and cause-specific mortality in sympatric populations of mountain sheep and mule deer. Robert J. Schaefer, Steven G. Torres, and Vernon C. Bleich
Food habits of California corbina in southern California. John W. O’Brien and Charles F. Valle
Age and growth of tui chub in Eagle Lake, California. Patrick K. Crain and Daniel M. Corcoran
The first eastern Pacific report of the sharptail mola, Mola lanceolata (Tetraodontiformes: Molidae). Eduardo F. Balart, Jose Luis Castro-Aguirre, and Edgar Amador-Silva
California Fish and Game 86(1). Winter 2000.
Symposium overview: damage to and recovery of aquatic and riparian ecosystems in the upper Sacramento River form the Cantara chemical spill. Barrett A. Garrison
Esitmating the number of fish and crayfish killed and the proportions of wild and hatchery rainbow trout in the Cantara spill. David G. Hankin and Dana McCanne
Molecular analysis of population genetic structure and recolonization of rainbow trout following the Cantara spill. Jennifer L. Nielsen, Erika L. Heine, Christina A. Gan, and Monique C. Fountain
Possible effects of the Cantara spill on Amphibian populations of the upper Sacramento River. Claudia Luke and David Sterner
Possible impacts of the Cantara spill on reptile populations along the upper Sacramento River. Claudia Luke and David Sterner
Restoration planning for the Cantara Metam sodium spill: a group multiattribute decision analysis approach. Daniel J. Sheehy, Craig P. Martz, Marck C. Stopher, Stephen M. Turek, Jack W. Miller, and Joseph P. Milton
Hindsight analysis for the Cantara spill natural resource damage assessment. Mark C. Stopher
Bibliography of Cantara spill reports.
1999
California Fish and Game 85(4). Fall 1999.
Distribution and intensity of hunting and trapping activity in the East Mojave National Scenic Area, California. Vernon C. Bleich and Andrew M. Pauli
Juvenile delta smelt use of shallow-water and channel habitats in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary. Geir A. Aasen
Diver disturbance in kelp forests. Tim N. Schaeffer, Michael S. Foster, Maria E. Landreau, and Ronald K. Walder
Reproduction in the red diamond rattlesnake in California. Stephen R. Goldberg
First reported occurrence of Phidascaris labiatopapillosa (Nematoda: Ascarididae) in the red diamond rattlesnake. Stephen R. Goldberg and Charles R. Bursey
In Memoriam: Irene Timossi (1951-1998). Christopher Timossi, Barrett A. Garrison, and Reginald H. Barrett
California Fish and Game 85(3). Summer 1999.
California Wildlife Habitats Relationships System: effects of county attributes on prediction accuracy for bird species. Barrett A. Garrison, Richard A. Erickson, Michael A. Patten, and Irene C. Timossi
Thermal preference of female threespine sticklebacks under fed and food-deprived conditions. Christopher A. Myrick and Joseph J. Cech, Jr.
Range extensions of 3 species of macrourids from the west coast of North America. Gerald R. Hoff
First eastern Pacific record of the goblin shark, Mitsukurina owstoni (Lamniformes: Mitsukurinidae). John K. Ugoretz and Jeffrey A. Seigel
Northernmost occurrence of the slender tuna, Allothunnus fallai, in the Pacific Ocean. Kurt M. Schaefer and John Childers
Predation by juvenile hatchery salmonids on wild fall Chinook salmon fry in the Lewis River, Washington. Shane W. Hawkins and Jack M. Tipping
First record of deepwater bass, Serranus aequidens (Serranidae), from California. Daniel J. Pondella, II
Northern range extension of the white grunt, Haemulopsis leuciscus. Jorge A. Rasales-Casian and Gorgonio Ruiz-Campos.
An animal track casting method using dolomite, sand, and spray adhesive. Howard O. Clark, Jr.
Use of buried and non-buried traps to sample desert rodents. Christopher S. Fitzgerald, Paul R. Krausman, and Michael L. Morrison
Avian conservation, research and management (Book Review). Liam H. Davis
California Fish and Game 85(2). Spring 1999.
Errata: Van Vuren, D., T. G. Moore, and C. A. Ingels. 1998. Prey selection by barn owls using artificial nest boxes. California Fish and Game 84:127-132.
Movement of California halibut along the coast of California. Mason Posner and Robert J. Lavenberg
Expandable and economical long-term collars for juvenile mule deer. Vernon C. Bleich and Becky M. Pierce
Movement patterns and survivorship of black-tailed deer migrating across Trinity Reservoir. Brian B. Boroski and Reginald H. Barrett
Stranding records of the oarfish in and around Bahia de la Paz, Mexico. Fernando Salazar-Hermoso, Edgardo Ochoa-Lopez, and Carlos Villavicencio-Garayzar
Evidence for freshwater spawning by striped mullet and return of the Pacific tenpounder in the lower Colorado River. Robert H. Bettaso and Jeffrey N. Young
A first Mexican record of the Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha. Jose De La Cruz-Aguero
First records of morphological abnormalities in leatherjack. Adrian F. Gonzalez-Acosta, Gustavo De La Cruz-Aguero, Ruben Rodriguez-Sanchez, Jose De La Cruz-Aguero, and Jose Luis Castro-Aguirre
An observation of blue shark parturition in the Southern California Bight. Leeanne Laughlin and John Ugoretz
A blood fluke from a northern pintail in California. Andrew G. Gordus
California Fish and Game 85(1). Winter 1999.
Biological characteristics of mule deer in California’s San Jacinto Mountains. Robert J. Schaefer
Effects of stocking density on growth, gross composition, and plasma and hepatic metabolite levels in palmetto bass, Morone saxatalis × M. chrysops. Fu-Guang Liu, Shenn-Der Yang and Hon-Cheng Chen
Status of the delta smelt in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary. Dale A. Sweetnam
Status of splittail in California. Randall D. Baxter
Status of striped bass in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary. David W. Kohlhorst
Status of white sturgeon in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary. Raymond G. Schaffter and David W. Kohlhorst
The Marine County breeding bird atlas and Atlas of the breeding birds of Monterey County, California (Book Reviews). Philip Unitt
1998
California Fish and Game 84(4). Fall 1998.
A new tool for kelp restoration. Julio A. Vasquez and Ronald H. McPeak
Deer gender determination by polymerase chain reaction: validation study and application to tissues, bloodstains, and hair forensic samples in California. Arlette Gilson, Michael Syvanen, Kenneth Levine, and James Banks
First observations of vermillion rockfish courtship are from a harvest refuge. Marty L. Gingras, David A. VenTresca, Michal D. Donnellan, and Jennifer L. Fisher
Homing behavior of a sevengill shark released from the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Gilbert Van Dykhuizen, Henry F. Mollet, and Juan Manuel Ezcurra
A range extension for the volcano barnacle, Tetraclita rubescens. Sean R. Connolly and Joan Roughgarden
In Memoriam: Elden H. Vestal. Robert E. Vestal
California Fish and Game 84(3). Summer 1998.
Physical condition, morphometrics, and growth characteristics of mountain lions. Kristin G. Charlton, David W. Hird, and E. Lee Fitzhugh
Limitations of nuclear magnetic resonance analysis of fecal bile for taxonomic identification of contemporary and extinct mammals. Jeffrey S. deRopp, Jerold H. Theis, Jim I. Mead, and Vernon C. Bleich
Splittail fecundity and egg size. Frederick Feyrer and Randall Baxter
Prey selection by barn owls using artificial nest boxes. Dirk Van Vuren, Thomas G. Moore, and Chuck A. Ingels
Adult and juvenile anadromous salmonid migration timing in California streams. Linda Fukushima and E. W. Lesh
Occurrence of the red pike-conger, Cynoponticus coniceps (Jordan and Gilbert, 1881) (Pisces:Muraenesocidae), in the Gulf of California. Gorgonio Ruiz-Campos, Salvador Contreras-Balderas, and Maria De Lourdes Lozano-Vilano
California Fish and Game 84(2). Spring 1998.
Nesting ecology of ducks at Eagle Lake, California. Raymond J. Bogiatto
California Wildlife Habitat Relationships System: a test in coastal scrub and annual grassland habitats. Judd A. Howell and Reginald H. Barrett
Experimental analysis of 3 internal marking methods for red sea urchins. Peter E. Kalvass, Jon M. Hendrix, and Phillip M. Law
Occurrence of xanthic grass rockfish, Sebastes rastrelliger. David Cripe
In Memoriam: Richard S. Croker. Wm. Ellis Ripley
California Fish and Game 84(1). Winter 1998.
Extension of 2 nonindigenous fishes, Acanthogobius flavimanus and Poecilia latipinna into San Diego Bay marsh habitats. Gregory D. Williams, Julie S. Desmond, and Joy B. Zedler
Nondestructive diet analysis of the leopard shark from 2 sites in Tomales Bay, California. Jason D. Webber and Joseph J. Cech, Jr.
Population size of the peninsular pronghorn in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Jorge Cancino, Alfredo Ortega-Rubio, and Ricardo Rodriguez-Estrella
Establishment of the wakasagi, Hypomesus nipponensis, in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary. Geir A. Aasen, Dale A. Sweetnam, and Lisa M. Lynch
In-situ videography calibrated with 2 parallel lasers for calculation of fish length. Marty L. Gingras, David A. VenTresca, and Richard H. McGonigal
An economical, portable apparatus for conducting static thermal and chemical toxicity tests on amphibian eggs and larvae. Mark R. Jennings
Use of military helicopters to survey an elk population in north coastal California. Floyd W. Weckerly and Karen E. Kovacs
Consumption of juvenile salmonids by adult steelhead in the Cowlitz River, Washington. Geraldine E. Vander Haegen, Jack M. Tipping, and Stan A. Hammer
1997
California Fish and Game 83(4). Fall 1997.
Variation in use of the Klamath River Estuary by juvenile chinook salmon. Michael Wallace and Barry W. Collins
Utility of 10-day censuses to estimate population size of blunt-nosed leopard lizards. David J. Germano, Daniel F. Williams, and Larry J. Saslaw
Survey of small fishes and environmental conditions in Mugu Lagoon, California, and tidally influenced reaches of its tributaries. Michael K. Saiki
New equipment for performing measured-distance diving surveys. John Ugoretz, David A. VenTresca, Christine A. Pattison, Seven E. Blair, Robert S. Hornady, Joshua N. Plant, and Andrew A. Voss
California Fish and Game 83(3). Summer 1997.
Water chemistry and community structure of saline and hypersaline salt evaporation ponds in San Francisco Bay, California. David G. Lonzarich and Jerry J. Smith
Prevalence, relative abundance, and mean intensity of plerocercoids of Proteocephalus sp. in young striped bass in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary. Jane D. Arnold and Holly S. Yue
Bacterial shell diseases in crangonid shrimp. Jane D. Arnold and Gary L. Hendrickson
Conversions between total, fork, and standard lengths for lingcod, Ophiodon elongatus. Thomas E. Laidig, Peter B. Adams, Kelly R. Silberberg, and Heidi E. Fish
Monitoring bird populations by point counts (Book Review). Gerald T. Braden
California Fish and Game 83(2). Spring 1997.
Mortality rates of white catfish in California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Raymond G. Schaffter and David W. Kohlhorst
Growth of white catfish in California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Raymond G. Schaffter
Demography of mountain sheep in the East Chocolate Mountains, California. Nancy G. Andrew, Vernon C. Bleich, Peter V. August, and Steven G. Torres
Range extension of the quillback rockfish, Sebastes malinger, to the Southern California Bight. Milton S. Love and Robert N. Lea
The first occurrence of the panamic sergeant major, Abudefduf troschelii (Pomacentridae), in California. Daniel J. Pondella, II
A manual of California vegetation (Book Review). Mark W. Schwartz
California Fish and Game 83(1). Winter 1997.
White sturgeon spawning migrations and location of spawning habitat in the Sacramento River, California. Raymond G. Schaffter
Relative importance of prey items to California halibut. Stephen P. Wertz and Michael L. Domeier
Prevalance of antibodies against selected diseases in San Joaquin kit foxes at Camp Roberts, California. William G. Standley and Patrick M. McCue
The occurrence of hydrogen sulfide gas in San Joaquin kit fox dens and rodent burrows in an oil field in California. Linda K. Spiegel and Tony C. Dao
Introduction of the ridgetail prawn, Exopalaemon carinicauda, into San Francisco Bay, California. Mary K. Wicksten
1996
California Fish and Game 82(4). Fall 1996.
Comparative feeding habits of juvenile chinook salmon, steelhead, and Sacramento squawfish in the lower American River, California. Joseph E. Merz and C. David Vanicek
Effects of aquaculture on habitat use by wintering shorebirds in Tomales Bay, California. John P. Kelly, Jules G. Evens, Richard W. Stallcup, and David Wimpfheimer
Roosevelt elk along the Prairie Creek drainage: an evaluation of estimating abundance and herd composition. Floyd W. Weckerly
Photographic evidence of white shark movements in California waters. Scot D. Anderson and Kenneth J. Goldman
Preliminary estimate of rice present in strip-harvested fields in the Sacramento Valley, California. Michael R. Miller and Glenn D. Wylie
A Pacific fat sleeper, Dormitator latifrons (Perciformes: Eleotrididae), from Lake Merritt, San Francisco Bay, California. Douglas J. Long
The ragged-tooth shark, Odontaspis ferox (Risso 1810), in the Gulf of California. Carlos J. Villavicencio-Garayzar
Brushfires in California: ecology and resource management (Book Review). Kevin Shaffer and James C. Dice
California Fish and Game 82(3). Summer 1996.
An analysis of commercial passenger fishing vessel fisheries for kelp bass and barred sand bass in the Southern California Bight. Milton S. Love, Andrew Brooks, and J. R. Raymond Ally
Conditoin and reproductive performance of female mule deer in the central Sierra Nevada. T. J. Taylor
Southern range extension of the harlequin rockfish, Sebastes variegatus (Scorpaenidae). James Wilder Orr and David C. Baker
Distribution of nesting greater sandhill cranes in the South Fork Pit River Valley, Modoc County, California. Thomas A. Roberts, Rebecca Cull, and Anne Flannery
A red abalone tag return after 16 years at liberty. Ian K. Taniguchi and Peter L. Haaker
First freshwater record of Pacific lamprey, Lamptera tridentata, from Baja California, Mexico. Gorgonio Ruiz-Campos and Salvador Gonzalez-Guzman
Past occurrence of eulachon, Thaleichthys pacificus, in streams tributary to Humboldt Bay, California. Mark R. Jennings
California Fish and Game 82(2). Spring 1996.
Revised measurements for classification of age of sage grouse from wings. Alyssa A. Ottomeier and John A. Crawford
Recent collections of exotic aquarium fishes in the freshwaters of Oregon and thermal tolerance of oriental weatherfish and pirapatinga. Daniel J. Logan, Erin L. Bibles, and Douglas F. Markle
Age and pathological findings for two female stellar sea lions stranded on the northern California coast. Lance Morgan, Krista Hanni, and Linda Lowenstine
Zooplankters consumed by blue rockfish during brief access to a current off California’s Sonoma coast. Edmund S. Hobson, James R. Chess, and Daniel F. Howard
First record of the green crab, Carcinus maenas, in Humboldt Bay, California. Todd W. Miller
A boat-mounted system to synoptically record vessel position and sea-surface temperature. Marty L. Gingras, David A. VenTresca, and Duncan S. Short
Occurrence of porcupines along the San Joaquin River, Fresno and Madera counties, California. Waring E. Laurendine, Marshall L. Morton, and David L. Chesemore
First confirmed record of teleost predation on a shark egg case. Douglas J. Long
California Fish and Game 82(1). Winter 1996.
Observations on the macrobenthos of Lake Tahoe, California-Nevada. Ted C. Frantz and Almo J. Cordone
Use of food items by sex and age classes of coyotes. Brian L. Cypher, Kenneth A. Spencer, and Jerry H. Scrivner
Notes on the occurrence and depth distribution of the bat ray in the Southern California Bight, with comments on the effect of trawl size on estimates of abundance. Pamela A. Morris, Michael Domeier, and John Stephens, Jr.
Comparison of juvenile chinook salmon catches in a pushnet and midwater trawl. Paul F. Raquel
Observations on the use of two non-native plants by the Point Arena mountain beaver. Kimberley M. Fitts
1995
California Fish and Game 81(4). Fall 1995.
Potential food sources and feeding ecology of juvenile fall chinook salmon in California’s Mattole River Lagoon. Morgan S. Busby, and Roger A. Barnhart
Electrophoretic evidence for multiple mating in tule perch. Anne Phelps, Devin Bartley, and Dennis Hedgecock
Effects of winter floods on threespine sticklebacks in a restored urban creek. James F. Gillooly and George W. Barlow
The tiger shark, Galeocerdo cuvier, in coastal southern California waters. Jeffrey A. Seigel, Douglas J. Long, James M. Rounds, and Juan Hernandez
Use of wood duck nest boxes by swarming honey bees in California’s Central Valley. Terri Jensen, Debbie Petersen, Michael D. Hubbartt, and J. Brian Davis
Errata: Cronin, M.A., and V. C. Bleich. 1995. Mitochondrial DNA variation among populations and subspecies of mule deer in California. California Fish and Game 81:45-54
California Fish and Game 81(3). Summer 1995.
Record of the bigeye trevally, Caranx sexfasciatus, and Mexican lookdown, Selene brevoorti, with notes on other carangids from California. Robert N. Lea and H. J. Walker, Jr.
Current distribution of the American marten, Martes americana, in California. Thomas E. Kucera, William J. Zielinski, and Reginald H. Barrett
Accuracy of cementum age assignments for black bears. Jeffrey A. Keay
Black bear reproductive rates in Yosemite National Park. Jeffrey A. Keay
In Memoriam: David C. Zeiner. Barrett A. Garrison
California Fish and Game 81(2). Spring 1995.
Mitochondrial DNA variation among populations and subspecies of mule deer in California. Matthew A. Cronin and Vernon C. Bleich
Using spotlight counts to estimate mule deer population size and trends. John G. Kie and Brian B. Boroski
Invasion of a third Asian goby, Tridentiger bifasciatus, into California. Scott A. Matern and Kevin J. Fleming
Feeding on euphausiids by Octopus rubescens. Thomas E. Laidig, Peter B. Adams, Charles H. Baxter, and John L. Butler
First occurrence of the yellow bullhead, Ameiurus natalis, in the lower Colorado River, Baja California, Mexico. Gorgonio Ruiz-Campos
Prehistoric fish remains, including thicktail chub, from the Pajaro River system. Peter K. Schulz
Observations on recruitment in curl-leaf mountain mahogany as a result of selective pruning. Brian D. Barton
Webs and scales, physical and ecological processes in marine fish recruitment (Book Review). Doyle A. Hanan
California Fish and Game 81(1). Winter 1995.
Food habits of harbor seals inhabiting Elkhorn Slough, California. James T. Harvey, Roger C. Helm, and G. Victor Morejohn
Embryonic development, larval culture, and settling of American pearl-oyster (Pteria sterna, Gould) spat. Orfelina Araya-Nunez, Bjorn Ganning, and Fernando Buckle-Ramirez
Coyote activity levels in relation to presence of California gulls at Mono Lake, California. John A. Shivik and Robert L. Crabtree
The use of Telazol for Chemical restraint of black bears (Ursus americanus) in northern California. Steven F. Burton and Fred Schmalenberger
Status of the muskrat in the Valle de Mexicali and Delta Del Rio Colorado, Mexico. Eric Mellink
Female reproductive potential and winter growth of African clawed frogs (Pipidae: Xenopus laevis) in California. Michael J. McCoid and Thomas H. Fritts
Recent photograph of a Sierra Nevada red fox. Thomas E. Kucera
1994
California Fish and Game 80(4). Fall 1994.
Changing patterns of goose harvest on California public hunting areas. Joseph P. Fleskes, Jane M. Hicks, David S. Gilmer, and Daniel Yparraguirre
Determining the biological significance of changes in predicted habitat values from the California Wildlife Habitat Relationships System. Barrett A. Garrison
Retention, recognition, and effects on survival of several tags and marks for white sturgeon. Raymond C. P. Beamesderfer and Craig A. Foster
An observation of high fecundity of spotted owls in California. Theodore Wooster
California Fish and Game 80(3). Summer 1994.
Blood and muscle characteristics of leopard shark (Triakis semifasciata) and brown smoothhound (Mustelus henlei). Jose D. Setka and Joseph J. Cech, Jr.
Bioregions: an ecological and evolutionary perspective and a proposal for California. Hartwell H. Welsh, Jr.
A prehistoric sturgeon fishery in San Pablo, Contra Costa County, California: an addendum. Kenneth W. Gobalet
California forests and woodlands: a natural history (Book Review). Barrett A. Garrison
Wild pigs of the United States and their history, morphology, and current status (Book Review). Liam H. Davis
In Memoriam: Leo Shapovalov 1908-1994. Almo J. Cordone
California Fish and Game 80(2). Spring 1994.
Relationship between sea otter range expansion and red abalone abundance and size distribution in central California. Fred Wendell
The effect of different harvest methods on sea palm (Popstelsia palmaeformis) sporophyll growth. Peter E. Kalvass
Duck and shorebird reproduction in the grasslands of central Califoria. Roger L. Hothem and Daniel Welsh
Roosevelt elk dietary quality in northern coastal California. Peter J. Gogan and Reginald H. Barrett
A portable field sampling table for dock-side sampling of fish. Robert R. Leos
California Fish and Game 80(1). Winter 1994.
Analysis of two mark-recapture methods to estimate the fall chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) spawning run in Bogus Creek, California. LB Boydston
Simulation study of salmon carcass survey by capture-recapture. Philip M. W. Law
Recent evidence for the formation of annual growth increments in the otoliths of young pacific sardines (Sardinops sagax). J. Thomas Barnes and Terry J. Foreman
An efficient technique for capturing swimming deer. Brian B. Boroski and Patrick L. McGlaughlin
Waterfowl killed by lightning. Dale Whitmore
1993
California Fish and Game 79(4). Fall 1993.
Spawning season and microhabitat use by California golden trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss aguabonita) in the southern Sierra Nevada. Jerome A. Stefferud
Grazing in the Sierra Nevada: home range and space use patterns of mule deer as influenced by cattle. Eric R. Loft, John G. Kie, and John W. Menke
First record of the tripletail (Lobotes surinamensis, Family Lobotidae) in California waters. James M. Rounds and Richard F. Feeney
Western gray squirrels in Baja California. Eric Mellink and Joaquin Contreras
Geographical and size records of the electric stargazer (Astroscopus zephyreus) Gilbert and Starks, 1896 (Pisces: Uranoscopidae). Marcos De Jesus-Roldan, Lloyd Ellis, and Felipe Galvan Magana
California Fish and Game 79(3). Summer 1993.
Food habits of the brown smoothhound shark (Mustelus henlei) from two sites in Tomales Bay. Steven L. Haeseker and Joseph J. Cech, Jr.
Distribution, ecology, and status of the fishes of the San Joaquin River drainage, California. Larry R. Brown and Peter B. Moyle
Fire effects on a montane Sierra Nevada meadow. Robert S. Boyd, Roy A. Woodward, and Gary Walter
A sampler for quantifying the vertical distribution of macroinvertebrates in shallow wetlands. Jeffrey Mackay and Ned H. Euliss, Jr.
Tule elk relocated to Brushy Mountain, Mendocino County, California. Kent B. Livezey
California Fish and Game 79(2). Spring 1993.
Identification of San Joaquin kit fox (Vulpes macrotis mutica) tracks on aluminum tracking plates. Susan G. Orloff, Anne W. Flannery, and Katy C. Belt
Seasonal occurrence of leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) in the Monterey Bay region, with notes on other sea turtles, 1986-1991. Christopher H. Starbird, Alan Baldridge, and James T. Harvey
A standard weight (Ws) equation for white sturgeon. Raymond C. Beamesderfer
A comparison of mule deer survey techniques in the Sonoran Desert of California. J. Rock Thompson and Vernon C. Bleich
Harvest slot limit rationale for Lahontan cutthroat trout at Pyramid Lake, Nevada. M. K. Alam, P. L. Wagner, D. F. Mosley, and N. L. Vucinich
Predation on small northern anchovy (Engraulis mordax) by large sliverides (Atherinidae). James A Coyer and Sharon J. Hall
Ground squirrels feeding on eelgrass. Aryan I. Roest
Guide to northeast Pacific rockfishes genera Sebastes and Sebastolobus (Book Review). Robert N. Lea
California Fish and Game 79(1). Winter 1993.
Trends in black bass fishing tournaments in California, 1985-1989. Dennis P. Lee, Ivan Paulsen, and Walt Beer
Distribution of rainbow trout, largemouth bass, and threadfin shad in Lake Casitas, California. Arlo W. Fast
Environmental contaminants in canvasbacks wintering on San Francisco Bay, California. J. Eric Logan, Kathy L. Day, Mark Marks, and Olga Assemien
Comments on research, publications, and California’s longest continuously published journal. Vernon C. Bleich
1992
California Fish and Game 78(4). Winter 1992.
Molt frequency and size-class distribution in the California spiny lobster (Panulirus interruptus) as indicated by beach-cast carapaces at San Nicolas Island, California. James L. Bodkin and Linda Browne
Critical thermal maxima and oxygen minima of five fishes from the upper Klamath Basin. Daniel T. Castleberry and Joseph J. Cech, Jr.
Illegal harvest of spike bucks during a regulated mule deer hunt. Clark S. Winchell and Slader G. Buck
Confirmation of the northern range of the snubnose sculpin (Orthonopias triacis). Douglas J. Long
The Cortez grunt (Haemulon flaviguttatum) recorded from two embayments in southern California. Robert N. Lea and Richard H. Rosenblatt
Observations of the prickly shark (Echinorhinus cookei) in Monterey Bay, California. Nicole L. Crane and John N. Heine
Record of the alligator gar (Lepisosteus spatula) from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Paul F. Raquel
Prey storing behavior in the panimic green moray eel (Gymnothorax castaneus) Gustavo D. Danemann
Northern range extension of the vermillion rockfish (Sebastes miniatus). Victoria M. O’Connell, David A. Gordon, Andrew Hoffmann, and Kelly Hepler
California Fish and Game, California’s longest continuously published journal. Eric R. Loft
California Fish and Game 78(3). Summer 1992.
Population genetic structure of Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch) in California. Devin M. Bartley, Boyd Bentley, Paul G. Olin, and Graham A. E. Gall
Culture of spotted seatrout, orangemouth corvina, and their hybrids. Britt W. Bumguardner, Robert L. Colura, Anne Henderson-Arzapalo, and Anthony F. Maciorowski
Notes on a mass stranding of Baird’s beaked whales in the Gulf of California, Mexico. David Aurioles-Gamboa
A comparison of rumen ciliates in black-tailed deer from California and Hawaii. Wouter Van Hoven, Frances M. C. Gilchrist, and Thomas C. Telfer
Swallow mortality during the “March miracle” in California. E. E. Littrell
Observation of black bear (Ursus americanus) predation on Columbian black-tailed deer (Odocoileus hemionus columbianus). Stephen L. Conger and Gregory A. Giusti
California Fish and Game 78(2). Spring 1992.
A review of the California caddisflies (Trichoptera) listed as candidate species on the 1989 federal “Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; animal notice and review. Nancy A. Erman and Christopher D. Nagano
Age, length, weight, reproductive cycle and fecundidty of the monkeyface prickleback (Cebidichthys violaceus). William H. Marshall and Tina Wyllie Echeverria
Changes in distribution of cackling Canada geese in autumn. Dennis G. Raveling and David S. Zezulak
The use of high-cut stumps by birds. Michael L. Morrison
Natural history of the White-Inyo Range, eastern California (Book Review). Vernon C. Bleich
Midnight wilderness: journeys in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Book Review). Vernon C. Bleich
In Memoriam: Greg Cook, Sonia Hamilton, Carl S. Johnson, Robert Jean, and Charles P. Walters. Eric R. Loft
California Fish and Game 78(1). Winter 1992.
Revisiting overpopulated deer ranges in the United States. Paul R. Krausman, Lyle K. Sowls, and Bruce D. Leopold
The pH and acid neutralizing capacity of ponds containing Pseudacris regilla larvae in an alpine basin of the Sierra Nevada. Chad R. Soiseth
The evolution of California’s herring roe fishery: catch allocation, limited entry, and conflict resolution. Jerome D. Spratt
Erratum: Bleich, V. C., and D. Racine. 1991. Mountain beaver (Aplodontia rufa) from Inyo County, California. California Fish and Game 77(3):153-155.
1991
California Fish and Game 77(4). Fall 1991.
A conservation-oriented classification system for the inland waters of California. Peter B. Moyle and John P. Ellison
Gonad maturity, induction of spawning, larval breeding, and growth in the American pearl-oyster (Pteria sterna, Gould). Orfelina Araya-Nunes, Bjorn Ganning, and Fernando Buckle-Ramirez
Helicopter drive-netting techniques for mule deer capture on Great Basin ranges. Ron Thomas and Brian Novak
Home range, habitat use, disturbance, and mortality of Columbian black-tailed deer in Mendocino National Forest. Kent B. Livezey
Harbor seal predation on a wolf-eel. Alan Baldridge and Lynn L. Rogers
First record of partial ambicoloration in spotted turbot (Pleuronichthys ritteri). Jesus Rodriguez Romeo, L. Andres Abitia Cardenas, and Felipe Galvan Magana
California Fish and Game 77(3). Summer 1991.
A checklistof the amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals of California. William F. Laudenslayer, Jr., William E. Grenfell, Jr., and David C. Zeiner
Mercury in western grebes at Lake Berryessa and Clear Lake, California. E. E. Littrell
First record of the leather bass (Epinephelus dermatolepis, Boulenger) in southern California. Robert H. Moore
Note on the occurrence and range extension of the sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus) off Dana Point, California. Malcolm S. Oliphant
Notes on the distribution and morphology of the rubynose grotula (Cataetyx rubrirostris) off central California. M. A. Gibbs
Mountain beaver (Aplodontia rufa) from Inyo County, California. Vernon C. Bleich and Denyse Racine
Upper Sacramento River toxic spill. Eric R. Loft
Memorial for Dennis G. Raveling. Anonymous.
Memorial for Donald S. Pine. Donald Koch.
California Fish and Game 77(2). Spring 1991.
Mammal mortality at Arizona, California, and Nevada gold mines using cyanide extraction. Donald R. Clark, Jr. and Roger L. Hothem.
Genetic variability in tule elk. Thomas E. Kucera
Gray wolves in California: their presence and absence. Robert H. Schmidt
Computerized data base for exotic fishes: the western United States. James D. Williams and Dawn P. Jennings
Macroinvertebrate colonization of Hester-Dendy samplers in different orientations to water flow. Jeffrey P. Hill and William J. Matter
Hermaphroditism in the rock scallop, Crassadoma (Hinnites) giganteus, in Humboldt Bay, California. Mark Malachowski
Fall migration patterns of common snipe. Frank Edelmann
A new tool for safely killing venomous snakes in the field. Mark R. Jennings and Jens V. Vindum
Northern range extension for the zebraperch (Hermosilla azurea, Jenkins and Evermann). Ron Fritzsche, Geir Aasen, Loren Everest, Paul Petros, and Steve Shimek
Miscellanea. Eric R. Loft
California Fish and Game 77(1). Winter 1991.
Autumn diet of cackling Canada geese in relation to age and nutrient demand. Dennis G. Raveling and David S. Zezulak
Impacts of changing irrigation practices on waterfowl habitat use in the southern San Joaquin Valley, California. Douglas A. Barnum and Ned H. Euliss, Jr.
Attachment methods for radio transmitters on mallard ducklings. Dennis L. Orthmeyer
Effect of triploid grass carp on submersed aquatic plants in northern California ponds. Robert T. Pine and Lars W. J. Anderson
Food consumption rate of juvenile dwarf surfperch, Micrometrus minimus: temperature and temporal effects. Garwin M. Yip and Joseph J. Cech, Jr.
Gas supersaturation in the American River. John E. Colt, Kris Orwicz, and Dale Brooks
Northern range extension for the squarespot rockfish, Sebastes hopkinsi. Danile L. Erickson, Ellen K. Pikitch, and James Wilder Orr
First record of Mozambique tilapia in the San Joaquin Valley, California. Tim Heyne, Bert Tribbey, Matt Brooks, and Jennie Smith
Partial xanthism in an adult chum salmon, Oncorhynchus keta, near chignik, Alaska. Gregory T. Ruggerone
Editorial note. Eric R. Loft
Bird life as a community asset. Joseph Grinnell
1990
California Fish and Game 76(4). Fall 1990.
Responses of mountain sheep to aerial sampling using helicopters. Vernon C. Bleich, R. Terry Bowyer, Andrew M. Pauli, Robert L. Vernoy, and Richard L. Anthes
Accuracy in recording neck-band codes of cackling Canada geese. Dennis G. Raveling, David S. Zezulak, and Joseph G. Silveira
Fall and winter feeding habits of the American coot in northern California. Raymond J. Bogiatto II
Rainbow trout of Kaiser and Redwood creeks, Contra Costa County, California. Graham A. E. Gall, Boyd Bentley, and R. C. Nuzum
Comparative age and growth of flathead catfish in four southwestern streams. Kirk L. Young and Paul C. Marsh
Fish remains from nine archaeological sites in Richmond and San Pablo, Contra Costa County, California. Kenneth W. Gobalet
Native status of Sacramento perch (Archoplites interruptus) in Alameda Creek, Alameda County, California: evidence from archaeological site CA-ALA-483. Kenneth W. Gobalet
Use of an artificial substrate to collect white sturgeon eggs. George T. McCabe and Lance G. Beckman
California Fish and Game 76(3). Summer 1990.
Blood lead concentrations in mallards from Delvan and Colusa national wildlife refuges. David M. Mauser, Tonie E. Rocke, John G. Mensik, and Christopher J. Brand
Virulence of four isolates of infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus in salmonid fishes and comparative replication in salmonid fish cell lines. Martin F. Chen, Candace M. Aikins, J. L. Fryer, and J. S. Rohovec
The effects of different otolith ageing techniques on estimates of growth and mortality for the splitnose rockfish, Sebastes diploproa, and canary rockfish, S. pinniger. Christopher D. Wildon and George W. Boehlert
Growth and longevity of golden trout, Oncorhynchus aguabonita, in their native streams. Roland A. Knapp and Tom L. Dudley
Comparison of efficiency and selectivity of three gears used to sample white sturgeon in a Columbia River reservoir. John C. Elliott and Raymond C. Beamesderfer
Giant bluefin tuna off southern California, with a new California size record. Terry J. Foreman and Yoshio Ishizuka
Bobcat electrocutions on powerlines. Richard D. Williams
Marine populations: an essay on population regulation and speciation (Book Review). John J. Geibel
Battling the inland sea: American culture, public policy, and the Sacramento Valley, 1850-1986 (Book Review). Harold K. Chadwick
Arizona game birds (Book Review). Sonke Mastrup
Miscellanea. Compiled by Robert N. Lea
California Fish and Game 76(2). Spring 1990.
Population characteristics of wild pigs, Sus scrofa, in eastern Santa Clara County, California. Martha E. Schauss, Henry J. Coletto, and Michael J. Kutilek
Coyote diets associated with seasonal mule deer activities in California. James R. Smith
An outbreak of bluetongue in captive deer and adjacent livestock in Kern County, California. D. A. Jessup, T. M. Work, R. Bushnell, M. Sawyer, and B. I. Osburn
Rainbow trout strains in California state hatcheries. Bruce G. Barngrover
Evaluation of a wildlife-habitat relationships data base for predicting bird community composition in central California chaparral and blue oak woodlands. Michael L. Avery and Charles van Riper III
Organochlorines, mercury, and selenium in wintering shorebirds from Washington and California. Thomas W. Custer and J. P. Myers
An albino bat ray, Myliobatis californica, from the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico. Marcos de Jesus-Roldan
Observation of black bear, Ursus americanus, feeding damage to Port Orford cedar, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, in Del Norte County, California. Gregory A. Giusti
California Fish and Game 76(1). Winter 1990.
Laboratory culture of jacksmelt, Atherinopsis californiensis, and topsmelt, Atherinops affinis (Pisces: Atherinidae), with a description of larvae. Douglas P. Middaugh, Michael J. Hemmer, Jonathan M. Shenker, and Toru Takita
Harvest distribution and survival of mallards banded in California, 1948-82. Warren C. Rienecker
Homing by chinook salmon exposed to morpholine. Thomas J. Hassler and Keith Kutchins
Movement and survival of tournament-caught black bass at Shasta Lake. Terrance P. Healey
Comparison of steelhead caught and lost by anglers using flies with barbed or barbless hooks in the Klamath River, California. Roger A. Barnhart
Establishment of red shiner, Notropis lutrensis, in the San Joaquin Valley, California. Mark R. Jennings and Michael K. Saiki
Preliminary examination of low salinity tolerance of sperm, fertilized eggs, and larvae of orangemouth corvina, Cynoscion zanthulus. Robert G. Howells
The starry room: naked eye astronomy in the intimate universe (Book Review). Jack Ames
Battling the inland sea: American culture, public policy, and the Sacramento Valley, 1850-1986 (Book Review). Harold K. Chadwick
1989
California Fish and Game 75(4). Fall 1989.
Life history of anadromous coastal cutthroat trout in Snow and Salmon creeks, Jefferson County, Washington, with implications for management. John H. Michael, Jr.
The distribution and density of eel grass, Zostera marina, in Tomales Bay, California. Jerome D. Spratt
Oxygen and temperature relationships in nine artificially aerated California reservoirs. Arlo D. Fast and Robert G. Hulquist
Temporal and spatial variation in pelagic fish abundance in Lake Mead determined from echograms. Gene R. Wilde and Larry J. Paulson
Population dynamics of harbor seals in the Gulf of the Farallones, California. Sarah G. Allen, Harriet R. Huber, Christine A. Ribic, and David G. Ainley
Beaver distribution in the Truckee River Basin, California. Paul Beier and Reginald H. Barrett
Record of the roughscale sole, Clidoderma asperrimum, from northern California with a note on the Pacific lined sole, Archirus mazatlanus. Robert N. Lea, Konstantin A. Karpov, and Lawrence F. Quirollo
Strandings of the Pacific giant squid, Moroteuthis robusta (Verrill, 18767) (Decapoda, Cephalopoda) in British Columbia. Gordon Green
New mainland haul-out site for the northern elephant seal, Mirounga angustirostris, in central California. Jeanne E. King, Alan K. Fukuyama, Sally J. Krenn, and Aaron C. Setran
California Fish and Game 75(3). Summer 1989.
Waterfowl production on artificial islands in Mountain Meadows Reservoir, California. Virgina K. Getz and James R. Smith
Enteric septicemia of channel catfish in California. Martin F. Chen and Marsha E. Kumlin
Records of rare eelpouts of the genus Lycodapus Gilbert in the north and southeastern Pacific Ocean, with an addition to the California marine fish fauna. M. Eric Anderson
Duck harvest on public hunting areas in California. David S. Gilmer, Jane M. Hicks, Joseph P. Fleskes, and Daniel P. Connelly
Mass strandings of juvenile shortbelly rockfish and Pacific hake along the coast of northern California. Edmund S. Hobson and Daniel F. Howard
Northern range extension of the speckled rockfish, Sebastes ovalis. Daniel G. Nichol, Neil T. Richmond, and Ellen K. Pikitch
Range extensions of decapod crustaceans from Bahia Tortugas and vicinity, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Ernesto Campos and Alma Rosa de Campos
Growth of hatchery-reared red abalone at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve: one year post-release. Thomas B. Ebert
Notes on the first record of the orangethroat pikeblenny, Chaenopsis alepidota (Gilbert), in mainland California. John S. Stephens, Jr., Michael Singer, and Laura Targgart
California Fish and Game 75(2). Spring 1989.
Ichthyoplankton of Lake Havasu, a Colorado River impoundment, Arizona-California. Paul C. Marsh and Diana Papoulias
Seasonal abundance and feeding habits of sharks of the lower Gulf of California, Mexico. Felipe Galvan-Magana, Henk J. Nienhuis, and A. Peter Klimley
Wetland bird seasonal abundance and habitat use at Lake Earl and Lake Talawa, California. Steven L. Funderburk and Paul F. Springer
Life history of the sevengill shark, Notorynchus cepedianus Peron, in two northern California bays. David A. Ebert
Rice available to waterfowl in harvested fields in the Sacramento Valley, California. David E. Sharp, David S. Gilmer, and William R. Mulvaney
Pacificogramma stepanenkoi Kharin, 1983 (Family Grammatidae), a junior synonym of Pronotogrammus multifasciatus Gill, 1863 (Family Serranidae). M. Eric Anderson and Richard H. Rosenblatt
Imporoved self-cleaning screen for processing benthic samples. Ned H. Euliss, Jr. and George A. Swanson
California Fish and Game 75(1). Winter 1989.
Freshwater eels (Family Anguillidae) in California: current conditions and future scenarios. John E. McCosker
Migration patterns of mule deer in the central Sierra Nevada. Eric R. Loft, Ronald C. Bertram, and Douglas L. Bowman
Mortality of tournament-caught largemouth and smallmouth bass in Idaho lakes and reservoirs. David H. Bennett, Larry K. Dunsmoor, Robert L. Rohrer, and Bruce E. Rieman
Observations on induced maturation and spawning of orangemouth corvina. J. A. Prentice, R. L. Colura, and B. W. Bumguardner
Food habits, seasonal abundance, size, and sex of the blue shark, Prionace glauca, in Monterey Bay, California. James T. Harvey
The Cortez angelfish, Pomacanthus zonipectus, recorded from southern California. Robert N. Lea, John M. Duffy, and Kenneth C. Wilson
Zanthic, gigantic, China rockfish. Edward Ueber
Range extension and commercial capture of the northern anchovy, Engraulis mordax Girard, in the Gulf of California, Mexico. M. Gregory Hammann and Miguel Angel Cisneros-Mata
A northern range extension for the thornback, Platyrhinoidis triseriata. Richard Plant
Northern occurrence of two estuarine crabs: the fiddler crab, Uca crenulata, and the burrowing crab, Malacoplax californiensis. David M. Hubbard and Jenifer E. Dugan
Observations on mortality of Salt Creek pupfish during a flash flood. Jack E. Williams and Betsy C. Bolster
1988
California Fish and Game 74(4). Fall 1988.
Present distribution of ringtails in California. Susan Orloff
Influence of maturity on straying rates of summer steelhead into the Rogue River, Oregon. Thomas D. Satterthwaite
Shark aggression against man: beginnings of an understanding. H. David Baldridge
Comparative hooking mortality of lure-caught Lahontan cutthroat trout at Heenan Lake, California. Robert G. Titus and C. David Vanicek
Waterfowl mortality in rice fields treated with the carbamate, Carbofuran. E. E. Littrell
Salinity tolerance of young topsmelt, Atherinops affinis, cultured in the laboratory. Doublas P. Middaugh and Jonathan M. Shenker
Reoccurrence of the Pacific seahorse, Hippocampus ingens, in San Diego Pay. Anthony T. Jones, Peter Dutton, and Robert E. Snodgrass
Prevalence of Trichomonas gallinae in central California mourning doves. David J. Rupiper and Wallace M. Harmon
New records and range extensions of shrimps and crabs from California, U.S.A. and Baja California, Mexico. Mary K. Wicksten
Distribution and abundance of young-of-the-year white seabass, Atractoscion nobilis, in the vicinity of Long Beach Harbor, California in 1984–1987. Larry G. Allen and Michael P. Franklin
California Fish and Game 74(3). Summer 1988.
Ecological studies of sablefish in Monterey Bay. Gregor M. Cailliet, Edwin K. Osada, and Michael Moser
Characterization of black-tailed deer habitats in a northern California oak-confer zone. Eric R. Loft, Timothy S. Burton, John W. Menke, and Gary E. Peterson
On some abnormalities in the chelae of commercial crabs (Genus Cancer) from Baja California, Mexico. Alberto Carvacho
Second record of Cubiceps paradoxus and Antennarius avalonis from California. Lloyd B. Ellis, Jeffrey G. Landesman, Stanford L. Asato, and Daniel R. Zambrano
Recent records of the Santa Cruz kangaroo rat, Dipodomys venustus venustus, in Santa Cruz County. Michele L. Roest
Family Himantolophidae added to the ichthyofauna of the temperate eastern north Pacific. Robert N. Lea
Wild carnivore deaths due to anticoagulant intoxication. E. E. Littrell and D. Hunter
Bill deformity in a Brandt's cormorant chick. Keith A. Hobson and Harry R. Carter
California Fish and Game 74(2). Spring 1988.
An innovative technique for seeding abalone and preliminary results of laboratory and field trials. Thomas B. Ebert and Earl E. Ebert
The survival and growth of transplanted adult pink abalone, Haliotis corrugata, at Santa Catalina Island. Kristine C. Henderson, David O. Parker, and Peter L. Haaker
Records of the deep-sea skates, Raja (Amblyraja) badia Garman, 1899 and Bathyraja abyssicola (Gilbert, 1896) in the eastern north Pacific, with a new key to California skates. George D. Zorzi and M. Eric Anderson
Differences in yield, emigration-timing, size, and age structure of juvenile steelhead from two small western Washington streams. John J. Loch, Steven A. Leider, Mark W. Chilcote, Randy Cooper, and Thom H. Johnson
Allozyme variation in the California halibut, Paralichthys californicus. Dennis Hedgecock and Devin M. Bartley
California Fish and Game 74(1). Winter 1988.
Identification of mammal tracks from sooted track stations in the Pacific northwest. Cathy A. Taylor and Martin G. Raphael
Feeding ecology of ten species of rockfishes (Scorpaenidae) from the Gulf of Alaska. Richard J. Rosenthal, Victoria Moran-O'Connell, and Margaret C. Murphy
Growth of young-of-the-year and juvenile Pacific herring from San Francisco Bay, California. Paul N. Reilly
Diet of juvenile and subadult white sturgeon in the Lower Columbia River and its estuary. William D. Muir, Robert L. Emmett, and Robert J. McConnell
Herd segregation in harbor seals at Point Reyes, California. Sarah G. Allen, Christine A. Ribic, and Janet E. Kjelmyr
Record of the chameleon goby, Tridentiger trigonocephlus, from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Paul F. Raquel
Additional notes on migrational distribution of northern pintail banded in California. Warren C. Rienecker
1987
California Fish and Game 73(4). Fall 1987.
Movement and dispersion of red abalone, Haliotis rufescens, in northern California. Jerald S. Ault and John D. DeMartini
The use of baited stations by divers to obtain fish relative abundance data. Daniel W. Gotshall
Survival and recovery rate estimates of northern pintail banded in California, 1948–79. Warren C. Rienecker
Management of midges and other invertebrates for waterfowl wintering in California. Ned H. Euliss, Jr. and Gail Grodhaus
Yellowtail chafing on a shark: parasite removal? Bruce E. Coblentz
Atypical plumage of a female California quail. J. A. Crawford, P. J. Cole, K. M. Kilbride, and A. Fairbrother
California Fish and Game 73(3). Summer 1987.
Variation in the growth rate of Pacific herring from San Francisco Bay, California. Jerome D. Spratt
Migration and distribution of northern pintails banded in California. Warren C. Rienecker
Analysis of the diets of mountain sheep from the San Gabriel Mountains, California. William M. Perry, Jim W. Dole, and Stephen A. Holl
Refutation of lengths of 11.3, 9.0, and 6.4 m attributed to the white shark, Carcharodon carcharias. John E. Randall
Reproductive rhythmicity of the atherinid fish, Colpichthys regis, from Estero del Soldado, Sonora, Mexico. G. A. Russell, D. P. Middaugh, and M. J. Hemmer
Comparison of meristic and morphometric characters among and within subspecies of the Sacramento sucker (Catostomus occidentalis Ayres). David L. Ward and Ronald A. Fritzsche
Extent of human-bear interactions in the backcountry of Yosemite National Park. Bruce C. Hastings and Barrie K. Gilbert
First Oregon record for the cowcod, Sebastes levis. Daniel L. Erickson and Ellen K. Pikitch
California Fish and Game 73(2). Spring 1987.
Movement of scorpionfishes (Scorpaenidae: Sebastes and Scorpaena) in the southern California Bight. A Rucker Hartmann
Habitat and productivity of Cooper's hawks nesting in California. Christopher E. Asay
Population studies of rock crabs, Cancer antennarius, yellow crabs, C. anthonyi, and Kellet's whelks, Kelletia kelletii, in the vicinity of a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal at Little Cojo Bay, San Barbara County, California. Paul N. Reilly
Chronic bronchitis (hamburger gill disease) of channel catfish in California and its possible mysosporean etiology. M. L. Kent, G. E. Duhamel, J. S. Foott, and R. P. Hedrick
Comparative catches of ocean sport-caught salmon using barbed and barbless hooks and estimated 1984 San Francisco Bay area charterboat shaker catch. Arthur C. Knutson, Jr.
Biological notes on the pacific sleeper shark, Somniosus pacificus (Chondricthys: Squalidae). Leonard J. V. Compagno and Lisa J. Nananson
On the second record of Barbourisia rufa, the velvet whalefish, from California. Robert N. Lea
California Fish and Game 73(1). Winter 1987.
Age and growth of male Dungeness crabs, Cancer magister, in northern California. Ronald W. Warner
Population trends, distribution, and survival of Canada geese in California and western Nevada, 1949–79. Warren C. Rienecker
Food habits of large monkeyface prickleback, Cebidichthys violaceus. Kathy Ann Miller and William H. Marshall
Winter foods of American coots in the northern San Joaquin Valley, California. Gary L. Ivey
Two species of Kyphosidae seen in King Harbor, Redondo Beach, California. Andrew J. Brooks
Occurrence of the family Notacanthidae (Pisces) from marine waters of California. Robert N. Lea and Richard H. Rosenblatt
Range extensions of offshore decapod crustaceans from California and western Mexico. Mary K. Wicksten
Record of the twinpored eel, Xenomystax atrarius (Anguilliformes: Congridae) from California waters. Jeffrey A. Siegel
Resightings of two rehabilitated and released harbor seals in California. Marc A. Webber and Sarah G. Allen
1986
California Fish and Game 72(4). Fall 1986.
Temporal and spatial patters in sea otter, Enhydra lutris, range expansion and the loss of Pismo clam fisheries. Frederick E. Wendell, Robert A. Hardy, Jack A. Ames, and Richard T. Burge
Aspects of ecology and life history of the woolly sculpin, Clinocottus analis, from southern California. Alan W. Wells
Icthyofaunal composition and recolonization in a central California tidepool. Ronald H. Matson, C. Ben Crabtree, and Thomas R. Haglund
Distribution of major marine macrophytes, seasonal estimates of Gracilaria standing crop, and spawning activities of the Pacific herring, Clupea harengus pallasii, in Elkhorn Slough, California: 1979–1982. R. E. Phillips, D. I. Gutoff, J. E. Hansen, and J. E. Hardwick
Observations on the elasmobranch assemblage of San Francisco Bay. David A. Ebert
California Fish and Game 72(3). Summer 1986.
Waterfowl harvest at Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge, 1936–1941. David S. Gilmer, Jane M. Hicks, James C. Bartonek, and Earl H. McCollum
The feeding behavior of the juvenile dungeness crab, Cancer magister Dana, on the bivalve, Transennella tantilla (Gould), and a determination of its daily consumption rate. Mary Ann Asson-Batres
Habitat selection by southern mule deer. R. Terry Bowyer
Intraspecific cleaning by juvenile salema, Xenestius californiensis (Pisces: Haemulidae). Paul C. Sikkel
New records of the ragged-tooth shark, Odontaspis ferox, from California waters. Jeffrey A. Seigel and Leonard J. V. Compagno
First record of the spotted scorpionfish, Scorpaena plumieri, from California: the curtain falls on a "comedy of errors." Camm C. Swift
Birth of a northern fur seal on the mainland California coast. Janet L. Stein and Kathy Miller
Shell thickness and organochlorine pesticides in osprey eggs from Eagle Lake, California. E. E. Littrell
Juvenile blue catfish in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta of California. Paul F. Raquel
An addition to the known range of Stephens' kangaroo rat, Dipodomys stephensi, in San Diego County, California. Michael J. O'Farrell, Stephen M. Juarez, and Curt E. Uptain
California Fish and Game 72(2). Spring 1986.
Epidermal tumors in Microstomus pacificus (Pleuronectidae) collected near a municipal wastewater outfall in the coastal waters off Los Angeles (1971–1983). Jeffrey N. Cross
The occurrence of two nematodes, Spirocerca lupi and Dirofilaria immitis, in wild canids of the Lake Berryessa area, northern California. M. M. J. Lavoipierre, T. W. Graham, L. L. Walters, and J. A. Howarth
Growth and reproduction of spot prawns in the Santa Barbara Channel. John S. Sunada
Fawn rearing habitat of the Lake Hollow Deer Herd, Tehama County, California. Heather J. Welker
Fawn mortality in the Lake Hollow Deer Herd, Tehama County, California. Heather J. Welker
Movement by two nearshore, territorial rockfishes previously reported as non-movers and implications to management. Kathleen R. Matthews
Relating marten scat contents to prey consumed. William J. Zielinski
First record of Hemitripterus bolini, the bigmouth sculpin, from California waters. Robert N. Lea and Lawrence F. Quirollo
Northern range extension for California tonguefish, Symphurus atricauda to Washington state. Paul A. Dinnel and Christopher W. Rogers
Indigenous muskrats, Ondatra zibethicus, in coastal southern California. Paul E. Langenwalter II
Mortality of American wigeon on a golf course treated with the organophosphate, Diazinon. E. E. Littrell
The occurrence of Lepas anatifera on Zalophus californianus and Mirounga angustirostris. Jan Roletto and Robert Van Syoc
California Fish and Game 72(1). Winter 1986.
Population characteristics of Pacific herring, Clupea harengus pallasi, in Humboldt Bay, California. Douglas J. Rabin and Roger A. Barnhart
The striped bass sport fishery in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary, 1969–1979. James R. White
Food of juvenile Chinook, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, and coho, O. kisutch, salmon off the northern Oregon and southern Washington coasts, May–September 1980. Robert L. Emmett, David R. Miller, and Theodore H. Blahn
Line-transect censuses of fallow and black-tailed deer on the Point Reyes Peninsula. Peter J. P. Gogan, Steven C. Thompson, and Reginald H. Barrett
Utilization by salt marsh harvest mice, Reithrodontomys raviventris halicoetes, of a non-pickleweed marsh. Fred Botti, Dee Warencyia, and Dennis Becker
A method for the efficient removal of juvenile salmonid otoliths. Brian D. Winter
1985
California Fish and Game 71(4). Fall 1985.
Temporal distribution of breeding and non-breeding Canada geese from northeastern California. Warren C. Rienecker
The occurrence, seasonal distribution, and reproductive condition of elasmobranch fishes of Elkhorn Slough, California. Larry G. Talent
Effects on wildlife of ethyl and methyl parathion applied to California rice fields. Thomas W. Custer, Elwood F. Hill, and Harry M. Ohlendorf
Population biology of bluegills, Lepomis macrochirus, in lotic habitats on the irrigated San Joaquin Valley floor. Michael K. Saiki and Christopher J. Schmitt
An observation of reproductive behavior in a wild population of African clawed frogs, Xenopus laevis, in California. Michael J. McCoid
Parasites of the Sacramento perch, Archoplites interruptus. Cay C. Goude and C. David Vanicek
California Fish and Game 71(3). Summer 1985.
Acute toxicity of seven alicyclic hexanes to striped bass, Morone saxatilis, and bay shrimp, Crangon franciscorum, in seawater. Pete E. Benville, Jr., Jeanetter A. Whipple, and Maxwell B. Eldridge
An analysis of canvasbacks banded in California. Warren C. Rienecker
The survival and mortality of seeded and native red abalones, Haliotis rufescens, on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Mia J. Tegner and Robert A. Butler
Intermarsh movements by light-footed clapper rails indicated in part through regular censusing. Richard Zembal, Jack M. Fancher, and Christopher S. Nordby
Bird diets and prey availability in the western Sierra Nevada, California. Donald L. Dahlsten, Michael L. Morrison, David L. Rowney, Marilyn Wilson, and Josef Cohen
Determining the sex of sea otters from skulls. Aryan I. Roest
A technique to secure small mammal livetraps against disturbance. Donald R. Warner and David L. Chesemore
Northward range extension for the striped marlin. Kevin Hill and David R. Haight
Occurrence of a juvenile California lizardfish, Synodus lucioceps, in Washington waters. Gary P. Gonyea and Steve F. Burton
The scalloped hammerhead, Sphyrna lewini, in coastal southern California waters: three records including the first reported juvenile. Jeffrey A. Seigel
California Fish and Game 71(2). Spring 1985.
Breeding range and population studies of common snipe in California. Laurence A. McKibben and Paul Hofmann
Growth, food and habitat of age 0 smallmouth bass in Clair Engle Reservoir, California. Daniel Okoth Okeyo and Thomas J. Hassler
Life history of the Sacramento sucker, Catostomus occidentalis, in Thomes Creek, Tehama County, California. Nick A. Villa
Growth of grass carp, Ctenopharyngodon idella, in artificial central Arizona ponds. Paul C. Marsh and Mark A. Dhaenens
Orientation of juvenile Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, and bluegill, Lepomis macrochirus, to low water velocities under high and low light levels. Charles H. Hanson and Erik Jacobson
Radio-tagged harbor seal, Phoca vitulina richardsi, eaten by white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, in the Southern California Bight. Brent S. Stewart and Pamela K. Yochem
Additional records of Pronotogrammus multifasciatus and Gempylus serpens from California. Lawrence L. C. Jones, Robert R. Johnson, and Judith Hopkins
Pugheadedness in the California roach, Hesperoleucus symmetricus (Baird and Girard). Robert A. Leidy
Milkfish, Chanos chanos (Forsskal, 1775), taken in southern California adds new family (Chanidae) to the California marine fauna. John M. Duffy and Hannah J. Bernard
Experimental lead dosing of northern pintails in California. Bruce Deuel
California Fish and Game 71(1). Winter 1985.
Experimental studies on the effects of commercial kelp harvesting in central and southern California Macrocystis pyrifera kelp beds. D. Craig Barilotti, Ronald H. McPeak, and Paul K. Dayton.
The effects of canopy removal on holdfast growth in Macrocystis pyrifera (Phaeophyta; Laminariales). Kim McCleneghan and James L. Houk
Fish food habits along a pollution gradient. Jeffrey N. Cross, James Roney, and Gary S. Kleppel
Utilization of natural and man-made habitats by the salt marsh song sparrow, Melospiza melodia samuelis (Baird). Joshua N. Collins and Vincent H. Resh
Pup production, abundance, and breeding distribution of northern elephant seals on San Nicolas Island, winter 1981. James L. Bodkin, Ronald J. Jameson, and Glenn R. Van Blaricom
Northward occurrence of the opaleye, Girella nigricans, and the sharpnose seaperch, Phanerodon atripes. Carl E. Bond and Robert E. Olson
The oxeye oreo, Allocyttus folletti Myers, from the Bering Sea. Sid F. Cook and James Long
Color variation in the sevengill shark, Notorhynchus maculatus Ayres, along the California coast. David A. Ebert
1984
California Fish and Game 70(4). Fall 1984.
Characteristics and attitudes of some Klamath River anglers. Jeffrey L. Kershner and Robert R. Van Kirk
Variability in age estimates in Sebastes as a function of methodology, different readers, and different laboratories. George W. Boehlert and Mary M. Yoklavich
Estimation of sea otter, Enhydra lutris, population, with confidence bounds, from air and ground counts. J. J. Geibel and D. J. Miller
Cleaning behavior of the juvenile panamic sergeant major, Abudefduf troschelii (Gill), with a resume of cleaning associations in the Gulf of California and adjacent waters. Richard M. McCourt and Donald A. Thomson
Effects of cattle grazing on selected habitats of southern mule deer. R. Terry Bowyer and Vernon C. Bleich
Mortality in California mule deer at a drying reservoir: the problem of siltation at water catchments. Daniel W. Baber
Records of goosefishes (Family: Lophiidae, Genus Lophiodes) from Californian waters. Robert N. Lea, Thomas Keating, Gilbert Van Dykhuizen, and Phillip B. Lehtonen
California Fish and Game 70(3). Summer 1984.
Distribution of some common decapod crustaceans and a pycnogonid from the continental shelf of northern California. Mary K. Wicksten
Diurnal activity and habitat use by feral pigs on Santa Cruz Island, California. Dirk Van Vuren
Environmental conditions and fish faunas in low elevation rivers on the irrigated San Joaquin Valley floor, California. Michael K. Saiki
Relocation of original territories by displaced black-and-yellow rockfish, Sebastes chrysomelas, from Carmel Bay, California. Leon E. Hallacher
Surgical implantation of a radiotelemetry device in wild black bears, Ursus americanus. David A. Jessup and Donald B. Koch
Seasonal variation in the diet of the threespine stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus, in Contra Costa County, California. Randal J. Snyder
Attacks on divers by white sharks in Chile. Alfredo Cea Egana and John E. McCosker
Ecological status of striped bass, Morone saxatilis, in Upper Newport Bay, California. Michael H. Horn, Larry G. Allen, and F. Dennis Hagner
Food habits of black-tailed deer, Odocoileus hemionus columbianus, in Trinity County, California. John G. Kie, Timothy S. Burton, John W. Menke, and William E. Grenfell, Jr.
Additional notes on the repeat spawning by Pacific lamprey. John H. Michael, Jr.
A northern fur seal, Callorhinus ursinus, found in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. L. A. Dierauf
Extreme mercury concentrations of a striped bass, Morone saxatilis, with a known residence time in Lahontan Reservoir, Nevada. James J. Cooper and Steven Vigg
Erratum. Bruce Vondracek, Larry R. Brown, and Joseph J. Cech.
California Fish and Game 70(2). Spring 1984.
Variation in trophic state indicators in two northern California reservoirs. K. R. Gina Rothe
Comparative condition of black-tailed deer, Odocoileus hemionus columbianus, in two herds in Trinity County, California. John G. Kie, Timothy S. Burton, and John W. Menke
Pup dependency period and length of reproductive cycle: estimates from observations of tagged sea otters, Enhydra lutris, in California. Frederich E. Wendell, Jack A. Ames, and Robert A. Hardy
A review of selected remote sensing and computer technologies applied to wildlife habitat inventories. Kenneth E. Mayer
Identification of salt marsh harvest mice, Reithrodontomys raviventris, in the field and with cranial characteristics. Howard S. Shellhammer
A second record for California and additional morphological information on Entosphenus hubbsi Vladykov and Kott 1976 (Petromyzontidae). Vadim D. Vladykov and Edward Kott
Erratum. Darlene McGriff and John Modin
California Fish and Game 70(1). Winter 1984.
Food availability, food habits and growth of Tahoe sucker, Catostomus tahoensis, from a reservoir and a natural lake. Donn L. Marrin, Don C. Erman, and Bruce Vondracek
New host records of ticks (Acari: Argasidae and Ixodidae) parasitizing wildlife in California and a case of tick paralysis in a deer. Robert S. Lane
Zooplankton dynamics in a high mountain reservoir of southern California. Clifford A Siegfried and Mark E. Kopache
The benthos of a eutrophic mountain reservoir: influence of reservoir level on community composition, abundance, and production. Clifford A. Siegfried
Distribution and taxonomic affinities of mule deer, Odocoileus hemionus, from Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California. R. Terry Bowyer and Vernon C. Bleich
Dipodomys californicus in Sierra Valley, Plumas County, California. Anthony H. James, James P. O'Brien, and David K. James
Age and growth of Florida largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides floridanus, in Hidden Valley Reservoir, Lake County, California. Larry E. Week
Three species of sea turtles collected from northern California. Steven A. Smith and Warren J. Houck
Biochemical identification of a bluefin tuna establishes a new California size record. Ronald C. Dotson and John E. Graves
1983
California Fish and Game 69(4). Fall 1983.
Sex, age, and species differences in disease mortality of Ross' and lesser snow geese in California: implications for avian cholera research. M. Robert McLandress
The movement and homing of smallmouth bass, Micropterus dolomieui, in Lake Sammamish, Washington. David E. Pflug and Gilbert B. Pauley
Spring population trends in Phoca vitulina richardi in two central California coastal areas. Lucinda M. Slater and Hal Markowitz
Growth, maturity, and fecundity of the crayfish, Pacifastacus leniusculus, from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Darlene McGriff
Tagging materials and methods for sea otters, Enhydra lutris. Jack A. Ames, Robert A. Hardy, and Fredrich E. Wendell
California Fish and Game 69(3). Summer 1983.
Seasonal foods of black bears in Tahoe National Forest, California. William E. Grenfell, Jr. and Allan J. Brody
An annotated check list of the amphibians and reptiles of California. Mark R. Jennings
Northern occurrences of the sea snake, Pelamis platurus in the eastern Pacific, with a record of predation on the species. George V. Pickwell, Robert L. Bezy, and John E. Fitch
Thelophania contejeani parasitism of the crayfish, Pacifastacus leniusculus, in California. Darlene McGriff and John Modin
Food habits of coyotes, Canis latrans, in eastern Tehama County, California. Reginald H. Barrett
A study of the effects of Bolero 10G® on the mountain garter snake, Thamnophis elegans elegans. E. E. Littrell
Smoked aluminum track plots for determining furbearer distribution and relative abundance. Reginald H. Barrett
Avian cholera in an American Flamingo, Phoenicopterus ruber: a new host record. Christopher J. Brand and Rugh M. Duncan
Reproduction of Arctic grayling, Thymallus arcticus, in the Lobdell Lake system, California. Richard W. Rieber
Erratum. D. W. Gotshall, G. H. Allen, and R. A. Barnhart
California Fish and Game 69(2). Spring 1983.
Contribution of cutthroat trout in headwater streams to the sea-run population. John H. Michael, Jr.
Benthic invertebrates of the earthen Coachella Canal, California. Paul C. Marsh and Carolyn R. Stinemetz
Osteophagia and antler breakage among Roosevelt elk. R. Terry Bowyer
Concurrent measurement of intertidal environmental variables and embryo survival for the California grunion, Leuresthes tenius, and Atlantic silverside, Menidia menidia (Pisces: Atherinidae. D. P. Middaugh, H. W. Kohl, and L. E. Burnett
Age, growth, reproductive characteristics, and seasonal depth distribution of the spotfin surfperch, Hyperprosopon anale. Donald M. Baltz and Elaine E. Knight
Hazards to geese from exposure to zinc phosphide rodenticide baits. James F. Glahn and Larry D. Lamper
Ova fertility relative to temperature and to the time of gamete mixing in the red abalone, Haliotus rufescens. Earl E. Ebert and Randall M. Hamilton
First Californian record of the amarillo snapper, Lutjanus argentiventris. James E. Phelan
Evidence of birth of a sea otter on land in central California. Ronald J. Jameson
Age and growth and length-weight relationship for flathead catfish, Pylodictis olivaris, from Coachella Canal, southeastern California. Mark S. Pisano, Mary J. Inansci, and W. L. Minckley
California Fish and Game 69(1). Winter 1983.
In Memoriam—John E. Fitch
Soft bottom infaunal communities in Mission Bay. Deborah M. Dexter
Behavioral response of juvenile Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, to trash rack bar spacing. Charles H. Hanson and Hiram W. Li
Distribution of fishes in streams of the Walnut Creek basin, California. Robert A. Leidy
Notes on the feeding habits of the yellowtail rockfish, Sebastes flavidus, off Washington and in Queen Charlotte Sound. Harriet V. Lorz, William G. Pearcy, and Michael Fraidenburg
Distributional ecology of native and introduced fishes in the Pit River system, northeastern California, with notes on the Modoc sucker. James J. Cooper
Results of Mohave chub, Gila bicolor mohavensis, relocations in California and Nevada. Frank Hoover and James A. St. Amant
Common dolphins, Delphinus delphis, in Monterey Bay. James Christmann
Spirontocaris lamellicornis (Dana, 1852), new to the fauna of southern California. (Decapoda: Hippolytidae). Jack Q. Word
Erratum. T. A. Hanley and J. L. Page.
1982
California Fish and Game 68(4). Fall 1982.
Life history, distribution, and status of Pacifastacus fortis (Decapoda: Astacidae). Larry L. Eng and Robert A Daniels
Marine mammals in Monterey Bay, California, during the years 1950–1955. Eric G. Barham
Food habits of the gray smoothhound, Mustelus californicus, the brown smoothhound, Mustelus henleei, the shovelnose guitarfish, Rhinobatos productus, and the bat ray, Myliobatis californica, in Elkhorn Slough, California. Larry G. Talent
The occurrence of selected infectious diseases in the desert bighorn sheep, Ovis canadensis cremnobates, herds of the Santa Rosa Mountains, California. J. C. Turner and J. B. Payson
Crustaceans from baited traps and gill nets off southern California. Mary K. Wicksten
Status and nomenclatural history of Agonus vulsus Jordan and Gilbert, 1880 (Pisces-Family Agonidae). Robert N. Lea and Lillian J. Dempster
California Fish and Game 68(3). Summer 1982.
Range relationships and demography of fallow and axis deer on Point Reyes National Seashore. John D. Wehausen and Henry W. Elliott III
Growth of adult striped bass in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary. Barry W. Collins
Differential effects of livestock use on habitat structure and rodent populations in Great Basin communities. Thomas A. Hanley and Jerry L. Page
Intertidal vertical distribution and diets of five species of central California stichaeoid fishes. Michael G. Barton
Sightings of cetaceans in the Gulf of Farallones, California, 1971–1979. Harriet R. Huber, David G. Ainley, and Stephen H. Morrell
Record of the striped mullet, Mugil cephalus, in San Francisco Bay, California. Carol A. Reilly and Judy Sakanori
California Fish and Game 68(2). Spring 1982.
Effects of water level fluctuation on reproduction of largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides, at Millerton Lake, California, in 1973. Dale F. Mitchell
Trophic interrelations among introduced fishes in the lower Colorado River, southwestern United States. W. L. Minckley
Limnology of a eutrophic reservoir: Big Bear Lake, California. Clifford A. Siegfried, Perry L. Herrgesell, and Mark E. Kopache
Deer populations and reservoir construction in Trinity County, California. John Kie, Timothy S. Burton, and John W. Menke
Harbor seal census in south San Francisco Bay, 1972–1977. Lyman E. Fancher and Doris J. Alcorn
Occurrence of a Pacific loggerhead turtle, Caretta caretta gigas Deraniyagala, in the waters off Santa Cruz Island, California. Robert C. Guess
A harbor seal, Phoca vitulina richardi, taken from sablefish trap. Patricia M. Kolb and Kenneth S. Norris
California Fish and Game 68(1). Winter 1982.
Largemouth bass, Micropterus salmoides, and bluegill, Lepomis macrochirus, growth rates associated with artificial destratification and threadfin shad, Dorosoma petenense, introductions at El Capitan Reservoir, California. Arlo W. Fast, Lawrence H. Bottroff, and Richard L. Miller
Home range and habitat preferences of black bears in the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California. Harold J. Novick and Glenn R. Stewart
Comparison of age, growth, and feeding of the Tahoe sucker from Sierra Nevada streams and a reservoir. Bruce Vondracek, Larry R. Brown, and Joseph J. Cech
An underwater fish tagging method. T. C. Wilson
Concurrent sexual behavior in three groups of gray whales, Eschrictius robustus, during the northern migration off the central California coast. T. C. Wilson and David W. Behrens
Morphology and growth of a pugheaded brown rockfish, Sebastes auriculatus. Peter B. Adams and Constance J. Ryan
Relations between size of Chinook salmon, Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, released at hatcheries and returns to hatcheries and ocean fisheries. R. R. Reisenbichler, J. D. McIntyre, and R. J. Hallock
A microsporidian infection in mosquitofish, Gambusia affinis, from Orange County, California. T. A. Crandall and P. R. Bowser
Response of the Mohave chub, Gila bicolor mohavensis, to the dewatering of an artificial impoundment. Louis A. Courtois
1981
California Fish and Game 67(4). Fall 1981.
Systematics of golden trout, Salmo aguabonita, from the Sierra Nevada. J. R. Gold and G. A. E. Gall
Lingcod, Ophiodon elongatus, spawning and nesting in San Juan Channel, Washington. Mark G. LaRiviere, David D. Jessup, and Stephen B. Mathews
Larval anisakine roundworms of marine fishes from southern and central California, with comments on public health significance. Murray D. Dailey, Lauritz A. Jensen, and Barbara Westerhof Hill
Evidence of movements of some deepwater rockfishes (Scorpaenidae: genus Sebastes) off southern California. Milton S. Love
Seasonal changes in a population of the fluffy sculpin, Oligocottus snyderi, from Trinidad Bay, California. John R. Moring
Conservation of vernal pool plants in California: I. A report on Pixley Reserve. R. F. Holland and S. K. Jain
Deer use under black oaks with and without mistletoe. Gordon C. Ashcraft
California Fish and Game 67(3). Summer 1981.
Freshwater mollusks of California: a distributional checklist. Dwight W. Taylor
The role of temperature and photoperiod in the ontogenetic migration of prejuvenile Sebastes diploproa (Pisces: Scorpaenidae). George W. Boehlert
Copper, zinc, and cadmium concentrations of resident trout related to acid-mine wastes. D. Wilson, B. Finlayson, and N. Morgan
Laboratory studies of intraspecific behavior interactions and factors influencing tidepool selection of the wooly sculpin, Clinocottus analis. W. A. Richkus
Hybridization between hitch, Lavinia exilicauda, and Sacramento blackfish, Orthodon microlepidodus, in San Luis Reservoir, California. Peter B. Moyle and Michael Massingill
California Fish and Game 67(2). Spring 1981.
Shark attacks in California and Oregon, 1926–1979. Daniel J. Miller and Ralph S. Collier
History and status of wild pigs, Sus scrofa, in San Benito County, California. Reginald H. Barrett and Donald S. Pine
Spawning behavior and requirements of Alabama spotted bass, Micropterus punctulatus henshalli, in Lake Perris, Riverside County, California. Kenneth D. Aasen and Francis D. Henry, Jr.
A census of harbor seals, Phoca vitulina, in San Luis Obispo County, California 1972–1973. L. S. Wade
A slide rule for locating and decoding bit values on six-bit coded wire nose tags. E. W. Lesh and John H. Rowell
Wolverine, Gulo gulo, records for the White Mountains, California. Steven D. Kovach
California grunion, Leuresthes tenius, spawn in Monterey Bay, California. Jerome D. Spratt
California Fish and Game 67(1). Winter 1981.
A list of the freshwater and anadromous fishes of California. Leo Shapovalov, Almo J. Cordone, and William A. Dill
Electrophoretic, morphometric, and meristic studies of subpopulations of northern anchovy, Engraulis mordax. Andrew M. Vrooman, Pedro A. Paloma, and James R. Zweifel
Denning characteristics of black bears, Ursus americanus, in the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California. Harold J. Novick, John M. Siperek, and Glenn R. Stewart
Update of the estimated mortality rate ofEngraulis mordax in southern California. Doyle Hanan
First record of dextrality in the California tonguefish, Symphurus atricauda, with a second report of ambicoloration. Edward L. Telders
1980
California Fish and Game 66(4). Fall 1980.
Evidence of white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, attacks on sea otters, Enhydra lutris. Jack A. Ames and G. Victor Morejohn
Recent trends in the white sturgeon population in California's Sacramento-San Joaquin Estuary. David W. Kohlhorst
An annotated checklist of fishes from Humboldt Bay, California. Daniel W. Gotshall, George H. Allen, and Roger A. Barnhart
Food habits of pintails, Anas acuta, wintering on seasonally flooded wetlands in the northern San Joaquin Valley, California. Daniel P. Connelly and David L. Chesemore
Harbor seal and fish populations—before and after a sewage spill in south San Francisco Bay. Doris J. Alcorn, Lyman E. Fancher, and Jane Bull Moss
Status of the redeye bass, Micropterus coosae, in the south fork Stanislaus River
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Behind the Songs — News — Mary Gauthier
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Americana Troubadour, Singer and Songwriter
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Mary Gauthier
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Video Debut: Click Here to Watch Got Your Six
This month we are excited to debut the video for "Got Your Six," from my new album Rifles & Rosary Beads.
I wrote "Got Your Six" with two female veterans, Meghan Counihan and Britney Pfad, who served in the army in Iraq. It was my first veteran co-write, at a retreat center outside of Austin, Texas. I watched as the two women sat next to each other, whispered in each other's ear, and occasionally held each other's arm. They were very close, and I could see that they were family to each other.
I asked them to tell me about their friendship. Did they serve together? Were they battle buddies? They looked at me and said, "We have each other's six."
"What? What's that?" I asked. They were suprised I'd never heard the term. "You know," one soldier said, without emotion. "I've got her back. She's got mine."
"On the battlefield," she explained. "12 o'clock is in front of you, 6 o'clock behind you. To have someone's 6 is to have their back."
To have someone's 6 means you'd die for them. When the full weight of that hit me, I knew I was entering another world, one I knew nothing about. In their world, people die for one another. I understood quickly that a part of their deep bond is survivor's guilt, the aching memory of those they've lost. They carry the weight of that, daily.
They talked, and I listened, watching their body language, and noting the rise and fall of their voices. I took in the stories they told, as well as the ones they could not fully articulate. We sat together for a couple of hours. I took notes. When it got late we called it a night, and I went to my room and tried to mold what they said into a song. I did my best to make sure it conveyed what they felt and believed.
I played the song for them the next morning. They liked it, but pointed out a couple spots where my words were not exactly right. We kept working. They added new ideas. After a few changes, we had it.
When I played their song for them from start to finish, both of their faces opened. Their jaws dropped. Watching them become wide-eyed and filled with wonder hearing their song for the first time, I shared in their delight. We laughed and we high fived. We resonated. We were in sync. We'd written a song that reflected some of a soldier's deepest feelings.
I love this song! Special thanks to Meghan and Britney for being brave enough to share their story!
Drag Queens in Limousines (by Mary Gauthier and Crit Harmon)
I hated high school and prayed it would end
The jocks and their girls, it was their world, I didn't fit in
Mama said, "Baby, it's the best school that money can buy
Hold your head up, be strong, c'mon Mary, try."
I stole mama's car on a Sunday and left home for good
Moved in with my friends in the city, in a bad neighborhood
Charles was a dancer he loved the ballet
Kimmy sold pot and read Kerouac and Hemingway.
Drag Queens in Limousines
Nuns in blue jeans
Dreamers with big dreams
All took me in
Charlie and I flipped burgers to cover the rent
And Bourbons at Happy hour for 35 cents
One day before work we got drunk and danced in the rain
They fired us both, They said, "Don't ya'll come back here again."
Drag Queens in Limousines
Nuns in blue jeans
Dreamers with big dreams
All took me in
My dad went to college, and he worked for the state
He never quit nothing and he wanted me to graduate
My brother and sister both play in the marching band
They tell me they miss me, but I know they don't understand.
Sometimes you got do, what you gotta do
And pray that the people you love will catch up with you
Drag Queens in Limousines
Nuns in blue jeans
Dreamers with big dreams
Poets and AWOL marines
Actors and Bar Flies
Writers with Dark Eyes
Drunks that Philosophize
These are my friends
This song came out of half-baked gig in NYC, a gig that ended before it began because nobody came except the two friends whose apartment I was staying at in Manhattan. Yes, it sucked, but my two friends offered to take me out to a New York diner to cheer me up-the night was ours to do with as we wished. They decided to take me to their favorite late night eatery The Midtown Diner, right outside Times Square.
As we approached the diner, I noticed the parking lot that horseshoed around the front of the restaurant was filled with limo’s and black cars. It looked impressive—all those fancy cars lined up and parked there. The chauffeurs were inside, engines running, drinking coffee, some of them eating out of takeout boxes, waiting for their next job. My friends told me they park there because there are not may places to park in NYC, and the restaurant lets them hang out between their fares if they buy something to eat.
We made our way past all the limousines, walked in, sat down, got our menus and ordered coffees. I sank into a bit of a funk, feeling sorry for myself, wondering if or when the tide would turn for me in NYC, if I would ever find an audience in the big city. As I sat there brooding, a door swung open in the back and two drag queens in full makeup, high heels, sparkly dresses and big, big hair strutted in, ordered coffee to go, and stood at the counter, talking loudly and laughing in that loud drag queen “look-at-me” tone. They got their coffee, loaded them with sugar and milk, and walked back through the swinging door, styrofoam cup in hand. All that was left of them when the doors swung shut was their perfume.
No one except me even turned their head to look at them. Turns out the staff and customers were used to drag queens runway-walking through the restaurant, but I wasn’t, and I looked at my friends in amazement. They were New Yorkers, they did not react, and I was beginning to feel pretty small town, sitting there in that booth with my mouth open. I laughed and said, “C’mon guys, isn’t this a little surreal? Don’t you think this is just a little amazing?”
My friends smiled, nodded and said, “This place is great. We love it here—its always Drag Queens and Limousines.”
BINGO! The whole trip to NYC was worth it, just for that moment, hearing those words rang out loud and true to me as a song title. Getting humiliated for a single night in Manhattan was turning into a blessing. The next day I drove back home to Boston where I was living at the time, and started the song.
As I worked on it, “Drag Queens in Limousines” became an autobiographical story song about coming of age as a gay kid in the South. It’s more or less my story, but over the years it’s become an outsider’s anthem. The song speaks to the outsider in all of us, though when I wrote it I had no idea that people of all persuasions from all over the world would relate to feeling like an outsider. Often times when I am singing it I look out into the audience and I see folks who look a whole lot like insiders wholeheartedly relating to the outsider in this song, singing every word. I’ve learned that insiders feel like outsiders sometimes, and high school was hard for an awful lot of people, not just the gay kids.
Songs I write often become my teachers. When I am in Texas, I look out in the audience and I see heterosexual he-man cowboys singing along to this tune. In Scotland I’ve seen middle-aged lorry drivers pump their fists to this tune. In Norway, the Vikings love it. All over the world, over and over again, this song has shown me that I have no idea what’s going on inside a person’s heart, that judging people by how they look is a really bad idea. We all feel outside of something sometimes, and sooner or later we all have to make decisions that are scary, knowing someone we love is not going to see it our way. We all need a group to fit into, a tribe, and no one wants to be alone.
For me, I found acceptance as a young person among those who, like me, did not fit into socially acceptable roles. The artists, gays, rebels, geeks—these were the people with whom I found refuge. They took me in when my family tossed me out, and became my patchwork family early on.
I haven’t changed all that much. Today I am still drawn to the people who break rules, who dare to stand out in a crowd. The people who create something out of nothing, take risks and stand bravely outside the group because they have to, who do it their own way because they have integrity.
This song won me my very first music award—Best Country Song/Best Country Artist GLAMA Award, 1999. I think the Gay and Lesbian American Music Awards created the category in honor of my little homemade self-released Drag Queens In Limousines record, it was the first year for a Country Category at that particular award show. Today, 16 years later, the idea of a gay country artist is still out there. I mean, C’mon, in Nashville, it just ain’t done. But guess what? I came here in 2001, got a publishing deal in 2002, and a major label record deal in 2003. I also got to play the Grand Ole Opry on live television, then again many, many times at the Gaylord Opry House, the first openly gay artist to do so. No closet, no hiding, no apologizing, no kidding, no problem. Nashville, The Opry, Cowboys, Vikings, these are my friends. Isn’t life interesting?
Order a copy of Live at Blue Rock HERE.
P.S.: I made a Video for the It Gets Better Project, using Drag Queens In Limousines as a theme. Find out more about the It Gets Better Project.
This is a picture of orphaned babies in St. Vincent's from the New Orleans paper, 1962. Such a bizarre thing to call us orphans—our parents were alive and well, just not married to each other, thats all. The truth is that we were not orphans, but we were orphaned. Back then, unmarried women were shamed and often forced by their families into giving their babies away. I am the baby way in the back, the circled baby is my adoptive cousin, adopted at around the same time as me.
Blood Is Blood
(by Mary Gauthier and Crit Harmon)
Clouds are spreading like bruises on the evening sky I walk the streets alone again tonight It starts to rain still I search each passing face Blood is blood and blood don’t wash away Blood is blood and blood don’t wash away
When I was a child they told me she loved me too much She didn’t keep me ‘cause my mama loved me too much She left without a trail she left without a trace But blood is blood and blood don’t wash away Blood is blood and blood don’t wash away
I got a heart that’s ripped I got a soul that’s torn I got a hole in me like I was never born
Blood is thicker than water Blood is bound by God I don’t know who I am I don’t know who I’m not I don’t know my name I can’t find my place
Blood is blood and blood don’t wash away Blood is blood and blood don’t wash away Blood is blood and blood don’t wash away Blood is blood and blood don’t wash away I walk the streets alone again tonight
When I began writing songs I heard a whisper, way in the back of my mind, that someday I’d be called to write a record called The Foundling, and explore in a series of songs what my deepest inner world felt like. Creativity is prescient in that way, it seems to be one step ahead of me at all times, and I’m always just trying to catch up.
My life story was aching to come out of the shadows, and my subconscious was guiding me to it, to begin healing and reconciliation with truth, through my work as a songwriter.
See, I was adopted.
I feared losing my family if I asked my origins. I did not dare ask to ask where I came from. This is not an uncommon fear among adoptees. Many of us decide wait till our adoptive parents are dead to search for our original families, our original identities. The fear of losing our adoptive family, and of appearing ungrateful or disloyal keeps us from searching earlier, from asking hard questions.
But my subconscious was busy trying to help me put the pieces of my fractured past together as best it could. I needed to claim my truth to fully grow up, to be a whole, integrated person, to become truly real—and let go of the weight of not knowing, walk lighter, and be useful to others.
As hard as it is to explain, I deeply believe in this mysterious impulse for the mind to heal itself. Following it has led me down beautifully twisted roads, led me to the songs I sing, and given me this creative life I love so much.
As hard as it is to believe, the truth of own story was not available to me until I wrote the songs on The Foundling. Writing helped me make sense of things that had haunted me from the day I was born.
It took me a decade as a songwriter before I was able to tackle this project. It took me another two years of focused writing to complete the songs. It was by far the hardest work I’ve ever done as an artist—hard emotionally, physically and spiritually. I had to come face to face with some damn scary monsters. I had to make myself sit at my desk for 10 to 12 hours at a time, week after week. I had to research trauma, childhood trauma, and adoption trauma, and come face to face with my own denial of the effects of what had happened. But the inner work I was doing in therapy coincided with the work I was doing as an artist, and The Foundling songs crept up and out, cracking the floorboards of my fear, one at a time. I kept walking, and writing.
The truth of my life and the truth in my work collided.
What I learned was that my relinquishment by my birth mother on the day I was born, my year-long stay at the orphanage on Magazine Street in New Orleans, and my subsequent adoption into a family I never fully attached to were all traumatic events. And trauma needs to be dealt with.
The time was right for me to put the pieces together, as I wrote The Foundling song cycle I began to heal from the inside out—a classic case of art healing the artist. I look back on it now and wonder how I did it, or rather, how it did me. The mystery remains intact, even as I try now to explain.
The song “Blood Is Blood” is the centerpiece of The Founding cycle. It vibrates with the intensity and angst of an adoptee in full-blown identity crisis. Using John Lennon’s Mother as a guide, I let the muse walk me to the edge of my knowing till I faced the abyss, the dropping off place—the place I’d tried to avoid for 46 years.
With the muse guiding me, John Lennon’s courage encouraging me, my work in many years of therapy steering me, and my adoptee friends holding me, I found the strength to face what happened when my mother left me behind forever, on that frightful day, the day I was born.
Seeing it, knowing it, becoming aware of it, owning it—this is where all healing truly starts. And after a while, telling it moves the healing outward.
This song started with a couple of lines and a melody sent to me by my co-writer. Both the title and the repeated riff were in the clip he sent me, and I knew something great was there when I heard it. I just needed to carry it home.
I’d been reading a lot of books on adoption and trauma, and had become saturated in the work of Betty Jean Lifton, who to this day is my favorite writer on the psychology of adoption. BJ was an adoptee herself, a brilliant thinker and writer, and married to Robert J Lifton, Professor of Psychiatry at both Harvard and Yale, and the foremost expert on the psychological effects of war. He is the author of several groundbreaking books on the subject, including The Nazi Doctors.
Robert championed BJ as she did her own groundbreaking work on adoption trauma, and to this day her work on the psychology of adoption remains unsurpassed. She is an adoption reform hero, and I never could have written The Foundling without her. I got to meet her once when she came to a show I played at Joe’s Pub in NYC with the songwriter and fellow adoptee Diana Jones, who was her close friend. It was an honor to hug BJ Lifton—she was a kind, beautiful, brave and brilliant woman.
In addition to her work on adoption, she wrote many other wonderful books, including The King of Children, a biography of Janusz Korzack, the Heroic Polish Jewish Doctor who ran an orphanage during the war, and died with his orphans at the hands of the Nazis at the Treblinka extermination camp.
The song “Blood Is Blood” tells the story of the existential hole left inside of an adoptee after the loss of original family and heritage to the crucible of closed adoption. This loss is traumatic, but it is not yet generally understood. Often times, we adoptees don’t even know the loss/trauma is there because of a split in our psyche’s that shuts us out of entire rooms in our brains. Trauma is fundamental in adoption (especially closed adoptions where adoptees are given no knowledge of their heritage), but we’re just beginning to understand the ramifications of it. Certainly there is a direct link between childhood trauma and addiction as well as a variety of attachment disorders and other struggles, but we are in the infancy of understanding how this all plays out.
“Blood Is Blood” is both my story, and the story of closed adoption, an in-your-face song railing against the pain, secrets and lies of closed adoption. I’d say it’s probably the angriest and most angst-ridden song I’ve ever written.
It amazes me that in America, to this day, adoptees by the millions are denied access to our own original birth certificates. In fact, whenI was writing this song in 2014, only 6 states had opened or partially opened birth records. Think about that! Millions of adopted adults in America are denied access to our own birth certificates. They are sealed documents, locked away from us forever in the name of protecting us from…our identity?
I was told as a child that my mother loved me so much that she gave me away. I was told she “loved me too much to keep me.” A child cannot make sense of this, but even as an adult it makes my head swim. Loved me too much to keep me? I know my parents were trying to tell me that my mother could not care for me for reasons we never got in to, that she was so unselfish and generous that she gave me away so that I might be better cared for. The problem with this (aside from the fact that it’s probably not true) is that it forever equates love with abandonment, and the fear of abandonment has haunted me my entire life.
The antiquated laws that permanently seal birth certificates desperately need to be overturned, but the going is slow and the opposition is well funded. The fight for truth and justice in this arena continues. I hope this song helps, somehow. It sure helped me.
Order a copy of Live at Blue Rock HERE.
(By Mary Gauthier) Steam Train Maury died last night His wife Wanda by his side He caught the Westbound out of here Hopped the high irons to the by and by They say he jumped ten thousand trains Rode a million miles for free Helped out at VA hospitals and penitentiary’s Dandy Dave, Rusty Nails and Sweet Lady Sugar Cane Dead Eye Kate and the Baloney Kid raise their cups tonight in Steam Train’s name Senators, congressmen, puppets on a string Among the windswept vagabonds Steam Train was the king The last of the hobo kings, the last of the hobo kings
Now bums just drink and wander round Tramps dream and wander too But a hobo was a pioneer who preferred to work for food He knew how his nation’s doing By the length of a side walk cigarette butt Born with an aching wanderlust Embedded in his gut Hounded, beaten, laughed at, broke Chased out of every town With a walking stick scepter And a shredded coffee can crown The last of the hobo king, the last of the hobo kings
The last free men are hobos Steinbeck said, and he paid cash And the stories that he bought from them Helped him write the Grapes of Wrath But boxcars have been sealed for years And trespassers do time Railroad yards are razor wired And hoboing’s a crime So here’s to you Steam Train Maury Hold that Westbound tight As you ride off into history The last hobo, the last ride The last of the hobo king, the last of the hobo kings
I wrote this song in a hotel room in Amsterdam, in late November of 2006. A long string of shows in Europe had just ended, but I decided to stay in Europe a little longer to and try get some writing done. I wanted to go home, but I had not written a new song in a long while and I figured the solitude of being in a hotel alone for a while would kick in the old writing process. I'd written two songs at the Schiller Hotel in Amsterdam’s Rembrandt Square on my previous tour, so I decided to linger a while longer and see if I could repeat the process. As homesick as I was, I changed my flight, added a week to my stay, and started reading poems in the old café, filling my head with words written before, during and after the liberation of Holland.
I'm glad I did.
The hotel and café were once owned by a painter by the name of Schiller, whose wife was a cabaret singer who performed in the square on the weekends. Mr. Schillers Cafe was a meeting place filled with lively conversation, after show parties, and a place where artists of all types gathered to share their work and their lives. The Schiller's endured the German occupation of Amsterdam during the war and were indentured to Nazi soldiers in their own hotel for period of time. Mr Schiller's paintings still hang in the hotel.
Captivated by the deco lighting and the timeworn original wooden floorboards that Nazi boots had walked before me, I sat there for hours, reading and daydreaming as tourists shuffled in and out of Smokey Joe’s, a giant marijuana coffee shop next door. It was a wonderful place to sit, ponder, and write.
I was in the café atrium sipping Dutch coffee one morning when I saw a headlined obituary in the International Herald Tribune newspaper for Steam Train Maury Graham, the Grand Patriarch of the Hobo Nation. I’d never heard of him, but I read his obituary and it grabbed me, he grabbed me, and I knew I’d found the thread of the song I should write. My attention fully engaged, I started poking around on my laptop for the more of Steamtrain’s story. The first thing I found was the website for the funeral home where he was being laid to rest. I clicked on his name, landed on a message board and read all the messages posted there from people who loved him, mostly other hobos. I kept poking around, digging up hobo treasures and gathering hobo stories from all over the web.
Maury Graham was a folk hero and legendary figure in his community, thus the headlined obituary in The New York Times, and The International Herald Tribune paper. I traveled deep into the vernacular and history of hobos in America, and time flew by. I learned about the hobo jungles and the hobo gatherings, the annual King and Queen elections, and the hobo lifestyle. It was a wonderful journey into a world I’d never visited and I emerged a few days later with the song in hand. It’s one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written.
P.S.: One of the many oddball things I learned sitting there in that café for a week—Did you know that Billy Bragg and Michelle Shocked ate some of the ashes of Old Joe Hill? Well, yes, they did.
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(Fred Eaglesmith) Stumbling past your house baby At the break of day I thought I saw your silhouette Dancing cross the shade And I went down to the mission I called and called your name Till an angel with a face like yours Came down and let me in
Thought I saw your reflection in a cigarette machine In a bottle in the gutter In a window on the street In a storefront in a picture on an old broken TV I swear it was you staring back at me
I heard soldier’s voices by the city gate There were junkies lying on the ground They made me look away I spilled you in a mirror I chopped you into lines Over some old kitchen sing I swore I’d let you die
Thought I saw your reflection in a cigarette machine In a bottle in the gutter In a window on the street In a storefront in a picture on an old broken TV I swear it was you staring back at me
Old radios and broken mirrors Dogeared things I read Worn out movie stars In faded limousines I stumble through my own charades Coffee cups and clowns I can’t keep up with parades I keep falling down
Thought I saw your reflection in a cigarette machine In a bottle in the gutter In a window on the street In a storefront in a picture on an old broken TV I swear it was you staring back at me
Listen to a clip of the song:
[audio mp3="http://www.marygauthier.com/MG2012/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/04-Cigarette-Machine.mp3"][/audio]
“Cigarette Machine” is the story of a haunted but lovable fellow whose pain I can feel, and whose skin I am comfortable inhabiting on stage. He is haunted by lost love, haunted by sorrow, haunted by failure, haunted by the ghost of his former self, and trying make a life in a world that no longer makes sense to him.
He is an addict.
On the surface, “Cigarette Machine” tells the story of a lost romantic relationship, but underneath, the deeper meaning of the song is an exploration of the horrors of addiction. A major loss can break a person down and be the driver of addiction and mental illness, it can suck the hope out of a human heart.
Fueled by denial and trapped in the hell of powerlessness, the crushing grip of active addiction howls throughout this song. We all know the story, we’ve seen it before … swearing it off and five minutes later, picking it back up … I’ll quit tomorrow, the mantra of the addict.
All of this is implied here, the words beautifully framed by circular chord changes that just go endlessly round and round, like addiction itself—chained to a merry-go-round in hell.
Many of us intimately understand getting caught up in a person or a substance that’s not good for us, and starting to spiral downward from the wrongness of the attraction as we refuse to let go of our pursuit of what we want. Most will let go before the behavior becomes insanity (insanity being defined as doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results). Repeated long enough over time, compulsion can become addiction. The chase then becomes relentless and starts removing things from a life, greater and greater losses will continue to enfold, but the addict is no longer able to control the compulsion and keeps sinking further down into deeper water.
The character’s life in this song has spiraled completely out of his control. He is haunted, troubled and lost, having hit any numbers of bottoms but still descending blindly into the hole he is digging for himself. This is the nature of addiction, falling into the self-dug hole. The hole will get deeper and deeper, (unless and until the addict puts the shovel down and quits digging), but the soul sickness of addiction abhors admitting bottom. It can’t even see that it’s digging a hole—the addict does not know, cannot see, that he/she is sick. Addiction blames, lies, denies, and will eventually kill unless the compulsion is broken. One must hit bottom, and bottom is simply putting down the shovel. Simple, yes, but not at all easy—in fact, many say it takes a supernatural intervention to truly break addiction.
The character in this song is in terrible shape, but he doesn’t know it. Much like the guy in the song I wrote called “I Drink,” this character is delusional but lovable—and we root for him, we feel for him, we want him to find his way back home.
I particularly love the lines: “I can’t keep up with parades, I keep falling down.”
It brought tears to my eyes the first time I heard this—I felt compassion for this guy’s human frailty, and ultimately, compassion for everyone else’s frailty (including my own).
Yes, I’ve been where this guy is. It was a long time ago, but I remember it as though it was yesterday and I don’t ever want to go back there again. Lord willing, I won’t have to.
This is a truly great song. Thank you, Fred. You keep hitting ‘em out of the park.
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(Mary Gauthier) Our Lady of the Shooting Stars Was that you last night? Did we dance a whispered waltz Did I hold you in my sight? When morning came with open arms She lifted you from me, Sunlight burned my eyes away And now I cannot see.
Our Lady of the Shooting Stars As I face the early light All that I can think of now Is joining you in flight But I have followed gypsies, girl Lost my way back home Held the phoenix to my chest And ended up alone.
If I move to you Will you move to me? If I move to you Will you move to me?
Our Lady of The Shooting Stars Teach me how to know I want to feel my thoughts go dark And rest inside your flow. I'll awaken without fear And breathe the cool clean air, Your words upon my lips Your will becomes my prayer
If I move to you Will you move to me? If I move to you Will you move to me?
Our Lady of the Shooting Stars Look what you have done You led me to the water's edge, Running from sun. Are you in the briny mist? Do Seagulls scream your name? Wings suspended by your love, Or do I reach in vain?
If I move to you Will you move to me? If I move to you Will you move to me?
The words to this song are poetic—they have many layers of meaning, all of which would be destroyed if I try to explain it away in an essay. So I’m not going to try and decipher what the song means, that’s not something I could not do anyway. Ultimately, I have no idea! The artist does not know much more than the listener when it comes to poetic songs, we are just the lightening rod, not the lightening. The mystery remains intact, as new meanings appear over and over again over time. But I can, and will, explain how the song came to be.
It came from a failed gig, a gig early in my career that was a wipe out. No one came. No one at all!
It was to be a legendary place, The Wintertide Coffeehouse on Martha’s Vineyard, and I was hired to headline. It was my first big gig, my first headlining show, and I was thrilled. I drove from my home in Boston to Hyannis, took the car ferry over to the island, and got very excited when I pulled up to the club. It felt like finally, after years of open mic’s and playing for free, I was on my way to a brilliant and successful career in the music business. I went in, did a sound check and put my one CD on the merchandise table, then sat down and waited for people to come. Then I waited some more. But no one came.
No audience appeared. As I waited, I started to wonder if I was making a very big mistake chasing this crazy dream of mine. I wondered if I should quit this childish chase and just go home before it got any worse.
But I was on an island, there were no boats out till morning, and I had nowhere to go. There were no options, I had to stay, and I had to play. I had to get on stage and face the empty room with my guitar. I could not slip out the back and act like this was not happening. So I did it, I played to 150 empty chairs, and 2 people--one was the opening act, the other was bartender. It rattled me, unnerved me. It embarrassed me. My high hopes for the show were crushed. The show was a complete wipe out.
I still owned and ran a couple restaurants in Boston at this time, but I wanted out. I wanted to be a professional songwriter, not a chef. I was in the process of walking away from the restaurants to be a full time artist. I’d already notified my investors that I wanted to sell my shares back to them. I wanted out.
As I stood on stage and played for the bartender that night, I wondered if I was making a huge mistake. I was terrified of falling on my face in front of a lot of people who were going to tell me I told you so. I was 38 years old, I’d been to hell and back a few times by then, but I’d also been successful in many ways-- three restaurants under my belt, a condo, a house, health insurance, a new car every few years. I was walking away from success to try and become a professional musician at damn near 40 years of age, without any training or prior experience.
People told me I was nuts. My business partners literally laughed at me when I told them what I planned to do next. I knew I knew in my heart I was being called to write songs, to play music but what if I was delusional? What if the “calling” was just my tendency towards being a malcontent, always wanting something I didn’t have?
I was new in the business of music, but I’d already seen many, many delusional people chasing it with gusto. People who in all other areas of their life were sane, who believed that they had a shot in the music business when it was more than obvious to the entire world that they did not have the goods. Was I one of them? Had I finally lost it? Terror made my blood run cold on stage that night.
The early years are tough for all artists. The beginning requires a belief in your own work without an empirical evidence to back it up. No fans. No applause. No press. No gigs, No money. No idea-- if you suck or have talent. Some artists live their entire lives never getting that external validation, doing their work in earnest, committed to their calling, living in poverty. I did not want to be that kind of artist. I wanted to make a living making music. To this day, that is my definition of career success, to just make a living as an artist.
On the ferry returning to Boston the next day, I was feeling pretty sorry for myself. I was filled with self-doubt and wondering if I should throw in the towel before strayed too far down this new path I’d chosen for my life. Should I give up now? Before this craziness got out of hand?
I got out of my car and went to the side of the boat and leaned against the railing. I watched the water churning behind us as we made our way out to open ocean. There were gulls, hundreds of them, following us there, as well as along the sides of the boat as we pulled out of the harbor.
As we set sail for Boston, I became mesmerized by those sea gulls. They followed us out into the open ocean, right next to the boat, hovering beside us, further and further out. They soared beside us like living kites, without ever flapping their wings. They stayed with the boat as we went further and further out to sea. They did not turn back! It seemed they were floating-- riding the wind, escorting me home. It was an amazing sight, all those birds gently gliding on air currents next to the boat. They rode regal, on an invisible stream, soaring freely with open wings. They gave me hope that painful morning. I could not put it into words, but they were telling me something about flow, something about faith, about staying with it.
They screamed as they soared next to us, and I was completely taken.
They could have been screaming for joy because people began tossing muffins and donuts out to them, or they could have been screaming for love, for life, for beauty, for God. Whatever the cause, their joyful screams came to me at a time when I needed them most. The images of those Gulls stay with me, and this song remains a snapshot of that day.
At about this time, I was reading The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, by Rebecca Wells, and one of the characters in the book (Vivian), said a prayer to Our Lady of the Shooting Stars. The playfulness of that prayer captured me. I made note. I went to Catholic school for years, (even got kicked out of two of them), but never heard of a Saint called Our Lady of the Shooting Stars. What a beautiful name. If she’d actually existed I might have stayed in Catholic school a little longer! But alas, she came from imagination of the author, and the name stuck in mine. I remembered it. It became the title of this song.
When I got home from my little trip to the Vineyard, and sat at my writing desk the following week, the synthesis of all these experiences came out sounding like this:
Our Lady of the Shooting Stars Look what you have done You've led me to the water's edge, Running from sun. Are you in the briny mist? Do Seagulls scream your name? Their wings suspended by your love, Or do I reach in vain?
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(by Fred Eaglesmith) Son, could you help me on this platform? I’m not so good at climbing stairs I brought me a drink and some sandwiches I want to just sit and watch the trains
I come down here almost every Sunday My grandkids, they used to come too Now they drop me off at the front gate I guess that they got better things to do
Number 47 she’s a good one Number 63 sings like a bird Number 29, that’s the one they call The Rocket Hey, that’s the saddest train I ever heard
Son, I’m decorated veteran I fought in what they called the Great War I used to believe in everything it stood for I don’t believe in much anymore
Number 47 she’s a good one Number 63 sings like a bird Number 29, that’s the one they call The Rocket Hey, that’s the saddest train I ever heard
Son, you look just like my boy He stood here almost 40 years today He looked so good in that brand new soldier’s uniform But that Rocket never brought him back again
Headaches and heartaches and all kinds of pain, these are the parts of the railroad train. Trains are one of the great metaphors writers use to shine the light on the far reaches of the human heart—to demonstrate the comings and goings of love. There are hundreds and hundreds of songs that use trains to tell the stories of the hearts’ travels, and “The Rocket” is one of the best.
It is written from the perspective of a man who has experienced a loss so devastating he cannot fully transcend his sorrow, so he has ritualized his grief in order to deal with it. He’s compelled to visit and re-visit the site where he last saw his son alive, the place where he sent him off to war 40 years prior—the eponymous train station. He is an old man now, bent over with regret, and he has lost most—if not all—of his faith. His body is also failing him, he has trouble with the stairs, and is forced to ask strangers to help him make his way up and down the flights for his weekly pilgrimage.
The utter brilliance of this song lies in the fact that old man does not choose to visit his son’s grave on his weekly pilgrimage. Instead, he chooses to visit the departure site, the place where he sent the boy off to war. It’s as though he is engaging in a penance for his actions, trying to make some kind of atonement for what he believes he did. We also get the feeling that the old fellow sits and stares at the trains trying to understand the enormity of what’s transpired, hoping somehow that if he stares long enough and hard enough, he might change the ending of the story.
His grandkids drop him off at the station, but they don’t join him there to watch the trains anymore, he’s left on his own to talk to the strangers who help him navigate the stairs ( and the emotions). He is compelled to tell his story each time, perhaps finding comfort in the telling. The universal human reaction to tragedy, to grief, is the need to tell and re-tell our story, it helps us move through the sorrow. But this old man is trapped in his pain, and he cannot find his way out of the maze. He feels responsible for his son’s death, and as we witness his pain, we feel compassion for him.
Nationalism and patriotism carried to their ultimate conclusions have repercussions, and this man has paid a high price for his devoted love and defense of his country—suffering both the loss of his son, and the loss of his faith. We assume the man is an American, but this is not necessarily so. This man could be of any nationality, and the pain would be the same. This song captures the essence of disillusionment through the old mans voice, the voice of the old soldier. We see the high cost of war through his eyes. This is not a protest song, or a peace song. It does not instruct us emotionally, it does not tell us how to feel about what has transpired. It only tells the story of one old man’s grief ritual. We take from it what we will, and draw our own conclusions. This is a story song well written, and the brilliance of story songs well told is that we write our own endings and thus personally connect with the universal truths they reveal.
When I was a child my family was dealt a devastating blow during the Vietnam War when my cousin Phillip was killed. I was far too young to have any true understanding of what had happened. I can only remember the adults telling the story of the soldiers pulling up to my aunt Dot’s house to tell her that her child was gone, and her profound emotional reaction to those soldiers at the front door. They spoke in whispers, but I heard them, and tried to take it all in.
My father served in Korea, but he did not ever talk about his years there. When we lost Phillip I could see in his eyes some of what he must had gone through when he was a soldier. His wartime experiences suddenly showed, the weights hung in his eyes revealed themselves, they were weights even a child could see.
In those cold hard months following Phillip’s funeral, my daddy didn’t talk much at all, which was very out of character for him. We’d go sit with my aunt, and just sit there—for hours. The adults drinking coffee, the kids playing in the back, quietly, knowing to keep it down. Feeling the sorrow too, in our child hearts.
My cousin’s picture, taken in his soldier’s uniform, hung framed in the living room of my aunt’s house, above the table next to the TV. Over the years, I’d stare at it when we’d go visit, trying to understand what it meant to be killed in a war in a foreign place, a place we had seen only on a map. I can still see that picture of him in my mind, though I have not laid eyes on it in 40 years. The young soldier, looking strong and brave at the camera, hair buzzed short, hat tilted slightly sideways on his head, a serious look. Phillip’s death was my introduction to mortality. His loss had a profound effect on my family, and though I was too young to really understand, I still carry the weight of it. Perhaps we all carry similar experiences, memories of our introduction to mortality.
“The Rocket” captures an emotional universe. It speaks for millions through the eyes of a single old man. This song is a classic, and Fred Eaglesmith is one of the best songwriters writing songs today, writing songs that will endure the test of time.
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(By Mary Gauthier and Crit Harmon) A little girl lost her world full of pain. He said it feels good so she gave him her vein. The dope made her numb and numb felt like free. Until she came down down down to a new misery
A junkie a whore living for the next high She'd lie cheat and steal she forgot how to cry. Wide awake for two weeks shooting heroin and speed, When she killed in cold cold blood all she felt was her need
CHORUS It's an eye for an eye, Now you're gonna die A tooth for a tooth, It's your moment of truth. There's no mercy here Your stay is denied You better pray pray pray There's Mercy in the sky.
Alone in her cell no dope in her veins The killer had become the little girl lost again She fell to her knees she prayed she would die On the cold cement floor she finally cried
And love came like the wind love whispered her name. Love reached through and held her and lifted her pain. 14 years on death row her faith deeper each day Her last words were "I love you all," Good-bye, Karla Faye.
Now it's an eye for an eye, And you're gonna die A tooth for a tooth, It's your moment of truth. There's no mercy here Your stay is denied You better pray pray pray There's Mercy in the sky
This is a song that explores homicide, redemption, vengeance, soul sickness and bureaucratic murder-- played out to their fullest in the life and death of Karla Faye Tucker, the Texas woman executed by lethal injection in 1998.
Prior to her execution, Karla’s plight received massive publicity around the world, probably because she was an attractive woman and a born-again Christian, who committed a crime that was horrific in its violence. Also because, at that point, the US had not executed a woman since Ethel Rosenberg, (in 1953), and Texas had not executed a woman since 1863.
Karla Fay Tucker was born to a drug-addicted prostitute and became one herself when she was very, very young. She was a doper by age 8, and a junkie on heroin before she hit her teens. Her mother regularly got high with her when she was a child, and her mother’s boyfriend showed her how to use the needle when she was 11 years old. She immediately became a needle freak. Her mother showed her the life of a prostitute, showed her the way to make money with her sex, teaching her that was the thing she had thats was of most value.
Her inevitable spiral to the bottom didn’t take long. By the time she was 23 she’d sunk to the depths. With her boyfriend at her side, she participated in a break-in and double murder, and in a drug induced state of junkie bravado, even bragged about it. She said she “got off on it.” It made for great newspaper copy, a pretty woman “getting off” on committing a double murder with her boyfriend.
In prison, Karla experienced sobriety for the first time in her life, and had a conversion experience within weeks of getting clean. She had a life changing spiritual awakening, and for the next decade moved deeper and deeper into her faith. She married the prison minister Reverend Dana Lane Brown (behind the glass, of course, they were not allowed to touch), and studied Christianity and the bible. She became a minister of sorts herself, to all she came in contact with. A moving and amazing account of Karla’s journey can be found in the writer Beverly Lowry’s Crossed Over, a beautifully written synopsis of her death row visits with Karla that spanned many years.
When it came time for Karla Faye Tucker’s execution, many world leaders pleaded with then-Governor George W. Bush for a stay, including such luminaries as the Pope, the Italian prime minister, the conservative speaker of the house Newt Gingrich, and the TV Evangelist Pat Robertson. It was not to be. Karla was executed Feb. 3, 1998, and there were literally hundreds of people outside the prison celebrating, some in pickup trucks, music blaring, fists pumping, windows down yelling, “Give her the juice!” Governor Bush even mocked her in an interview with Tucker Carlson after her death, having refused to intervene in her execution.
I was absolutely stunned.
I’d learned of Karla from television—she was all over the cable new shows: Larry King Live, Geraldo Rivera, Charles Grodin and so on. It was a riveting story, one of a supremely messed-up girl who’d gone straight in prison only to have to face the death chamber 14 years later. Though I’d not met her—her tragic story resonated with me. I remained glued to the TV, hoping against hope that there would be a way to save her.
I’d been sober about 8 years at that point, and was learning about how addiction destroys souls, how it pulls addicts down roads so dark that they/we become unrecognizable to ourselves and those who love us. It was at a time in my life when I was starting to deeply reflect who I became when I was in my own addiction. I was taking an inventory of my past actions, and I was also beginning to get a clear picture of who I was now that I’d been sober for a while.
I could clearly see that there are at least two very, very different people inside me, both of them real. The sober woman bears no resemblance to the active addict. I’d stayed sober long enough at this point to have the ability to see the profound dichotomy, and to also start to take true responsibility for what I’d done as an addict—and do my best to make amends and atone for it.
And the songs were coming. I was writing like crazy. I never wrote a single song until after I was sober for a few years. Then, boom. The muse came knocking. I had become a vessel for something else, something better.
The writer in me was completely spellbound by the tragedy of Karla Faye Tucker as the clock ticked down the hours before her date with the death chamber.
I began to hope and pray there would be a commutation of her sentence to life in prison given the change in her after her spiritual awakening on death row, her spiritual conversion to sobriety and a life of service to the other prisoners. Watching her in the interviews and in the cable news videos of her in the prison community, I saw a gentle woman who was no longer the person who’d committed the murders. I could see the transformation in her, from the drug addicted soul-sick murderer whose mug shot was taken 14 years prior, that picture looked like a different person; a terrifying person. But that person was long gone. The person we saw on TV—she was not the person in the mug shot. There were at least two people inside Karla, too—the sober person, the person the creator made, and the sick addict who committed the crimes, who was capable of profound and horrifying darkness.
Here’s what I think, and here’s why I wrote this song: I believe that the Karla Faye Tucker who was executed by the State of Texas was not the murderer. That woman—the murderer—had been redeemed. Redeemed in such a way that I think the state of Texas literally killed the wrong person. The Karla that was executed was of benefit to the other women on death row. She helped them, counseled them, taught them what she’d learned in her study of the Bible, in her study of Christianity. She was no longer filled with darkness, with hate. She was filled with light—she was filled with love. We did not rid the world of danger with her execution—all we did was commit another murder, a bureaucratic one, filled with vengeance. Redemption is not something the law allows, but it’s something the world’s religions allow. In fact, without redemption, what would be the point of religion? But when the death penalty gets on a Texas roll, it’s virtually impossible to stop. Governor Bush had nothing to gain by asking the Board of Pardons and Paroles to grant her a stay, so he didn’t. And he went on to be elected president of the United States.
Karla’s last words were “I love you all.”
Karla Faye Tucker’s story is a story of redemption, despite the vindictive ending to her life. Karla had found her way home long before her execution. She found her way home before she was even sentenced. She’d found peace after spiritual conversion, that conversion that she’d experienced a few weeks into her incarceration and sobriety. Karla’s is the story of the lowest of the lows, and the resilience of the human spirit to triumph, against all odds. As I play this song around the world, people are amazed by the life and death of Karla Faye Tucker.
And so am I.
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(by Mary Gauthier and Crit Harmon) He’d get home at 5:30, fix his drink And sit down in his chair Pick a fight with mama Complain about us kids getting in his hair At night he’d sit alone and smoke I’d see his frown behind his lighter’s flame Now that same frown’s in my mirror I got my daddy’s blood inside my veins
Fish swim birds fly Daddies yell mamas cry Old men sit and think I drink
Chicken TV dinner 6 minutes on defrost, 3 on high A beer to wash it down with Then another, a little whiskey on the side It’s not so bad alone here It don’t bother me that every night’s the same I don’t need another lover Hanging round, trying to make me change
Fish swim birds fly Lovers leave by and by Old men sit and think I drink
I know what I am But I don’t give a damn Fish swim birds fly Daddies yell mamas cry Old men sit and think I drink
I am often asked how I came to write this song. People wonder how in the word I came up with it. Well, as is so much of my work, this song is semi autobiographical. Not totally, in my mind the character in the song is male, but my experiences appear in there, for sure. Here’s a bit of my backstory, to set the context for the creation of this one.
I became an addict early on, and full on. I tend to think I was born this way. I have no memory of ever taking a "social" drink. I went to my first drug and alcohol treatment center when I was 15 years old, and spent my 16th birthday locked inside a place with an onerous name: The Baton Rouge Adolescent Chemical Dependency Unit. Yikes! What a way to spend my Sweet 16. I completed the program and was shipped off to a halfway house in Kansas. I relapsed in the halfway house after about a year, and spent my 18th birthday in jail. (I was caught stealing a bottle of pills and some 8-track tapes out of a car that I drove through the carwash I working at in Salina, Kansas. It was 1977, remember 8 track?) Well, I was sent back to Louisiana, I tried to go back to High School (that didn’t work), and ended up back in the treatment center and back to the halfway house. I couldn’t stay with the program and I ran away when I found a running buddy willing to take off with me. Her name was Kelly, she was a dancer, and I write a song about her called Evangeline. But I digress....
I tried to put it all behind me, the treatment stays, the halfway houses, all those meeting and big blue books....but I was a mess, and I got way worse as I went deeper into relapse. It got very, very dark, and I am simply lucky to have survived those years. In all fairness, I should be dead.
I eventually got sober when I was 27 years old, when I found myself back in jail again, this time for drunk driving. I started writing songs in earnest at around 32 years of age.
Funny thing, this songwriting journey. Looking back through my song catalogue, my songs sing like an autobiography, or a memoir. My guess is that many songwriters could say that, that their songs are their story; no real need for an actual memoir.
For me my songs and stories stories started after I got sober. I looked back- in song- on my crazy years. I found my voice in recovery; I didn’t find much at all when I was out there swirling further and further down. I never wrote a single song under the influence of drugs or alcohol. I couldn’t do it, even though I tried. I simply couldn’t finish anything. My brain was out of focus in the truest, deepest sense. My eyes could see, but I had no vision.
But here’s the beautiful part … I could not have written “I Drink” if I was never addicted. Writing “I Drink” required a perspective that an active alcoholic is not capable of, and a non-alcoholic cannot fully comprehend. I needed to go through what I went thorough to write it, and today I would not change a thing even if I could because for me, inside the curse--- lives the blessing. The wisdom, vision and compassion that comes from taking a stroll to hell and back cannot be obtained any other way. I was lucky enough to find my way through to the other side of addiction and into recovery, and I continue to receive many, many blessings from all that has transpired in my life. Songwriting is one of the greatest blessings of all, and writing “I Drink” stems from recovery. Ain't life interesting?
I wrote this song when I was almost five years clean and sober. There’s no way I could have seen this character’s plight if I had not lived it, I would not have the perspective to understand the dire situation this character is in until I stepped out of my own downward spiral. Just like it was for me, the character in this song is in full-blown denial, can’t see the real problem, and doesn’t know the cause of the tormenting loneliness and isolation that’s driving the compulsion to self-medicate. The character is classic alcoholic, a garden variety drunk, believing that drinking is the solution and not the cause of the suffering. The character has become resigned to living this way, resigned to drinking, mostly alone, till the bitter end.
As I wrote this song, I tried to imagine myself still active in my own addiction, slowly growing old and sinking in an illness that was killing me. I imagined staying blind, asleep, unaware of the nature of the illness, and unable to see my own hand in creating the problem. Essentially, the song is about who I would have been had I not gotten sober. As I wrote, I turned myself into a guy alone in a room in a cheap apartment in Central Square, in Cambridge, MA. (I knew a guy like that, a wonderful country singer and songwriter, who died of alcoholism in just this horrifying, predictable, boring and sad way). I let myself become him, and the song came out of my imagination and experience.
Fast forward 7 years.
“I Drink” became a very big song for me, a door opener. People began to sing along with me to it everywhere I went. Ireland, England, Norway, Holland, Sweden, Italy-you name it, people came to the shows knowing the words to this song. Sometimes I pull back and just let the audience sing the chorus. It's been amazing to stand on stage and watch people sing these words. once again...ain't life something?
I Drink became what they call a career song. It’s the song that got me a record deal on Universal/Lost Highway, a publishing deal at Harlan Howard Songs, and a spin on Bob Dylan’s radio show, with Bob reading my lyrics on the air and telling his audience a little bit of my life story. (Episode #3, Drinking) It’s a song that keeps on giving. As they say in the business, this song’s got legs.
So no, I don’t drink, but I drank. And then I didn't any more. And from that came so much, so very much.
Order a copy of Live at Blue Rock HERE.
(by Mary Gauthier and Catie Curtis) Mama said she don’t give a damn what those people say Cane smoke can’t be good for you day after day Every year at harvest time when the black smoke filled the sky She’d pick me up and take me home and make me stay inside
From Thibodaux to Raceland there’s fire in the fields All the way up the bayou from Lafourche to Iberville Dirty air dirty laundry dirty money dirty rain A dirty dark at daybreak burning the sugar cane
Christmas on the bayou, midnight come and gone Driving past the sugar mill and all the lights are on The parking lot is full of trucks I can see the furnace glow Everybody’s working overtime, it’s a good job, even though
From Thibodaux to Raceland there’s fire in the fields All the way up the bayou from Lafourche to Iberville Dirty air, dirty laundry, dirty money, dirty rain A dirty dark at daybreak burning the sugar cane
First came the sugar cane then came Thibodaux Cane sugar built this town cane sugar paved these roads They burn the leaves to harvest cash, money for the company Money makes the world go round money money money
From Thibodaux to Raceland there’s fire in the fields All the way up the bayou from Lafourche to Iberville Dirty air, dirty laundry, dirty money, dirty rain A dirty dark at daybreak burning, burning
The soot and ash are falling like a dark and deadly snow The air is full of poison to the Gulf of Mexico Dirty air, dirty laundry dirty money dirty rain A dirty deal with the devil, burning the sugar cane
I am a Louisiana kid.
Born in New Orleans, raised in Baton Rouge, and lived for a few years in a little Cajun town of 15,000 souls called Thibodaux. Thibodaux sits next to bayou Lafourche, and it is a hot, humid and slow moving little place. People have a unique accent down there, a Cajun French accent, with plenty French slang thrown in. I went to a couple years of High School there, before I decided High School was not for me.
Down in Thibodaux, sugar cane is a big cash crop, and it’s been that way for a long, long time. 16% of the sugar grown in the U.S. comes from the cane fields of Louisiana. I grew up around the sugar cane fields because both of my parents are from there, and the fields always seemed a little haunted to me. Spooky. Turns out, in Thibodaux, they ARE haunted.
There was a violent labor dispute and racial attack of whites against black workers in Thibodaux, Louisiana in November 1887. The fight was about the money paid to the workers of the cane fields. I'd never been told the story of the Thibodaux massacre, and when I lived there I had no idea that this occurred in my little town, but I felt it in my bones somehow. Something in me knew there was blood in those fields. I don’t know how I knew, but I knew. I guess the ghosts of the Thibodaux Massacre still linger in the humid air, though no one ever talks about it. There’s a conspiracy of silence around things like this in the South. It's not pleasant to talk about unpleasantness, and so for the most part, people don't.
Though the true number of casualties is unknown, at least 35 and as many as three hundred workers were killed, making it one of the most violent labor disputes in American history. All of the victims were African American. I learned about the history of the sugar industry in Thibodaux through reading books, years after I’d left Louisiana. Like I said, no one talks about this stuff down there.
The sugar game was, and is, about power and money. It always has been. Sugar is an addiction, and addiction always makes for big, big business.
Sugar cane is harvested by burning the field, and then cutting down the cane stalks after the burn. It’s a messy, ancient way of gathering sugar, but it requires less manual labor than any other way of harvesting, and for people living down there the smoke and soot and ash are just part of a way of life. The sugar industry jobs are good jobs, and people need the work.
Sugar cane is harvested around Christmas time in Louisiana, and a lot of folks associate the smell of the burning cane fields with the holidays. In other words, people think it smells good. But the soot and ash get so thick sometimes you can’t hang laundry outside. When I was a kid my mama used to make me and my brother and sister stay inside when the cane smoke filled the air, and I grew up thinking every kid lived like this. My mother used to get all worked up when they burned the fields, she used to say, “The poison in the air is going to kill all of us! No wonder they call it cancer alley down here in South Louisiana!” Most people thought she was dramatic, and a little off. They didn’t think the smoke was a big deal. They thought the sugar jobs were more important than the mess the smoke caused. It was unpleasant to talk about it.
When my grandmother was dying of lung cancer, I remember looking out of her hospital room in the Thibodaux General Hospital, and all I could see for miles around was cane fields. The enormity of that hit me, even though I was just 16 years old. She lived in Thibodaux her whole life, and died in that room, right there in the middle of the cane fields, her lungs giving out. Like I said, cane is a way of life. And Death.
They tell me they’ve found a cheaper way to harvest cane these days—a way that involves less burning, less pollution. I hope that’s true. It would mean a better way of life for the people down on the bayou, and in other places where the annual burns fill the air with smoke and soot and ash. I wrote this song hoping that one day the practice would change.
Order a copy of Live at Blue Rock HERE.
(by Mary Gauthier) The parade of souls is marching across the sky Their heat and their light bathed in blue as they march by The All Stars play “When the Saints Go Marching In” A Second Line forms and they wave white hankies in the wind
Satchmo takes a solo, and he flashes his million-dollar smile Marie Laveau promenades with Oscar Wilde Big Funky Stella twirls her little red umbrella to the beat As the soul parade winds its way down Eternity Street
Souls ain’t born, souls don’t die Soul ain’t made of earth, ain’t made of water, ain’t made of sky So, ride the flaming circle, wind the golden reel And roll on brother, in the wheel inside the wheel
Mardi Gras Indians chant in the streets at sundown Spyboy meets Spyboy and Big Chief meets Big Chief uptown They circle and sway in their rainbow colored feathers and beads They prance like peacocks, children of slavery freed
Souls ain’t born, souls don’t die Soul ain’t made of earth, ain’t made’a water, ain’t made of sky Ride the flaming circle wind the golden reel Roll on brother, in the wheel inside the wheel
The Krewe of the Crossbones parades into the midnight sun They march through the fire and come out beating homemade drums While the French Quarter Queens in their high-heeled drag disguise Sing “Over the Rainbow” ‘til Judy Garland quivers and sighs
Souls ain’t born, souls don’t die Soul ain’t made of earth, ain’t made’a water, ain’t made of sky Ride the flaming circle, wind the golden reel And roll on brother, in the wheel inside the wheel
Flambeau dancers light the walkway to Jean Pierre’s There’s a party tonight and all the girls are gonna be there Sipping wormwood concoctions, drinking absinthe and talking trash It’s a red carpet, black tie, all night, celestial bash
Souls ain’t born, souls don’t die Soul ain’t made of earth, ain’t made’a water, ain’t made of sky Ride the flaming circle, wind the golden reel And roll on brother, in the wheel inside the wheel I said, roll on brother, in the wheel inside the wheel Yeah, roll on brother, in the wheel inside the wheel
On the afternoon of July 20, 2002, I rolled into Greenfield, Mass., to perform at the Green River. The colorful beauty of the day had me smiling, and to top it off there were dozens of multi colored hot air balloons in the fields waiting to set sail. The weather was perfect for a music festival, sunny warm, slight breeze, and low humidity. I remember thinking this is going to be a great weekend as I entered the festival’s performer check-in area to get my credentials. I was particularly looking forward to seeing my friend Dave Carter who was also playing the event.
Dave and I had an amazing run of festivals together (I believe we played 9 or 10 of them) the summer of 1998, and he and his partner—the wildly talented and lovely Tracy Grammer—had been on the road pretty much non-stop after that crazy summer. Yes, the summer of ’98, we were all brand new on the national scene, older than any of the other newcomers, and we were beside ourselves, so excited to be included for the first time on the Folk Festival Circuit, including the prestigious Newport Folk Festival. We bonded as friends that summer, and it was a powerful connection. We got to share the stage at many events, and we swapped songs with each other on workshop stages for the first time. I loved what Dave was up to with his songwriting—I thought (and still think) his writing was tremendous.
We’d spoken on the phone quite a bit after that first summer working together. He’d call from hotel rooms and diners and green rooms, and we’d talk about his travels and how tired he was from the long, long drives they’d have between gigs. I’d call him and tell him to quit complaining. Hell, I was jealous; I wish I had the opportunity to work as much as he was! I was still trying to find an agent, trying to get more work. But all kidding aside, their schedule was grueling, and they both were exhausted. Driving 8, 9,10 hours, then playing, then doing it again and again and again. It’s no way to live. I was really looking forward to seeing him again, and getting caught up on his travels and putting a big hug on him.
I wasn’t there in line waiting for my laminate for 5 minutes when someone, a stranger, came up to me with a somber look on her face and asked, “Have you heard about Dave?” I said nothing, frozen there, afraid of what was coming next. “Dave had a heart attack yesterday, he’s gone. We lost him.” I said, ”Dave Carter? The songwriter? Are you sure?” I had a feeling there was some kind of mistake being made. Someone else came up, and they told me it was true. Dave passed away the day before, after a morning jog, and Tracy was still holed up in the hotel room. I grabbed my phone and called her, then got back in my car and went straight over. It was an awful, awful day. I will never forget it. Dave Carter was one of the true greats, and his timeless songs will live on forever.
Nearly 15 years later, I still have a hard time believing Dave Carter is gone. He was on the brink of international fame, right on the brink of the breakthrough that would have taken care of so many of the financial worries and hard touring woes he was struggling with. But it was not to be. We lost him at the height of his powers.
After the balloon festival, I was scheduled to play in Canada at the Calgary Folk Festival. The title to the song “Wheel Inside The Wheel” came to me in a thought dream I’d had on the flight over to Alberta. I think it came from an old spiritual folk song I’d heard Johnny Cash sing years before:
Ezekiel saw the wheel Way up in the middle of the air Now Ezekiel saw the wheel in a wheel Way in the middle of the air And the big wheel run by Faith And the little wheel run by the Grace of God In the wheel in the wheel in the wheel good Lord Way in the middle of the air
I stayed in my the hotel room,in between my sets,and I started working on this song as I grieved the loss of my dear friend. Dave was in my heart and mind as “The Wheel Inside The Wheel” came though me.
In college I’d studied philosophy, and one of the great thinkers I studied in depth was Neitzche. The concept of "eternal recurrence" is central to his writings. In Thus Spoke Zarathustra, he writes of time circular and cyclical, and not linear. This idea, found in many eastern philosophies as well, made sense to me, and stays with me to this day. That we all just move in eternal circles, spirit moving in and out of realms we cannot understand in this incarnation. This thought is deeply imbedded in the song, and married to poetic images from the Book of Ezekiel.
My New Orleans heritage (I was born there) also found its way into the lyrics, and I couldn’t help myself but put a Second Line parade in there, throw in the famous New Orleans Voodoo Queen Marie Laveau, the legendary Satchmo, some Mardi Gras Indians and Oscar Wilde, just ‘cause I adore him and felt like he belonged in a song inspired by Dave Carter. Once I got going, the images in the song came into my mind quickly—it was like they lined up somewhere in the misty muse world, waiting their turn to be included in this romping procession.
This song is a bit of a Jazz Funeral in and of itself, and it is my greatest hope that the ideas of the eternal nature of the soul are true. That souls truly do move in and out this world without ever being born or dying, that we are all immortal in some form, and that we have nothing to fear from death.
On my good days, I am certain that this is true. Dave, I miss you.
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English rock band (1963–1996)
For their eponymous album, see Kinks (album). For other uses, see Kink.
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in London in 1963 by brothers Ray and Dave Davies. The band emerged during the height of British rhythm and blues and Merseybeat, and were briefly part of the British Invasion of the United States until their touring ban in 1965. Their third single, the Ray Davies-penned "You Really Got Me",[3][4] became an international hit, topping the charts in the United Kingdom and reaching the top 10 in the United States.[5]
The Kinks' music drew from a wide range of influences, including American R&B and rock and roll initially, and later adopting British music hall, folk, and country. The band gained a reputation for reflecting English culture and lifestyle, fuelled by Ray Davies' observational and satirical writing style,[6][3][4][7] and made apparent in albums such as Face to Face (1966), Something Else (1967), The Village Green Preservation Society (1968), Arthur (1969), Lola Versus Powerman (1970), and Muswell Hillbillies (1971), along with their accompanying singles including the transatlantic hit "Lola" (1970). After a fallow period in the mid-1970s, the band experienced a revival with their albums Sleepwalker (1977), Misfits (1978), Low Budget (1979), Give the People What They Want (1981) and State of Confusion (1983), the last of which produced one of the band's most successful US hits, "Come Dancing".
The band's original line-up comprised Ray Davies (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Dave Davies (lead guitar, vocals), Mick Avory (drums, percussion) and Pete Quaife (bass). The Davies brothers remained with the band throughout its history. Quaife briefly left the band in 1966 and was replaced by John Dalton, though Quaife returned by the end of that year before leaving permanently in 1969, once again being replaced by Dalton. Keyboardist John Gosling was added in 1970 (prior to this, session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins played on many of their recordings). After Dalton's 1976 departure, Andy Pyle briefly served as the band's bassist before being replaced by Argent bassist Jim Rodford in 1978. Gosling quit in 1978 and was first replaced by ex-Pretty Things member Gordon John Edwards, then more permanently by Ian Gibbons in 1979. Avory left the group in 1984 and was replaced by another Argent member, Bob Henrit. The band gave its last public performance in 1996 and broke up in 1997 as a result of creative tension between the Davies brothers.
The Kinks have had five top 10 singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. Nine of their albums charted in the top 40 of the Billboard 200.[9] In the UK, they have had seventeen top 20 singles and five top 10 albums.[10] Four Kinks albums have been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), and the band has sold over 50 million records worldwide. Among numerous honours, they received the Ivor Novello Award for "Outstanding Service to British Music". They are regarded as one of the most influential rock bands of the 1960s.[6][3] In 1990, the original four members of the Kinks were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,[3][4] as well as the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2005. In addition, groups such as Van Halen, the Jam, the Knack, the Pretenders and the Romantics covered their songs, helping to boost the Kinks' record sales. In the 1990s, Britpop acts such as Blur and Oasis cited the band as a major influence.[6]
History
[edit]
Formation (1962–1963)
[edit]
The Davies brothers were born in suburban North London on Huntingdon Road, East Finchley, the youngest and the only boys among their family's eight children. Their parents, Frederick and Annie Davies, moved the family to 6 Denmark Terrace, Fortis Green, in the neighbouring suburb of Muswell Hill. At home, the brothers were immersed in a world of varied musical styles, from the music hall of their parent's generation to the jazz and early rock and roll their older sisters enjoyed. Both Ray and his brother Dave, younger by almost three years, learned to play guitar, and they played skiffle and rock and roll together.
The brothers attended William Grimshaw Secondary Modern School (later merged with Tollington Grammar School to become Fortismere School), where they formed a band, the Ray Davies Quartet, with Ray's friend and classmate Pete Quaife and Quaife's friend John Start (although they would also be known as the Pete Quaife Quartet if the bass player landed a gig for them instead). Their debut at a school dance was well received, which encouraged the group to play at local pubs and bars. The band went through a series of lead vocalists, including Rod Stewart, another student at William Grimshaw,[15] who performed with the group at least once in early 1962. He then formed his own group, Rod Stewart and the Moonrakers, who became a local rival to the Ray Davies Quartet.
In late 1962, Ray Davies left home to study at Hornsey College of Art. He pursued interests in subjects such as film, sketching, theatre, and music, including jazz and blues. When Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated played at the college in December, he asked advice from Alexis Korner, who recommended Giorgio Gomelsky, the former Yardbirds manager, who put Davies in touch with the Soho-based Dave Hunt Band, a professional group of musicians who played jazz and R&B. A few days after the Ray Davies Quartet supported Cyril Stapleton at the Lyceum Ballroom on New Year's Eve, Davies, while still remaining in the Quartet, joined the Dave Hunt Band which briefly included Charlie Watts on drums. In February 1963, Davies left Dave Hunt to join the Hamilton King Band (also known as the Blues Messengers), which had Peter Bardens as a pianist. At the end of the spring term, he left Hornsey College with a view to studying film at the Central School of Art and Design. Around this time the Quartet changed their name to the Ramrods. Davies has referred to a show the fledgling Kinks played (again as the Ray Davies Quartet) at Hornsey Town Hall on Valentine's Day 1963 as their first important gig. In June, the Hamilton King Band broke up, . However, the Ramrods kept going, performing under several other names, including the Pete Quaife Band and the Bo-Weevils, before (temporarily) settling on the Ravens.[4] The fledgling group hired two managers, Grenville Collins and Robert Wace. In late 1963 former pop singer Larry Page became their third manager. American record producer Shel Talmy began working with the band, and the Beatles' promoter, Arthur Howes, was retained to schedule the Ravens' live shows. The group unsuccessfully auditioned for various record labels until early 1964, when Talmy secured them a contract with Pye Records. During this period they had acquired a new drummer, Mickey Willet; however, Willet left the band shortly before they signed to Pye. The Ravens invited Mick Avory to replace him after seeing an advertisement Avory had placed in Melody Maker. Avory had a background in jazz drumming and had played one gig with the fledgling Rolling Stones.
Around this period, the Ravens decided on a new, permanent name: the Kinks. Numerous explanations of the name's genesis have been offered. In Jon Savage's analysis, they "needed a gimmick, some edge to get them attention. Here it was: 'Kinkiness'—something newsy, naughty but just on the borderline of acceptability. In adopting the 'Kinks' as their name at that time, they were participating in a time-honoured pop ritual—fame through outrage." Manager Robert Wace related his side of the story: "I had a friend ... He thought the group was rather fun. If my memory is correct, he came up with the name just as an idea, as a good way of getting publicity ... When we went to [the band members] with the name, they were ... absolutely horrified. They said, 'We're not going to be called kinky!'" Ray Davies' account conflicts with Wace's—he recalled that the name was coined by Larry Page, and referenced their "kinky" fashion sense. Davies quoted him as saying, "The way you look, and the clothes you wear, you ought to be called the Kinks." "I've never really liked the name," Ray stated.
Early years (1964–1965)
[edit]
The Kinks' first single was a cover of the Little Richard song "Long Tall Sally". A friend of the band, Bobby Graham, was recruited to play the drums on the recording. Graham would continue to occasionally substitute for Avory in the studio and he played on several of the Kinks' early singles, including the hits "You Really Got Me", "All Day and All of the Night" and "Tired of Waiting for You". Released in February 1964, "Long Tall Sally" was almost completely ignored, despite the publicity efforts of the band's managers. When the second single "You Still Want Me" failed to chart, Pye Records threatened to annul the group's contract unless their third single was a success.
The Ray Davies song "You Really Got Me", influenced by American blues and the Kingsmen's version of "Louie Louie",[27][28] was recorded on 15 June 1964 at Pye Studios with a slower and more produced feel than the final single.[29] Davies wanted to rerecord the song using a lean, raw sound, but Pye refused to fund another session; Davies was adamant, so the producer Shel Talmy broke the stalemate by underwriting the session himself.[31] The band used an independent recording studio, IBC, and completed the recording in two takes on 15 July.[29] The single was released in August 1964; supported by a performance on the television show Ready Steady Go! and extensive pirate radio coverage, it entered the UK charts on 15 August, reaching number one on 19 September. Hastily imported by the American label Reprise Records, where the band was signed by legendary executive Mo Ostin,[34] "You Really Got Me" also made the Top 10 in the United States.[5] The loud, distorted guitar riff and solo—played by Dave Davies and achieved by a slice he made in the speaker cone of his Elpico amplifier (referred to by the band as the "little green amp")—helped with the song's signature, gritty guitar sound.[35] "You Really Got Me" has been described as "a blueprint song in the hard rock and heavy metal arsenal",[35] and as an influence on the approach of some American garage rock bands. After its release, the Kinks recorded most of the tracks for their debut LP, simply titled Kinks. Consisting largely of covers and revamped traditional songs, it was released on 2 October 1964, reaching number four on the UK chart. "All Day and All of the Night", another Ray Davies hard rock tune, was released three weeks later as the group's fourth single, reaching number two in the UK and number seven in the US.[5][35] The next three singles, "Tired of Waiting for You", "Ev'rybody's Gonna Be Happy" and "Set Me Free", were also commercially successful, with the first of the three topping the UK singles chart.[9]
The group opened 1965 with their first tour of Australia and New Zealand, with Manfred Mann and the Honeycombs. An intensive performing schedule saw them headline other package tours throughout the year with acts such as the Yardbirds and Mickey Finn. Tensions began to emerge within the band, expressed in incidents such as the on-stage fight between Avory and Dave Davies at the Capitol Theatre in Cardiff, Wales, on 19 May. After finishing the first song, "You Really Got Me", Davies insulted Avory and kicked over his drum set. Avory responded by hitting Davies with his hi-hat stand, rendering him unconscious, before fleeing from the scene, fearing that he had killed his bandmate. Davies was taken to Cardiff Royal Infirmary, where he received 16 stitches to his head. To placate the police, Avory later claimed that it was part of a new act in which the band members would hurl their instruments at one another.
Following a mid-year tour of the US, the American Federation of Musicians refused permits for the group to appear in concerts there for the next four years, effectively cutting them off from the main market for rock music at the height of the British Invasion.[6][42] Although neither the Kinks nor the union revealed a specific reason for the ban, at the time it was widely attributed to their rowdy on-stage behaviour.[42] It has been reported that the ban was sparked by an incident that happened when the band were taping Dick Clark's TV show Where the Action Is in 1965. Ray Davies recalls in his autobiography, "Some guy who said he worked for the TV company walked up and accused us of being late. Then he started making anti-British comments, such as, 'Just because the Beatles did it, every mop-topped, spotty-faced limey juvenile thinks he can come over here and make a career for himself.'"; subsequently, a punch was thrown, and the AFM banned them.[43]
A stopover in Bombay, India, during the band's Australian and Asian tour led to Davies writing the song "See My Friends", which was released as a single in July 1965. This was an early example of crossover music and one of the first pop songs of the period to display the direct influence of traditional music from the Indian subcontinent. Davies had written the song with a raga feel after hearing the early morning chants of local fishermen. Music historian Jonathan Bellman argues that the song was "extremely influential" on Ray Davies' musical peers: "And while much has been made of the Beatles' 'Norwegian Wood' because it was the first pop record to use a sitar, it was recorded well after the Kinks' clearly Indian 'See My Friends' was released." Pete Townshend of the Who was particularly affected by the song: "'See My Friends' was the next time I pricked up my ears and thought, 'God, he's done it again. He's invented something new.' That was the first reasonable use of the drone—far, far better than anything The Beatles did and far, far earlier. It was a European sound rather than an Eastern sound but with a strong, legitimate Eastern influence which had its roots in European folk music." In a widely quoted statement by Barry Fantoni, himself a 1960s celebrity and friend of the Kinks, the Beatles and the Who, he recalled that it was also an influence on the Beatles: "I remember it vividly and still think it's a remarkable pop song. I was with the Beatles the evening that they actually sat around listening to it on a gramophone, saying 'You know this guitar thing sounds like a sitar. We must get one of those.'" The song's radical departure from popular music conventions proved unpopular with the band's American following—it hit number 10 in the UK but stalled at number 111 in the US.
The day after the band's return from the Asian tour, recording began promptly on their next project, Kinda Kinks. The LP was completed and released within two weeks, even though 10 of its 12 songs were originals.[51][52] According to Ray Davies, the band was not completely satisfied with the final cuts,[51][52] but pressure from the record company meant that no time was available to correct flaws in the mix. Davies later expressed his dissatisfaction with the production, saying, "A bit more care should have been taken with it. I think [producer] Shel Talmy went too far in trying to keep in the rough edges. Some of the double tracking on that is appalling. It had better songs on it than the first album, but it wasn't executed in the right way. It was just far too rushed."[52]
A significant stylistic shift in the Kinks' music became evident in late 1965, with the appearance of singles like "A Well Respected Man" and "Dedicated Follower of Fashion", as well as the band's third album The Kink Kontroversy,[3] on which Nicky Hopkins made his first appearance as a session musician with the group on keyboards. These recordings exemplified the development of Davies' songwriting style, from hard-driving rock numbers toward songs rich in social commentary, observation and idiosyncratic character study, all with a uniquely English flavour.[3][7]
Critical success (1966–1972)
[edit]
The satirical single "Sunny Afternoon" was the biggest UK hit of summer 1966, topping the charts and displacing the Beatles' "Paperback Writer". Before the release of The Kink Kontroversy, Ray Davies suffered a nervous and physical breakdown, caused by the pressures of touring, writing and ongoing legal squabbles. During his months of recuperation, he wrote several new songs and pondered the band's direction. In June 1966, Quaife was involved in an automobile accident, and after his recovery he decided to leave the band. Bassist John Dalton, who was initially hired to fill in for the injured Quaife, subsequently became his official replacement. However, Quaife soon had a change of heart and rejoined the band in November 1966, with Dalton returning to his previous job as a coalman.
"Sunny Afternoon" was a dry run for the band's next album Face to Face, which displayed Davies' growing ability to craft musically gentle yet lyrically cutting narrative songs about everyday life and people.[6] Hopkins returned for the sessions to play various keyboard instruments, including piano and harpsichord. He played on the band's next two studio albums as well and was involved in a number of their live BBC recordings before joining the Jeff Beck Group in 1968. Face to Face was released in October 1966 in the UK, where it was well received and peaked at number eight. When it was released in the US in December, the album was tipped as a potential "chart winner" by Billboard magazine. Despite this, it managed only a meagre chart peak of 135—a sign of the band's flagging popularity in the American market.
Released in November 1966, the Kinks' next single was a social commentary piece entitled "Dead End Street". It became another UK Top 10 hit, but reached only number 73 in the US.[5] Bob Dawbarn from Melody Maker praised Ray Davies' ability to create a song with "some fabulous lyrics and a marvellous melody ... combined with a great production", and music scholar Johnny Rogan described it as "a kitchen sink drama without the drama—a static vision of working-class stoicism". One of the group's first promotional music videos was produced for the song. It was filmed on Little Green Street, a small 18th-century lane in north London, located off Highgate Road in Kentish Town.[62] Both "Dead End Street" and its B-side "Big Black Smoke" were recorded with John Dalton on bass, though Quaife had returned by the time the single was released, and appeared in the promotional music video.
The Kinks' next single, "Waterloo Sunset," was released in May 1967. The lyrics describe two lovers passing over a bridge, with a melancholic observer reflecting on the couple, the Thames, and Waterloo station.[65][66] The song was rumoured to have been inspired by the romance between actors Terence Stamp and Julie Christie, two British celebrities of the time.[68][69] Ray Davies denied this in his autobiography, and claimed in a 2008 interview, "It was a fantasy about my sister going off with her boyfriend to a new world and they were going to emigrate and go to another country."[66][70] Despite its complex arrangement, the sessions for "Waterloo Sunset" lasted a mere ten hours. Dave Davies later commented on the recording: "We spent a lot of time trying to get a different guitar sound, to get a more unique feel for the record. In the end, we used a tape-delay echo, but it sounded new because nobody had done it since the 1950s. I remember Steve Marriott of the Small Faces came up and asked me how we'd got that sound. We were almost trendy for a while." The single was one of the Kinks' biggest UK successes, hitting number two on Melody Maker's chart, and became one of their most popular and best-known songs. Critic Robert Christgau called it "the most beautiful song in the English language",[71] and AllMusic senior editor Stephen Thomas Erlewine cited it as "possibly the most beautiful song of the rock and roll era".[72] Ray Davies was chosen to perform "Waterloo Sunset" at the closing of the 2012 London Olympic Games, 45 years after the song's release.[73][74]
The songs on the 1967 album, Something Else by the Kinks, developed the musical progressions of Face to Face, adding English music hall influences to the band's sound.[76] Dave Davies scored a major UK chart success with the album's "Death of a Clown". While co-written by Ray Davies and recorded by the Kinks, the song was also released as a Dave Davies solo single.[5][76] Overall, the album's commercial performance was disappointing, prompting the Kinks to rush out a new single, "Autumn Almanac", in early October. Backed with "Mister Pleasant", the single became another Top 5 success for the group. At this point, in a string of 13 singles, 12 of them reached the top 10 in the UK chart.[77] Andy Miller suggests that, despite its success, the single marks a turning point in the band's career—it would be their last entry into the UK Top Ten for three years: "In retrospect, 'Autumn Almanac' marked the first hint of trouble for the Kinks. This glorious single, one of the greatest achievements of British 60s pop, was widely criticised at the time for being too similar to previous [Ray] Davies efforts." Nick Jones of Melody Maker asked, "Is it time that Ray stopped writing about grey suburbanites going about their fairly unemotional daily business? ... Ray works to a formula, not a feeling, and it's becoming rather boring." Disc jockey Mike Ahern called the song "a load of old rubbish". Dave's second solo single "Susannah's Still Alive" was released in the UK on 24 November. It sold 59,000 copies, failing to reach the Top 10. Miller states that "by the end of the year, the Kinks were rapidly sliding out of fashion".
Everyone was panicking because "Wonderboy" wasn't sounding like a hit record. Among the management and the agent, Danny Detesh, there was definitely a sense that the band wouldn't go on for much longer ... Danny came backstage when the record flopped and said, "Well, you've had a good run. You've enjoyed it." As if it was all over for us.
—Ray Davies, on the decline of the band's 1960s incarnation, "Wonderboy", and cabaret touring
Beginning early in 1968, the group largely retired from touring, instead focusing on studio work. As the band was not available to promote their material, subsequent releases met with little success. The Kinks' next single, "Wonderboy", released in the spring of 1968, stalled at number 36 and became the band's first single not to make the UK Top Twenty since their early covers.[82] In the face of the band's declining popularity, Davies continued to pursue his personal song-writing style while rebelling against the heavy demands placed on him to keep producing commercial hits, and the group continued to devote time to the studio, centring on a slowly developing project of Ray's called Village Green.[6] In an attempt to revive the group's commercial standing, the Kinks' management booked them on a month-long package tour for April, drawing the group away from the studio. The venues were largely cabarets and clubs; headlining was Peter Frampton's group the Herd. "In general, the teenyboppers were not there to see the boring old Kinks, who occasionally had to endure chants of 'We Want The Herd!' during their brief appearances", commented Andy Miller. The tour proved taxing and stressful—Pete Quaife recalled, "It was a chore, very dull, boring and straightforward ... We only did twenty minutes, but it used to drive me absolutely frantic, standing on stage and playing three notes over and over again." At the end of June, the Kinks released the single "Days", which provided a minor, but only momentary, comeback for the group. "I remember playing it when I was at Fortis Green the first time I had a tape of it", Ray said. "I played it to Brian, who used to be our roadie, and his wife and two daughters. They were crying at the end of it. Really wonderful—like going to Waterloo and seeing the sunset. ... It's like saying goodbye to somebody, then afterwards feeling the fear that you actually are alone." "Days" reached number 12 in the UK and was a Top 20 hit in several other countries, but it did not chart in the US.
Village Green eventually morphed into their next album, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, released in late 1968 in the UK. A collection of thematic vignettes of English town and hamlet life, it was assembled from songs written and recorded over the previous two years.[85] It was greeted with almost unanimously positive reviews from both UK and US rock critics, yet failed to attract strong sales. One factor in the album's initial commercial failure was the lack of a popular single; it did not include the moderately successful "Days", and the album track "Starstruck" was released as a single in North America and continental Europe, but was unsuccessful. Although a commercial disappointment, Village Green (the project's original name was adopted as a shorthand for the long album title) was embraced by the new underground rock press when it was released in January 1969 in the US, where the Kinks began to acquire a reputation as a cult band. In The Village Voice, a newly hired Robert Christgau called it "the best album of the year so far". The underground Boston paper Fusion published a review stating, "the Kinks continue, despite the odds, the bad press and their demonstrated lot, to come across. ... Their persistence is dignified; their virtues are stoic. The Kinks are forever, only for now in modern dress." The record did not escape criticism, however. In the student paper California Tech, one writer commented that it was "schmaltz rock ... without imagination, poorly arranged and a poor copy of The Beatles". Although Davies later estimated that it had sold only around 100,000 copies worldwide on its initial release, Village Green has since become the Kinks' best-selling original record. The album remains popular; in 2004, it was re-released in a 3CD "Deluxe" edition, and the track "Picture Book" was featured in a popular Hewlett-Packard television commercial, helping considerably to boost the album's popularity.[92]
In early 1969, Quaife again announced that he was leaving the band. The other members did not take his statement seriously until an article appeared in New Musical Express on 4 April featuring Quaife's new band, Maple Oak, which he had formed without telling the rest of the Kinks. Ray Davies pleaded with him to return for the sessions for their upcoming album, but Quaife refused. His last recording with the Kinks was the non-album single "Plastic Man" and its B-side "King Kong", released in March 1969. Immediately after Quaife had confirmed he was not returning, Ray Davies called up John Dalton, who had replaced Quaife three years prior, and asked him to rejoin. Dalton remained with the group until the recording of the album Sleepwalker in 1976.
Ray Davies travelled to Los Angeles in April 1969 to help negotiate an end to the American Federation of Musicians' ban on the group, opening up an opportunity for them to return to touring in the US. The group's management quickly made plans for a North American tour to help restore their standing in the US pop music scene. Before their return to the US, the Kinks recorded another album, Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire).[99] As with the previous two albums, Arthur was grounded in characteristically English lyrical and musical hooks.[99] A modest commercial success, it was well received by American music critics.[5][99] Conceived as the score for a proposed but unrealised television drama, much of the album revolved around themes from the Davies brothers' childhood; their sister Rosie, who had migrated to Australia in the early 1960s with her husband Arthur Anning, the album's namesake; and life growing up during the Second World War.[99] The Kinks embarked on their tour of the US in October 1969. The tour was generally unsuccessful, as the group struggled to find cooperative promoters and interested audiences; many of the scheduled concert dates were cancelled. The band did, however, manage to play a few major venues such as the Fillmore East and Whisky a Go Go.
The band added keyboardist John Gosling to their line-up in early 1970; before which, Nicky Hopkins and Ray Davies had done most of the session work on keyboards. In May 1970, Gosling debuted with the Kinks on "Lola", an account of a confused romantic encounter with a transvestite, which became both a UK and a US Top 10 hit, helping return the Kinks to the public eye. The lyrics originally contained the word "Coca-Cola", and the BBC refused to broadcast the song, considering it to be in violation of their policy against product placement. Part of the song was hastily rerecorded by Ray Davies, with the offending line changed to the generic "cherry cola", although in concert the Kinks still used "Coca-Cola". Recordings of both versions of "Lola" exist. Released in November 1970, the accompanying album Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One was a critical and commercial success, charting in the Top 40 in the US, making it their most successful album since the mid-1960s.[106] After the success of "Lola", the band released Percy in 1971, a soundtrack album to a film of the same name about a penis transplant.[107] The album, which consisted largely of instrumentals, did not receive positive reviews.[107] The band's US label, Reprise, declined to release it in the US, precipitating a major dispute that contributed to the band's departure from the label.[107] Directly after the release of the album, the band's contracts with Pye and Reprise expired.[6][107]
Before the end of 1971, the Kinks signed a five-album deal with RCA Records and received a million-dollar advance, which helped fund the construction of their own recording studio, Konk.[6][108] Their debut for RCA, Muswell Hillbillies, was replete with the influence of music hall and traditional American musical styles, including country and bluegrass. Though not as successful as its predecessors, it is often hailed as their last great record.[108] It was named after Muswell Hill where Ray and Dave grew up and contained songs focusing on working-class life and, again, the Davies brothers' childhood.[108] Despite positive reviews and high expectations, Muswell Hillbillies peaked at number 48 on the Record World chart and number 100 on the Billboard chart.[5][108] It was followed in 1972 by a double album, Everybody's in Show-Biz, consisting of both studio tracks and live numbers recorded during a two-night stand at Carnegie Hall.[109] The record featured the ballad "Celluloid Heroes" and the Caribbean-themed "Supersonic Rocket Ship", their last UK Top 20 hit for more than a decade.[109] "Celluloid Heroes" is a bittersweet rumination on dead and fading Hollywood stars (Mickey Rooney was still alive), in which the narrator declares that he wishes his life were like a movie "because celluloid heroes never feel any pain ... and celluloid heroes never really die."[109][110] The album was moderately successful in the US, peaking at number 47 in Record World and number 70 in Billboard.[5][109] It marks the transition between the band's early 1970s rock material and the theatrical incarnation in which they immersed themselves for the next four years.[109]
Theatrical incarnation (1973–1976)
[edit]
In 1973, Ray Davies dived headlong into the theatrical style, beginning with the rock opera Preservation, a sprawling chronicle of social revolution, and a more ambitious outgrowth of the earlier Village Green Preservation Society ethos.[111] In conjunction with the Preservation project, the Kinks' line-up was expanded to include a horn section and female backup singers, essentially reconfiguring the group as a theatrical troupe.[6][111]
Ray Davies' marital problems during this period began to affect the band adversely, particularly after his wife, Rasa, took their children and left him in June 1973. Davies became depressed; during a July gig at White City Stadium, he told the audience he was "fucking sick of the whole thing" and was retiring.[115][116] He subsequently collapsed after a drug overdose and was taken to hospital.[117] With Ray Davies in a seemingly critical condition, plans were discussed for Dave to continue as frontman in a worst-case scenario. Ray recovered from his illness as well as his depression, but throughout the remainder of the Kinks' theatrical incarnation the band's output remained uneven, and their already fading popularity declined even more.[117] John Dalton later commented that when Davies "decided to work again ... I don't think he was totally better, and he's been a different person ever since."
Preservation Act 1 (1973) and Preservation Act 2 (1974) received generally poor reviews.[111][120] The story on the albums involved an anti-hero called Mr Flash, and his rival and enemy Mr Black (played by Dave Davies during live shows), an ultra-purist and corporatist. Preservation Act 2 was the first album recorded at Konk Studio; from this point forward, virtually every Kinks studio recording was produced by Ray Davies at Konk. The band embarked on an ambitious US tour throughout late 1974, adapting the Preservation story for the stage. Author Robert Polito: "[Ray] Davies expanded the Kinks into a road troupe of perhaps a dozen costumed actors, singers and horn players. ... Smoother and tighter than on record, Preservation live proved funnier as well."
Davies began another project for Granada Television, a musical called Starmaker.[125] After a broadcast with Ray Davies in the starring role and the Kinks as both back-up band and ancillary characters, the project eventually morphed into the concept album The Kinks Present a Soap Opera, released in May 1975, in which Ray Davies fantasised about what would happen if a rock star traded places with a "normal Norman" and took a 9–5 job.[125][126] In August 1975, the Kinks recorded their final theatrical work, Schoolboys in Disgrace, a backstory biography of Preservation's Mr Flash.[127] The record was a modest success, peaking at number 45 on the Billboard charts.[5][127]
Return to commercial success (1977–1985)
[edit]
Following the termination of their contract with RCA, the Kinks signed with Arista Records in 1976. With the encouragement of Arista's management, they stripped back down to a five-man core group and were reborn as an arena rock band.[6] John Dalton left the band before finishing the sessions for the debut Arista album. Andy Pyle was brought in to complete the sessions and to play on the subsequent tour.[6] Sleepwalker, released in 1977, marked a return to success for the group as it peaked at number 21 on the Billboard chart.[5][128] After its release and the recording of the follow-up, Misfits, Andy Pyle and keyboardist John Gosling left the group to work together on a separate project. In May 1978, Misfits, the Kinks' second Arista album, was released. It included the US Top 40 hit "A Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy", , which helped make the record another success for the band. The non-album single "Father Christmas" has remained a popular track. Driven by session drummer Henry Spinetti's drumming and Dave Davies' heavy guitar, the song "Father Christmas" has become a classic seasonal favourite on mainstream radio.[131] For the following tour, the band recruited ex-Argent bassist Jim Rodford and ex–Pretty Things keyboardist Gordon John Edwards. Edwards was soon fired from The Kinks for failing to show up to recordings sessions, and the band recorded 1979's Low Budget as a quartet, with Ray Davies handling keyboard duties. Keyboardist Ian Gibbons was recruited for the subsequent tour and became a permanent member of the group. Despite the personnel changes, the popularity of the band's records and live shows continued to grow.
Beginning in the late 1970s, bands such as the Jam ("David Watts"), the Pretenders ("Stop Your Sobbing", "I Go to Sleep"), the Romantics ("She's Got Everything"), and the Knack ("The Hard Way") recorded covers of Kinks songs, which helped bring attention to the group's new releases.[6][3] In 1978, Van Halen covered "You Really Got Me" for their debut single, a Top 40 US hit, helping boost the band's commercial resurgence (Van Halen later covered "Where Have All the Good Times Gone", another early Kinks song which had been covered by David Bowie on his 1973 album Pin Ups). The hard rock sound of Low Budget, released in 1979, helped make it the Kinks' second gold album and highest charting original album in the US, where it peaked at number 11.[6][3][5] The live album One for the Road was produced in 1980, along with a video of the same title, bringing the group's concert-drawing power to a peak that would last into 1983.[6][3] Dave Davies also took advantage of the group's improved commercial standing to fulfil his decade-long ambitions to release albums of his solo work. The first was the eponymous Dave Davies in 1980. It was also known by its catalogue number "AFL1-3603" because of its cover art, which depicted Dave Davies as a leather-jacketed piece of price-scanning barcode. He produced another, less successful, solo album in 1981, Glamour.[132][133]
The next Kinks album, Give the People What They Want, was released in late 1981 and reached number 15 in the US.[134] The record attained gold status and featured the UK hit single "Better Things" as well as "Destroyer", a major Mainstream Rock hit for the group.[5][134] To promote the album, the Kinks spent the end of 1981 and most of 1982 touring relentlessly,[3] and played multiple sell-out concerts throughout Australia, Japan, England and the US. The tour culminated with a performance at the US Festival in San Bernardino, California, for a crowd of 205,000. In spring 1983, the song "Come Dancing" became their biggest American hit since "Tired of Waiting for You", peaking at number six.[5] It also became the group's first Top 20 hit in the UK since 1972, peaking at number 12 in the charts.[137] The accompanying album, State of Confusion, was another commercial success, reaching number 12 in the US, but, like all the group's albums since 1967, it failed to chart in the UK. Another single released from the record, "Don't Forget to Dance", became a US top 30 hit and minor UK chart entry.[5]
The Kinks' second wave of popularity remained at a peak with State of Confusion, but that success began to fade, a trend that also affected their British rock contemporaries the Rolling Stones and the Who.[137][139][140] During the second half of 1983, Ray Davies started work on an ambitious solo film project, Return to Waterloo, about a London commuter who daydreams that he is a serial murderer.[141][142] The film gave actor Tim Roth a significant early role.[142] Davies' commitment to writing, directing and scoring the new work caused tension in his relationship with his brother. Another problem was the stormy end of the relationship between Ray Davies and Chrissie Hynde. The old feud between Dave Davies and drummer Mick Avory also re-ignited. Davies eventually refused to work with Avory, and called for him to be replaced by Bob Henrit, former drummer of Argent (of which Jim Rodford had also been a member). Avory left the band, and Henrit was brought in to take his place. Ray Davies, who was still on amiable terms with Avory, invited him to manage Konk Studios. Avory accepted and continued to serve as a producer and occasional contributor on later Kinks albums.
Between the completion of Return to Waterloo and Avory's departure, the band had begun work on Word of Mouth, their final Arista album, released in November 1984. As a result, it includes Avory on three tracks, with Henrit and a drum machine on the rest.[145] Many of the songs also appeared as solo recordings on Ray Davies' Return to Waterloo soundtrack album.[141] Word of Mouth's lead track, "Do It Again", was released as a single in April 1985. It reached number 41 in the US, the band's last entry into the Billboard Hot 100.[145] Coinciding with the album's release, the first three books on the Kinks were published: The Kinks: The Official Biography, by Jon Savage; The Kinks Kronikles, by rock critic John Mendelsohn, who had overseen the 1972 The Kink Kronikles compilation album; and The Kinks – The Sound And The Fury (The Kinks – A Mental Institution in the US), by Johnny Rogan.
Decline in popularity and split (1986–1997)
[edit]
In early 1986, the Kinks signed with MCA Records in the US and London Records in the UK.[9][145] Their first album for the new labels, Think Visual, was released later that year with moderate success, peaking at number 81 on the Billboard albums chart.[5][9][148] Songs like the ballad "Lost and Found" and "Working at the Factory" concerned blue-collar life on an assembly line, while the title track was an attack on the very MTV video culture from which the band had profited earlier in the decade.[149] Think Visual was followed in 1987 with the live album The Road, which was a mediocre commercial and critical performer.[5] In 1989, the Kinks released UK Jive, a commercial failure that made only a momentary entry into the album charts at number 122.[5] MCA Records ultimately dropped them, leaving the Kinks without a label deal for the first time in over a quarter of a century. Longtime keyboardist Ian Gibbons left the group and was replaced by Mark Haley.
The Kinks were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990, their first year of eligibility.[3] Mick Avory and Pete Quaife were present for the award.[3] The induction did not lead to a revival of the group's stalled career. A compilation from the MCA Records period, Lost & Found (1986–1989), was released in 1991 to fulfil contractual obligations, marking the official end of the group's relationship with the label.[9] The band then signed with Columbia Records and released the five-song EP Did Ya in 1991, which, despite being coupled with a new studio re-recording of the band's 1968 British hit "Days", failed to chart.[5][9]
The Kinks reverted to a four-piece band for the recording of their first Columbia album, Phobia, in 1993. After a sellout performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London, Mark Haley departed the band and Gibbons rejoined them for a US tour. Phobia managed only one week in the US Billboard chart at number 166;[5] as had by then become usual for the band, it made no impression in the UK. The single "Only a Dream" narrowly failed to reach the British chart. The album's final candidate for release as a single, "Scattered", was announced and followed up with TV and radio promotion. However, the record was unavailable in stores—several months later, a small number appeared on the collector market. The group was dropped by Columbia in 1994. In the same year, the band released the first version of the album To the Bone on their own Konk label in the UK. This live acoustic album was partly recorded on the highly successful UK tours of 1993 and 1994 and partly in the Konk studio in front of a small, invited audience. Two years later, the band released a new, improved, live double-CD set in the US, which retained the same name and contained two new studio tracks, "Animal" and "To The Bone". The CD set also featured new treatments of many old Kinks hits. The record drew respectable press but failed to chart in either the US or the UK. [5]
The band's profile rose considerably in the mid-1990s, primarily as a result of the "Britpop" boom.[6] Several of the most prominent bands of the decade cited the Kinks as a major influence. Despite this recognition, the group's commercial viability continued to decline.[6] They gradually became less active, leading Ray and Dave Davies to pursue their own interests. Each released an autobiography; Ray's X-Ray was published in early 1995, and Dave responded with his memoir Kink, published a year later. The Kinks gave their last public performance in mid-1996, and the group assembled for what turned out to be their last time together at a party for Dave's 50th birthday. Kinks chronicler and historian Doug Hinman stated, "The symbolism of the event was impossible to overlook. The party was held at the site of the brothers' very first musical endeavour, the Clissold Arms pub, across the street from their childhood home on Fortis Green in North London."
Solo work and recognition (1998–present)
[edit]
The band members subsequently focused on solo projects, and the Davies brothers both released their own studio albums. Talk of a Kinks reunion circulated (including an aborted studio reunion of the original band members in 1999), but neither Ray nor Dave Davies showed much interest in playing together again. Meanwhile, former members John Gosling, John Dalton and Mick Avory had regrouped in 1994 and started performing on the oldies circuit along with guitar-player/singer Dave Clarke as the Kast Off Kinks.[156]
In 1998, Ray Davies released the solo album Storyteller as a companion piece to his book X-Ray. Originally written two years earlier as a cabaret-style show, the album celebrated his old band and estranged brother.[157] Seeing the programming potential of his music/dialogue/reminiscence format, the American music television network VH1 launched a series of similar projects featuring established rock artists titled VH1 Storytellers.[157] Dave Davies spoke favourably of a Kinks reunion in early 2003. As the 40th anniversary of the group's breakthrough neared, both the Davies brothers expressed interest in working together again. However, hopes for a reunion were dashed in June 2004 when Dave suffered a stroke that temporarily impaired his ability to speak and play guitar.[70] Following his recovery, the Kinks were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame in November 2005, with all four of the original band members in attendance. The induction helped fuel sales for the group; in August 2007, a re-entry of The Ultimate Collection, a compilation of material spanning the band's career, reached number 32 on the UK Top 100 album chart and number one on the UK Indie album chart. Quaife, who had been receiving kidney dialysis for more than ten years, died on 23 June 2010, aged 66.[160] In 2018, long-time bassist Jim Rodford died at the age of 76.[161] Keyboardist Ian Gibbons died of cancer in 2019.[162] Gosling died on 4 August 2023, at the age of 75.[163]
In June 2018, the Davies brothers said they were working on a new Kinks studio album with Avory.[164] In July 2019, the band again said they were working on new music.[165] However, in a December 2020 interview with The New York Times, Ray Davies gave no indication that much, or indeed any, work had been done, saying "I'd like to work with Dave again—if he'll work with me."[166] When asked about a reunion in an interview published in January 2021, Dave Davies said "We've been talking about it. I mean there's a lot of material and, you know, it could still happen."[167]
In March 2023, Avory laid to rest rumours of a reunion, citing differences between the Davies brothers: "I don't think it's possible now – one thing, health-wise. And I don't think we could ever work it out because Dave wanted to do it one way, and Ray wanted to do it the other – which was quite normal thinking for them. [...] Ray thought [of] doing it as an 'evolution tour' – you have different people who came into the band and what songs they recorded on and what songs affected them. I thought that would be more interesting. But I think Dave just wanted 'a band' – not particularly with me in it. Just reform something like they had when I left – just a band with him and Ray in it, really."[168]
Live performances
[edit]
The first live performance of the Ray Davies Quartet, the band that would become the Kinks, was at a dance for their school, William Grimshaw, in 1962. The band performed under several names between 1962 and 1963—the Pete Quaife Band, the Bo-Weevils, the Ramrods, and the Ravens—before settling on the Kinks in early 1964.[4] Ray has stated that a performance at Hornsey Town Hall on Valentine's Day 1963 was when the band were truly born.
The Kinks made their first tour of Australia and New Zealand in January 1965 as part of a "package" bill that included Manfred Mann and the Honeycombs. They performed and toured relentlessly, headlining package tours throughout 1965 with performers such as the Yardbirds and Mickey Finn. Tensions began to emerge within the band, expressed in incidents such as the on-stage fight between drummer Mick Avory and Dave Davies at The Capitol Theatre, Cardiff, Wales on 19 May. After finishing the first song, "You Really Got Me", Davies insulted Avory and kicked over his drum set. Avory responded by hitting Davies with his hi-hat stand, rendering him unconscious, before fleeing from the scene, fearing that he had killed his bandmate. Davies was taken to Cardiff Royal Infirmary, where he received 16 stitches to his head. To placate police, Avory later claimed that it was part of a new act in which the band members would hurl their instruments at each other. Following their summer 1965 American tour, the American Federation of Musicians refused permits for the group to appear in concerts in the US for the next four years,[6][42] possibly due to their rowdy on-stage behaviour.[169]
In April 1969, Davies helped negotiate an end to the American Federation of Musicians ban on the group, which allowed plans for a North American tour. However, over the next few years, Davies went into a state of depression, not helped by his collapsing marriage, culminating in his onstage announcement that he was "sick of it all" at a gig in White City Stadium, London, in 1973. A review of the concert published in Melody Maker stated: "Davies swore on stage. He stood at The White City and swore that he was 'F...... [sic] sick of the whole thing' ... He was 'Sick up to here with it' ... and those that heard shook their heads. Mick just ventured a disbelieving smile, and drummer [sic] on through 'Waterloo Sunset.'"[115] Davies proceeded to try to announce that the Kinks were breaking up as the band were leaving the stage, but this attempt was foiled by the group's publicity management, who pulled the plug on the microphone system.[115]
Musical style
[edit]
The Kinks started out playing the then popular R&B and blues styles; then, under the influence of the Kingsmen's "Louie Louie" recording, developed louder rock and hard rock sounds. Due to their pioneering contribution to the field, they have often been labelled as "the original punks".[171] Dave Davies was "really bored with this guitar sound—or lack of an interesting sound" so he purchased "a little green amplifier ... an Elpico" from a radio spares shop in Muswell Hill,[172] and "twiddled around with it", including "taking the wires going to the speaker and putting a jack plug on there and plugging it straight into my AC30" (a larger amplifier), but didn't get the sound he wanted until he got frustrated and "got a single-sided Gillette razorblade and cut round the cone [from the centre to the edge] ... so it was all shredded but still on there, still intact. I played and I thought it was amazing."[173] The jagged sound of the amplifier was replicated in the studio; the Elpico was plugged into the Vox AC30, and the resulting effect became a mainstay in The Kinks' early recordings—most notably on "You Really Got Me" and "All Day and All of the Night".[6]
From 1966 onwards,[6] the Kinks came to be known for their adherence to traditions of English music and culture, during a period when many other British bands dismissed their heritage in favour of American blues, R&B and pop styles.[6] Ray Davies recalled that at a distinct moment in 1965, he decided to break away from the American scene and write more introspective and intelligent songs. "I decided I was going to use words more, and say things. I wrote 'A Well Respected Man'. That was the first real word-oriented song I wrote ... [I also] abandoned any attempt to Americanise my accent." The Kinks' allegiance to English styles was strengthened by the ban placed on them by the American Federation of Musicians. The ban cut them off from the American record-buying public, the world's largest musical market,[6] forcing them to focus on Britain and mainland Europe. The Kinks expanded on their English sound throughout the remainder of the 1960s, incorporating elements of music hall, folk, and baroque music through use of harpsichord, acoustic guitar, mellotron, and horns, in albums such as Face to Face, Something Else by the Kinks, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, and Arthur (Or the Decline and Fall of the British Empire), creating some of the most influential and important music of the period.[6]
Beginning with Everybody's In Show-biz (1972), Ray Davies began exploring theatrical concepts on the group's albums; these themes became manifest on the 1973 album Preservation Act 1 and continued through Schoolboys In Disgrace (1976).[6] The Kinks were less commercially successful with these conceptual works and were dropped by RCA which had signed them in 1971. in 1977, they moved to Arista Records, which insisted on a more traditional rock format. Sleepwalker (1977), which heralded their return to commercial success, featured a mainstream, relatively slick production style that would become their norm.[128] The band returned to hard rock for Low Budget (1979), and continued to record within the genre throughout the remainder of their career,[6] combining this with pop music in the 1980s with albums such as Give the People What They Want and songs such as "Better Things".[175]
Legacy
[edit]
The Kinks are regarded as one of the most influential rock acts of the 1960s and early 1970s.[6][3] Stephen Thomas Erlewine called them "one of the most influential bands of the British Invasion".[6] They were ranked 65th on Rolling Stone magazine's "100 Greatest Artists of All Time" list.[176]
Artists influenced by the Kinks include punk rock groups such as the Ramones,[177] the Clash,[178] Blondie,[179] and the Jam,[180] heavy metal acts including Van Halen and Britpop groups such as Oasis, Blur and Pulp.[6] Craig Nicholls, singer and guitarist of the Vines, described the Kinks as "great songwriters, so underrated".[181] Pete Townshend, guitarist with the Kinks' contemporaries the Who, credited Ray Davies with inventing "a new kind of poetry and a new kind of language for pop writing that influenced me from the very, very, very beginning."[182] Jon Savage wrote that the Kinks were an influence on late 1960s American psychedelic rock groups "like the Doors, Love and Jefferson Airplane". Music writers and other musicians have acknowledged the influence of the Kinks on the development of hard rock and heavy metal. Musicologist Joe Harrington stated: "'You Really Got Me', 'All Day and All of the Night' and 'I Need You' were predecessors of the whole three-chord genre ... [T]he Kinks did a lot to help turn rock 'n' roll (Jerry Lee Lewis) into rock."[177] Queen guitarist Brian May credited the band with planting "the seed which grew into riff-based music."[183]
They have two albums, The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (No. 384),[184] and Something Else by the Kinks (No. 478)[185] on Rolling Stone magazine's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list. They have three songs on the same magazine's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list as updated in September 2021: "Waterloo Sunset" (No. 14),[186] "You Really Got Me" (No. 176),[187] and "Lola" (No. 386).[188] A musical, Sunny Afternoon, based on the early life of Ray Davies and the formation of the Kinks, opened at the Hampstead Theatre in April 2014.[189][190] The musical's name came from the band's 1966 hit single "Sunny Afternoon"[191] and features songs from the band's back catalogue.[192]
In 2015, it was reported that Julien Temple would direct a biopic of the Kinks titled You Really Got Me, but as of 2021, nothing had come of the project.[193] Temple previously released a documentary about Ray Davies titled Imaginary Man.[194]
Members
[edit]
Past members
Ray Davies – lead and backing vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, harmonica (1963–1996)
Dave Davies – lead guitar, backing and lead vocals, occasional keyboards (1963–1996)
Mick Avory – drums, percussion (1963–1984)
Pete Quaife – bass, backing vocals (1963–1966,[195] 1966–1969; died 2010)
John Dalton – bass, backing vocals (1966, 1969–1976)
Andy Pyle – bass (1976–1978)
Jim Rodford – bass, backing vocals (1978–1996; died 2018)
John Gosling – keyboards, piano, backing vocals (1970–1978; died 2023)
Gordon John Edwards – keyboards, piano, backing vocals (1978–1979; died 2003)
Ian Gibbons – keyboards, piano, backing vocals (1979–1989, 1993–1996; died 2019)
Mark Haley – keyboards, piano, backing vocals (1989–1993)
Bob Henrit – drums, percussion (1984–1996)
Major album contributors
Rasa Davies – backing vocals from Kinks (1964) to The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968)
Bobby Graham – drums, percussion on select tracks from Kinks (1964) and Kinda Kinks (1965; died 2009)
Nicky Hopkins – keyboards, piano from The Kink Kontroversy (1965) to The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society (1968) (died 1994)
Clem Cattini – drums, percussion on select tracks from The Kink Kontroversy (1965) and drum overdubs on Misfits (1978)
Alan Holmes – saxophone, clarinet from Muswell Hillbillies (1971) to Schoolboys in Disgrace (1975) and on "Come Dancing" from State of Confusion (1983) (died 2022)
Discography
[edit]
Main article: The Kinks discography
The Kinks were active for more than three decades, between 1963 and 1996, releasing twenty-four studio albums and four live albums.[197] The first two albums were released in different formats in the UK and US, partly because of the contrast in popularity of the extended play format—the UK market liked EPs, the US market did not, so US albums had the EP releases bundled onto them—and also because the US albums included the hit singles, while the UK albums did not; after The Kink Kontroversy in 1965, the UK/US album releases were the same.[198] There have been somewhere between 100 and 200 compilation albums released worldwide.[199][200][201] The hit singles included three UK number ones, starting in 1964 with "You Really Got Me"; plus eighteen top 40 singles in the 1960s alone, and additional top 40 hits in the 1970s and 1980s.
The Kinks had five top 10 singles on the US Billboard chart and nine top 40 albums.[9] In the UK, the group had seventeen top 20 singles and five top 10 albums.[10] The RIAA has certified four of the Kinks' albums as gold records. Released in 1965, The Kinks Greatest Hits! was certified gold for sales of 1,000,000 on 28 November 1968—this was six days after the release of The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, which failed to chart worldwide. The group did not receive another gold record award until 1979's Low Budget. The 1980 live album One for the Road was certified gold on 8 December 1980. Give the People What They Want, released in 1981, received its certification on 25 January 1982 for sales of 500,000 copies. Despite not selling at the time of its release,Village Green was awarded a gold disc in the UK in 2018 for selling more than 100,000 copies.[203] For the hit single "Come Dancing", the performing rights organisation ASCAP presented the Kinks with an award for "One of the Most Played Songs of 1983".
Studio albums
Live albums
Live at Kelvin Hall (1967)
One for the Road (1980)
Live: The Road (1988)
To the Bone (1994)
BBC Sessions: 1964–1977 (2001)
See also
[edit]
Do It Again, 2009 documentary film
Freakbeat
Swinging London
References
[edit]
Citations
[edit]
Sources
[edit]
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https://charlottemasonpoetry.org/ourselves-book-i/
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Ourselves Book I
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2021-08-12T20:28:17-04:00
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The Charlotte Mason Poetry Online Edition of Ourselves Book I.
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Charlotte Mason Poetry
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https://charlottemasonpoetry.org/ourselves-book-i/
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Ourselves
Book I. Self-Knowledge
By
Charlotte M. Mason
[p I:v]
Preface
“How beauteous mankind is!”—The Tempest.
I believe young readers make it a rule never to read a preface; but will they kindly read this particular preface; as I have something to say which is intended for them, and not for their elders?
Now that I am an old woman, I recollect very vividly two facts about the time when I was in my ‘teens.’ I felt that to have arrived at this dignity at all was an advance in life which meant added responsibility, and I sincerely wanted to know what I ought to do and be. I did not ask counsel of my parents or elders (perhaps young people seldom do), but I liked to pick up any hints from books which should help me to understand myself. I remember especially a volume of maxims from the classics which I used to ponder over. Æsop’s Fables, La Rochefoucauld’s maxims, even Lord Chesterfield’s Letters to his Son, were studied on my own initiative, though I do not wish to pass them all on to the reader. But I wanted something more, some notion of myself as [p I:vi] a whole, that I might know what was possible to me; and this I never succeeded in getting.
Another feeling I recollect very well. I was teased and depressed at odd moments by a great sense of unworthiness, not so much for any particular reason, as because I was a poor thing, and there was not much in me. I suppose this feeling arose out of another—a sense of greatness of mind and heart which, somehow, I could not get hold of and show in my life. These two feelings caused me to live at cross-purposes with the people about me; in my heart, that is, for, outwardly, things went smoothly enough. If my friends liked me and made much of me, I thought they were deceiving themselves, and did not know what a poor thing I was; while, if they found fault with me, I fell back upon the goodness and worth that I felt in some way belonged to me, and was cross from the sense that I was treated unjustly.
I believe that these two, or rather three, feelings are common to all thoughtful boys and girls in their teens. They all feel that life is a great and serious matter; and that they, themselves, are responsible persons, with an important part to play. They want to know the rules of the game, and they pick up hints, often enough misleading hints, here and there. They think, even the most conceited of them, that they are poor things after all; but also they know that somewhere within them there is greatness of mind and goodness of heart—quite a mine of wealth, if they could only produce it!
[p I:vii]
These three feelings are dependable guides. We are poor things, we have great possibilities, and we are dreadfully in need of guidance.
It is a comfort that we are not alone in our feelings. This baffling nature of ours, which we cannot understand, is, after all, human nature, and what we want to see is a sort of panorama of human nature, with its heights and hollows, its hopes and its risks. Such a panorama should help us to realise that our dreams of greatness fall short of the truth, that each of us has indeed a great and beautiful person within him, only waiting to be produced to the world; but that this beauteous person has many enemies, also within.
This little book is offered to the reader in the hope that it will help him to liberate the beautiful self which is himself; and also to see that everyone has a beautiful self waiting to be let out. St George and the dragon is a fable which each of us is called to enact.
Ambleside, March 1905.
[p I:viii]
To Teachers
It will be evident to the student of Ethics that this little volume is based upon intuitive morality as sanctioned by the authority of Revelation. A somewhat arbitrary use has been made of certain terms—‘demon,’ for example—when such use appeared to lend itself to clearness or force in putting the case.
It seems to the Author advisable that classes should, as far as possible, be left to read this little book by themselves, by way of preparation for a written reproduction, for example, or for an essay in which characters in History or Fiction are drawn upon to illustrate the text.
If the young students are let alone, they will probably invite discussion upon points that seem difficult to them; but it appears to the writer that attempts to point the moral might as well be avoided.
[p I:1]
Ourselves
Book I.—Self-Knowledge
“Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,
These three alone lead life to sovereign power.”
—Tennyson.
INTRODUCTORY
CHAPTER I
THE COUNTRY OF MANSOUL
The Riches of Mansoul.—“Do ye not like fair londes?” says King Alfred; and he answers himself: “Why should I not like fair londes? They are the fairest part of God’s creation.” And of all the fair lands which God has made, there is no country more fair than the Kingdom of Mansoul.
The soil is, almost everywhere, very fertile, and where it is cultivated there are meadows, corn-fields, and orchards with all manner of fruit. There are, too, wild nooks, with rippling streams bordered by forget-me-nots and king-cups, places where the birds nest and sing. There are hazel copses where you may gather nuts, and there are forests with mighty trees. There are wildernesses, too, marshy and unlovely, [p I:2] but these only wait for good and industrious hands to reclaim them and make them as fertile as the rest of the country. Deep under the surface lie beds of fuel to be had for the working, so that in that land there need never be a cold hearth-stone. There are many other mines, too, where diligent workers find, not only useful and necessary metals like copper and iron, but also silver and gold and very precious stones. When the workers are weary they may rest, for there are trees for shade and shelter, and pleasant playfields. And you may hear the laughter of the children, and see them at their sports.
Its Rivers and Cities.—There are rivers, broad and deep, good to bathe in and to swim in, and also good to bear the ships which carry those things produced by Mansoul to other countries far and near. Upon these rivers, too, sail the ships of many lands, bringing passengers and goods. There are busy cities in Mansoul; and these, also, are pleasant places; because, though there are factories where men work and make all manner of things for home use or to be sent abroad, there are also fair and beautiful buildings, palaces of delight, where are gathered the treasures of Mansoul,—galleries of precious and beautiful pictures painted by the great artists of all countries, statues of the heroes that are had in reverence there, halls with organs of noble tone which can roar like the thunder and babble like a child, and all manner of musical instruments. To these halls great musicians come and play wonderful things that they have made; the people of Mansoul listen, and great thoughts swell in them, and everyone feels as if he could get up and go and be a hero.
[p I:3]
Its Books and Playgrounds.—There are libraries, too—such libraries! containing every book of delight that ever was written. When anybody sits down to read, the author who made the book comes and leans over his shoulder and talks to him. I forgot to say that in the picture-galleries the old painters do the same thing; they come and say what they meant by it all.
There is no city in Mansoul so built up but there is plenty of space for parks and cricket-grounds, playing-fields and places where people meet and are merry, dance and sing. Nobody need be poor in Mansoul; and if anybody is poor, neglected, and stunted, it is for a reason which we shall consider by and by.
Its Churches and its Delectable Mountains.—The best treasures of the country are kept in the fairest of its buildings, in its churches, which are always open, so that people may go in and out many times a day to talk with God, and He comes and speaks with them. But, indeed, He walks about everywhere in the land, in the workshops, in the picture-galleries, and in the fields; people consult Him about everything, little things and great, and He advises about them all.
Much remains to be said about Mansoul, but I think I have left out the chief thing—the ‘Delectable Mountains,’ where people go that they may breathe mountain air, gather the lovely mountain flowers, and brace their limbs and their lungs with the toilsome delight of climbing. From the top, they get a view that makes them solemnly glad; they see a good deal of Mansoul, and they see the borders of the land that is very far off. They see a good deal of [p I:4] Mansoul, but they cannot see it all, for a curious thing is, that no map has been made of the country, because a great deal of it is yet unexplored, and men have not discovered its boundaries. This is exciting and delightful to the people, because, though here and there Mansoul is touched by another such country as itself, there are everywhere reaches which no man has seen, regions of country which may be rich and beautiful.
[p I:5]
CHAPTER II
THE PERILS OF MANSOUL
The Government to Blame.—You are thinking, I daresay, what a rich and beautiful country Mansoul must be! But, like most other lands, it is subject to many perils. Unlike most other lands, however, Mansoul has means of escape from the perils that threaten it from time to time. In other countries, we hear the government blamed if poor people have not bread, and if rich people are annoyed by the crowing of a cock. This is usually great nonsense, but it is not nonsense to blame the government of Mansoul for the evils that occur in that country, for it has large power to prevent those evils. How the country is governed you shall hear later. Meantime, learn something of the perils which may overtake poor Mansoul and all that are in it.
Peril of Sloth.—Perhaps the most common evil is a sort of epidemic of sloth that spreads over the whole country. The scavengers sit with heavy eyes and folded arms, and let refuse and filth accumulate in the streets. The farmers and their labourers say, ‘What’s the good?’ and fail to go out with the plough or to sow the seed. Fruit drops from the trees and rots because no one cares to pick it up. [p I:6] The ships lie idle in the harbours because nobody wants anything from abroad. The librarians let their books be buried in dust and devoured by insects, and neglect their duty of gathering more. The pictures grow dim and tattered for want of care; and nobody in the whole country thinks it worth while to do anything at all.
Sometimes the people still care to play; but play without work becomes dull after a time, and soon comes to a stop. And so the people, whatever be their business in Mansoul, sit or lounge about with dull eyes, folded arms, and hanging heads.
Peril of Fire.—Another risk that Mansoul runs is that of great conflagrations. Sometimes an incendiary will land at one of its ports from some foreign country, perhaps with the express purpose of setting fire to what is best in Mansoul; but perhaps a man sets fire to things by accident because he does not know how inflammable they are. The fire once begun, the wind carries the flames over many miles of country; noble buildings, precious works of art, farmsteads with stacks of corn, everything is consumed, and ruin follows the track of the fire. Sometimes these fires arise in Mansoul itself. I have told you that the country has great beds of underlying fuel. Here and there inflammable gases break out on the surface, and a spark, dropped in the region of these gases, is sufficient to cause a wide conflagration. But Mansoul ought to be as careful as people in Switzerland are when a hot wind called the Föhn blows, and orders are issued that everyone is to put out his fires and lights.
Perils of Plague, Flood, and Famine.—Sometimes there is a visitation of the plague, because [p I:7] dwelling-houses, streets, and out-buildings are not kept clean and wholesome, and the drains are allowed to get into disorder.
Sometimes the springs swell in the hills, the rivers overflow, and there is a flood; but this is not always a misfortune in the end, because much that is rotten and unclean is swept away, and lands washed by a flood are very fertile afterwards.
Again, it may happen that the crops fail, though the land has been diligently tilled and good seed sown. But neighbouring States are kind, and help Mansoul in these distressful times; and the crops of the following year are generally abundant.
Peril of Discord.—Another cause of occasional misery in Mansoul is that a spirit of discord breaks out now and then among the members of the community, and becomes sometimes so violent as to lead to a devastating civil war. The servants and workmen will not obey the masters, and the masters will not consider their servants, and are at feud among themselves; one member of the ministry chooses to attend to the work of some other member; all useful employments are neglected, and the people are a prey to envy and discontent.
I might tell you of some other causes of misery in Mansoul, but shall mention only one more, which is by far the worst that ever overtakes the State.
Peril of Darkness.—Lovely and smiling as the country is when it is well ordered, mists at times emanate from it, chilling, soaking mists, dense and black; not a ray of the sun can penetrate these mists, no light, no warmth; there is no seeing of one’s way; so that the people say, ‘There is no sun,’ and some of the more foolish add, ‘There never was a sun [p I:8] in heaven, and there never will be.’ When they cannot see the sun, of course they cannot see each other, and blunder against one another in the darkness. You will say that many lands, especially low lands, are subject to blinding mists, but nowhere can they be so thick and heavy, and nowhere do they lie so long, as in the Kingdom of Mansoul. One quite exceptional thing about these mists is, that they also are largely under control of the government, especially of the Prime Minister. How this can be so I cannot fully explain here, but you will understand later.
Because all these things can happen to Mansoul, we must not run away with the idea that it is an unhappy country. On the contrary, it is radiant and lovely, busy and gay, full of many interests and of joyous life,—so long as the government attends to its duties.
[p I:9]
CHAPTER III
THE GOVERNMENT OF MANSOUL
Each of us a Kingdom of Mansoul.—I just give up attempting to talk about Mansoul in parables. I daresay you have already found it difficult to make everything fit; but, never mind; what you do not understand now you may understand some day, or you may see a meaning better and truer than that which is intended. Every human being, child or man, is a Kingdom of Mansoul; and to be born a human being is like coming into a very great estate; so much in the way of goodness, greatness, heroism, wisdom, and knowledge, is possible to us all. Therefore I have said that no one has discovered the boundaries of the Kingdom of Mansoul; for nobody knows how much is possible to any one person. Many persons go through life without recognising this. They have no notion of how much they can do and feel, know and be; and so their lives turn out poor, narrow, and disappointing.
It is, indeed, true that Mansoul is like a great and rich country, with a more or less powerful and harmonious government; because there is a part of ourselves whose business it is to manage and make the best of the rest of ourselves, and that part of ourselves we shall call the Government.
[p I:10]
Officers of State.—There are many Officers of State, each with his distinct work to do in the economy of this Kingdom of Mansoul; and, if each does his own work and if all work together, Mansoul is happy and prosperous. I will give a list of a few of the great Officers of State, and later we shall consider what each has to do. To begin with the lowest, there are the Esquires of the Body, commonly called the Appetites; then come the Lords of the Exchequer, known as the Desires; the Lords of the Treasury, that is, the Affections; then the Foreign Secretary, that is, the Intellect, with his colleagues, My Lord Chief Explorer (Imagination) and My Lord President of the Arts (the Ӕsthetic Sense); the Lord Attorney-General, that is, the Reason; the Lords of the House of Heart: the Lord Chief Justice, that is, the Conscience; the Prime Minister, that is, the Will. There are various other Officers of State, whom we cannot name now, but these are the principal. Beyond and above all these is the King; for you remember that Mansoul is a Kingdom.
The Four Chambers.—These various Ministers we may conceive as sitting each in the House with the ordering of whose affairs he is concerned. These Houses are, the House of Body, the House of Mind, the House of Heart, and the House of Soul.
You must not understand that all these are different parts of a person; but that they are different powers which every person has, and which every person must exercise, in order to make the most of that great inheritance which he is born to as a human being.
[p I:11]
PART I
THE HOUSE OF BODY
CHAPTER I
THE ESQUIRES OF THE BODY: HUNGER
The Work of the Appetites.—We will first consider the Esquires of the Body; not that they are the chief Officers of State, but in Mansoul, as in the world, a great deal depends upon the least important people; and the Esquires of the Body have it very much in their power to make all go right or all go wrong in Mansoul.
Their work is very necessary for the well-being of the State. They build up the Body, and they see to it that there shall be new Mansouls to take the place of the old when these shall pass away. If each would attend to his own business and nothing else, all would go well; but there is a great deal of rivalry in the government, and every member tries to make the Prime Minister believe that the happiness of Mansoul depends upon him. If any one of these gets things altogether into his hands, all is in disorder.
How Hunger Behaves.—Esquire Hunger is the first of the appetites that comes to our notice. He is [p I:12] a most useful fellow. If he do not come down to breakfast in the morning, a poor meal is eaten, and neither work nor play goes well in Mansoul that day. If, for weeks together, Hunger do not sit down to table, thin fingers and hollow cheeks will show you what a good servant has left his post. He is easily slighted. If people say, ‘I hate’ bread and milk, or eggs, or mutton, or what not, and think about it and think about it, Hunger is disgusted and goes. But if they sit down to their meals without thinking about what they eat, and think of something more interesting, Hunger helps them through, bit by bit, until their plates are emptied, and new material has been taken in to build up their bodies. Hunger is not at all fond of dainties. He likes things plain and nice; and directly a person begins to feed upon dainties, like pastry, rich cake, too many sweets, Hunger goes; or rather, he changes his character and becomes Gluttony.
Hunger a Servant, Gluttony a Ruler.—It is as Gluttony that he tries to get the ear of the Prime Minister, saying, ‘Leave it all to me, and I will make Mansoul happy. He shall want nothing but what I can give him.’ Then begins a fine time. As long as Hunger was his servant, Mansoul thought nothing about his meals till the time for them came, and then he ate them with a good appetite. But Gluttony behaves differently. Gluttony leads his victim to the confectioner’s windows and makes him think how nice this or that would taste: all his pocket-money goes in tarts, sweets, and toffee. He thinks at breakfast what pudding he should like for dinner, and asks for it as a favour. Indeed, he is always begging for bits of cake, and spoonfuls of jam, [p I:13] and extra chocolates. He does not think much about his lessons, because he has a penny in his pocket and is considering what is the nicest thing he can buy for it; or, if he is older, perhaps he has a pound, but his thought is still the same, and Gluttony gets it all. The greedy person turns away from wholesome meals, and does not care for work or play, because Gluttony has got the ear of the Prime Minister, and almost every thought of Mansoul turns one way—‘What shall I eat?’ he says. Gluttony begins with the little boy and goes with him all through life, only that, instead of caring for chocolate creams when he is a man, he cares for great dinners two hours long.
How Gluttony affects the Body.—But, you will say, if Hunger builds up the body, surely Gluttony must do so a great deal faster. It is true that sometimes the greedy person becomes fat, but it is muscle and not fat which makes the body strong and useful. Gluttony does not make muscle, and does cause horrid illnesses.
How to avoid Greediness.—The way to keep this enemy out of Mansoul is to stick to the rules which Hunger lays down. The chief of them is—Never think of your meals till they come, and, while you are eating, talk and think of something more amusing than your food. As for nice things, of course we all want nice things now and then; but let us eat what is given to us of the chocolate or fruit at table, and not think any more about it. Sweets or fruits are seldom served at school, we know, and when at school it is quite fair for a boy to allow himself to spend a certain part of his pocket-money in this way, not only for himself, but that he may have something to give away. But the boy who spends the whole, or [p I:14] the greater part, of his week’s money on things to eat, or who is always begging for hampers from home, is a poor fellow, the victim of Gluttony. The best plan is to want to spend your money upon something else—some sort of collection, perhaps; or to save up to buy a present or a fishing-rod or anything worth having. Gluttony lets you alone when you cease to think of him and his good things.
[p I:15]
CHAPTER II
THE ESQUIRES OF THE BODY: THIRST
Thirst likes Cold Water.—Another most serviceable Esquire of the Body is Thirst. How serviceable he is you will understand when you remember that by far the greater part of a man’s weight is made up of water. This water is always wasting away in one way or another, and the business of Thirst is to make up for the loss. Thirst is a simple fellow; the beverage he likes best is pure cold water; and, indeed, he is quite right, for, when you come to think of it, there is only one thing to drink in the world, though we drink it mixed with many things. Sometimes the mixing is done by nature, as in milk or grapes; sometimes by man, as in tea or coffee. Some of these mixed drinks are wholesome, because they contain food as well as drink, and by far the most wholesome of these is milk.
But Thirst himself does not care for or need anything in the water he drinks. He likes it best clear and cold, and if we lived in hot Eastern countries we should know how delicious cold water is. All little children like water, but bigger boys and girls sometimes like various things, such as lemon juice, in their water to give it a flavour. Though there is no [p I:16] harm in this, it is rather a pity, because they lose their taste for water itself.
Drunkenness craves for Alcohol.—You would think that so simple and useful an Esquire of the Body could never be a source of danger to Mansoul. But Thirst also gets the ear of the Prime Minister; he also says, ‘Leave Mansoul to me, and he shall never more want anything in the world but what I can give him.’ This saying of his is quite true, only, instead of calling him Thirst any longer, we must call him Drunkenness; and once Drunkenness has a man in his grip, that man wants nothing but drink, drink, from morning till night.
The chairs and tables out of his house, his children’s bread, their mother’s clothes, all go to buy drink. The man’s time, health, and strength are spent in drink: he becomes homeless and friendless, sick and outcast, for the sake of drink. But he does not crave for home or friends; all he wants is more drink and more drink. By far the greater part of the sin, misery, and poverty in the world is caused by Drunkenness.
Why People Abstain.—As you know very well, it is not pure water that causes Drunkenness. Men long ago discovered how to prepare a substance called alcohol, and this it is that ruins thousands of men and women. Many good men and women, and children, too, make a solemn vow that they will never taste ale or wine or other strong drink, unless a doctor order it by way of medicine. They do this, not only for fear that they should themselves become drunkards—though indeed there is no knowing who may fall into that terrible temptation, or at what period of life such a fall may come,—but because every little [p I:17] good deed helps to stop the evil in the world by setting a good example to somebody; and perhaps there is never a good example set but someone follows it, though the person who set the example may never know.
This is one reason why it is well to keep one’s taste for cold water, and to know how delicious it is.
[p I:18]
CHAPTER III
ESQUIRES OF THE BODY: RESTLESSNESS AND REST
Restlessness makes the Body Strong.—I hardly know by what names to call the two Esquires of the Body whom I am now to introduce to you, but both are good body-servants. Perhaps Restlessness and Rest will do as well as any. You have noticed that a baby is seldom quite still when he is wide awake: he is kicking his legs about, or playing with his fingers or toes, or crawling, or clutching or throwing something down or picking it up, or laughing, or crowing, or crying. Little boys and girls, too, cannot bear to sit still long at lessons. They want to run into the garden and see what their pet frog is doing. When lessons are over a good romp is delightful, or a race, or a good deal of tumbling about head-over-heels. Later, people want to play cricket or football, or to ride bicycles, or climb mountains. They think they do all these things just because it is fun; but, really, good Esquire Restless will not let them alone, but gives them an uneasy feeling if they are not pretty often doing something which is rather hard to do and rather tiring. He is playing the part of a faithful body-servant. He is helping to make Mansoul a strong and wiry body, able to swim and [p I:19] ride, to jump and run; able to walk far and to hit true and to do every service that the Prime Minister may require. In fact, the business of Restlessness is to strengthen and harden the muscles which Hunger feeds.
But Restlessness may be a Hard Master.—Restlessness, from being a good servant, might become a hard master; indeed, he sometimes does become so, and people do things that are too hard for them in the way of rowing or climbing, running or jumping. Worse still, the Dæmon of Restlessness possesses them, and they cannot settle to any kind of work or play because they always want to be doing something else. This is a very unfortunate state to get into, because it is only by going on doing one thing steadily that we learn to do it well, whether it be cricket or algebra; so it is well to be on the watch for the moment when Restlessness, the good servant, turns into Restlessness, the unquiet Dæmon who drives us about from post to pillar, and will not give us firm standing ground anywhere in life.
Rest, a Good Servant.—In a general way, his fellow-servant and brother, Rest, steps in with, ‘It is my turn now,’ and the tired person is glad to sit down and be quiet for a little, or lie on his face with a book, or, best of all, go to sleep soundly at night and wake up refreshed and ready for anything. Thus the muscles take such turns of work and rest as help them to grow and become strong.
Sloth, a Tyrant.—I daresay you are glad to hear of an Esquire of the Body who is not followed by a black shadow threatening Mansoul with ruin; but, alas! we cannot be let off. Rest, too, has his Dæmon, whose name is Sloth. ‘A little more sleep, a little [p I:20] more slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep,’ is the petition with which he besieges the Prime Minister. Once Sloth is ruler in Mansoul, the person cannot wake up in the morning, dawdles over his dressing, comes down late for breakfast, hates a walk, can’t bear games, dawdles over his preparation, does not want to make boats or whistles, or collect stamps, drops in all his lessons, is in the Third form when he ought to be in the Sixth, saunters about the corners of the playing-field with his hands in his pockets, never does anything for anybody, not because he is unkind or ill-natured, but because he will not take the trouble.
Poor fellow! he does not know that he is falling daily more and more under the power of a hard master. The less he exerts himself, the less he is able to exert himself, because the muscles, which Restlessness keeps firm and in good order, Sloth relaxes and weakens until it becomes a labour to raise the hand to the head or to drag one foot after another. People used to be very much afraid of Sloth and to call him one of the Seven Deadly Sins, but somehow he is less thought about now; perhaps because we find so many things to do that we cannot bear to be slothful. Still, if your friends call you idle about play or work, or, worse, indolent, or, worse still, lazy, pull yourself together without loss of time, for be sure the Dæmon, Sloth, is upon you, and once you get into his clutches you are in as bad a case, and your life is as much in danger of being ruined, as if Gluttony or Drunkenness had got hold of you. But take courage, the escape is easy: Restlessness is on the alert to save you from Sloth in the beginning. Up and be doing, whether at work or play.
[p I:21]
CHAPTER IV
THE ESQUIRES OF THE BODY: CHASTITY
How to Rule the Appetites.—We have seen how each of the Appetites—Hunger, Thirst, Restlessness, Rest—is a good body-servant, and how the work of each is to build up and refresh the body. We have seen, too, how a life may be ruined by each of these so innocent-seeming appetites if it be allowed to get the mastery. To save ourselves from this fate, we must eat, drink, sleep, at regular times, and then not allow ourselves to think of taking our ease, of dainty things to eat, of nice things to drink, in the intervals. We should always have something worth while to think about, that we may not let our minds dwell upon unworthy matters.
Each Appetite has its Time.—There is another Appetite which is subject to the same rules as those we have considered. It has its time like eating and sleeping, but its time is not until people are married. Just as eating, drinking, and sleeping are designed to help to make us strong, healthy, and beautiful bodies, so this other Appetite is meant to secure that people shall have children, so that there will always be people in the world, young people growing up as old people pass away. This Appetite is connected with a certain [p I:22] part of the body; and I should not speak about it now, only that one of the great duties we have in the world is to keep this part of the body pure. It is just like that tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil planted in the Garden of Eden.
Uncleanness.—You remember that Adam and Eve were not to take thereof, or they should surely die; and then, you remember how the tempter came and told Eve that they should not die if they took of it, but should be like gods, knowing good and evil. Well, just in the same way, I fear, you may find tempters who will do their best to make you know about things you ought not to know about, to talk about and read about and do things you ought not to talk about, or read about, or do. I daresay they will tell you these things are quite right, that you would not have such parts of your body and such feelings about them unless you were meant to think and do these things. Now it will help you to know that this is the sin of Uncleanness, the most deadly and loathsome of all sins, the sin that all nice men and women hate and shrink from more than from any other.
Purity.—The opposite virtue is called Purity, and Christ has said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” That does not mean, I think, ‘shall see God’ when they die, but ‘shall see’ Him with the eye of their soul, about them and beside them, and shall know, whenever temptation comes through this Appetite—‘Thou, God, seest me.’ That thought will come home to them, so that they will not be able to make themselves unclean by even a thought or a word. They will turn away their eyes from beholding evil; they will not allow themselves to read, or hear, or say a word that should cause impure thoughts.
[p I:23]
Glorify God in your Bodies.—Thus they will glorify God in their bodies. Every boy or girl who realises this is a hero in the sight of God, is fighting a good fight, and is making the world better. When the pure marry, their children will be blessed, for they will be good, healthy, and happy, because they have pure parents. Remember that God puts before each of us in this matter the choice between good and evil, obedience and disobedience, which he put before Adam and Eve. They sinned, and death entered into the world. And so surely as you allow yourself in this sin of Uncleanness, even to think a thought which you could not go straight and tell your mother, death begins in you, death of body and soul. Fight the good fight, and do not let yourself, like our first parents, be the victim of unholy curiosity.
The Appetites our Servants, not our Masters.—Let each of the Appetites, so necessary to our bodies, be our servant and not our master, and remember, above all things, that sin and slavery to any Appetite begin in our thoughts. It is our thoughts that we must rule, and the way to rule them is very simple. We just have to think of something else when an evil thought comes, something really interesting and nice, with a prayer in our hearts to God to help us to do so.
[p I:24]
CHAPTER V
THE PAGES OF THE BODY: THE FIVE SENSES
The Esquires of the Body have in turn their attendants, their pages, let us call them; very useful persons in their way, but, like the Esquires, they require looking after—in the first place, to see that they do their work, in the next, to secure that they do not become tyrants. For even they, servants of servants as they are, aim, if they are indulged, at the sole rule and subjection of Mansoul. People sometimes call these pages feelings, but we will call them sensations, because it is through the five senses that they do their work.
Taste, Agreeable and Useful.—The sensation of Taste, one of these, is not only usually agreeable, but is most useful. When food tastes unpleasant, that is often a sign that it is not wholesome. Taste is an excellent servant, and people who know how to keep him in order find simple foods, such as milk and bread and butter, delicious.
But, Pampered, becomes our Master.—But people who pamper Taste make themselves his servants. They say they do not like porridge; they do not like mutton, potatoes, eggs. They want things with strong flavours to please their Taste; the older they grow [p I:25] the more difficult it will be to gratify them, so that at last it will take a French cook to think of things quite nice enough for their dinners. The best rule is not to allow oneself in daintiness about food, but to eat what is set before one; indeed, a wise person is rather glad when something is served which he does not exactly like, or when he has to take disagreeable medicine, because this gives him an opportunity to keep Taste in his proper place, that of a servant and not of a master. It is a good plan not to talk about our likes or dislikes, not even to know which kind of jam we like best.
‘Smell’ is Lazy.—Smell is another of these pages, really a very good fellow, and I do not know that he tries much for mastery in Mansoul, unless as the ally of Taste. When he goes about sniffing savoury dishes and making Taste wish for them, he is very objectionable; excepting for that he is harmless enough, but he has a fault which is bad in a servant. He is lazy. As his work is very important, this lazy habit must be dealt with.
Should give Mansoul much Pleasure.—He might be the means of giving Mansoul a great deal of pleasure, because there are many faint, delightful odours in the world, like the odour of a box-hedge, of lime-trees in flower, of bog-myrtle, which he might carry, and thus add to the pleasure of life. But that is not his only use.
Should serve on the Board of Health.—He should be quick to detect when there is the least impurity in the air, when a room is close, when a drain is out of order, when there is any unpleasant, unwholesome odour about, however slight; because all odours are really atoms floating in the air, which, [p I:26] by breathing, we take into our bodies. As we breathe all day long and all night long, and only take food three or four times a day, it is perhaps more injurious to health to breathe evil odours than to eat food which is not quite fit, though both are bad. But there are people in whom Smell has become so inactive, that they will lean over an open drain without perceiving any bad smell. By and by we hear they are laid up with a fever, and nobody thinks of reproaching that lazy servant, Smell, who has been the cause of the whole mischief.
Practice in catching Odours.—It is a good rule to practise oneself in catching every sweet and delightful fragrance, and in learning to tell, with one’s eyes shut, the leaves of various trees, various flowers, food-stuffs, materials for clothing, all by their odours. In this way Smell would be kept in good working order, and should be able to detect, when he goes into a room, whether the air is fresh or fusty.
Touch, most Pervasive.—There are five of these Pages classed together under the name of The Five Senses, but the three we have now to speak of are not so much pages to Esquires of the Body, as body-servants themselves. Touch is a most pervasive fellow. He is all over the body at once, and there are only one or two places, like the nails and the teeth, where he is not. He collects a great deal of useful information. It is he who discovers whether things be hard or soft, hot or cold, rough or smooth, whether they pierce or scratch, or prick or burn.
Most Useful.—You see at once how useful his work is, for without Touch one might accidentally put one’s finger in the fire and not know it was burning. [p I:27] Knives might cut, pins prick, frost bite, and fire burn, and we should be none the wiser, though our bodies might be receiving deadly injury. Some people have an exceedingly delicate sense of touch, especially in the finger-tips, and this enables them to work at making such delicate things as watch-springs and very fine lace.
The Touch of the Blind.—Blind people learn to find out through their finger-tips what their eyes no longer tell them. They learn even the faces of their friends by touch, and can tell whether they are well or ill, glad or sorry. You hear it sometimes said that a person has a nice touch in playing the piano, and it would really seem as if his finger-tips felt not only the keys of the instrument, but the music they are producing.
A Kind ‘Touch.’—Some people, again, mothers especially, have so kind a touch that their hands seem to smooth away our troubles. But this sort of touch is only learned by loving. You remember Shakespeare thought that poor little Prince Arthur had it; certainly many loving children have comforting hands.
Practice in Touch.—Those persons whose senses are the most keen and delicate are the most alive and get most interest out of life; so it is worth while to practise our senses; to shut our eyes, for example, and learn the feel of different sorts of material, different sorts of wood, metal, leaves of trees, different sorts of hair and fur—in fact, whatever one comes across.
Touch tries for Mastery over Mansoul.—It will surprise you to hear that Touch, simple and useful servant as he is, like the rest, watches for mastery over Mansoul. Have you ever found it [p I:28] hard to attend to lessons or other work because you have had a prick or a sting or a cut, which, as you, say, ‘hurts’? When people let themselves think about these little things which can’t be helped, they have no thoughts left for what is worth while; thus one of the least of the powers in their lives becomes master of all the rest. You remember the story of the Spartan boy and the fox? It is not necessary that we should be Spartans, because, if anything painful can be helped, it is right and necessary that we should speak about it, or do something to take away the cause of the pain.
Good to have Little Things to put up with.—But, on the other hand, I think we should be rather glad to have little things to put up with now and then—a scratch, a mustard poultice, or a vest that pricks—just that we may get into the way of not letting ourselves think about such matters. There is an instance of a man who was obliged to have his leg cut off, before Sir James Simpson had made the blessed discovery of the use of chloroform. This man was determined that he would not think about the pain, and he succeeded in so keeping his mind occupied with other things, that he was not aware of the operation. This would be too much for most of us, but we might all try to bear the prick of a pin, or even the sting of a wasp, without making a fuss.
Sight brings half our Joy.—The two senses that we have still to speak of are ministers of delight to Mansoul, and I do not know that they have any serious faults as servants, excepting those of laziness and inattention. Sight brings us half our joy. The faces of our friends, gay sunshine, flowers and green grass, and the flickering of the leaves, pretty clothes [p I:29] and little treasures and pictures, mountains and rivers, and the great sea—where would our joy in all these be if we could not see them? Kind friends might read to us, certainly, but it would not be the same thing always as to have our own book and read it in the apple-tree, or in the corner of the window seat. Let us pity the blind. But there are other people to be pitied, almost as much as they.
Eyes and No-Eyes.—Do you know how Eyes and No-Eyes went out for a walk? No-Eyes found it dull, and said there was nothing to see; but Eyes saw a hundred interesting things, and brought home his handkerchief full of treasures. The people I know are all either ‘Eyes’ or ‘No-Eyes.’ Do you wish to know which class you fall into? Let me ask you two or three questions. If you can answer them we shall call you, Eyes. If you cannot, why, learn to answer these and a thousand questions like them. Describe, from memory, one picture in your mother’s drawing-room without leaving out a detail. Name a tree (not shrub) which has green leaf-buds? Do you know any birds with white feathers in their tails? If you do not know things such as these, set to work. The world is a great treasure-house full of things to be seen, and each new thing one sees is a new delight.
Hearing a Source of Joy.—There is a great deal of joy, again, to be had out of listening—joy which many people miss because Hearing is, in their case, an idle servant who does not attend to his business.
Have you ever been in the fields on a spring day, and heard nothing at all but your own voice and the voices of your companions, and then, perhaps, suddenly you have become silent, and you find a concert going on of which you had not heard a note? At first [p I:30] you hear the voices of the birds; then, by degrees, you perceive high voices, low voices, and middle voices, small notes and great notes, and you begin to wish you knew who sang each of the songs you can distinguish.
The more we Listen, the more we Hear.—Then, as you listen more, you hear more. The chirp of the grasshoppers becomes so noisy that you wonder you can hear yourself speak for it; then the bees have it all to themselves in your hearing; then you hear the hum or the trumpet of smaller insects, and perhaps the tinkle and gurgle of a stream. The quiet place is full of many sounds, and you ask yourself how you could have been there without hearing them. That just shows you how Hearing may sleep at his post. Keep him awake and alive; make him try to hear and know some new sound every day without any help from sight. It is rather a good plan to listen with shut eyes.
Some Nice Sounds.—Have you ever heard the beech-leaves fall one by one in the autumn? That is a very nice sound. Have you heard the tap, tap of the woodpecker, or have you heard a thrush breaking snail-shells on a stone? Of course you can tell the difference between one horse and a pair by sound. Can you tell one kind of carriage from another, or a grocer’s cart from a carriage? Do you know the footfall of everybody in the house? Do you know the sound of every bell in the house? Do you listen to people’s voices, and can you tell by the intonation whether the people are sad or glad, pleased or displeased?
Music, the Great Joy we owe to Hearing.—Hearing should tell us a great many interesting things, [p I:31] but the great and perfect joy which we owe to him is Music. Many great men have put their beautiful thoughts, not into books, or pictures, or buildings, but into musical score, to be sung with the voice or played on instruments, and so full are these musical compositions of the minds of their makers, that people who care for music can always tell who has composed the music they hear, even if they have never heard the particular movement before. Thus, in a manner, the composer speaks to them, and they are perfectly happy in listening to what he has to say. Quite little children can sometimes get a good deal of this power; indeed, I knew a boy of three years old who knew when his mother was playing ‘Wagner,’ for example. She played to him a great deal, and he listened. Some people have more power in this way than others, but we might all have far more than we possess if we listened.
How to get the Hearing Ear.—Use every chance you get of hearing music (I do not mean only tunes, though these are very nice), and ask whose music has been played, and, by degrees, you will find out that one composer has one sort of thing to say to you, and another speaks other things; these messages of the musicians cannot be put into words, so there is no way of hearing them if we do not train our ear to listen. A great help towards learning to hear music is to know the notes, to be able to tell with one’s eyes shut any note or chord that is struck on the piano or sung with the voice. This is as entertaining as a puzzle, and if we find that we are rather dull of hearing at first we need not be discouraged. The hearing ear comes, like good batting, with much practice; and the time will come when in a whole [p I:32] chorus of birds you will be able to distinguish between the different voices, and say which is the thrush, which is the blackbird, which the white-throat, which the black-cap, which the wren, which the chaffinch. Think how happy the person must be for whom every bird’s note is the voice of a friend whom he knows!
[p I:33]
PART II
THE HOUSE OF MIND
CHAPTER I
OURSELVES
‘Ourselves,’ a Vast Country not yet Explored.—When we think of our bodies and of the wonderful powers they possess, we say, under our breath, “Great and marvellous are Thy works, Lord God Almighty.” Now, let us consider that still more wonderful Self which we cannot see and touch as we can our bodies, but which thinks and loves and prays to God; which is happy or sad, good or not good. This inner self is, as we have said, like a vast country much of which is not yet explored, or like a great house, built as a maze, in which you cannot find your way about. People usually talk of ‘Ourselves’ as made up of Body, Mind, Heart, and Soul; and we will do the same, because it is a convenient way to describe us. It is more convenient to say, ‘The sun rises at six and sets at nine,’ than to say, ‘As the earth turns round daily before the sun, that part of the earth on which we live first gets within sight of the sun about six o’clock in the morning in March.’ ‘The sun rises and sets’ is a better way of describing [p I:34] this, not only because it is easier to say, but because it is what we all appear to see and to know. In the same way, everybody appears to know about his own heart and soul and mind; though, perhaps, the truth is that there is no division into parts, but that the whole of each of us has many different powers and does many different things at different times.
Self-control, Self-knowledge, Self-reverence.—It would even seem as if we had two inside selves, one which wishes to do a wrong or unwise thing, and another which says, ‘You must not.’ And one of the great things we have to learn in life is how, where, and when to use this power, which we call Self-control. Before we can have true Self-control we must know a good deal about ourselves, that is, we must get Self-knowledge. Many persons think themselves quite different from everybody else, which is a mistake. Self-knowledge teaches that what is true of everybody else is true of us also; and when we come to know how wonderful are the powers and how immense are the possibilities of Mansoul, we are filled, not with pride, but with Self-reverence, which includes reverence and pity for the meanest and most debased, because each of these is also a great Mansoul, though it may be a Mansoul neglected, ruined, or decayed. The government of Mansoul is, as we know, the chief business of man; and we will go on to consider the Members of the Government.
[p I:35]
CHAPTER II
MY LORD INTELLECT
Introduces Mansoul to Delightful Realms.—To begin with my Lord Intellect: he is the Foreign Secretary, because he conducts affairs and establishes relations with many foreign kingdoms. Through him Mansoul obtains the freedom of rich provinces and mighty states.
Science, a Vast and Joyous Region.—Science is one of these provinces. Here, the stars are measured, the ocean sounded, and the wind made the servant of man; here, every flower that blooms reveals the secret of its growth, and every grain of sand recounts its history. This is a vast and joyous realm; for the people who walk therein are always discovering new things, and each new thing is a delight, because the things are not a medley, but each is a part of the great whole. So immense is the realm of Science that one of the wisest and greatest travellers therein, who had discovered many things, said, when he was an old man, that he was only like a little child playing with pebbles on the beach. Do you, too, wish to walk in the pleasant ways of Science? My Lord Intellect will give you the necessary introductions, and do everything to make your progress easy.
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Imagination cheers the Traveller here.—I should have mentioned that Intellect’s colleague, my Lord Imagination, Chief Explorer (you recollect him?), usually journeys with travellers in the ways of Science, and cheers them by opening up fresh and delightful vistas before their eyes.
History, a Pleasant Place.—History is another glorious domain to which my Lord Intellect holds the key, and sends forth Imagination by way of courier and companion to the zealous traveller. Of all the pleasant places in the world of mind, I do not know that any are more delightful than those in the domain of History. Have you ever looked through a kinetoscope? Many figures are there, living and moving, dancing, walking in procession, whatever they happened to be doing at the time the picture was taken. History is a little like that, only much more interesting, because in these curious living photographs the figures are very small and rather dim, and most attentive gazing cannot make them clearer; now, History shows you its personages, clothed as they were clothed, moving, looking, speaking, as they looked, moved, and spoke, engaged in serious matters or in pleasures; and, the longer you look at any one person, the more clearly he stands out, until at last he may become more real to you than the people who live in your own home.
The Shows of History.—Think of all the centuries and of every country full of a great procession of living, moving people. Think of the little byways of history where you see curious things that bring you very near to the people concerned, like that letter from a little boy in Egypt, some four thousand years ago, in which he tells his father that he won’t be [p I:37] good or do his lessons unless his father takes him to the great festival that is coming on. Even little boys in Egypt four thousand years ago were not, it appears, all good. Here we see Alcibiades going about the streets of Athens, handsome, witty, and winning, reckless and haughty, and so far without principle that not even Socrates could make him good. Or we see the King, Henry VIII., walking arm-in-arm with Sir Thomas More in his garden at Chelsea, and his dear daughter Margaret hovering round and bringing her father sugar-plums when the King had gone.
We are making History.—We see, too, the working people, the smith at his forge, the ploughman in the field, the maypole on the village green, with the boys and girls dancing round it. Once Intellect admits us into the realms of History, we live in a great and stirring world, full of entertainment and sometimes of regret; and at last we begin to understand that we, too, are making History, and that we are all part of the whole; that the people who went before us were all very like ourselves, or else we should not be able to understand them. If some of them were worse than we, and in some things their times were worse than ours, yet we make acquaintance with many who were noble and great, and our hearts beat with a desire to be like them. That helps us to understand our own times. We see that we, too, live in a great age and a great country, in which there is plenty of room for heroes; and if these should be heroes in a quiet way, whom the world never hears of, that does not make much real difference. No one was ever the least heroic or good but an immense number of people were the better for it; indeed, it [p I:38] has been said that the whole world is the better for every dutiful life, and will be so until the end of time.
We cannot be at Home in History without Imagination.—But we must read History and think about it to understand how these things can be; and we owe a great debt of gratitude to the historians, of whom Herodotus has been called the ‘father,’ who called in Imagination to picture for them the men and events of the past (about which they had read and searched diligently), so that everything seemed to take place again before their eyes, and they were able to write of it for us. But their seeing and writing is not of much use to us unless, in our case, Lord Intellect invites Imagination to go forth with him, and we think of things and figure them to ourselves, until at last they are real and alive to us.
Mathematics, a Mountainous Land.—Another realm open to Intellect has an uninviting name, and travelling therein is difficult, what with steep faces of rock to climb and deep ravines to cross. The Principality of Mathematics is a mountainous land, but the air is very fine and health-giving, though some people find it too rare for their breathing. It differs from most mountainous countries in this, that you cannot lose your way, and that every step taken is on firm ground. People who seek their work or play in this principality find themselves braced by effort and satisfied with truth. Intellect now and then calls for the aid of Imagination as he travels here, but not often. My Lord Attorney-General Reason is his chosen comrade.
Philosophy explores Mansoul.—Another domain which opens interesting prospects to Intellect [p I:39] is that of fair Philosophy, a domain with which we are a little acquainted already, for it is that of Mansoul, with its mountain heights, its dark forests, its unexplored regions. Philosophy offers fascinating and delightful travelling, and the wayfarer here learns many lessons of life; but he does not find the same firm foothold as he whose way leads him through the Principality of Mathematics. Still, certainty is not the best thing in the world. To search, to endeavour, and to feel our way to a foothold from point to point is also exhilarating; and every step that is gained is a resting-place and a house of ease for Mansoul.
Literature, a very Rich and Glorious Kingdom.—Perhaps the least difficult of approach, and certainly one of the most joyous and satisfying of all those realms in which Intellect is invited to travel, is the very rich and glorious Kingdom of Literature. Intellect cannot walk here without Imagination, and, also, he does well to have, at his other side, that colleague of his, whom we will call the Beauty Sense. It is a great thing to be accustomed to good society, and, when Intellect walks abroad in this fair kingdom, he becomes intimate with the best of all ages and all countries. Poets and novelists paint pictures for him, while Imagination clears his eyes so that he is able to see those pictures: they fill the world, too, with deeply interesting and delightful people who live out their lives before his eyes. He has a multitude of acquaintances and some friends who tell him all their secrets. He knows Miranda and the melancholy Jaques and the terrible Lady Macbeth; Fenella and that Fair Maid of Perth, and a great many people, no two alike, live in his thoughts.
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How to recognise Literature.—Observe, there is a poor place close at hand, where pictures are painted for you and where people are introduced; but you cannot see the pictures with your eyes shut, and the people do not live and act in your thoughts; there is as much difference between this region outside and that within the Kingdom of Literature as there is between a panorama and the real, beautiful country it is intended to portray. It is a horrible waste of time to wander about in this outside region, yet many people spend a large part of their lives there, and never once get within sight of the beauties and delights within the Kingdom of Literature.
There is another test, besides the two of scenes that you see and people that you know, which distinguishes Literature from the barren land on its borders; and if he is to apply this test, Intellect must keep his Beauty Sense always by his side. Read over, and see if you find a difference of flavour, shall I say, between the two passages that follow. Try if the first gives you a sense of delight in the words alone, without any thought of the meaning of them, if the very words seem to sing to you;—
“That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare, ruined choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.”
Now read the next passage;—
“Household Deities!
Then only shall be happiness on earth
When man shall feel your sacred power and love
Your tranquil joys.”
[p I:41] Can you perceive that, though the second passage is true, thoughtful, and well expressed, it just misses a certain charm in the wording which makes words go home to our heart with living power? If you cannot see any difference in value between these two passages, perhaps you will do so some day. The thing is, to keep your eye upon words and wait to feel their force and beauty; and, when words are so fit that no other words can be put in their places, so few that none can be left out without spoiling the sense, and so fresh and musical that they delight you, then you may be sure that you are reading Literature, whether in prose or poetry. A great deal of delightful literature can be recognised only by this test.
Our Beauty Sense.—There is another region open to Intellect, of very great beauty and delight. He must needs have Imagination with him to travel there, but still more must he have that companion of the nice ear and eye, who enabled him to recognise music and beauty in words and their arrangement. The Æsthetic Sense, in truth, holds the key of this palace of delights. There are few joys in life greater and more constant than our joy in Beauty, though it is almost impossible to put into words what Beauty consists in; colour, form, proportion, harmony—these are some of its elements. Words give some idea of these things, and therefore some idea of Beauty, and that is why it is only through our Beauty Sense that we can take full pleasure in Literature.
Beauty in Nature.—But Beauty is everywhere—in white clouds against the blue, in the gray bole of the beech, the play of a kitten, the lovely flight [p I:42] and beautiful colouring of birds, in the hills and the valleys and the streams, in the wind-flower and the blossom of the broom. What we call Nature is all Beauty and delight, and the person who watches Nature closely and knows her well, like the poet Wordsworth, for example, has his Beauty Sense always active, always bringing him joy.
We cannot get away from Beauty, and we delight in it most perhaps in the faces and forms of many little children and of some grown-up people.
The Palace of Art.—We take pleasure, too, in the arrangement and colouring of a nice room, of a nice dress, in the cover of a book, in the iron fittings of a door, when these are what is called artistic. This brings us to another world of beauty created for us by those whose Beauty Sense enables them not only to see and take joy in all the Beauty there is, but whose souls become so filled with the Beauty they gather through eye and ear that they produce for us new forms of Beauty—in picture, statue, glorious cathedral, in delicate ornament, in fugue, sonata, simple melody. When we think for a moment, how we must admire the goodness of God in placing us in a world so exceedingly full of Beauty—whether it be of what we call Nature or of what we call Art—and in giving us that sense of Beauty which enables us to see and hear, and to be as it were suffused with pleasure at a single beautiful effect brought to our ear or our eye.
The Hall of Simulation.—But, like all the good gifts we have received, this too is capable of neglect and misuse. It is not enough that there should be a Beauty World always within reach; we must see to it that our Beauty Sense is on the alert and kept [p I:43] quick to discern. We may easily be all our lives like that man of whom the poet says:—
“A primrose by the river’s brim
A yellow primrose was to him,
Was that, and nothing more”
—that is, he missed the subtle sense of Beauty which lay, not so much in the primrose nor in the river, but, rather, in the fact of the primrose growing just there. Our great danger is that, as there is a barren country reaching up to the very borders of the Kingdom of Literature, so too is there a dull and dreary Hall of Simulation which we may enter and believe it to be the Palace of Art. Here people are busy painting, carving, modelling, and what not; the very sun labours here with his photographs, and he is as good an artist as the rest, and better, for the notion in this Hall is that the object of Art is to make things exactly like life. So the so-called artists labour away to get the colour and form of the things they see, and to paint these on canvas or shape them in marble or model them in wax (flowers), and all the time they miss, because they do not see, that subtle presence which we call Beauty in the objects they paint and mould. Many persons allow themselves to be deceived in this matter, and go through life without ever entering the Palace of Art, and perceiving but little of the Beauty of Nature. We all have need to be trained to see, and to have our eyes opened before we can take in the joy that is meant for us in this beautiful life.
The Intellectual Life.—I cannot tell you more now of the delightful and illimitable sources of pleasure open to Intellect and his colleagues; but, if you realise at all what has been said, you will be surprised [p I:44] to know that many people live within narrow bounds, and rarely step into either of the great worlds we have been considering. The happiness of the intellectual life comes of knowing and thinking, imagining and perceiving; or rather, comes of the range of things which we know and think about, imagine and perceive. Everybody’s mind is occupied in these ways about something or other, but many people know and think about small matters. It is quite well to think of these for a little while, but they think about them always, and have no room for the great thoughts which great things bring to us.
Thus, a boy’s head may be so full of his stamp collection or of the next cricket match that there is no room in it for bigger things. The stamps and the cricket are all right, but it is not all right by any means to miss the opportunities of great interests that come to us and pass unnoticed, while we think only of these small matters. Not only so: boys and girls may be so full of marks and places, prizes and scholarships, that they never see that their studies are meant to unlock the door for them into this or that region of intellectual joy and interest. School and college over, their books are shut for ever. When they become men and women, they still live among narrow interests, with hardly an outlook upon the wide world, past or present. This is to be the slaves of knowledge and not its joyful masters. Let it be said of us as it was of a late Bishop of London, “His was the rare gift of mastering knowledge as his splendid servant, not being himself mastered by it as its weary slave.”
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CHAPTER III
THE DÆMONS OF INTELLECT
Inertia will not let us begin.—Like the Body, the Mind, too, has his Dæmons. The two which beset Intellect are, first, a sort of sloth or inertia which makes us unwilling to begin to think of anything but the small matters of everyday life. If we will only begin, Intellect bestirs himself, strong and eager for his work:—
“Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute;
What you can do, or dream you can, begin it;
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it!
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated;
Begin it, and the work will be completed.”
Marlowe’s Faust.
We are delighted, and time flies; yet the next time we come to the same fence, Intellect jibs and we have to spur him to the leap; then all goes well. It is well to bear this in mind, because if we give way Intellect will again pull up before a little difficulty.
Habit goes always over the same Ground.—The other Dæmon of Intellect is Habit. Now Habit, as you know, is, whether for body or mind, a good servant and a bad master. It is when he is allowed to play the bad master and override Intellect that he spoils and narrows life. Under Habit, Intellect [p I:46] cannot be said to be slothful; he goes briskly enough, but he goes over the same ground, day after day, year in, year out. The course may be a good one and it may be quite necessary to follow it. The mistake is to keep always on the same beaten track. It may be the mechanical round of lessons, without a thought of what it is all about. It may be housekeeping, business, hunting, shooting, dress—things well enough in their way; but to confine Intellect to them is like harnessing a race-horse to a coster’s barrow.
We may not stay in one Field of Thought.—Nor is it only the affairs and interests of daily life which deprive the Mind of its proper range of interests and occupations. It is possible for a person to go into any one of the great fields of thought we have considered, and to stay there with steady work and constant delight until he becomes incapable of finding his way into any other of these great fields. The greatest man of science of our age had this misfortune. He lost himself, so to speak, in Science, and in the end he could not read poetry, look at pictures, could not even think upon God, because he could not turn his mind out of the course he had exercised it in all his life. The people who lived when, perhaps, the greatest things were done, the greatest pictures painted, the greatest buildings raised, the greatest discoveries made, were very particular on this point. The same man was an architect and a painter, a sculptor and a poet, and a master of much knowledge besides; and all that he did, he did well; all that he knew was part of his daily thought and enjoyment.
Vasari, his biographer, says of Leonardo da Vinci, the great painter:—“Possessed of a divine and marvellous intellect, and being an excellent geometrician, [p I:47] he not only worked at sculpture, … but also prepared many architectural plans of buildings, and he was the first, though so young, to propose to utilise the Arno to make a canal from Pisa to Florence. He made designs for mills and other engines to go by water, and as painting was to be his profession, he studied drawing from life.”
A Magnanimous Mind.—It is a mistake, perhaps, to think that, to do one thing well, we must just do and think about that and nothing else all the time. It is our business to know all we can and to spend a part of our lives in increasing our knowledge of Nature and Art, of Literature and Man, of the Past and the Present. That is one way in which we become greater persons, and the more a person is, the better he will do whatever piece of special work falls to his share. Let us have, like Leonardo, a spirit ‘invariably royal and magnanimous.’
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CHAPTER IV
MY LORD CHIEF EXPLORER, IMAGINATION
Living Pictures.—My Lord Chief Explorer, Imagination, deserves a more complete introduction than the by-the-way mention he has had as a colleague of Intellect. He is an amazing personage, with power to produce, as we have seen, a procession of living pictures in every region open to Intellect. Great artists, whether they be poets or painters, builders or musicians, have the power of expressing and showing to the rest of us some part, anyway, of the wonderful visions Imagination has revealed to them. But the reason why we enjoy their pictures, their poems, or their tales, is because Imagination does the same sort of thing for all of us, if in a less degree. We all have pictures and poems made for us on the inner curtains of our minds. Little children try to express their visions in their games: they play at events, and often in a very odd way, because they know so little that they make a jumble of facts, call a cow a hyæna, and expect to meet a lion and a tiger in every bit of spinney.
The Cultivated Imagination.—The more we know, the more ordered and the more rich should Imagination become in us. Have you read Feats [p I:49] on the Fjord? Miss Martineau, who wrote the book, never visited Norway, but no one could describe the life on the fjords more vividly than she has done; that is because her Imagination was at home in distant lands, as no doubt it was also in past ages. Have you thought how Sir Walter Scott must have lived, in Imagination, in the different times and scenes he gives us in his books? No wonder people called him a ‘Wizard.’ In order to have a richly-stored picture-gallery of the Imagination we must read much, and, as the French say, figure to ourselves, as we go on, that which we read.
Imagination must not make Pictures of Self.—Imagination, minister as it should be to the joy and breadth of life, has, alas! its two besetting Dæmons—Self and Sin. There is no one who does not imagine. You are a Princess with golden hair and blue eyes and a long, long train to your silken robe, and the Prince comes, and after great feats of valour which make the world wonder, he kneels before you and asks you to be his bride:—
“Little Ellie in her smile
Chooses—‘I will have a lover,
Riding on a steed of steeds:
He shall love me without guile,
And to him I will discover
The swan’s nest among the reeds.’”
Or you are Prince Valorous himself, and you subdue the Paynim and conquer many lands, and the King places you at his right hand in war and at the feast. These are pretty dreams, and there is not much harm in them, except that, while one dreams, one forgets to do, and life is made up altogether of doing and not at all of dreaming. It is very nice to dream, [p I:50] when people have been finding fault with us, that we shall do wonderful and beautiful things—nurse the sick and build palaces for the poor and make gardens of delight for the mother or father who finds fault with us—and to think how everybody will admire us for all our beauty and goodness and cleverness, especially those people who have laughed at us; to think, too, how kind we shall be to them and what presents we shall make them, and how sorry they will be that they have not always been polite and kind!
I do not think it is lawful to set Imagination to build us pleasure-houses in this way. In the first place, as I said before, while we are dreaming we are letting all our chances of doing slip by us. In the next place, when we have dreamed ourselves into being some high and mighty personage, ever so good and great, we are very easily affronted; and Imagination leaves off his building tasks to throw stones at our friends. Imagination tells us that ‘Mother’ does not understand us, does not know half what great persons we are; that ‘Father’ is not kind, that Lucy or Edward is more noticed than we are, that lessons are hateful, that going for a walk is a bother, that seeing people is a nuisance, that any book but a story-book is dull; and, by degrees, other people find us just what we, in our imagination, have pictured them.
Our best friends have to own that we are dull and disagreeable, peevish and resentful; they say there is no pleasing us, they complain that there is no getting us to join in games or to take any interest in plans. They say we do not try to be pleasant with, or helpful to, anybody. The little ones say we are cross, and do not woo us to play with them, and the big ones think us grumpy [p I:51] and let us alone. It is very provoking, because we know that all the time we have beautiful thoughts about what we shall do for every one of them, and the least they can do is to be kind meantime!
How to Exorcise the Dæmon.—But the others are right, and we are wrong. Just ask yourself, who is the chief person in all the pretty pictures you make, in all the plans you form? If you have to confess that you, yourself, are, why, Imagination has just been making pleasure-houses for Self instead of collecting pictures of the great rich world. See about it, in the future, and set this glorious servant to work in his rightful calling. Then you will be a delight to your friends, because you will have much to tell, and will be interested about many things. You will not trouble them or yourself with that peevish, exacting, grudging Self, a tyrant in any home. In fact, you will find so much that is delightful to think about that you will hardly have a moment in which to think about yourself. Turn Self out the moment he intrudes upon any picture of the Imagination. A good plan is to take your Self by the shoulders, look him full in the face and laugh at him for a ridiculous fellow. This is what is called having ‘the saving grace of humour,’ and people who have it do not make themselves absurd by putting on airs and graces. It is nearly, though not quite, as good when your home people laugh at you and tease you. Learn from their laughing and bear their teasing with good humour.
Living Pictures of Sin.—The second Dæmon of Imagination is Sin. Have you ever heard people say, ‘There seems to be quite an epidemic of burglaries’ or ‘of murders’? They are quite right. [p I:52] There is an epidemic of these things. They are catching in a curious way. People read of a crime in the newspapers, they allow their Imagination to dwell upon all the details; the whole thing becomes a living picture which they cannot get rid of, and the end is that they attempt the same sort of crime themselves. That is why it is unwise for anyone to read newspaper accounts of those sorts of things, for even if you are not tempted to do the wickedness, the horrid picture of it remains, once you have allowed your Imagination to paint it for you.
Unclean Imaginings.—There is one kind of sins that we must be especially careful not to take impressions of; once we do so they will haunt us all our lives. These are sins of uncleanness. If people talk of such sins, do not listen; go away and do something. If you come across the mention of such sins in your reading—of the classics, of poetry, of history—learn, as it were, to shut the eyes of your Imagination, or your thoughts will become defiled. Never knowingly read anything or listen to anything which could suggest unclean imaginations. I once visited a young woman who was dying, a nice, good, married woman, and she told me this awful thing. She said her dying bed was made miserable and she could not say her prayers because horrible imaginations of uncleanness came to her. She said she never had thought of such things; but, I suppose, she must have allowed herself to think such thoughts at some time, perhaps many years before, and had forgotten it: but the evil spirit took this dreadful opportunity to remind her of them. Shun all such talk, all such readings, and all such imaginations, more than you would shun the plague.
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Living Pictures of Horrors.—It is not of the nature of sin, but it is very foolish to allow Imagination to make living pictures of horrors, dreadful accidents, falls down precipices, ghosts, and what not. Once make a picture, and there it is, and it may show itself at any moment to torment.
I hear someone whose nature inclines her to such terrors say, ‘But how can I help it?’ That is really a foolish question about any of the evils we may fall into. Of course we can help them, and to do so is the battle of life. In this particular case the help lies in hurrying away from the thought to think of something else.
If such terrors come at night, when you cannot do anything or read anything, you can always think of something else. The last story-book you have read, for instance,—go over the tale in your thoughts.
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CHAPTER V
THE BEAUTY SENSE
The Dæmon of Exclusiveness.—The Beauty Sense adds so much to the joy of life that it is not easy to see what danger attends it. But, perhaps, Exclusiveness is the Dæmon that waits on a too keen sense of the joy of Beauty, whether in music, painting, one’s own surroundings, or even in natural scenery. Exclusiveness gets the ear of the Prime Minister and convinces him that the joys of Beauty are so full and satisfying that nothing else is necessary to complete the happiness of life. In vain does Intellect invite to new fields of research; in vain does good and necessary work present itself; in vain are duties clamorous. The person who is given up to the intoxication of Beauty conceives that Beauty and Goodness are one and the same thing, and that Duty is no more than seeking one’s own pleasure in the ways one best likes. People, too, become excluded.
We may not Choose our Lives.—Instead of accepting the relations, friends, and neighbours that God sends us in the course of our lives, the devotee of Beauty chooses for himself, and cares to know only those people whose views of life are the same as [p I:55] his own. So with regard to places, he cannot tolerate for a moment things which are unsightly and unlovely, so he does not go where working people and poor people have to live. In the end, he misses the happiness to which the Beauty Sense was meant to minister. For happiness comes of effort, service, wide interests, and, last and least, of enjoyment; and when people put enjoyment, even of beautiful things, in the first place (and indeed in place of all else), they miss the very thing they seek, and become enfeebled in body and fretful and discontented in temper.
A Paradise of Pleasure.—But we need not let fear of evil keep us out of that paradise of pleasure which the Beauty Sense is meant to open for us all. Of two things we must take heed. In the first place, we must not let any better-than-my-neighbour notions get into our heads; and in the next, we must make it our business, as much as in us lies, to bring Beauty to places where it is not. Bearing these two cautions in mind, the Dæmon of Exclusiveness need have no terror for us.
[p I:56]
CHAPTER VI
MY LORD CHIEF ATTORNEY-GENERAL, REASON
Reason, an Advocate.—I have spoken of my Lord Chief Attorney-General, Reason, as a mere colleague of Intellect; but, indeed, he is a person of great importance in the government of Mansoul—so much so, that he not infrequently gets the entire government into his hands. Reason is a personage of admirable powers and of independent character. If you should ever hear a great lawyer advocating a cause in court, bringing forward one argument after another to prove his point, with masterly clearness, until he brings his hearers to what seems an inevitable conclusion (until the other side pleads), you will have some idea of how Reason behaves. Have you ever watched yourself think? It seems as if another person, a K.C. of your own, were bringing forward point after point until you cannot help coming to one conclusion. Do you remember Prospero in Shakespeare’s tale of The Tempest? You know how he neglected his duties as ruler, and how his brother, intending to take his life, was the means of his exile, with his child Miranda, on a desolate island.
How we Reason.—I suppose this is the sort of thing his Reason said to him: “The thinking part [p I:57] of man is the most important part of him. It is better to live with thinkers than with everyday people. The greatest thinkers are to be found in books, not in my court. Everyday people can manage the affairs of everyday people. My brother Antonio can govern for me quite as well as I could do it myself, but he cannot read for me and think for me, and give his time to the bettering of his mind for me. These things a man must do for himself. Then there is my child; I should like her also to grow up a thinker. To that end I must prepare myself further to teach her. It is quite evident, considering all these things, that I must give up affairs and devote myself to my books.”
Now, it is not that Prospero said all this to himself, but that his Reason said it to him and for him. Every argument is true, though it is not the whole truth; and Prospero’s Reason would not have taken this line with him, only that he was already a student and a lover of books, and Reason usually begins with a notion which is already in a person’s head.
Let us hear what Antonio’s Reason would say to him: “The way my brother, the Duke, neglects his affairs is shameful; the state is going to ruin; everybody does what he likes. He expects me to act for him, but people know I am not the Duke, so I have no power. If he were to die, the dukedom would be mine, and I should do my best to bring things into order again. How his neglected subjects would bless me! Even to tamper with his life would hardly be a crime, because the sufferings of one would be for the good of all. Things get worse and worse every day. It must be done. There is no one to act in this matter but myself. I will do it.” Antonio’s Reason no doubt hastened thus to supply him with [p I:58] arguments to support the ambitious notion he had already secretly entertained.
The Good Man’s Reason.—The good man’s Reason makes speed to supply him with incontrovertible arguments for the good deed his good heart would incline him to. Thus Howard, the philanthropist, no doubt was convinced by many reasons that the arduous task he set himself was a quite simple, straightforward course. He saw the inside of one prison by chance, and the thought of its horrors worked upon him. Reason would say:—“People do not know that such things take place; someone must tell them. Whoever discovers this shame to the world must first investigate thoroughly. It will not do to speak upon a knowledge of one or two prisons. When the evil is fully known and talked about, and brought before Parliament, no doubt it will be redressed, new laws will be made, and prisoners will be treated like human beings instead of being kept in the state of filth, misery, sickness, and vice in which I find them. Why should not I be the man? The idea has first come to me: that may be my call. I am very delicate, it is true, but a man cannot die better than in doing his duty. I am under a great sorrow, but that sets me free from home ties; and I have money enough for the costs. I will do it. I will give up my life to the task.”
Thus, doubtless, this good man’s Reason argued for him. But if divine compassion had not put this notion of pity into his heart, you will see how very easily Reason could have adopted an opposite line of argument and brought him to the conclusion that this was not an affair for a single man to undertake, but was a matter for the governments of countries.
[p I:59]
Reason’s Part in Good Works and Great Inventions.—Every great work of benevolence for the sick and the helpless, the sorrowful and the ignorant, is the outcome of a chain of arguments which some man’s Reason has furnished to him; and his Reason has taken this line because in each case a notion of pity has first come to the man. Every great work, every invention has been reasoned out. Have you ever seen in a museum the trunk of a tree hollowed out by burning, which early man has used for a canoe? It was an immense piece of reasoning, quite as intelligent as that by which Marconi arrived at his great discovery, that led the man, who had never seen a boat of any sort, to work out for himself this means of crossing the waters. You see, he had nothing to go upon: his was the first idea. Where and how he got it we shall consider presently; but his Reason worked the whole thing out for him.
What is Meant by Common Sense.—Most of the simple things we do every day, like cleaning our teeth and brushing our hair, behaving at table, and so on, were reasoned out in the first place—we do not in the least know by whom—and people no longer reason about them, but accept them by what is called Common Sense; that is to say, everybody, or nearly everybody, agrees that certain ways of doing certain things are the best ways. Every now and then a reformer appears who reasons out the old things afresh and comes to a different conclusion, perhaps a right one, perhaps a wrong one. For example, most people’s Common Sense decides that we should wear boots or shoes; but a reformer arises and proves by a long chain of arguments that it is [p I:60] better to wear sandals; another will say and prove that it is better to go with bare feet; then people have to think again and to use their Reason about things they believed were long ago settled.
Everything we use has been Thought out by Someone.—It is very interesting to look about one in a room or in a street and try to recover for ourselves the chain of reasoning of the man who first made a chair, or a key, or a barrow. Things become much more to us when we remind ourselves that somebody has thought each thing out; and this sort of thinking-out is very delightful. You know this yourself. You say, ‘Oh, I have thought of such a good plan; something uncle said put it into my head, and then the whole plan came out quite clear, one step after another.’ It may be a plan for a new game, or for building a ship, or for getting plenty of house-room for poor people in towns; but, whatever the notion is, it is joyful and exciting to be quite still and listen, as it were, while Reason does his work and turns out the whole scheme complete before your mind.
It is no wonder many people think that there is nothing greater, in heaven or earth, than human Reason—more surprising in its workings, more searching in its conclusions!
You recollect that revolutionary France deified Reason—set up temples where the Goddess of Reason was worshipped; and the French nation believed that no man was called to do anything but what his own Reason commanded, and that whatever a man’s Reason dictated, that he was bound to do. You remember, too, that things, fearful as a nightmare, were done under this reign of Reason, [p I:61] which is known in history as the Reign of Terror, though everything that was done was justified by the Reason of the men who did it. There is no longer an acknowledged reign of Reason, but many thoughtful and good people believe that there is no higher authority; that to act according to his own Reason is the best that can be expected of any man.
Good and Sensible Persons come to Opposite Conclusions.—It is quite true that good laws, benevolent enterprises, great inventions, are the outcome of Reason; but you will often be surprised when you hear good people talk and try to convince others of those things of which their own Reason has convinced them. On questions of war and peace and politics, of religion, of education, of public works, of clothing, of food, in fact, upon any and every point, you will find it possible that the Reason of equally good and equally intelligent people will bring them to quite opposite conclusions. That is the cause of all the controversy in the world. People think that they can convince each other by the arguments which their own Reason has accepted. So they could, if the other side were not already convinced by arguments exactly opposite; and upon which side a man is convinced, usually depends upon his own will:—
“He who complies against his will,
He’s of the same opinion still”;
because we must remember that Reason is each man’s own particular servant, and plays on his side, as it were, and convinces him of that which he is inclined to believe.
Reason is not Infallible.—You know it is said that the Pope is infallible—that is, that he cannot be mistaken, and that every decision he makes must be [p I:62] a right decision. This is what many people claim for Reason—that it is infallible. But you see at once that if two equally intelligent and equally good persons are intensely convinced by their Reason of two things exactly opposite to one another—as, for example, on the one side that a certain war is the duty of a nation, and, on the other, that this same war is a crime—Reason in both these good men cannot be infallible: one or the other, if not both, must be mistaken. Therefore, seeing that all men, who are not idiots or insane, are endowed with this same power of reasoning, we may conclude that Reason is not infallible, and that certain and fixed conclusions need not be right conclusions, but that all depends upon the notion from which the reasoning begins.
Anarchists.—We have all been saddened by the fact that there are certain men and women in the world who believe it to be their one duty to take the life of some royal person or ruler. These people are called anarchists. Though we all shrink with horror from their crimes, it is not difficult to see the chain of reasoning by which it comes about that they are doing that which is right in their own eyes, however wrong it may be in ours. The word anarchist means without rule; and the object of anarchists is to abolish national rule and government, whether of kingdom or republic. Why? you ask. Because, they say, every man is endowed with Reason; therefore, every man is able to rule himself; therefore, no man should have a ruler placed over him. You see, by this example, how an error of thought may lead to the most terror-striking crimes.
Reason in Mathematics.—Never are the operations of Reason more delightful and more perfect [p I:63] than in mathematics. Here men do not begin to reason with a notion which causes them to lean to this side or to that. By degrees, absolute truth unfolds itself. We are so made that truth, absolute and certain truth, is a perfect joy to us; and that is the joy that mathematics afford. Also, there is great joy in standing by, as it were, and watching our own thought work out an intricate problem. There is on record a case of a mathematician who had gone to bed perplexed by a problem, with pencil and paper beside him. He slept, as he believed, soundly all through the night; but, behold, beside him when he awoke, was the problem worked out in the clearest way. He must have done it in his sleep.
Reason must be used to Good Purpose.—There are few things that prove the amazing greatness and power of man so much as this gift of Reason; but, like all gifts, this, of Reason, is also a trust to be used to true purpose, but not to be followed as an infallible guide. We may reason about things worthy and about things unworthy. An ill-tempered person goes through a long train of reasoning to prove to himself that he has been injured and has a right to be cross; so does the burglar, to carry out his designs; so does a mischievous and spiteful boy, to play a practical joke. Reason is so absolutely the servant of each of us that we may use him to what ends we please, noble or ignoble, great or small. Remembering that we have a great gift, let us use it in thinking out great matters; and then, some day, the opportunity to think out some great service for the world will be put in our way. The chance of doing nearly always comes when we are ready for it.
[p I:64]
Reason works out a Notion received by the Will, and does not begin it.—“The kettle began it,” Dickens says in one of his Christmas tales. Now, the point to be borne in mind is, that Reason does not begin it. Reason goes on with it, and Reason brings it to an end, but Reason does not begin. The beginning, that which sets Reason in motion, is almost always a notion admitted by the Prime Minister, Will. Once admitted, Reason seizes on the notion and runs it through his mill, and it comes out at the end of his processes a finished product. This, you will see, shifts the responsibility of our conclusions from Reason, who works them out, all the way back to Will, who takes in the first notion.
If Will is persuaded to let in a notion because it is an old one, or because it is a new one; because a man he respects thinks so-and-so, or because a man he dislikes thinks the other thing; because it is for his interest to think thus and thus, or because it is for his pleasure, or because it shows him to be a clever fellow, in advance of the rest of the world, to have such a notion; if, for any of these causes or for a hundred others, good or bad, Will is induced to admit a notion, he may tell in advance what his Reason will prove to him: because the business of Reason is rather to prove for us that what we think is right, than to bring us to conclusions which are right in themselves.
You see, therefore, that Reason has no right to speak the last word on most subjects; because to speak the first word does not rest with him, and the last word follows the lead of the first. Your arrival at a right destination does not depend upon your choice of a good road, or upon your journeying at a good pace, but entirely upon your starting in the right direction.
[p I:65]
Why there are Different Schools of Philosophy.—Thinking of these things, and knowing that men cannot help trusting to Reason as one trusts to a skilful and learned advocate, you will not be surprised to know that philosophers, good and earnest men, have proved, conclusively to themselves, that there is no God. Others prove that there is nothing in man that you cannot see or investigate with instruments; in other words, they think that there is nothing but matter in the universe, and that there is no spirit either of God or man. This is less surprising, though perhaps not really so true as the conclusion which another school of philosophers has worked out; these have been able to prove to themselves that there are no chairs nor tables, no trees, no people; but that what we think we see is really the thought of these things conceived in our minds.
Practice in Reasoning.—Perhaps we shall best use this wonderful power of reasoning, commonly called our Reason, by giving it plenty of work to do, by asking ourselves what is the cause of this and that; why do people and animals do certain things. Reason which is not worked grows sluggish; and there are persons who never wonder nor ask themselves questions about anything they see.
[p I:66]
CHAPTER VII
THE LORDS OF THE EXCHEQUER, THE DESIRES
(Part I.)
Mind must be Fed.—We consider the Lords of the Exchequer, the Desires, after the Intellect, because their office is to do for Mind pretty much what the Appetites do for Body. It is as necessary that Mind should be fed, should grow and should produce, as that these things should happen to Body; and, just as Body would never take the trouble to feed itself if it never became hungry, so Mind would not take in what it needs, if it, also, had not certain Desires to satisfy. These gather the funds, as it were, for Mind, so we may amuse ourselves by calling them the Lords of the Exchequer.
The Desire of Approbation.—Have you ever watched a baby with his bricks? When he has managed to set one on end, he turns round to his mother for a smile. The little creature is not happy unless his mother or nurse approve of him. When he crawls up to the window, climbs up by the chair-leg, says ‘Mam-mam, dad-dad,’ he wants a smile for all these things, and if his nurse looks grave and says ‘Naughty!’ the little face will fall and tears gather. No one has taught Baby to care that his friends should be pleased with him; it is born in him and is just a part of him as a human being, a little Mansoul.
[p I:67]
This Desire of Approbation helps him later to conquer a sum, to climb a hill, to bring home a good report from school; and all the time he is bringing grist to the mill, knowledge to the mind, because the people whose Approbation is worth having care that we should learn and know, conquer our idleness and get habits of steady work, so that our minds may be duly nourished every day as are our bodies.
The Dæmon of Vanity.—This lawful and useful Desire of Approbation has his Dæmons; one of these is known as Vanity. We cannot live and be happy without Approbation, but some boys and girls, men and women, choose to have the approval of the worthless and silly rather than of the wise and good. Some boys would rather talk and show off in a way to make the stable-yard laugh, than work and play in a way to win the approval of their betters. People can be vain and can show off about almost anything—their rich relations, the parties they go to, their clothes, their pocket-knife, their cleverness. But when people show off, like a peacock spreading his tail, it is always in order that somebody whose good opinion is not worth having may think the better of them. Nice boys and girls, nice men and women, think well of us just for doing our best; we know that, and do not think of showing off before them. He is stupid who wants nobody’s approval; he is vain who wants the approval of the unworthy.
Fame and Infamy.—Another danger is that a person may allow the desire of approval so to get possession of him that he thinks of nothing else. All his actions, good or bad, come to be done to win notice from other people. He would rather you spoke ill of him than that you did not speak of him [p I:68] at all. It is believed that robberies, murders, assassinations, take place at times for the mere sake of infamy, just as deeds of heroism may take place for the sake of fame. Both infamy and fame mean being talked and thought about by a large number of people, and if anyone should allow his natural Desir
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Das Erwachen der Jägerin (2023)
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2024-01-25T00:00:00
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Das Erwachen der Jägerin: Directed by Neil Burger. With Daisy Ridley, Ben Mendelsohn, Brooklynn Prince, Gil Birmingham. A woman seeks revenge against the man who kidnapped her mother.
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en
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IMDb
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https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8002382/
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I was really looking forward to this, purely based off on vibes. I didn't have any prior knowledge about it. The lighting's off; it looked like there was a filter on the entire time. Personally, I would have preferred it to have a more natural look because the filter didn't really enhance anything. I just started watching 'Siren' and Gil Birmingham plays a cop there too, which was a very similar role, identical really.
The story here is pretty intriguing, though it has no mystery element making it feel predictable. From the title alone, I thought it'd be similar to 'Where the Crawdads Sing,' but the similarity only lies in the setting. It reminds me somewhat of 'Stockholm, Pennsylvania' (2015) with Saoirse Ronan, although I find the story better here, but not the movie itself. It begins similarly, with a girl who was kidnapped, but her father never hurt or abused her, so she's distraught when he's portrayed as a monster. Difference is here we time jump decades later, Her past still affects her as she now has her own family and life and stuff.
The movie, in my opinion, is average; nothing exceptional, making it quite forgettable. I wasn't too invested in the characters. It's a slow-paced psychological thriller, not too emotionally intense, and the high points didn't quite hit their mark. The third act was probably always going to be challenging to execute. I couldn't think of a more natural ending for the story so it didn't bother me too much. I think it was intentionally kept simple and straightforward, because it had the potential to be much darker and more intricate.
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https://www.gutenberg.org/files/8184/8184-h/8184-h.htm
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Ghost Kings, by H. Rider Haggard
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This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this eBook.
Title: The Ghost Kings
Author: H. Rider Haggard
Release Date: June 27, 2003 [eBook #8184]
[Most recently updated: August 9, 2021]
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
Produced by: Juliet Sutherland, S. R. Ellison and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GHOST KINGS ***
The Ghost Kings
by H. Rider Haggard
Contents
CHAPTER 1. THE GIRL CHAPTER 2. THE BOY CHAPTER 3. GOOD-BYE CHAPTER 4. ISHMAEL CHAPTER 5. NOIE CHAPTER 6. THE CASTING OF THE LOTS CHAPTER 7. THE MESSAGE OF THE KING CHAPTER 8. MR. DOVE VISITS ISHMAEL CHAPTER 9. THE TAKING OF NOIE CHAPTER 10. THE OMEN OF THE STAR CHAPTER 11. ISHMAEL VISITS THE Inkosazana CHAPTER 12. RACHEL SEES A VISION CHAPTER 13. RICHARD COMES CHAPTER 14. WHAT CHANCED AT RAMAH CHAPTER 15. RACHEL COMES HOME CHAPTER 16. THE THREE DAYS CHAPTER 17. RACHEL LOSES HER SPIRIT CHAPTER 18. THE CURSE OF THE Inkosazana CHAPTER 19. RACHEL FINDS HER SPIRIT CHAPTER 20. THE MOTHER OF THE TREES CHAPTER 21. THE CITY OF THE DEAD CHAPTER 22. IN THE SANCTUARY CHAPTER 23. THE DREAM IN THE NORTH CHAPTER 24. THE END AND THE BEGINNING
EXTRACT FROM LETTER HEADED “THE KING’S KRAAL, ZULULAND, 12TH MAY, 1855.”
“The Zulus about here have a strange story of a white girl who in Dingaan’s day was supposed to ‘hold the spirit’ of some legendary goddess of theirs who is also white. This girl, they say, was very beautiful and brave, and had great power in the land before the battle of the Blood River, which they fought with the emigrant Boers. Her title was Lady of the Zulus, or more shortly, Zoola, which means Heaven.
“She seems to have been the daughter of a wandering, pioneer missionary, but the king, I mean Dingaan, murdered her parents, of whom he was jealous, after which she went mad and cursed the nation, and it is to this curse that they still attribute the death of Dingaan, and their defeats and other misfortunes of that time.
“Ultimately, it appears, in order to be rid of this girl and her evil eye, they sold her to the doctors of a dwarf people, who lived far away in a forest and worshipped trees, since when nothing more has been heard of her. But according to them the curse stopped behind.
“If I can find out anything more of this curious story I will let you know, but I doubt if I shall be able to do so. Although fifteen years or so have passed since Dingaan’s death in 1840 the Kaffirs are very shy of talking about this poor lady, and, I think, only did so to me because I am neither an official nor a missionary, but one whom they look upon as a friend because I have doctored so many of them. When I asked the Indunas about her at first they pretended total ignorance, but on my pressing the question, one of them said that ‘all that tale was unlucky and “went beyond” with Mopo.’ Now Mopo, as I think I wrote to you, was the man who stabbed King Chaka, Dingaan’s brother. He is supposed to have been mixed up in the death of Dingaan also, and to be dead himself. At any rate he vanished away after Panda came to the throne.”
CHAPTER I.
THE GIRL
The afternoon was intensely, terribly hot. Looked at from the high ground where they were encamped above the river, the sea, a mile or two to her right—for this was the coast of Pondo-land—to little Rachel Dove staring at it with sad eyes, seemed an illimitable sheet of stagnant oil. Yet there was no sun, for a grey haze hung like a veil beneath the arch of the sky, so dense and thick that its rays were cut off from the earth which lay below silent and stifled. Tom, the Kaffir driver, had told her that a storm was coming, a father of storms, which would end the great drought. Therefore he had gone to a kloof in the mountains where the oxen were in charge of the other two native boys—since on this upland there was no pasturage to drive them back to the waggon. For, as he explained to her, in such tempests cattle are apt to take fright and rush away for miles, and without cattle their plight would be even worse than it was at present.
At least this was what Tom said, but Rachel, who had been brought up among natives and understood their mind, knew that his real reason was that he wished to be out of the way when the baby was buried. Kaffirs do not like death, unless it comes by the assegai in war, and Tom, a good creature, had been fond of that baby during its short little life. Well, it was buried now; he had finished digging its resting-place in the hard soil before he went. Rachel, poor child, for she was but fifteen, had borne it to its last bed, and her father had unpacked his surplice from a box, put it on and read the Burial Service over the grave. Afterwards together they had filled in that dry, red earth, and rolled stones on to it, and as there were few flowers at this season of the year, placed a shrivelled branch or two of mimosa upon the stones—the best offering they had to make.
Rachel and her father were the sole mourners at this funeral, if we may omit two rock rabbits that sat upon a shelf of stone in a neighbouring cliff, and an old baboon which peered at these strange proceedings from its crest, and finally pushed down a boulder before it departed, barking indignantly. Her mother could not come because she was ill with grief and fever in a little tent by the waggon. When it was all over they returned to her, and there had been a painful scene.
Mrs. Dove was lying on a bed made of the cartel, or frame strung with strips of green hide, which had been removed from the waggon, a pretty, pale-faced woman with a profusion of fair hair. Rachel always remembered that scene. The hot tent with its flaps turned up to let in whatever air there might be. Her mother in a blue dressing-gown, dingy with wear and travel, from which one of the ribbon bows hung by a thread, her face turned to the canvas and weeping silently. The gaunt form of her father with his fanatical, saint-like face, pale beneath its tan, his high forehead over which fell one grizzled lock, his thin, set lips and far-away grey eyes, taking off his surplice and folding it up with quick movements of his nervous hands, and herself, a scared, wondering child, watching them both and longing to slip away to indulge her grief in solitude. It seemed an age before that surplice was folded, pushed into a linen bag which in their old home used to hold dirty clothes, and finally stowed away in a deal box with a broken hinge. At length it was done, and her father straightened himself with a sigh, and said in a voice that tried to be cheerful:
“Do not weep, Janey. Remember this is all for the best. The Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Her mother sat up looking at him reproachfully with her blue eyes, and answered in her soft Scotch accent:
“You said that to me before, John, when the other one went, down at Grahamstown, and I am tired of hearing it. Don’t ask me to bless the Lord when He takes my babes, no, nor any mother, He Who could spare them if He chose. Why should the Lord give me fever so that I could not nurse it, and make a snake bite the cow so that it died? If the Lord’s ways are such, then those of the savages are more merciful.”
“Janey, Janey, do not blaspheme,” her father had exclaimed. “You should rejoice that the child is in Heaven.”
“Then do you rejoice and leave me to grieve. From to-day I only make one prayer, that I may never have another. John,” she added with a sudden outburst, “it is your fault. You know well I told you how it would be. I told you that if you would come this mad journey the babe would die, aye, and I tell you”—here her voice sank to a kind of wailing whisper—“before the tale is ended others will die too, all of us, except Rachel there, who was born to live her life. Well, for my part, the sooner the better, for I wish to go to sleep with my children.”
“This is evil,” broke in her husband, “evil and rebellious—”
“Then evil and rebellious let it be, John. But why am I evil if I have the second sight like my mother before me? Oh! she warned me what must come if I married you, and I would not listen; now I warn you, and you will not listen. Well, so be it, we must dree our own weird, everyone of us, a short one; all save Rachel, who was born to live her life. Man, I tell you, that the Spirit drives you on to convert the heathen just for one thing, that the heathen may make a martyr of you.”
“So let them,” her father answered proudly. “I seek no better end.”
“Aye,” she moaned, sinking back upon the cartel, “so let them, but my babe, my poor babe! Why should my babe die because too much religion has made you mad to win a martyr’s crown? Martyrs should not marry and have children, John.”
Then, unable to bear any more of it, Rachel had fled from the tent, and sat herself down at a distance to watch the oily sea.
It has been said that Rachel was only fifteen, but in Southern Africa girls grow quickly to womanhood; also her experiences had been of a nature to ripen her intelligence. Thus she was quite able to form a judgment of her parents, their virtues and their weaknesses. Rachel was English born, but had no recollection of England since she came to South Africa when she was four years old. It was shortly after her birth that this missionary-fury seized upon her father as a result of some meetings which he had attended in London. He was then a clergyman with a good living in a quiet Hertfordshire parish, and possessed of some private means, but nothing would suit him short of abandoning all his prospects and sailing for South Africa, in obedience to his “call.” Rachel knew all this because her mother had often told her, adding that she and her people, who were of a good Scotch family, had struggled against this South African scheme even to the verge of open quarrel.
At length, indeed, it came to a choice between submission and separation. Mr. Dove had declared that not even for her sake would he be guilty of “sin against the Spirit” which had chosen him to bring light to those who sat in darkness—that is, the Kaffirs, and especially to that section of them who were in bondage to the Boers. For at this time an agitation was in progress in England which led ultimately to the freeing of the slaves of the Cape Dutch, and afterwards to the exodus of the latter into the wilderness and most of those wars with which our generation is familiar. So, as she was devoted to her husband, who, apart from his religious enthusiasm, or rather possession, was in truth a very lovable man, she gave way and came. Before they sailed, however, the general gloom was darkened by Mrs. Dove announcing that something in her heart told her that neither of them would ever see home again, as they were doomed to die at the hands of savages.
Now whatever the reason or explanation, scientifically impossible as the fact might be, it remained a fact that Janey Dove, like her mother and several of her Scottish ancestors, was foresighted, or at least so her kith and kin believed. Therefore, when she communicated to them her conviction as though it were a piece of everyday intelligence, they never doubted its accuracy for a minute, but only redoubled their efforts to prevent her from going to Africa. Even her husband did not doubt it, but remarked irritably that it seemed a pity she could not sometimes be foresighted as to agreeable future events, since for his part he was quite willing to wait for disagreeable ones until they happened. Not that he quailed personally from the prospect of martyrdom; this he could contemplate with complacency and even enthusiasm, but, zealot though he was, he did shrink from the thought that his beautiful and delicate wife might be called upon to share the glory of that crown. Indeed, as his own purpose was unalterable, he now himself suggested that he should go forth to seek it alone.
Then it was that his wife showed an unsuspected strength of character. She said that she had married him for better or for worse against the wishes of her family; that she loved and respected him, and that she would rather be murdered by Kaffirs in due season than endure a separation which might be lifelong. So in the end the pair of them with their little daughter Rachel departed in a sailing ship, and their friends and relations knew them no more.
Their subsequent history up to the date of the opening of this story may be told in very few words. As a missionary the Reverend John Dove was not a success. The Boers in the eastern part of the Cape Colony where he laboured, did not appreciate his efforts to Christianise their slaves. The slaves did not appreciate them either, inasmuch as, saint though he might be, he quite lacked the sympathetic insight which would enable him to understand that a native with thousands of generations of savagery behind him is a different being from a highly educated Christian, and one who should be judged by another law. Their sins, amongst which he included all their most cherished inherited customs, appalled him, as he continually proclaimed from the housetops. Moreover, when occasionally he did snatch a brand from the burning, and the said brand subsequently proved that it was still alight, or worse still, replaced its original failings by those of the white man, such as drink, theft and lying, whereof before it had been innocent, he would openly condemn it to eternal punishment. Further, he was too insubordinate, or, as he called it, too honest, to submit to the authority of his local superiors in the Church, and therefore would only work for his own hand. Finally he caused his “cup to overflow,” as he described it, or, in plain English, made the country too hot to hold him, by becoming involved in a bitter quarrel with the Boers. Of these, on the whole, worthy folk, he formed the worst; and in the main a very unjust opinion, which he sent to England to be reprinted in Church papers, or to the Home Government to be published in Blue-books. In due course these documents reached South Africa again, where they were translated into Dutch and became incidentally one of the causes of the Great Trek.
The Boers were furious and threatened to shoot him as a slanderer. The English authorities were also furious, and requested him to cease from controversy or to leave the country. At last, stubborn as he might be, circumstances proved too much for him, and as his conscience would not allow him to be silent, Mr. Dove chose the latter alternative. The only question was whither he should go. As he was well off, having inherited a moderate fortune in addition to what he had before he left England, his poor wife pleaded with him to return home, pointing out that there he would be able to lay his case before the British public. This course had attractions for him, but after a night’s reflection and prayer, he rejected it as a specious temptation sent by Satan.
What, he argued, should he return to live in luxury in England not only unmartyred but a palpable failure, his mission quite unfulfilled? His wife might go if she liked, and take their surviving children, Rachel and the new-born baby boy, with her (they had buried two other little girls), but he would stick to his post and his duty. He had seen some Englishmen who had visited the country called Natal where white people were beginning to settle. In that land it seemed there were no slave-driving Boers, and the natives, according to all accounts, much needed the guidance of the Gospel, especially a certain king of the people called Zulus, who was named Chaka or Dingaan, he was not sure which. This ferocious person he particularly desired to encounter, having little doubt that in the absence of the contaminating Boer, he would be able to induce him to see the error of his ways and change the national customs, especially those of fighting and, worse still, of polygamy.
His unhappy wife listened and wept, for now the martyr’s crown which she had always foreseen, seemed uncomfortably near, indeed as it were, it glowed blood red within reach of her hand. Moreover, in her heart she did not believe that Kaffirs could be converted, at any rate at present. They were fighting men, as her Highland forefathers had been, and her Scottish blood could understand the weakness, while, as for this polygamy, she had long ago secretly concluded that the practice was one which suited them very well, as it had suited David and Solomon, and even Abraham. But for all this, although she was sure in her uncanny fashion that her baby’s death would come of her staying, she refused to leave her husband as she had refused eleven years before.
Doubtless affection was at the bottom of it, for Janey Dove was a very faithful woman; also there were other things—her fatalism, and stronger still, her weariness. She believed that they were doomed. Well, let the doom fall; she had no fear of the Beyond. At the best it might be happy, and at the worst deep, everlasting rest and peace, and she felt as though she needed thousands of years of rest and peace. Moreover, she was sure no harm would come to Rachel, the very apple of her eye; that she was marked to live and to find happiness even in this wild land. So it came about that she refused her husband’s offer to allow her to return home where she had no longer any ties, and for perhaps the twentieth time prepared herself to journey she knew not whither.
Rachel, seated there in the sunless, sweltering heat, reflected on these things. Of course she did not know all the story, but most of it had come under her observation in one way or other, and being shrewd by nature, she could guess the rest, for she who was companionless had much time for reflection and for guessing. She sympathised with her father in his ideas, understanding vaguely that there was something large and noble about them, but in the main, body and mind, she was her mother’s child. Already she showed her mother’s dreamy beauty, to which were added her father’s straight features and clear grey eyes, together with a promise of his height. But of his character she had little, that is outside of a courage and fixity of purpose which marked them both. For the rest she was far, or fore-seeing, like her mother, apprehending the end of things by some strange instinct; also very faithful in character.
Rachel was unhappy. She did not mind the hardship and the heat, for she was accustomed to both, and her health was so perfect that it would have needed much worse things to affect her. But she loved the baby that was gone, and wondered whether she would ever see it again. On the whole she thought so, for here that intuition of hers came in, but at the best she was sure that there would be long to wait. She loved her mother also, and grieved more for her than for herself, especially now when she was so ill. Moreover, she knew and shared her mind. This journey, she felt, was foolishness; her father was a man “led by a star” as the natives say, and would follow it over the edge of the world and be no nearer. He was not fit to have charge of her mother.
Of herself she did not think so much. Still, at Grahamstown, for a year or so there had been other children for companions, Dutch most of them, it is true, and all rough in mind and manner. Yet they were white and human. While she played with them she could forget she knew so much more than they did; that, for instance, she could read the Gospels in Greek—which her father had taught her ever since she was a little child—while they could scarcely spell them out in the Taal, or Boer dialect, and that they had never heard even of William the Conqueror. She did not care particularly about Greek and William the Conqueror, but she did care for friends, and now they were all gone from her, gone like the baby, as far off as William the Conqueror. And she, she was alone in the wilderness with a father who talked and thought of Heaven all day long, and a mother who lived in memories and walked in the shadow of doom, and oh! she was unhappy.
Her grey eyes filled with tears so that she could no longer see that everlasting ocean, which she did not regret as it wearied her. She wiped them with the back of her hand that was burnt quite brown by the sun, and turning impatiently, fell to watching two of those strange insects known as the Praying Mantis, or often in South Africa as Hottentot gods, which after a series of genuflections, were now fighting desperately among the dead stalks of grass at her feet. Men could not be more savage, she reflected, for really their ferocity was hideous. Then a great tear fell upon the head of one of them, and astonished by this phenomenon, or thinking perhaps that it had begun to rain, it ran away and hid itself, while its adversary sat up and looked about it triumphantly, taking to itself all the credit of conquest.
She heard a step behind her, and having again furtively wiped her eyes with her hand, the only handkerchief available, looked round to see her father stalking towards her.
“Why are you crying, Rachel?” he asked in an irritable voice. “It is wrong to cry because your little brother has been taken to glory.”
“Jesus cried over Lazarus, and He wasn’t even His brother,” she answered in a reflective voice, then by way of defending herself added inconsequently: “I was watching two Hottentot gods fight.”
As Mr. Dove could think of no reply to her very final Scriptural example, he attacked her on the latter point.
“A cruel amusement,” he said, “especially as I have heard that boys, yes, and men, too, pit these poor insects against each other, and make bets upon them.”
“Nature is cruel, not I, father. Nature is always cruel,” and she glanced towards the little grave under the rock. Then, while for the second time her father hesitated, not knowing what to answer, she added quickly, “Is mother better now?”
“No,” he said, “worse, I think, very hysterical and quite unable to see things in the true light.”
She rose and faced him, for she was a courageous child, then asked:
“Father, why don’t you take her back? She isn’t fit to go on. It is wrong to drag her into this wilderness.”
At this question he grew very angry, and began to scold and to talk of the wickedness of abandoning his “call.”
“But mother has not got a ‘call,’” she broke in.
Then, as for the third time he could find no answer, he declared vehemently that they were both in league against him, instruments used by the Evil One to tempt him from his duty by working on his natural fears and affections, and so forth.
The child watched him with her clear grey eyes, saying nothing further, till at last he grew calm and paused.
“We are all much upset,” he went on, rubbing his high forehead with his thin hand. “I suppose it is the heat and this—this—trial of our faith. What did I come to speak to you about? Oh! I remember; your mother will eat nothing, and keeps asking for fruit. Do you know where there is any fruit?”
“It doesn’t grow here, father.” Then her face brightened, and she added: “Yes, it does, though. The day that we outspanned in this camp mother and I went down to the river and walked to that kind of island beyond the dry donga to get some flowers that grow on the wet ground. I saw lots of Cape gooseberries there, all quite ripe.”
“Then go and get some, dear. You will have plenty of time before dark.”
She started up as though to obey, then checked herself and said:
“Mother told me that I was not to go to the river alone, because we saw the spoor of lions and crocodiles in the mud.”
“God will guard you from the lions and the crocodiles, if there are any,” he answered doggedly, for was not this an opportunity to show his faith? “You are not afraid, are you?”
“No, father. I am afraid of nothing, perhaps because I don’t care what happens. I will get the basket and go at once.”
In another minute she was walking quickly towards the river, a lonely little figure in that great place. Mr. Dove watched her uneasily till she was hidden in the haze, for his reason told him that this was a foolish journey.
“The Lord will send His angels to protect her,” he muttered to himself. “Oh! if only I could have more faith, all these troubles come upon me from a lack of faith, and through that I am continually tempted. I think I will run after her and go, too. No, there is Janey calling me, I cannot leave her alone. The Lord will protect her, but I need not mention to Janey that she has gone, unless she asks me outright. She will be quite safe, the storm will not break to-night.”
CHAPTER II.
THE BOY
The river towards which Rachel headed, one of the mouths of the Umtavuna, was much further off than it looked; it was, indeed, not less than a mile and a half away. She had said that she feared nothing, and it was true, for extraordinary courage was one of this child’s characteristics. She could scarcely ever remember having felt afraid—for herself, except sometimes of her father when he grew angry—or was it mad that he grew?—and raged at her, threatening her with punishment in another world in reward for her childish sins. Even then the sensation did not last long, because she could not believe in that punishment which he so vividly imagined. So it came about that now she had no fear when there was so much cause.
For this place was lonely; not a living creature could be seen. Moreover, a dreadful hush brooded on the face of earth, and in the sky above; only far away over the mountains the lightning flickered incessantly, as though a monster in the skies were licking their precipices and pinnacles with a thousand tongues of fire. Nothing stirred, not even an insect; every creature that drew breath had hidden itself away until the coming terror was overpast.
The atmosphere was full of electricity struggling to be free. Although she knew not what it was, Rachel felt it in her blood and brain. In some strange way it affected her mind, opening windows there through which the eyes of her soul looked out. She became aware of some new influence drawing near to her life; of a sudden her budding womanhood burst into flower in her breast, shone on by an unseen sun; she was no more a child. Her being quickened and acknowledged the kinship of all things that are. That brooding, flame-threaded sky—she was a part of it, the earth she trod, it was a part of her; the Mind that caused the stars to roll and her to live, dwelt in her bosom, and like a babe she nestled within the arm of its almighty will.
Now, as in a dream, Rachel descended the steep, rock-strewn banks of the dry branch of the river-bed, wending her way between the boulders and noting that rotten weeds and peeled brushwood rested against the stems of the mimosa thorns which grew there, tokens which told her that here in times of flood the water flowed. Well, there was little enough of it now, only a pool or two to form a mirror for the lightning. In front of her lay the island where grew the Cape gooseberries, or winter cherries as they are sometimes called, which she came to seek. It was a low piece of ground, a quarter of a mile long, perhaps, but in the centre of it were some great rocks and growing among the rocks, trees, one of them higher than the rest. Beyond it ran the true river, even now at the end of the dry season three or four hundred yards in breadth, though so shallow that it could be forded by an ox-drawn waggon.
It was raining on the mountains yonder, raining in torrents poured from those inky clouds, as it had done off and on for the past twenty-four hours, and above their fire-laced bosom floated glorious-coloured masses of misty vapour, enflamed in a thousand hues by the arrows of the sinking sun. Above her, however, there was no sun, nothing but the curtain of cloud which grew gradually from grey to black and minute by minute sank nearer to the earth.
Walking through the dry river-bed, Rachel reached the island which was the last and highest of a line of similar islands that, separated from each other by narrow breadths of water, lay like a chain, between the dry donga and the river. Here she began to gather her gooseberries, picking the silvery, octagonal pods from the green stems on which they grew. At first she opened these pods, removing from each the yellow, sub-acid berry, thinking that thus her basket would hold more, but presently abandoned that plan as it took too much time. Also although the plants were plentiful enough, in that low and curious light it was not easy to see them among the dense growth of reedy vegetation.
While she was thus engaged she became aware of a low moaning noise and a stirring of the air about her which caused the leaves and grasses to quiver without bending. Then followed an ice-cold wind that grew in strength until it blew keen and hard, ruffling the surface of the marshy pools. Still Rachel went on with her task, for her basket was not more than half full, till presently the heavens above her began to mutter and to groan, and drops of rain as large as shillings fell upon her back and hands. Now she understood that it was time for her to be going, and started to walk across the island—for at the moment she was near its farther side—to reach the deep, rocky river-bed or donga.
Before ever she came there, with awful suddenness and inconceivable fury, the tempest burst. A hurricane of wind tore down the valley to the sea, and for a few minutes the darkness became so dense that she could scarcely stumble forward. Then there was light, a dreadful light; all the heavens seemed to take fire, yes, and the earth, too; it was as though its last dread catastrophe had fallen on the world.
Buffeted, breathless, Rachel at length reached the edge of the deep river-bed that may have been fifty yards in width, and was about to step into it when she became aware of two things. The first was a seething, roaring noise so loud that it seemed to still even the bellowing of the thunder, and the next, now seen, now lost, as the lightning pulsed and darkened, the figure of a youth, a white youth, who had dismounted from a horse that remained near to but above him, and stood, a gun in his hand, upon a rock at the farther side of the donga.
He had seen her also and was shouting to her, of this she was sure, for although the sound of his voice was lost in the tumult, she could perceive his gesticulations when the lightning flared, and even the movement of his lips. Wondering vaguely what a white boy could be doing in such a place and very glad at the prospect of his company, Rachel began to advance towards him in short rushes whenever the lightning showed her where to set her feet. She had made two of these rushes when from the violence and character of his movements at length she understood that he was trying to prevent her from coming further, and paused confused.
Another instant and she knew why. Some hundreds of yards above her the river bed took a turn, and suddenly round this turn, crested with foam, appeared a wall of water in which trees and the carcases of animals were whirled along like straws. The flood had come down from the mountains, and was advancing on her more swiftly than a horse could gallop. Rachel ran forward a little way, then understanding that she had no time to cross, stood bewildered, for the fearful tumult of the elements and the dreadful roaring of that advancing wall of foam overwhelmed her senses. The lightnings went out for a moment, then began to play again with tenfold frequency and force. They struck upon the nearing torrent, they struck in the dry bed before it, and leapt upwards from the earth as though Titans and gods were hurling spears at one another.
In the lurid sheen of them she saw the lad leap from his rock and rush towards her. A flash fell and split a boulder not thirty paces from him, causing him to stagger, but he recovered himself and ran on. Now he was quite close, but the water was closer still. It was coming in tiers or ledges, a thin sheet of foam in front, then other layers laid upon it, each of them a few yards behind its fellow. On the top ledge, in its very crest, was a bull buffalo, dead, but held head on and down as though it were charging, and Rachel thought vaguely that from the direction in which it came in a few moments its horns would strike her. Another second and an arm was about her waist—she noted how white it was where the sleeve was rolled up, dead white in the lightning—and she was being dragged towards the shore that she had left. The first film of water struck her and nearly washed her from her feet, but she was strong and active, and the touch of that arm seemed to have given her back her wit, so she regained them and splashed forward. Now the next tier took them both above the knees, but for a moment shallowed so that they did not fall. The high bank was scarce five yards away, and the wall of waters perhaps a score.
“Together for life or death!” said an English voice in her ear, and the shout of it only reached her in a whisper.
The boy and the girl leapt forward like bucks. They reached the bank and struggled up it. The hungry waters sprang at them like a living thing, grasping their feet and legs as though with hands; a stick as it whirled by them struck the lad upon the shoulder, and where it struck the clothes were rent away and red blood appeared. Almost he fell, but this time it was Rachel who supported him. Then one more struggle and they rolled exhausted on the ground just clear of the lip of the racing flood.
Thus through tempest, threatened by the waters of death from which he snatched her, and companioned by heaven’s lightnings, did Richard Darrien come into the life of Rachel Dove.
Presently, having recovered their breath, they sat up and looked at each other by lightning light, which was all there was. He was a handsome lad of about seventeen, though short for his years; sturdy in build, very fair-skinned and curiously enough with a singular resemblance to Rachel, except that his hair was a few shades darker than hers. They had the same clear grey eyes, and the same well-cut features; indeed seen together, most people would have thought them brother and sister, and remarked upon their family likeness. Rachel spoke the first.
“Who are you?” she shouted into his ear in one of the intervals of darkness, “and why did you come here?”
“My name is Richard Darrien,” he answered at the top of his voice, “and I don’t know why I came. I suppose something sent me to save you.”
“Yes,” she replied with conviction, “something sent you. If you had not come I should be dead, shouldn’t I? In glory, as my father says.”
“I don’t know about glory, or what it is,” he remarked, after thinking this saying over, “but you would have been rolling out to sea in the flood water, like that buffalo, with not a whole bone in you, which isn’t my idea of glory.”
“That’s because your father isn’t a missionary,” said Rachel.
“No, he is an officer, naval officer, or at least he was, now he trades and hunts. We are coming down from Natal. But what’s your name?”
“Rachel Dove.”
“Well, Rachel Dove—that’s very pretty, Rachel Dove, as you would be if you were cleaner—it is going to rain presently. Is there any place where we can shelter here?”
“I am as clean as you are,” she answered indignantly. “The river muddied me, that’s all. You can go and shelter, I will stop and let the rain wash me.”
“And die of the cold or be struck by lightning. Of course I knew you weren’t dirty really. Is there any place?”
She nodded, mollified.
“I think I know one. Come,” and she stretched out her hand.
He took it, and thus hand in hand they made their way to the highest point of the island where the trees grew, for here the rocks piled up together made a kind of cave in which Rachel and her mother had sat for a little while when they visited the place. As they groped their way towards it the lightning blazed out and they saw a great jagged flash strike the tallest tree and shatter it, causing some wild beast that had sheltered there to rush past them snorting.
“That doesn’t look very safe,” said Richard halting, “but come on, it isn’t likely to hit the same spot twice.”
“Hadn’t you better leave your gun?” she suggested, for all this while that weapon had been slung to his back and she knew that lightning has an affinity for iron.
“Certainly not,” he answered, “it is a new one which my father gave me, and I won’t be parted from it.”
Then they went on and reached the little cave just as the rain broke over them in earnest. As it chanced the place was dry, being so situated that all water ran away from it. They crouched in it shivering, trying to cover themselves with dead sticks and brushwood that had lodged here in the wet season when the whole island was under water.
“It would be nice enough if only we had a fire,” said Rachel, her teeth chattering as she spoke.
The lad Richard thought a while. Then he opened a leather case that hung on his rifle sling and took from it a powder flask and flint and steel and some tinder. Pouring a little powder on the damp tinder, he struck the flint until at length a spark caught and fired the powder. The tinder caught also, though reluctantly, and while Rachel blew on it, he felt round for dead leaves and little sticks, some of which were coaxed into flame.
After this things were easy since fuel lay about in abundance, so that soon they had a splendid fire burning in the mouth of the cave whence the smoke escaped. Now they were able to warm and dry themselves, and as the heat entered into their chilled bodies, their spirits rose. Indeed the contrast between this snug hiding place and blazing fire of drift wood and the roaring tempest without, conduced to cheerfulness in young people who had just narrowly escaped from drowning.
“I am so hungry,” said Rachel, presently.
Again Richard began to search, and this time produced from the pocket of his coat a long and thick strip of sun-dried meat.
“Can you eat biltong?” he asked.
“Of course,” she answered eagerly.
“Then you must cut it up,” he said, giving her the meat and his knife. “My arm hurts me, I can’t.”
“Oh!” she exclaimed, “how selfish I am. I forgot about that stick striking you. Let me see the place.”
He took off his coat and knelt down while she stood over him and examined his wound by the light of the fire, to find that the left upper arm was bruised, torn and bleeding. As it will be remembered that Rachel had no handkerchief, she asked Richard for his, which she soaked in a pool of rain water just outside the cave. Then, having washed the hurt thoroughly, she bandaged his arm with the handkerchief and bade him put on his coat again, saying confidently that he would be well in a few days.
“You are clever,” he remarked with admiration. “Who taught you to bandage wounds?”
“My father always doctors the Kaffirs and I help him,” Rachel answered, as, having stretched out her hands for the pouring rain to wash them, she took the biltong and began to cut it in thin slices.
These she made him eat before she touched any herself, for she saw that the loss of blood had weakened him. Indeed her own meal was a light one, since half the strip of meat must, she declared, be put aside in case they should not be able to get off the island. Then he saw why she had made him eat first and was very angry with himself and her, but she only laughed at him and answered that she had learned from the Kaffirs that men must be fed before women as they were more important in the world.
“You mean more selfish,” he answered, contemplating this wise little maid and her tiny portion of biltong, which she swallowed very slowly, perhaps to pretend that her appetite was already satisfied with its superabundance. Then he fell to imploring her to take the rest, saying that he would be able to shoot some game in the morning, but she only shook her little head and set her lips obstinately.
“Are you a hunter?” she asked to change the subject.
“Yes,” he answered with pride, “that is, almost. At any rate I have shot eland, and an elephant, but no lions yet. I was following the spoor of a lion just now, but it got up between the rocks and bolted away before I could shoot. I think that it must have been after you.”
“Perhaps,” said Rachel. “There are some about here; I have heard them roaring at night.”
“Then,” he went on, “while I was staring at you running across this island, I heard the sound of the water and saw it rushing down the donga, and saw too that you must be drowned, and—you know the rest.”
“Yes, I know the rest,” she said, looking at him with shining eyes. “You risked your life to save mine, and therefore,” she added with quiet conviction, “it belongs to you.”
He stared at her and remarked simply:
“I wish it did. This morning I wished to kill a lion with my new roer,” and he pointed to the heavy gun at his side, “above everything else, but to-night I wish that your life belonged to me—above anything else.”
Their eyes met, and child though she was, Rachel saw something in those of Richard that caused her to turn her head.
“Where are you going?” she asked quickly.
“Back to my father’s farm in Graaf-Reinet, to sell the ivory. There are three others besides my father, two Boers and one Englishman.”
“And I am going to Natal where you come from,” she answered, “so I suppose that after to-night we shall never see each other again, although my life does belong to you—that is if we escape.”
Just then the tempest which had lulled a little, came on again in fury, accompanied by a hurricane of wind and deluge of rain, through which the lightning blazed incessantly. The thunderclaps too were so loud and constant that the sound of them, which shook the earth, made it impossible for Richard and Rachel to hear each other speak. So they were silent perforce. Only Richard rose and looked out of the cave, then turned and beckoned to his companion. She came to him and watched, till suddenly a blinding sheet of flame lit up the whole landscape. Then she saw what he was looking at, for now nearly all the island, except that high part of it on which they stood, was under water, hidden by a brown, seething torrent, that tore past them to the sea.
“If it rises much more, we shall be drowned,” he shouted in her ear.
She nodded, then cried back:
“Let us say our prayers and get ready,” for it seemed to Rachel that the “glory” of which her father spoke so often was nearer to them than ever.
Then she drew him back into the cave and motioned to him to kneel beside her, which he did bashfully enough, and for a while the two children, for they were little more, remained thus with clasped hands and moving lips. Presently the thunder lessened a little so that once more they could hear each other speak.
“What did you pray about?” he asked when they had risen from their knees.
“I prayed that you might escape, and that my mother might not grieve for me too much,” she answered simply. “And you?”
“I? Oh! the same—that you might escape. I did not pray for my mother as she is dead, and I forgot about father.”
“Look, look!” exclaimed Rachel, pointing to the mouth of the cave.
He stared out at the darkness, and there, through the thin flames of the fire, saw two great yellow shapes which appeared to be walking up and down and glaring into the cave.
“Lions,” he gasped, snatching at his gun.
“Don’t shoot,” she cried, “you might make them angry. Perhaps they only want to take refuge like ourselves. The fire will keep them away.”
He nodded, then remembering that the charge and priming of his flint-lock roer must be damp, hurriedly set to work by the help of Rachel to draw it with the screw on the end of his ramrod, and this done, to reload with some powder that he had already placed to dry on a flat stone near the fire. This operation took five minutes or more. When at length it was finished, and the lock reprimed with the dry powder, the two of them, Richard holding the roer, crept to the mouth of the cave and looked out again.
The great storm was passing now, and the rain grew thinner, but from time to time the lightning, no longer forked or chain-shaped, flared in wide sheets. By its ghastly illumination they saw a strange sight. There on the island top the two lions marched backwards and forwards as though they were in a cage, making a kind of whimpering noise as they went, and staring round them uneasily. Moreover, these were not alone, for gathered there were various other animals, driven down by the flood from the islands above them, reed and water bucks, and a great eland. Among these the lions walked without making the slightest effort to attack them, nor did the antelopes, which stood sniffing and staring at the torrent, take any notice of the lions, or attempt to escape.
“You are right,” said Richard, “they are all frightened, and will not harm us, unless the water rises more, and they rush into the cave. Come, make up the fire.”
They did so, and sat down on its further side, watching till, as nothing happened, their dread of the lions passed away, and they began to talk again, telling to each other the stories of their lives.
Richard Darrien, it seemed, had been in Africa about five years, his father having emigrated there on the death of his mother, as he had nothing but the half-pay of a retired naval captain, and he hoped to better his fortunes in a new land. He had been granted a farm in the Graaf-Reinet district, but like many other of the early settlers, met with misfortunes. Now, to make money, he had taken to elephant-hunting, and with his partners was just returning from a very successful expedition in the coast lands of Natal, at that time an almost unexplored territory. His father had allowed Richard to accompany the party, but when they got back, added the boy with sorrow, he was to be sent for two or three years to the college at Capetown, since until then his father had not been able to afford him the luxury of an education. Afterwards he wished him to adopt a profession, but on this point he—Richard—had made up his mind, although at present he said little about that. He would be a hunter, and nothing else, until he grew too old to hunt, when he intended to take to farming.
His story done, Rachel told him hers, to which he listened eagerly.
“Is your father mad?” he asked when she had finished.
“No,” she answered. “How dare you suggest it? He is only very good; much better than anybody else.”
“Well, it seems to come to much the same thing, doesn’t it?” said Richard, “for otherwise he would not have sent you to gather gooseberries here with such a storm coming on.”
“Then why did your father send you to hunt lions with such a storm coming on?” she asked.
“He didn’t send me. I came of myself; I said that I wanted to shoot a buck, and finding the spoor of a lion I followed it. The waggons must be a long way ahead now, for when I left them I returned to that kloof where I had seen the buck. I don’t know how I shall overtake them again, and certainly nobody will ever think of looking for me here, as after this rain they can’t spoor the horse.”
“Supposing you don’t find it—I mean your horse—tomorrow, what shall you do?” asked Rachel. “We haven’t got any to lend you.”
“Walk and try to catch them up,” he replied.
“And if you can’t catch them up?”
“Come back to you, as the wild Kaffirs ahead would kill me if I went on alone.”
“Oh! But what would your father think?”
“He would think there was one boy the less, that’s all, and be sorry for a while. People often vanish in Africa where there are so many lions and savages.”
Rachel reflected a while, then finding the subject difficult, suggested that he should find out what their own particular lions were doing. So Richard went to look, and reported that the storm had ceased, and that by the moonlight he could see no lions or any other animals, so he thought that they must have gone away somewhere. The flood waters also appeared to be running down. Comforted by this intelligence Rachel piled on the fire nearly all the wood that remained to them. Then they sat down again side by side, and tried to continue their conversation. By degrees it drooped, however, and the end of it was that presently this pair were fast asleep in each other’s arms.
CHAPTER III.
GOOD-BYE
Rachel was the first to wake, which she did, feeling cold, for the fire had burnt almost out. She rose and walked from the cave. The dawn was breaking quietly, for now no wind stirred, and no rain fell. So dense was the mist which rose from the river and sodden land, however, that she could not see two yards in front of her, and fearing lest she should stumble on the lions or some other animals, she did not dare to wander far from the mouth of the cave. Near to it was a large, hollow-surfaced rock, filled now with water like a bath. From this she drank, then washed and tidied herself as well as she could without the aid of soap, comb or towels, which done, she returned to the cave.
As Richard was still sleeping, very quietly she laid a little more wood on the embers to keep him warm, then sat down by his side and watched him, for now the grey light of the dawning crept into their place of refuge. To her this slumbering lad looked beautiful, and as she studied him her childish heart was filled with a strange, new tenderness, such as she had never felt before. Somehow he had grown dear to her, and Rachel knew that she would never forget him while she lived. Then following this wave of affection came a sharp and sudden pain, for she remembered that presently they must part, and never see each other any more. At least this seemed certain, for how could they when he was travelling to the Cape and she to Natal?
And yet, and yet a strange conviction told her otherwise. The power of prescience which came to her from her mother and her Highland forefathers awoke in her breast, and she knew that her life and this lad’s life were interwoven. Perhaps she dozed off again, sitting there by the fire. At any rate it appeared to her that she dreamed and saw things in her dream. Wild tumultuous scenes opened themselves before her in a vision; scenes of blood and terror, sounds, too, of voices crying war. It appeared to her as if she were mad, and yet ruled a queen, death came near to her a score of times, but always fled away at her command. Now Richard Darrien was with her, and now she had lost him and sought—ah! how she sought through dark places of doom and unnatural night. It was as though he were dead, and she yet living, searched for him among the habitations of the dead. She found him also, and drew him towards her. How, she did not know.
Then there was a scene, a last scene, which remained fixed in her mind after everything else had faded away. She saw the huge trunks of forest trees, enormous, towering trees, gloomy trees beneath which the darkness could be felt. Down their avenues shot the level arrows of the dawn. They fell on her, Rachel, dressed in robes of white skin, turning her long, outspread hair to gold. They fell upon little people with faces of a dusky pallor, one of them crouched against the bole of a tree, a wizened monkey of a man who in all that vastness looked small. They fell upon another man, white-skinned, half-naked, with a yellow beard, who was lashed by hide ropes to a second tree. It was Richard Darrien grown older, and at his feet lay a broad-bladed spear!
The vision left her, or she was awakened from her sleep, whichever it might be, by the pleasant voice of this same Richard, who stood yawning before her, and said:
“It is time to get up. I say, why do you look so queer? Are you ill?”
“I have been up, long ago,” she answered, struggling to her feet. “What do you mean?”
“Nothing, except that you seemed a ghost a minute ago. Now you are a girl again, it must have been the light.”
“Did I? Well, I dreamed of ghosts, or something of the sort,” and she told him of the vision of the trees, though of the rest she could remember little.
“That’s a queer story,” he said when she had finished. “I wish you had got to the end of it, I should like to know what happened.”
“We shall find out one day,” she answered solemnly.
“Do you mean to say that you believe it is true, Rachel?”
“Yes, Richard, one day I shall see you tied to that tree.”
“Then I hope you will cut me loose, that is all. What a funny girl you are,” he added doubtfully. “I know what it is, you want something to eat. Have the rest of that biltong.”
“No,” she answered. “I could not touch it. There is a pool of water out there, go and bathe your arm, and I will bind it up again.”
He went, still wondering, and a few minutes later returned, his face and head dripping, and whispered:
“Give me the gun. There is a reed buck standing close by. I saw it through the mist; we’ll have a jolly breakfast off him.”
She handed him the roer, and crept after him out of the cave. About thirty yards away to the right, looming very large through the dense fog, stood the fat reed buck. Richard wriggled towards it, for he wanted to make sure of his shot, while Rachel crouched behind a stone. The buck becoming alarmed, turned its head, and began to sniff at the air, whereon he lifted the gun and just as it was about to spring away, aimed and fired. Down it went dead, whereon, rejoicing in his triumph like any other young hunter who thinks not of the wonderful and happy life that he has destroyed, Richard sprang upon it exultantly, drawing his knife as he came, while Rachel, who always shrank from such sights, retreated to the cave. Half an hour later, however, being healthy and hungry, she had no objection to eating venison toasted upon sticks in the red embers of their fire.
Their meal finished at length, they reloaded the gun, and although the mist was still very dense, set out upon a journey of exploration, as by now the sun was shining brightly above the curtain of low-lying vapour. Stumbling on through the rocks, they discovered that the water had fallen almost as quickly as it rose on the previous night. The island was strewn, however, with the trunks of trees and other debris that it had brought down, amongst which lay the carcases of bucks and smaller creatures, and with them a number of drowned snakes. The two lions, however, appeared to have escaped by swimming, at least they saw nothing of them. Walking cautiously, they came to the edge of the donga, and sat down upon a stone, since as yet they could not see how wide and deep the water ran.
Whilst they remained thus, suddenly through the mist they heard a voice shouting from the other side of the donga.
“Missie,” cried the voice in Dutch, “are you there missie?”
“That is Tom, our driver,” she said, “come to look for me. Answer for me, Richard.”
So the lad, who had very good lungs, roared in reply:
“Yes, I’m here, safe, waiting for the mist to lift, and the water to run down.”
“God be thanked,” yelled the distant Tom. “We thought that you were surely drowned. But, then, why is your voice changed?”
“Because an English heer is with me,” cried Rachel. “Go and look for his horse and bring a rope, then wait till the mist rises. Also send to tell the pastor and my mother that I am safe.”
“I am here, Rachel,” shouted another voice, her father’s. “I have been looking for you all night, and we have got the Englishman’s horse. Don’t come into the water yet. Wait till we can see.”
“That’s good news, any way,” said Richard, “though I shall have to ride hard to catch up the waggons.”
Rachel’s face fell.
“Yes,” she said; “very good news.”
“Are you glad that I am going, then?” he asked in an offended tone.
“It was you who said the news was good,” she replied gently.
“I meant I was glad that they had caught my horse, not that I had to ride away on it. Are you sorry, then?” and he glanced at her anxiously.
“Yes, I am sorry, for we have made friends, haven’t we? It won’t matter to you who will find plenty of people down there at the Cape, but you see when you are gone I shall have no friend left in this wilderness, shall I?”
Again Richard looked at her, and saw that her sweet grey eyes were full of tears. Then there rose within the breast of this lad who, be it remembered, was verging upon manhood, a sensation strangely similar, had he but known it, to that which had been experienced an hour or two before by the child at his side when she watched him sleeping in the cave. He felt as though these tear-laden grey eyes were drawing his heart as a magnet draws iron. Of love he knew nothing, it was but a name to him, but this feeling was certainly very new and queer.
“What have you done to me?” he asked brusquely. “I don’t want to go away from you at all, which is odd, as I never liked girls much. I tell you,” he went on with gathering vehemence, “that if it wasn’t that it would be mean to play such a trick upon my father, I wouldn’t go. I’d come with you, or follow after—all my life. Answer me—what have you done?”
“Nothing, nothing at all,” said Rachel with a little sob, “except tie up your arm.”
“That can’t be it,” he replied. “Anyone could tie up my arm. Oh! I know it is wrong, but I hope I shan’t be able to overtake the waggons, for if I can’t I will come back.”
“You mustn’t come back; you must go away, quite away, as soon as you can. Yes, as soon as you can. Your father will be very anxious,” and she began to cry outright.
“Stop it,” said Richard. “Do you hear me, stop it. I am not going to be made to snivel too, just because I shan’t see a little girl any more whom I never met—till yesterday.”
These last words came out with a gulp, and what is more, two tears came with them and trickled down his nose.
For a moment they sat thus looking at each other pitifully, and—the truth must be told—weeping, both of them. Then something got the better of Richard, let us call it primeval instinct, so that he put his arms about Rachel and kissed her, after which they continued to weep, their heads resting upon each other’s shoulders. At length he let her go and stood up, saying argumentatively:
“You see now we are really friends.”
“Yes,” she answered, again rubbing her eyes with the back of her hand for lack of a pocket handkerchief in the fashion that on the previous day had so irritated her father, “but I don’t know why you should kiss me like that, just because you are my friend, or” she added with an outburst of truthfulness, “why I should kiss you.”
Richard stood over her frowning and reflecting. Then he gave up the problem as beyond his powers of interpretation, and said:
“You remember that rubbish you dreamt just now, about my being tied to a tree and the rest of it? Well, it wasn’t nice, and it gives me the creeps to think of it, like the lions outside the cave. But I want to tell you that I hope it is true, for then we shall meet again, if it is only to say good-night.”
“Yes, Richard,” she answered, placing her slim fingers into his big brown hand, “we shall meet again, I am sure—I am quite sure. And I think that it will be to say, not good-night,” and she looked up at him and smiled, “but good-morning.”
As Rachel spoke a puff of wind blew down the donga, rolling up the mist before it, and of a sudden shining above them they saw the glorious sun. As though by magic butterflies appeared basking upon the rain-shattered lily blooms; bright birds flitted from tree to tree, ringdoves began to coo. The terror of the tempest and the darkness of night were overpast; the world awoke again to life and love and joy. Instantly this change reflected itself in their young hearts. They whose natures had as it were ripened prematurely in the stress of danger and the shadow of death, became children once again. The very real emotions that they had experienced were forgotten, or at any rate sank into abeyance. Now they thought, not of separation or of the dim, mysterious future that stretched before them, but only of how they should ford the stream and gain its further side, where Rachel saw her father, Tom, the driver, and the other Kaffirs, and Richard saw his horse which he had feared was lost.
They ran down to the brink of the water and examined it, but here it was still too deep for them to attempt its crossing. Then, directed by the shouts and motions of the Kaffir Tom and Mr. Dove, they proceeded up stream for several hundred yards, till they came to a rapid where the lessening flood ran thinly over a ridge of rock, and after investigation, proceeded to try its passage hand in hand. It proved difficult but not dangerous, for when they came near to the further side where the current was swift and the water rather deep, Tom threw them a waggon rope, clinging on to which they were dragged—wet, but laughing—in safety to the further bank.
“Ow!” exclaimed the Kaffirs, clapping their hands. “She is alive, the lightnings have turned away from her, she rules the waters, and the lightnings!” and then and there, after the native fashion, they gave Rachel a name which was destined to play a great part in her future. That name was “Lady of the Lightnings,” or, to translate it more accurately, “of the Heavens.”
“I never thought to see you again,” said her father, looking at Rachel with a face that was still white and scared. “It was very wrong of me to send you so far with that storm coming on, and I have had a terrible night—yes, a terrible night; and so has your poor mother. However, she knows that you are safe by now, thank God, thank God!” and he took her in his arms and kissed her.
“Well, father, you said that He would look after me, didn’t you? And so He did, for He sent Richard here. If it hadn’t been for Richard I should have been drowned,” she added inconsequently.
“Yes, yes,” said Mr. Dove. “Providence manifests itself in many ways. But who is your young friend whom you call Richard? I suppose he has some other name.”
“Of course,” answered that youth himself, “everybody has except Kaffirs. Mine is Darrien.”
“Darrien?” said Mr. Dove. “I had a friend called Darrien at school. I never saw him after I left, but I believe that he went into the Navy.”
“Then he must be my father, sir, for I have heard him say that there had been no other Darrien in the service for a hundred years.”
“I think so,” answered Mr. Dove, “for now that I look at you, I can see a likeness. We slept side by side in the same dormitory once five-and-thirty years ago, so I remember. And now you have saved my daughter; it is very strange. But tell me the story.”
So between them they told it, although to one scene of it—the last—neither of them thought it necessary to allude; or perhaps it was forgotten.
“Truly the Almighty has had you both in His keeping,” exclaimed Mr. Dove, when their tale was done. “And now, Richard, my boy, what are you going to do? You see, we caught your horse—it was grazing about a mile away with the saddle twisted under its stomach—and wondered what white man could possibly have been riding it in this desolate place. Afterwards, however, one of my voor-loopers reported that he had seen two waggons yesterday afternoon trekking through the poort about five miles to the north there. The white men with them said that they were travelling towards the Cape, and pushing on to get out of the hills before the storm broke. They bade him, if he met you, to bid you follow after them as quickly as you could, and to say that they would wait for you, if you did not arrive before, at the Three Sluit outspan on this side of the Pondo country, at which you stopped some months ago.”
“Yes,” answered Richard, “I remember, but that outspan is thirty miles away, so I must be getting on, or they will come back to hunt for me.”
“First you will stop and eat with us, will you not?” said Mr. Dove.
“No, no, I have eaten. Also I have saved some meat in my pouch. I must go, I must indeed, for otherwise my father will be angry with me. You see,” he added, “I went out shooting without his leave.”
“Ah! my boy,” remarked Mr. Dove, who seldom neglected an opportunity for a word in season, “now you know what comes of disobedience.”
“Yes, I know, sir,” he answered looking at Rachel. “I was just in time to save your daughter’s life here; as you said just now, Providence sent me. Well, good-bye, and don’t think me wicked if I am very glad that I was disobedient, as I believe you are, too.”
“Yes, I am. Good comes out of evil sometimes, though that is no reason why we should do evil,” the missionary added, not knowing what else to say. Richard did not attempt to argue the point, for at the moment he was engaged in bidding farewell to Rachel. It was a very silent farewell; neither of them spoke a word, they only shook each other’s hand and looked into each other’s eyes. Then muttering something which it was as well that Mr. Dove did not hear, Richard swung himself into the saddle, for his horse stood at hand, and, without even looking back, cantered away towards the mountains.
“Oh!” exclaimed Rachel presently, “call him, father.”
“What for?” asked Mr. Dove.
“I want to give him our address, and to get his.”
“We have no address, Rachel. Also he is too far off, and why should you want the address of a chance acquaintance?”
“Because he saved my life and I do,” replied the child, setting her face. Then, without another word, she turned and began to walk towards their camp—a very heavy journey it was to Rachel.
When Rachel reached the waggon she found that her mother was more or less recovered. At any rate the attack of fever had left her so that she felt able to rise from her bed. Now, although still weak, she was engaged in packing away the garments of her dead baby in a travelling chest, weeping in a silent, piteous manner as she worked. It was a very sad sight. When she saw Rachel she opened her arms without a word, and embraced her.
“You were not frightened about me, mother?” asked the child.
“No, my love,” she answered, “because I knew that no harm would come to you. I have always known that. It was a mad thing of your father to send you to such a place at such a time, but no folly of his or of anyone else can hurt you who are destined to live. Never be afraid of anything, Rachel, for remember always you will only die in old age.”
“I am not sure that I am glad of that,” answered the girl, as she pulled off her wet clothes. “Life isn’t a very happy thing, is it, mother, at least for those who live as we do?”
“There is good and bad in it, dear; we can’t have one without the other—most of us. At any rate, we must take it as it comes, who have to walk a path that we did not make, and stop walking when our path comes to an end, not a step before or after. But, Rachel, you are changed since yesterday. I see it in your face. What has happened to you?”
“Lots of things, mother. I will tell you the story, all of it, every word. Would you like to hear it?”
Her mother nodded, and, the baby-clothes being at last packed away, shut the lid of the box with a sigh, sat down upon it and listened.
Rachel told her of her meeting with Richard Darrien, and of how he saved her from the flood. She told of the strange night that they had spent together in the little cave while the lions marched up and down without. She told of her vigil over the sleeping Richard at the daybreak, and of the dream that she had dreamed when she seemed to see him grown to manhood, and herself grown to womanhood, and clad in white skins, watching him lashed to the trunk of a gigantic tree as the first arrows of sunrise struck down the lanes of some mysterious forest. She told of how her heart had been stirred, and of how afterwards in the mist by the water’s brink his heart had been stirred also, and of how they had kissed each other and wept because they must part.
Then she stopped, expecting that her mother would be angry with her and scold her for her thoughts and conduct, as she knew well her father would have done. But she was not angry, and she did not scold. She only stretched out her thin hands and stroked the child’s fair hair, saying:
“Don’t be frightened, Rachel, and don’t be sad. You think that you have lost him, but soon or late he will come back to you, perhaps as you dreamed—perhaps otherwise.”
“If I were sure of that, mother, I would not mind anything,” said the girl, “though really I don’t know why I should care,” she added defiantly.
“No, you don’t know now, but you will one day, and when you do, remember that, however long it seems to wait, you may be quite sure, because I who have the gift of knowing, told you so. Now tell me again what Richard Darrien was like while you remember, for perhaps I may never live to see his face, and I wish to get it into my mind.”
So Rachel told her, and when she had described every detail, asked suddenly:
“Must we really go on, mother, into this awful wilderness? Would not father turn back if you asked him?”
“Perhaps,” she answered. “But I shall not ask. He would never forgive me for preventing him from doing what he thinks his duty. It is a madness when we might be happy in the Cape or in England, but that cannot be helped, for it is also his destiny and ours. Don’t judge hardly of your father, Rachel, because he is a saint, and this world is a bad place for saints and their families, especially their families. You think that he does not feel; that he is heartless about me and the poor babe, and sacrifices us all, but I tell you he feels more than either you or I can do. At night when I pretend to go to sleep I watch him groaning over his loss and for me, and praying for strength to bear it, and for help to enable him to do his duty. Last night he was nearly crazed about you, and in all that awful storm, when the Kaffirs would not stir from the waggon, went alone down to the river guided by the lightnings, but of course returned half dead, having found nothing. By dawn he was back there again, for love and fear would not let him rest a minute. Yet he will never tell you anything of that, lest you should think that his faith in Providence was shaken. I know that he is strange—it is no use hiding it, but if I were to thwart him he would go quite mad, and then I should never forgive myself, who took him for better and for worse, just as he is, and not as I should like him to be. So, Rachel, be as happy as you can, and make the best of things, as I try to do, for your life is all before you, whereas mine lies behind me, and yonder,” and she pointed towards the place where the infant was buried. “Hush! here he comes. Now, help me with the packing, for we are to trek to the ford this afternoon.”
CHAPTER IV.
ISHMAEL
It may he doubted whether any well-born young English lady ever had a stranger bringing-up than that which fell to the lot of Rachel Dove. To begin with, she had absolutely no associates, male or female, of her own age and station, for at that period in its history such people did not exist in the country where she dwelt. Practically her only companions were her father, a religious enthusiast, and her mother, a half broken-hearted woman, who never for a single hour could forget the children she had lost, and whose constitutional mysticism increased upon her continually until at times it seemed as though she had added some new quality to her normal human nature.
Then there were the natives, amongst whom from the beginning Rachel was a sort of queen. In those first days of settlement they had never seen anybody in the least like her, no one so beautiful—for she grew up beautiful—so fearless, or so kind. The tale of that adventure of hers as a child upon the island in the midst of the flooded torrent spread all through the country with many fabulous additions. Thus the Kaffirs said that she was a “Heaven-herd,” that is, a magical person who can ward off or direct the lightnings, which she was supposed to have done upon this night; also that she could walk upon the waters, for otherwise how did she escape the flood? And, lastly, that the wild beasts were her servants, for had not the driver Tom and the natives seen the spoor of great lions right at the mouth of the cave where she and her companion sheltered, and had they not heard that she called these lions into the cave to protect her and him from the other creatures? Therefore, as has been said, they gave her a name, a very long name that meant Chieftainess, or Lady of Heaven, Inkosazana-y-Zoola; for Zulu or Zoola, which we know as the title of that people, means Heaven, and Udade-y-Silwana, or Sister of wild beasts. As these appellations proved too lengthy for general use, even among the Bantu races, who have plenty of time for talking, ultimately it was shortened to Zoola alone, so that throughout that part of South-Eastern Africa Rachel came to enjoy the lofty title of “Heaven,” the first girl, probably, who was ever so called.
With all natives from her childhood up, Rachel was on the best of terms. She was never familiar with them indeed, for that is not the way for a white person to win the affection, or even the respect of a Kaffir. But she was intimate in the sense that she could enter into their thoughts and nature, a very rare gift. We whites are apt to consider ourselves the superior of such folk, whereas we are only different. In fact, taken altogether, it is quite a question whether the higher sections of the Bantu peoples are not our equals. Of course, we have learned more things, and our best men are their betters. But, on the other hand, among them there is nothing so low as the inhabitants of our slums, nor have they any vices which can surpass our vices. Is an assegai so much more savage than a shell? Is there any great gulf fixed between a Chaka and a Napoleon? At least they are not hypocrites, and they are not vulgar; that is the privilege of civilised nations.
Well, with these folk Rachel was intimate. She could talk to the warrior of his wars, to the woman of her garden and her children to the children of that wonder world which surrounds childhood throughout the universe. And yet there was never a one of these but lifted the hand to her in salute when her shadow fell upon them. To them all she was the Inkosazana, the Great Lady. They would laugh at her father and mimic him behind his back, but Rachel they never laughed at or mimicked. Of her mother also, although she kept herself apart from them, much the same may be said. For her they had a curious name which they would not, or were unable to explain. They called her “Flower-that-grows-on-a-grave.” For Mr. Dove their appellation was less poetical. It was “Shouter-about-Things-he-does-not-understand,” or, more briefly, “The Shouter,” a name that he had acquired from his habit of raising his voice when he grew moved in speaking to them. The things that he did not understand, it may be explained, were not to their minds his religious views, which, although they considered them remarkable, were evidently his own affair, but their private customs. Especially their family customs that he was never weary of denouncing to the bewilderment of these poor heathens, who for their part were not greatly impressed by those of the few white people with whom they came in contact. Therefore, with native politeness, they concluded that he spoke thus rudely because he did not understand. Hence his name.
But Rachel had other friends. In truth she was Nature’s child, if in a better and a purer sense than Byron uses that description. The sea, the veld, the sky, the forest and the river, these were her companions, for among them she dwelt solitary. Their denizens, too, knew her well, for unless she were driven to it, never would she lift her hand against anything that drew the breath of life. The buck would let her pass quite close to them, nor at her coming did the birds stir from off their trees. Often she stood and watched the great elephants feeding or at rest, and even dared to wander among the herds of savage buffalo. Of only two living things was she afraid—the snake and the crocodile, that are cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field, because being cursed they have no sympathy or gentleness. She feared nothing else, she who was always fearless, nor brute or bird, did they fear her.
After Rachel’s adventure in the flooded river she and her parents pursued their journey by slow and tedious marches, and at length, though in those days this was strange enough, reached Natal unharmed. At first they went to live where the city of Durban now stands, which at that time had but just received its name. It was inhabited by a few rough men, who made a living by trading and hunting, and surrounded themselves with natives, refugees for the most part from the Zulu country. Amongst these people and their servants Mr. Dove commenced his labours, but ere long a bitter quarrel grew up between him and them.
These dwellers in the midst of barbarism led strange lives, and Mr. Dove, who rightly held it to be his duty to denounce wrong-doing of every sort, attacked them and their vices in no measured terms, and upon all occasions. For long years he kept up the fight, until at length he found himself ostracised. If they could avoid it, no white men would speak to him, nor would they allow him to instruct their Kaffirs. Thus his work came to an end in Durban as it had done in other places. Now, again, his wife and daughter hoped that he would leave South Africa for good, and return home. But it was not to be, for once more he announced that it was laid upon him to follow the example of his divine Master, and that the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. So, with a few attendants, they trekked away from Durban.
On this occasion it was his wild design to settle in Zululand—where Chaka, the great king, being dead, Dingaan, his brother and murderer, ruled in his place—and there devote himself to the conversion of the Zulus. Indeed, it is probable that he would have carried out this plan had he not been prevented by an accident. One night when they were about forty miles from Durban they camped on a stream, a tributary of the Tugela River, which ran close by, and formed the boundary of the Zulu country. It was a singularly beautiful spot, for to the east of them, about a mile away, stretched the placid Indian Ocean, while to the west, overshadowing them almost, rose a towering cliff, over which the stream poured itself, looking like a line of smoke against its rocky face. They had outspanned upon a rising hillock at the foot of which this little river wound away like a silver snake till it joined the great Tugela. In its general aspect the country was like an English park, dotted here and there with timber, around which grazed or rested great elands and other buck, and amongst them a huge rhinoceros.
When the waggon had creaked to the top of the rise, for, of course, there was no road, and the Kaffirs were beginning to unyoke the hungry oxen, Rachel, who was riding with her father, sprang from her horse and ran to it to help her mother to descend. She was now a tall young woman, full of health and vigour, strong and straightly shaped. Mrs. Dove, frail, delicate, grey-haired, placed her foot upon the disselboom and hesitated, for to her the ground seemed far off, and the heels of the cattle very near.
“Jump,” said Rachel in her clear, laughing voice, as she smacked the near after-ox to make it turn round, which it did obediently, for all the team knew her. “I’ll catch you.”
But her mother still hesitated, so thrusting her way between the ox and the front wheel Rachel stretched out her arms and lifted her bodily to the ground.
“How strong you are, my love!” said her mother, with a sort of wondering admiration and a sad little smile; “it seems strange to think that I ever carried you.”
“One had need to be in this country, dear,” replied Rachel cheerfully. “Come and walk a little way, you must be stiff with sitting in that horrid waggon,” and she led her quite to the top of the knoll. “There,” she added, “isn’t the view lovely? I never saw such a pretty place in all Africa. And oh! look at those buck, and yes—that is a rhinoceros. I hope it won’t charge us.”
Mrs. Dove obeyed, gazing first at the glorious sea, then at the plain and the trees, and lastly behind her at the towering cliff steeped in shadow—for the sun was westering—down the face of which the waterfall seemed to hang like a silver rope.
As her eyes fell upon this cliff Mrs. Dove’s face changed.
“I know this spot,” she said in a hurried voice. “I have seen it before.”
“Nonsense, mother,” answered Rachel. “We have never trekked here, so how could you?”
“I can’t say, love, but I have. I remember that cliff and the waterfall; yes, and those three trees, and the buck standing under them.”
“One often feels like that, about having seen places, I mean, mother, but of course it is all nonsense, because it is impossible, unless one dreams of them first.”
“Yes, love, unless one dreams. Well, I think that I must have dreamt. What was the dream now? Rachel weeping—Rachel weeping—my love, I think that we are going to live here, and I think—I think——”
“All right,” broke in her daughter quickly, with a shade of anxiety in her voice as though she did not wish to learn what her mother thought. “I don’t mind, I am sure. I don’t want to go to Zululand, and see this horrid Dingaan, who is always killing people, and I am quite sure that father would never convert him, the wicked monster. It is like the Garden of Eden, isn’t it, with the sea thrown in. There are all the animals, and that green tree with the fruit on it might be the Tree of Life, and—oh, my goodness, there is Adam!”
Mrs. Dove followed the line of her daughter’s outstretched hand, and perceived three or four hundred yards away, as in that sparkling atmosphere it was easy to do, a white man apparently clad in skins. He was engaged in crawling up a little rise of ground with the obvious intention of shooting at some blesbuck which stood in a hollow beyond with quaggas and other animals, while behind him was a mounted Kaffir who held his master’s horse.
“I see,” said Mrs. Dove, mildly interested. “But he looks more like Robinson Crusoe without his umbrella. Adam did not kill the animals in the Garden, my dear.”
“He must have lived on something besides forbidden apples,” remarked Rachel, “unless perhaps he was a vegetarian as father wants to be. There—he has fired!”
As she spoke a cloud of smoke arose above the man, and presently the loud report of a roer reached their ears. One of the buck rolled over and lay struggling on the ground, while the rest, together with many others at a distance, turned and galloped off this way and that, frightened by this new and terrible noise. The old rhinoceros under the tree rose snorting, sniffed the air, then thundered away up wind towards the man, its pig-like tail held straight above its back.
“Adam has spoilt our Eden; I hope the rhinoceros will catch him,” said Rachel viciously. “Look, he has seen it and is running to his horse.”
Rachel was right. Adam—or whatever his name might be—was running with remarkable swiftness. Reaching the horse just as the rhinoceros appeared within forty yards of him, he bounded to the saddle, and with his servant galloped off to the right. The rhinoceros came to a standstill for a few moments as though it were wondering whether it dared attack these strange creatures, then making up its mind in the negative, rushed on and vanished. When it was gone, the white man and the Kaffir, who had pulled up their horses at a distance, returned to the fallen buck, cut its throat, and lifted it on to the Kaffir’s horse, then rode slowly towards the waggon.
“They are coming to call,” said Rachel. “How should one receive a gentleman in skins?”
Apparently some misgivings as to the effect that might be produced by his appearance occurred to the hunter. At any rate, he looked first at the two white women standing on the brow, and next at his own peculiar attire, which appeared to consist chiefly of the pelt of a lion, plus a very striking pair of trousers manufactured from the hide of a zebra, and halted about sixty yards away, staring at them. Rachel, whose sight was exceedingly keen, could see his face well, for the light of the setting sun fell on it, and he wore no head covering. It was a dark, handsome face of a man about thirty-five years of age, with strongly-marked features, black eyes and beard, and long black hair that fell down on to his shoulders. They gazed at each other for a while, then the man turned to his after-rider, gave him an order in a clear, strong voice, and rode away inland. The after-rider, on the contrary, directed his horse up the rise until he was within a few yards of them, then sprang to the ground and saluted.
“What is it?” asked Rachel in Zulu, a language which she now spoke perfectly.
“Inkosikaas” (that is—Lady), answered the man, “my master thinks that you may be hungry and sends you a present of this buck,” and, as he spoke, he loosed the riem or hide rope by which it was fastened behind his saddle, and let the animal fall to the ground.
Rachel turned her eyes from it, for it was covered with blood, and unpleasant to look at, then replied:
“My father and my mother thank your master. How is he named, and where does he dwell?”
“Lady, among us black people he is named Ibubesi (lion), but his white name is Hishmel.”
“Hishmel, Hishmel?” said Rachel. “Oh! I know, he means Ishmael. There, mother, I told you he was something biblical, and of course Ishmael dwelt in the wilderness, didn’t he, after his father had behaved so badly to poor Hagar, and was a wild man whose hand was against every man’s.”
“Rachel, Rachel,” said her mother suppressing a little smile. “Your father would be very angry if he heard you. You should not speak lightly of holy persons.”
“Well, mother, Abraham may have been a holy person, but we should think him a mean old thing nowadays, almost as mean as Sarah. You know they were most of them mean, so what is the use of pretending they were not?”
Then without waiting for an answer she asked the Kaffir again: “Where does the Inkoos Ishmael dwell?”
“In the wilderness,” answered the man appropriately. “Now his kraal is yonder, two hours’ ride away. It is called Mafooti,” and he pointed over the top of the precipice, adding: “he is a hunter and trades with the Zulus.”
“Is he Dutch?” asked Rachel, whose curiosity was excited.
The Kaffir shook his head. “No, he hates the Dutch; he is of the people of George.”
“The people of George? Why, he must mean a subject of King George—an Englishman.”
“Yes, yes, Lady, an Englishman, like you,” and he grinned at her. “Have you any message for the Inkoos Hishmel?”
“Yes. Say to the Inkoos Ishmael or Lion-who-dwells-in-the-wilderness, hates the Dutch and wears zebra-skin trousers, that my father and my mother thank him very much for his present, and hope that his health is good. Go. That is all.”
The man grinned again, suspecting a joke, for the Zulus have a sense of humour, then repeated the message word for word, trying to pronounce Ishmael as Rachel did, saluted, mounted his horse, and galloped off after his master.
“Perhaps you should have kept that Kaffir until your father came,” suggested Mrs. Dove doubtfully.
“What was the good?” said Rachel. “He would only have asked Mr. Ishmael to call in order that he might find out his religious opinions, and I don’t want to see any more of the man.”
“Why not, Rachel?”
“Because I don’t like him, mother. I think he is worse than any of the rest down there, too bad to stop among them probably, and—” she added with conviction, “I think we shall have more of his company than we want before all is done. Oh! it is no good to say that I am prejudiced—I do, and what is more, he came into our Garden of Eden and shot the buck. I hope he will meet that rhinoceros on the way home. There!”
Although she disapproved, or tried to think that she did, of such strong opinions so strongly expressed, Mrs. Dove offered no further opposition to them. The fact was that her daughter’s bodily and mental vigour overshadowed her, as they did her husband also. Indeed, it seemed curious that this girl, so powerful in body and in mind, should have sprung from such a pair, a wrong-headed, narrow-viewed saint whose right place in the world would have been in a cell in the monastery or one of the stricter orders, and a gentle, uncomplaining, high-bred woman with a mind distinguished by its affectionate and mystical nature, a mind so unusual and refined that it seemed to be, and in truth was, open to influences whereof, mercifully enough, the majority of us never feel the subtle, secret power.
Of her father there was absolutely no trace in Rachel, except a certain physical resemblance—so far as he was concerned she must have thrown back to some earlier progenitor. Even their intellects and moral outlook were quite different. She had, it is true, something of his scholarly power; thus, notwithstanding her wild upbringing, as has been said, she could read the Greek Testament almost as well as he could, or even Homer, which she liked because the old, bloodthirsty heroes reminded her of the Zulus. He had taught her this and other knowledge, and she was an apt pupil. But there the resemblance stopped. Whereas his intelligence was narrow and enslaved by the priestly tradition, hers was wide and human. She searched and she criticised; she believed in God as he did, but she saw His purpose working in the evil as in the good. In her own thought she often compared these forces to the Day and Night, and believed both of them to be necessary to the human world. For her, savagery had virtues as well as civilisation, although it is true of the latter she knew but little.
From her mother Rachel had inherited more, for instance her grace of speech and bearing, and her intuition, or foresight. Only in her case this curious gift did not dominate her, her other forces held it in check. She felt and she knew, but feeling and knowledge did not frighten or make her weak, any more than the strength of her frame or of her spirit made her unwomanly. She accepted these things as part of her mental equipment, that was all, being aware that to her a door was opened which is shut firmly enough in the faces of most folk, but not on that account in the least afraid of looking through it as her mother was.
Thus when she saw the man called Ishmael, she knew well enough that he was destined to bring great evil upon her and hers, as when as a child she met the boy Richard Darrien, she had known other things. But she did not, therefore, fear the man and his attendant evil. She only shrank from the first and looked through the second, onward and outward to the ultimate good which she was convinced lay at the end of everything, and meanwhile, being young and merry, she found his zebra-skin trousers very ridiculous.
Just as Rachel and her mother finished their conversation about Mr. Ishmael, Mr. Dove arrived from a little Kloof, where he had been engaged with the Kaffirs in cutting bushes to make a thorn fence round their camp as a protection against lions and hyenas. He looked older than when we last met him, and save for a fringe of white hair, which increased his monkish appearance, was quite bald. His face, too, was even thinner and more eager, and his grey eyes were more far-away than formerly; also he had grown a long white beard.
“Where did that buck come from?” he asked, looking at the dead creature.
Rachel told him the story with the result that, as her mother had expected, he was very indignant with her. It was most unkind, and indeed, un-Christian, he said, not to have asked this very courteous gentleman into the camp, as he would much have liked to converse with him. He had often reproved her habit of judging by external, and in the veld, lion and zebra skins furnish a very suitable covering. She should remember that such were given to our first parents.
“Oh! I know, father,” broke in Rachel, “when the climate grew too cold for leaf petticoats and the rest. Now don’t begin to scold me, because I must go to cook the dinner. I didn’t like the look of the man; besides, he rode off. Then it wasn’t my business to ask him here, but mother’s, who stood staring at him and never said a single word. If you want to see him so much, you can go to call upon him to-morrow, only don’t take me, please. And now will you send Tom to skin the buck?”
Mr. Dove answered that Tom was busy with the fence, and, ceasing from argument which he felt to be useless with Rachel, suggested doubtfully that he had better be his own butcher.
“No, no,” she replied, “you know you hate that sort of thing, as I do. Let it be till the Kaffirs have time. We have the cold meat left for supper, and I will boil some mealies. Go and help with the fence, father, while I light the fire.”
Usually Rachel was the best of sleepers. So soon as she laid her head upon whatever happened to serve her for a pillow, generally a saddle, her eyes shut to open no more till daylight came. On this night, however, it was not so. She had her bed in a little flap tent which hooked on to the side of the waggon that was occupied by her parents. Here she lay wide awake for a long while, listening to the Kaffirs who, having partaken heartily of the buck, were now making themselves drunk by smoking dakka, or Indian hemp, a habit of which Mr. Dove had tried in vain to break them. At length the fire around which they sat near the thorn fence on the further side of the waggon, grew low, and their incoherent talk ended in silence, punctuated by snores. Rachel began to doze but was awakened by the laughing cries of the hyenas quite close to her. The brutes had scented the dead buck and were wandering round the fence in hope of a midnight meal. Rachel rose, and taking the gun that lay at her side, threw a cloak over her shoulders and left the tent.
The moon was shining brightly and by its light she saw the hyenas, two of them, wolves as they are called in South Africa, long grey creatures that prowled round the thorn fence hungrily, causing the oxen that were tied to the trek tow and the horses picketed on the other side of the waggon, to low and whinny in an uneasy fashion. The hyenas saw her also, for her head rose above the rough fence, and being cowardly beasts, slunk away. She could have shot them had she chose, but did not, first because she hated killing anything unnecessarily, even a wolf, and secondly because it would have aroused the camp. So she contented herself by throwing more dry wood on to the fire, stepping over the Kaffirs, who slept like logs, in order to do so. Then, resting upon her gun like some Amazon on guard, she gazed a while at the lovely moonlit sea, and the long line of game trekking silently to their drinking place, until seeing no more of the wolves or other dangerous beasts, she turned and sought her bed again.
She was thinking of Mr. Ishmael and his zebra-skin trousers; wondering why the man should have filled her with such an unreasoning dislike. If she had disliked him at a distance of fifty paces, how she would hate him when he was near! And yet he was probably only one of those broken soldiers of fortune of whom she had met several, who took to the wilderness as a last resource, and by degrees sank to the level of the savages among whom they lived, a person who was not worth a second thought. So she tried to put him from her mind, and by way of an antidote, since still she could not sleep, filled it with her recollections of Richard Darrien. Some years had gone by since they had met, and from that time to this she had never heard a word of him in which she could put the slightest faith. She did not even know whether he were alive or dead, only she believed that if he were dead she would be aware of it. No, she had never heard of him, and it seemed probable that she never would hear of him again. Yet she did not believe that either. Had she done so her happiness—for on the whole Rachel was a happy girl—would have departed from her, since this once seen lad never left her heart, nor had she forgotten their farewell kiss.
Reflecting thus, at length Rachel fell off to sleep and began to dream, still of Richard Darrien. It was a long dream whereof afterwards she could remember but little, but in it there were shoutings, and black faces, and the flashing of spears; also the white man Ishmael was present there. One part, however, she did remember; Richard Darrien, grown taller, changed and yet the same, leaning over her, warning her of danger to come, warning her against this man Ishmael.
She awoke suddenly to see that the light of dawn was creeping into her tent, that low, soft light which is so beautiful in Southern Africa. Rachel was disturbed, she felt the need of action, of anything that would change the current of her thoughts. No one was about yet. What should she do? She knew; the sea was not more than a mile away, she would go down to it and bathe, and be back before the rest of them were awake.
CHAPTER V.
NOIE
That a girl should set out alone to bathe through a country inhabited chiefly by wild beasts and a few wandering savages, sounds a somewhat dangerous form of amusement. So it was indeed, but Rachel cared nothing for such dangers, in fact she never even thought of them. Long ago she had discovered that the animals would not harm her if she did not harm them, except perhaps the rhinoceros, which is given to charging on sight, and that was large and could generally be discovered at a distance. As for elephants and lions, or even buffalo, her experience was that they ran away, except on rare occasions when they stood still, and stared at her. Nor was she afraid of the savages, who always treated her with the utmost respect, even if they had never seen her before. Still, in case of accidents she took her double-barrelled gun, loaded in one barrel with ball, and in the other with loopers or slugs, and awakened Tom, the driver, to tell him where she was going. The man stared at her sleepily, and murmured a remonstrance, but taking no heed of him she pulled out some thorns from the fence to make a passage, and in another minute was lost to sight in the morning mist.
Following a game path through the dew-drenched grass which grew upon the swells and valleys of the veld, and passing many small buck upon her way, in about twenty minutes, just as the light was really beginning to grow, Rachel reached the sea. It was dead calm, and the tide chancing to be out, soon she found the very place she sought—a large, rock-bound pool where there would be no fear of sharks that never stay in such a spot, fearing lest they should be stranded. Slipping off her clothes she plunged into the cool and crystal water and began to swim round and across the pool, for at this art she was expert, diving and playing like a sea-nymph. Her bath done she dried herself with a towel she had brought, all except her long, fair hair, which she let loose for the wind to blow on, and having dressed, stood a while waiting to see the glory of the sun rising from the ocean.
Whilst she remained thus, suddenly she heard the sound of horses galloping towards her, two of them, she could tell that from the hoof beats, although the low-lying mist made them invisible. A few more seconds and they emerged out of the fog. The fi
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"David Morgan"
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2022-01-10T10:10:00-05:00
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A look back at the esteemed personalities who've left us this year, who'd touched us with their innovation, creativity and humanity.
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en
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https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/notable-deaths-in-2022/
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A look back at the esteemed personalities who left us this year, who'd touched us with their innovation, creativity and humanity.
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan. The Associated Press contributed to this gallery.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI (April 16, 1927-December 31, 2022) stunned the world in 2013 when he announced, after eight years in office, that he lacked the strength to continue as head of the Catholic Church. The then-85-year-old thus became the first pope in 600 years to resign.
The first German pope in a thousand years, Benedict – born Joseph Ratzinger – was a theologian and writer devoted to history and tradition, who was elected to succeed Pope John Paul II. He used his position to redirect the world's focus on faith in an era of secularization. On his first foreign trip as pope, at a 2005 World Youth Day gathering in Cologne, Germany, he told a million attendees, "In vast areas of the world today, there is a strange forgetfulness of God. It seems as if everything would be just the same even without Him."
He reached out to other faiths, and became only the second pope in history to enter a synagogue. As a conservative, many of his actions (such as relaxing the restrictions on Latin mass) satisfied traditionalists, but were controversial among more progressive voices in the clergy. There were also PR gaffes; he was criticized for telling reporters, in 2009, that distributing condoms would increase, not decrease, the spread of AIDS.
But he was also forced to confront the fallout of the church's sex abuse scandal, and notably apologized to victims.
Benedict's dramatic decision to retire, rather than to remain in office until his death, paved the way for the election of Pope Francis, a more progressive cleric. The two lived as neighbors, an unprecedented arrangement, as Benedict wrote and lived a monastic life in the Vatican Gardens. Francis would say having Benedict at the Vatican was like having a "wise grandfather" living at home.
Barbara Walters
Trailblazing broadcaster Barbara Walters (September 25, 1929-December 30, 2022) forged a path for women in an industry that was dominated by men, so much so that, when she was hired as a writer for NBC's "Today" in 1961, she was only allowed to write for women. Writing for male correspondents would become only one of many glass ceilings she would break.
She began making on-air appearances with light, offbeat stories, for which she once wore bunny ears to report on the life of a Playboy bunny. In addition to "Today," she also hosted the syndicated morning show "Not for Women Only."
Walters would become the co-host of "Today," only to be lured away by ABC News in 1976, becoming the first woman to anchor an evening network newscast, earning an unprecedented $1 million salary. But co-anchoring with Harry Reasoner proved disastrous, and ABC News president Roone Arledge moved her into special projects, with primetime interview specials and contributions to the newsmagazine "20/20," a show she would eventually co-host. And in 1997, she created "The View," an all-female live talk show that tackled any and every topic.
During her decades at NBC and ABC, she earned her reputation as a tough interviewer with incisive questioning of newsmakers, celebrities, politicians and world leaders. She admitted she was never in awe around celebrities, because she'd grown up around many, her father being a nightclub owner. "I'm not afraid when I'm interviewing, I have no fear!" Walters told The Associated Press in 2008. And she was not afraid to snatch an interview away from a colleague – her competitive chops to get an exclusive were strong.
By 2004, when she stepped down from "20/20," she had logged more than 700 interviews (more than a few of whose subjects would be made to cry). She won 12 Emmys, and received a Peabody Award for her interview with Christopher Reeve, following the horseback-riding accident from which he was paralyzed. In 1999 her two-hour talk with Monica Lewinsky, in which the former White House intern discussed her affair with President Bill Clinton, drew more than 70 million viewers.
In 2014, upon her retirement from "The View," Walters said she was proud of her legacy, of the women who followed in her footsteps.
And she promised Variety, "I'm not going to cry."
Pelé
For many, Brazilian football star Pelé (October 23, 1940-December 29, 2022) was the greatest player of "the beautiful game." He won a record three World Cups, and became one of the most commanding sports figures of our era.
For nearly two decades he transfixed fans and dazzled opponents with his grace and athleticism as a leading scorer for the Brazilian club Santos, and his country's national team.
He was a mere 17 years old when he scored two goals in Brazil's 5-2 victory in the 1958 World Cup final. "I got the gift from God to play football," he said. That gift catapulted him from an impoverished childhood to worldwide celebrity, becoming an ambassador not just for the game, but for UNESCO and the United Nations as well.
In 1975, at age 34, he signed a $2.8 million contract with the New York Cosmos that made him the world's highest-paid athlete. He played in the States for three seasons, and finished his career with a record 1,279 goals.
In retirement, he didn't quite leave the field. He played a football player in the Sylvester Stallone movie "Victory."
In 2018 Pele described for GQ magazine what it was like to make his 1,000th career goal: "It was a penalty kick and for the first time in my whole career my legs were shaking, the whole of the Maracanã was shouting and screaming, and I remember thinking, 'Oh, my God… I cannot miss!' …
"When I was 17, it was my first World Cup, no responsibility, no nerves. But for my 1,000th goal, I was Pelé, three-time world champion, most famous footballer. I never felt pressure like it."
Vivienne Westwood
"I never, ever tried to shock people," said Vivienne Westwood (April 8, 1941-December 29, 2022), who in 1970s London became the leading designer and seamstress of the punk movement – a fashion rebellion made of ripped fabric, safety pins and S&M gear.
She told "Sunday Morning" in 2013, "At the time of punk rock, I was so outraged at the way the world is so corrupt and mismanaged and everything, that the look was supposed to be of an urban guerrilla. It was somehow a kind of crusade to challenge the status quo."
Westwood hadn't wanted to be a fashion designer; she'd started out as a primary schoolteacher. But she offered to help her boyfriend, Malcolm McLaren, manager of the pioneering punk rock band, The Sex Pistols. Together they opened a music and fashion shop on London's Kings Road.
Though she had no formal training, she held her first runway show in 1981, and gradually moved into more traditional fashion work, incorporating historical British designs into contemporary clothes (though still managing to shock, as in her 1987 Statue of Liberty corset).
Even decades after punk's rise and fall, the Westwood style remained irreverent and uncompromising, her hair still dyed a trademark orange. And she became accepted by a British establishment that once mocked her; the Queen made her a dame in 2006.
When correspondent Anthony Mason asked Westwood if she still thought of herself as a rebel, she replied, "To tell you the honest truth, all I am really trying to do is to make the world a better place," she said.
Stephen "tWitch" Boss
Dancer and choreographer Stephen "tWitch" Boss (September 29, 1982-December 13, 2022) became the beloved dancing DJ on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show," beginning in 2014, and a familiar presence on TikTok, in videos featuring his wife, dancer Allison Holker.
Born and raised in Montgomery, Alabama, Boss studied dance performance at Southern Union State Community College and Chapman University. A contestant on "So You Think You Can Dance," he later became a judge on the dance competition show. He also appeared on "Star Search," "The Wade Robson Project," and in films like "Hairspray," "Step Up: All In," "Step Up 3D," "Magic Mike XXL," the 2016 "Ghostbusters," and "The Hip Hop Nutcracker."
In a 2014 interview with the Associated Press, Boss talked about his inspirations: "I love Fred Astaire … [He] was so smooth, and it was great. He was so classy. But Gene Kelly, he could be like somebody's dad, who just decided to get up off the couch and dance around and clean the kitchen up."
Angelo Badalamenti
Composer Angelo Badalamenti (March 22, 1937-December 11, 2022) was best-known for his work with filmmaker David Lynch, from motion pictures like "Blue Velvet" and "Mulholland Drive," to the cult TV series "Twin Peaks." Sensuous and other-worldly, Badalamenti's synthesizer-infused music was perfectly suited to the surreal and evocative visuals of Lynch.
Badalamenti grew up in Brooklyn listening to Italian opera, took piano lessons beginning at age 8, and earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the Manhattan School of Music. A music teacher, he also wrote songs for Nina Simone ("Another Spring") and Nancy Wilson ("Face It Girl, It's Over"), and for the films "Gordon's War" and "Law and Disorder," as well as a Christmas carol that was recorded for PBS.
When Isabella Rossellini was shooting 1986's "Blue Velvet," Badalamenti was asked to help her with the vocals for her performance as a nightclub singer. He did, and the subsequent recording earned high praise from the director: "This is peachy keen!" Badalamenti then composed music to accompany lyrics by Lynch for a song, "Mysteries of Love."
In a 2016 interview for Pitchfork Magazine, Badalamenti recalled asking Lynch what kind of music he wanted for his very unusual, non-rhyming, no-hook lyrics: "He said, 'Angelo, just let the music float like the ocean tide, just put it in space, make it timeless and endless.'" He brought on singer Julee Cruise to record the ethereal song, which led to Badalamenti being asked to compose the entire score.
Listen to an excerpt from Badalamenti's Opening Titles from "Blue Velvet"
Listen to an excerpt from "Mysteries of Love" from "Blue Velvet"
The composer's collaborations with Lynch would extend beyond films such as "Wild at Heart," "Lost Highway," "The Straight Story" and "Mulholland Dr.," to the landmark series "Twin Peaks," which itself spawned a feature film and a reboot series. (Badalamenti received three Emmy nominations for the show.)
Listen to an excerpt from Badalamenti's theme from "Twin Peaks"
He and Lynch also staged a live concert piece, "Industrial Symphony No. 1," performed by Cruise, for the 1989 New Wave Music Festival in Brooklyn.
Badalamenti's other film credits included "A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors," "Weeds," "The Comfort of Strangers," "The City of Lost Children," "Holy Smoke," "The Beach," "Secretary," "Lathe of Heaven," "Auto Focus," "Cabin Fever," "A Very Long Engagement," and "Stalingrad."
In an article posted on culture.org, Badalementi's nephew, Frances, recalled visiting with his uncle in Prague while he was recording his score for Lynch's "Lost Highway," and a piece of advice his uncle gave him: "You need to do what you are good at. You need to do what you do best."
Kirstie Alley
Actress Kirstie Alley (January 12, 1951-December 5, 2022) earned plaudits for both comedy and drama, winning one Emmy for the hit sitcom "Cheers" (on which she starred for six seasons), and winning a second for her performance as the mother of an autistic child in the 1994 TV movie "David's Mother."
After dropping out of college in Kansas, Alley moved to Hollywood to work as an interior designer. She appeared on game shows as a contestant, on "Match Game" and "Password Plus." But she was hired, despite no professional experience and a faked résumé, to play Lt. Saavik, the half-Vulcan, half-Romulan protégé of Mr. Spock, in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." She noted at a 2016 "Star Trek" convention panel in Las Vegas that, as a teenager, friends had made fun of her eyebrows' ability to arch: "I have no control over it," she said. "So, I would watch [the original 'Star Trek' series] and when Mr. Spock would come on, I would say, 'Wow, if I was ever an actress, I could play Spock's daughter.'"
Films that followed included "Runaway," "A Bunny's Tale" (as Gloria Steinem), "Summer School," and "Sibling Rivalry," before the hit comedy "Look Who's Talking," as a single working mom of a newborn baby (voiced by Bruce Willis). She followed with two sequels "Look Who's Talking Too," and "Look Who's Talking Now."
She also earned Emmy nominations for her sitcom "Veronica's Closet," and for the TV miniseries "The Last Don."
A spokesperson for Jenny Craig, Alley dealt with weight issues for years, even starring as a fictionalized version of herself in the Showtime comedy series "Fat Actress" (a show that drew laughs from the public treatment of her weight gain and loss), and appearing in the reality series "Kirstie Alley's Big Life" (which documented her attempts to lose weight). She said she agreed to the show because of misinformation about her in the tabloids: "Anything bad you can say about me, they say," Alley told the Associated Press. "I've never collapsed, fainted, passed out. Basically, anything they've said, I never. The only true thing is, I got fat."
Her later TV appearances included "Dancing With the Stars" (in which she finished in second place, in 2011), and, in early 2022, the competition series "The Masked Singer."
Bob McGrath
Bob McGrath (June 13, 1932-December 4, 2022) was a founding cast member of the landmark children's series "Sesame Street" when the show premiered in 1969. His last appearance on the show was in 2017 – a more than four-decade run as the friendly neighbor Bob Johnson.
McGrath's character, a music teacher, sang such songs as "People In Your Neighborhood," "Sing," "Morning Town Ride" and "See You Tomorrow."
A folk singer and music teacher who'd enjoyed professional success in Japan, the Illinois native was also a singer on the 1960s series "Sing Along With Mitch." He recalled in a 2004 interview for the Television Academy that he'd had no real experience as an actor (most of the cast did not), and was frustrated during his first year on "Sesame Street," not getting a fix on what his character, "Bob," should be. "And ultimately they said, 'You know, we don't really want you to be anybody, we just really want all of you folks to be yourself.' …
"It's interesting, we had special guests, they'd come on, and some of them were wonderful, wonderful actors and actresses playing all different variety of roles, but apparently they did not test out as well because the kids kind of really were able to see that they were kind of acting more than being themselves and being totally genuine with them on a one-on-one, eyeball-to-eyeball basis."
McGrath was let go after 45 seasons (along with Emilio Delgado and Roscoe Orman) when the show's first-run broadcast rights were moved from PBS to HBO. He told a Florida convention in 2016, "I'd be so greedy if I wanted five minutes more."
Gaylord Perry
Gaylord Perry (September 15, 1938-December 1, 2022) was the first pitcher to win the Cy Young Award in two leagues – first with the Cleveland Indians in 1972 (notching a 24-16 record); and then, after having just turned 40, with the San Diego Padres in 1978 (21-6). It was his fifth season having scored 20 or more wins.
A native of Williamston, North Carolina, Perry was drafted by the San Francisco Giants, and would pitch for eight major league teams over his 22-season career. A five-time All-Star, he posted a lifetime won-loss record of 314-255, with 3,534 strikeouts, and an ERA of 3.11.
Although he was only ejected from a game once for doctoring a baseball, in 1982, Perry had a reputation for using foreign substances. In his 1974 autobiography, "Me and the Spitter," he told of first throwing a spitball on May 31, 1964, when Perry, a reliever, pitched 10 innings in a marathon 23-inning game against the New York Mets; he did not give up a run, and was credited with the win. It also earned him a spot in the Giants' starting rotation.
He stopped throwing the pitch in 1968 after Major League Baseball ruled pitchers could no longer touch their fingers to their mouths before touching the baseball. (Vaseline and hair tonic became fallbacks.) But he also mimicked routines to make batters think he was applying a foreign substance, to fake them out.
The future Hall of Famer, for all his pitching prowess, was not a natural at the plate; Giants manager Alvin Dark once stated that a man would land on the moon before Perry would hit a home run. It was therefore fate that on June 20, 1969, shortly after the Apollo 11 lunar lander touched down on the Moon's surface, Perry hit his first (and only) home run, against Dodgers pitcher Claude Osteen.
Christine McVie
Vocalist, songwriter and keyboard player Christine McVie (July 12, 1943-November 30, 2022) made her mark in one of the most successful rock bands of the 1970s, '80s and '90s, Fleetwood Mac.
Christine Anne Perfect was born into a music family, and studied classical piano until she turned to rock, and joined the band Chicken Shack as a singer and piano player. After two albums with Chicken Shack, she released an eponymous solo album, in 1970, before joining Fleetwood Mac (she had in the meantime married Fleetwood Mac bassist John McVie).
Fleetwood Mac would go on to sell more than 100 million records, despite lineup changes that suggested the band was on the outs. But McVie continued (as singer, musician and songwriter), contributing to 14 albums, including the No. 1 charting albums "Fleetwood Mac," "Rumours," "Mirage" and "The Dance." "Rumours" won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1978.
McVie's songs for Fleetwood Mac included "Don't Stop," "Behind the Mask," "Everywhere," "Hold Me," "Oh Daddy," "Over My Head," "Save Me," "Little Lies," "You Make Loving Fun," and "Say You Love Me." And while her marriage to John McVie ended (as memorably documented in song in "Rumours"), the band endured.
In the late '90s, McVie left the group, released a solo album, "In the Meantime," and lived in semi-retirement. A fear of flying kept her in the U.K., but after psychotherapy helped her overcome her aerophobia, she flew to Maui and sat in with Mick Fleetwood's blues band. That led to her reteaming with Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham and ex-husband John McVie for their 2014 tour. She also collaborated with Buckingham on a 2017 album, "Lindsey Buckingham Christine McVie."
Earlier this year, an anthology of her work, "Songbird," was released.
In 2014 she talked with "Sunday Morning" correspondent John Blackstone about rejoining Fleetwood Mac after such a long separation: "I thought it was gonna be a struggle, to be honest. I was a little anxious. … But the moment you find yourself playing with these fantastic musicians and friends, it just melted away. And now I feel completely comfortable, really, surprisingly so."
Irene Cara
She recorded a Spanish-language album for Gema Records, "Esta Es Irene," when she was nine years old. The singer-actress Irene Cara (March 18, 1959-November 25, 2022) would go on to win an Oscar, two Grammys and a Golden Globe for her music for "Fame" and "Flashdance."
Before her film success she appeared on Broadway in "Maggie Flynn," "The Me Nobody Knows," and "Got Tu Go Disco." She flew across the stage in the 1972 sci-fi musical "Via Galactica," which closed after seven performances, and was in the Public Theater's production of "Lotta, or The Best Thing Evolution's Ever Come Up With."
Cara appeared on TV in "The Electric Company," "Love of Life," "What's Happening!!," and "Roots: The Next Generation." She starred in "Aaron Loves Angela" (Gordon Parks Jr's update of "Romeo and Juliet"), and at age 13 was cast as the lead of "Sparkle," a 1976 musical about a girl group co-starring Lonette McKee.
In 1980's "Fame," Cara starred as Coco, a student attending New York's High School of Performing Arts. She performed the songs "Out Here on My Own," "Hot Lunch Jam," "I Sing the Body Electric," and the title tune, which became a Top 10 hit and an Oscar-winner for Best Original Song. She also earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture/Comedy or Musical.
For the 1983 film "Flashdance," Cara co-wrote and performed the title track, "Flashdance ... What A Feeling," which sat on top of the Billboard charts for six weeks. She shared the Academy Award for Best Original Song with Giorgio Moroder and Keith Forsey.
She sang or composed songs for several features, from "D.C. Cab" to the animated "All Dogs Go to Heaven." For the Clint Eastwood/Burt Reynolds period comedy "City Heat," she recorded the George and Ira Gershwin ballad, "Embraceable You." Other albums included "Anyone Can See," "What a Feelin'," and "Carasmatic."
In the 1990s she toured as Mary Magdalene in "Jesus Christ Superstar."
Robert Clary
French-born actor-singer Robert Clary (March 1, 1926-November 16, 2022) was best-known for playing Cpl. Louis LeBeau, part of a cohort of Allied prisoners of war engaging in sabotage under the noses of their Nazi captors, in the 1960s comedy "Hogan's Heroes."
In 1965, when the show's pilot was being shot, Clary was offered the part of LeBeau without even having to audition. Though controversial, the show ran on CBS for six seasons.
In 1985 a documentary, "Robert Clary, A5714: A Memoir of Liberation," told of his life and his ordeal in concentration camps. The youngest of 14 children, Clary (born Robert Widerman) was 16 when he and his family were forced from their Paris apartment into a crowded cattle car, transporting them to concentration camps. [A5714 referred to the identification number tattooed on his arm.] His parents and 10 siblings were killed under the Nazis, he said.
He credited his youth and ability to work for keeping him alive for 31 months, until he was freed when American troops liberated the Buchenwald death camp.
Returning to Paris and reunited with his two sisters, Clary worked as a singer and recording artist. He moved to the States in 1949, appearing in musicals (including "New Faces of 1952," "Irma La Douce" and "Cabaret"), TV ("Days of Our Lives" and "The Bold and the Beautiful"), and films ("The Hindenburg"). He also recorded jazz versions of songs by Ira Gershwin and Stephen Sondheim.
In 1997, he was one of dozens of Holocaust survivors whose stories were told in "The Triumphant Spirit." In an interview that year he said, "I beg the next generation not to do what people have done for centuries - hate others because of their skin, shape of their eyes, or religious preference."
In an Associated Press interview he criticized Holocaust deniers, "making a mockery of the 6 million Jews - including a million and a half children - who died in the gas chambers and ovens." He also published a memoir, "From the Holocaust to Hogan's Heroes: The Autobiography of Robert Clary," in 2001.
In a 2018 interview with the Television Academy Foundation about his experience on "Hogan's Heroes," he said he had no trepidation about appearing in the prison camp comedy given his personal history. "No, because it had nothing to do with my past. I was never a soldier. I was never a prisoner of war. I was sent to a concentration camp and lucky I survived, which is completely different. We were not human beings. The only reason we lived [was] because they needed us to work in their factories. Otherwise they would have killed us all.
"And, it was acting!"
Aaron Carter
Singer, rapper and actor Aaron Carter (December 7, 1987-November 5, 2022) began performing as a child, and at age nine released his first, eponymous album. It went gold, and was followed by three more albums during his teen years, including the triple-platinum "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)" (2000). His hits included "Crush on You," "Crazy Little Party Girl," and "I Want Candy."
His fifth and final album was "LOVE" (2018).
The younger brother of Nick Carter (of Backstreet Boys), Aaron performed as an opening act for his brother's group, and for Britney Spears. He also appeared as an actor in "Lizzie McGuire," "Family Affair," "Popstar" and "Supercross," and in the musical "Seussical" on Broadway. He finished in fifth place on "Dancing with the Stars" in 2009.
Jerry Lee Lewis
In 1957 two songs by "The Killer," Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935-October 28, 2022), burned up the airwaves, becoming Top 10 hits: "Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On" and "Great Balls of Fire," songs that showcased the Louisiana-born piano player's outrageous talent and energy – a force of nature inspired by sneaking into Black juke joints, and honed by his experience playing rockabilly, boogie-woogie and gospel.
But in 1958 Lewis' career suffered from the scandal of marrying his second-cousin, Myra Gale Brown (who was 13 at the time), while he was still married to the second of his seven wives. His European tour was canceled, and he was blacklisted from the radio.
Lewis then reinvented himself as a country artist, in the 1960s, with such hits as "Another Place, Another Time," "She Still Comes Around (to Love What's Left of Me)," "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye," "There Must Be More to Love Than This" and "Would You Take Another Chance on Me."
In 1986, Lewis was among the inaugural class of inductees for the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
In 2006, in his 70s, Lewis' longevity was marked by the release of "Last Man Standing," an album of duets featuring such stars as Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger, B.B. King, George Jones, Chuck Berry and Neil Young. Four years later he recorded another album of duets, "Mean Old Man," this time paired with Willie Nelson, Mavis Staples, Tim McGraw, Keith Richards and Sheryl Crow.
In 2015's bestseller "Jerry Lee Lewis: His Own Story," he described to biographer Rick Bragg the importance, to him, of being a rock 'n' roll star: "The show, that's what counts. It covers up everything. Any bad thought anyone ever had about you goes away. 'Is that the one that married that girl? Well, forget about it, let me hear that song.' It takes their sorrow, and it takes mine."
Julie Powell
"My husband almost divorced me last night and it was all because of sauce tartar."
In 2002 Julie Powell (April 20, 1973-October 26, 2022), a secretary and frustrated writer who was finding no success after moving to New York City, made it her mission to prepare every single recipe in Julia Child's classic 1961 cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," over the course of a single year – cooking, chopping and stirring late into the night, making 11 to 12 dishes a week.
The amateur cook talked to "CBS Evening News" in 2003 about her culinary journey: "Even though I am making myself crazy, it has introduced some sanity into my life," she said.
Her husband Eric said there'd only been one real culinary disaster: the aspics. "All the aspics were just horrible," he said.
Her blog, the Julie/Julia Project, was a hit, earning her an agent and a book deal. "Julie & Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen," published in 2005, inspired the 2009 film, "Julie & Julia," which starred Amy Adams as Powell and Meryl Streep as Child.
The film was a success, but when Powell had written to Child about her cooking project, the response she received was underwhelming. It didn't matter, she told CBS News in 2009: "Her disinterest didn't change how I felt about her. I don't love Julia Child because she loves me; I love her because she inspired me to change my life. ... I know how I feel about Julia, and that's what matters."
Her favorite of Child's 524 recipes? Braised Cucumbers. "I'm so glad they made it into the movie, because I think they're a revelation!" Powell said.
Pierre Soulages
French abstract artist Pierre Soulages (December 24, 1919-October 26, 2022) became known as the "Master of Black," for bringing the mystery of darkness into the light. His paintings – big, bold, and overwhelmingly black – have commanded attention since he made a name for himself in 1950s New York, then emerging as the center of the modern art world.
Back then, like American avant-garde artists Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, Soulages experimented with challenging abstract forms. He even used color. Then, one morning in 1979, when he and his wife Colette were living in Paris, he noticed how reflections transformed the surface of black paint. He'd found his medium, and began to experiment with sculpting black paint on the canvas.
When asked by "CBS Sunday Morning" in 2020, on the occasion of his 100th birthday, why black still moved him, Soulages replied, "Because its possibilities are limitless. I say black, but actually it's light that's key. When I add black paint to a canvas, light reflects uniquely off the scar. That's what my work is all about. I paint with light."
Leslie Jordan
"Give me a good pandemic and I flourish," said comic actor Leslie Jordan (April 29, 1955-October 24, 2022). In 2022 he told "CBS Mornings" about adjusting to lockdown after staying with his mom in Tennessee. "I had a lot of time on my hands. And I started posting on Instagram. And I did two posts a day, I think, for 80 days. And I would always start it with, 'Well, how y'all doing?'"
He'd get more than a million hits a day. Its success amazed even him: "I didn't try to sell anybody anything. I just talked about what are y'all doing? Here's what I'm doing. I cut my hair because I couldn't get to the barbershop.
"I have people come up to me and say, 'You got me through that. I'm stuck at home with my kids, I thought I was going nuts, And I would look forward to just a minute or two with you every day.' And I think that's what comedy's about."
Beginning at age 19, the 4'11" Jordan exercised racehorses. Put off by the travel involved, he enrolled in journalism classes at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he also signed up for a theater elective. "It just hit me like a drug," he said.
After graduating, he headed to California, and got steady work in commercials. ("I was the elevator operator to Hamburger Hell for Taco Bell"), and eventually got acting roles in such TV series as "The Fall Guy," "Night Court," "Murphy Brown," "The People Next Door," "Pee-Wee's Playhouse," "Top of the Heap," "Reasonable Doubts," "Hearts Afire," "Caroline in the City," "Ally McBeal," "Boston Public," "Boston Legal," "American Horror Story," "The Cool Kids," and "Call Me Kat." Film roles included "The Help" and "The United States vs. Billie Holiday,"
His best-known character was Beverly Leslie in "Will & Grace," a recurring role for which he won an Emmy in 2006.
In the 1990s he wrote and starred in a stage musical, the semi-autobiographical "Hysterical Blindness and Other Southern Tragedies That Have Plagued My Life Thus Far." In 2008 he published a memoir, "My Trip Down the Pink Carpet," his take on Hollywood, fame, addiction and gay culture.
After blowing up his Instagram account during COVID, his career took a different turn when he released a gospel album called "Company's Comin'," featuring Dolly Parton, Brandi Carlile, Chris Stapleton, Eddie Vedder and Tanya Tucker.
He recently wrote his second book, "How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived."
Robbie Coltrane
Born Anthony Robert McMillan, Robbie Coltrane (March 30, 1950-October 14, 2022) was in his early 20s when he began pursuing an acting career, renaming himself in honor of jazz musician John Coltrane.
The Scottish comedian and character actor's early film credits included the musical "Absolute Beginners," the drama "Mona Lisa," and the caper "Nuns on the Run." He played Falstaff in the Kenneth Branagh-directed "Henry V," the Pope in the comedy "The Pope Must Diet," and a Russian crime boss in the James Bond films "GoldenEye" and "The World is Not Enough."
Coltrane broke through as hard-bitten criminal psychologist Dr. Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald in the 1990s British TV series "Cracker," for which he won the best actor BAFTRA Award three years in a row.
He was beloved by a generation as the half-giant Rubeus Hagrid, the mentor of young wizard Harry Potter, in all eight Potter films. He was the first actor to be cast for the original movie – hand-picked by author J.K., Rowling – and in 2002 told the Christian Science Monitor that he knew the story well. "I'd read it to my young son, Spencer," he said. "I did all the accents, even inventing a few of my own, when reading it, and must say I felt a certain kindred to Hagrid."
The inspiration for his performance, he told The Daily Record in 2006, was an imposing, burly biker he'd once met, who'd entered a bar and complained about his petunias. "He was a gardener, but he had fists like hams. He had a gentle heart."
To play Hagrid, the 6'1" Coltrane wore boots that made him at least seven inches taller, underwent an hour-and-a-half of makeup, and wore a costume that weighed 65 pounds.
In an interview last January for an HBO Harry Potter reunion special, Coltrane said, "The legacy of the movies is that my children's generation will show them to their children. So, you could be watching it in 50 years' time, easily ... I'll not be here, sadly, but Hagrid will, yes."
Bruce Sutter
Six-time All-Star relief pitcher Bruce Sutter (January 8, 1953-October 13, 2022) was pitching for the Chicago Cubs' farm team in 1972 when he hurt his right elbow trying to learn a slider. Afraid he would be cut if the Cubs knew he'd been injured, Sutter hid the injury, and paid for the surgery on his pinched nerve himself. At spring training the following year, with the speed of his pitches off, he learned the split-fingered fastball from the Cubs' minor league pitching instructor Fred Martin.
The pitch (the ball is held between the index and middle fingers, and as it approaches the plate suddenly dips) wasn't being successfully thrown. "It came to me easy, but it took a long time to learn how to control it," Sutter once said. "I could throw pretty hard. I might strike out 16 guys, but I might walk 10. I mean, I was wild."
Sutter entered the majors with the Cubs in 1976. Three years later he won the National League Cy Young Award, with 37 saves, 2.22 ERA and 110 strikeouts.
In a 1979 Sports Illustrated interview veteran batter Lou Brock had this assessment of Sutter's split-fingered fastball: "You'd figure that if a guy stayed around long enough, he'd learn how to hit it. But no one has."
During his 12-year career Sutter led the National League in saves for five years, posting 300 saves with the Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals (he finished off the Cards' Game 7 win over Milwaukee in the 1982 World Series), and Atlanta Braves. In 661 games, he pitched 1,042 innings and struck out 861, with a career ERA of 2.83.
In 2006 Sutter became only the fourth reliever to be inducted into baseball's Hall of Fame – and the first pitcher to reach Cooperstown without ever having started a game.
Angela Lansbury
Born in London to an Irish actress and an English timber merchant, Angela Lansbury (October 16, 1925-October 11, 2022) was forced at a young age to become self-reliant after the death of her father. She was sent by her mother to drama school, first in London, then, after the Blitz, to New York and, ultimately, Hollywood.
By 17, she was in her first film, as the flirtatious, cockney maid in the 1944 classic, "Gaslight." Director George Cukor was "appalled" that a woman her age could pull off playing such a convincing seductress. '[You'd think] I'd been around the block, as they say," Lansbury told "CBS Sunday Morning" in 2009. "I hadn't, you know. I really hadn't!"
But playing characters beyond her years would become the story of Lansbury's life. Despite back-to-back Oscar nominations (for "Gaslight" and "The Picture of Dorian Gray"), she spent her twenties and thirties typecast in older, more maternal roles – as an adulterous mother in "The World of Henry Orient"; Elvis Presley's mom in "Blue Hawaii" (despite being only nine years older than the singer); and Laurence Harvey's scheming mom in "The Manchurian Candidate," nabbing her third Oscar nomination for the political thriller in which she gives her son advice only a loving mother could give: "You are to shoot the presidential nominee through the head." She even had her hair streaked gray, at age 23, to play a newspaper publisher in her 40s in "State of the Union."
Unsatisfied with Hollywood's lack of imagination, Lansbury packed her bags for the New York stage. "I felt liberated the minute I came to Broadway. Those years at MGM, I hadn't really been judged as an actress until I made it on Broadway."
After roles in "Hotel Paradiso," "A Taste of Honey" and "Anyone Can Whistle," she hit pay dirt with the musical "Mame" (1966), winning the first of five Tony Awards. [Her others were for "Dear World" (1969); "Gypsy" (1975); "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" (1979), playing the meat pie maker Mrs. Lovett; and a 2009 revival of Noel Coward's "Blithe Spirit."]
After playing Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in a film adaptation of "The Mirror Crack'd," and one of the murder suspects in "Death on the Nile," Lansbury found her greatest fame on "Murder, She Wrote" as mystery writer and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher. For twelve seasons (and in four subsequent movies-for-TV), she made an older female character – often invisible in media – a pop culture role model. She received 12 Emmy nominations for the series.
She was a role model of a very different sort as the voice of the teapot Mrs. Potts in the animated Disney musical, "Beauty and the Beast."
Lansbury later became a spokesperson for the ALS Association. (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis had claimed the life of her sister, Isolde.)
In 2014 she was made a Dame by Queen Elizabeth II, honored for her acting career and charity work.
And she would continue working, on stage (she earned additional Tony nominations for the play "Deuce" and the Stephen Sondheim musical "A Little Night Music," as well as a lifetime achievement Tony in 2022) and in films ("Nanny McPhee," "Mr. Popper's Penguins," "Mary Poppins Returns," and, as herself, in "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery").
"The bottom line is, I really don't know how to relax to the degree that I could just stop," Lansbury told "Sunday Morning." "So, when something comes along and is presented to me, and I think, 'Gee, I could have some fun doing that,' or 'I think I could bring something to that,' I'll do it.
"I mean, there are times when you walk into that dressing room and you think, 'I can't do this. I cannot do this.' And it's a curious thing: When you sit down in front of that mirror and you pick up that first piece of makeup and you start to apply it … suddenly, you transform yourself into that person who is capable of going on stage and delivering that performance. And you do it, and yes, you can!"
Loretta Lynn
If you want to know the story of Loretta Lynn (April 14, 1932-October 4, 2022), listen to her songs. The country legend sang about a life of hardship, poverty, and her husband's infidelity – stories like "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl," "Don't Come Home a Drinkin' (With Lovin' on Your Mind)," "You Ain't Woman Enough," "What Makes Me Tick," and "Coal Miner's Daughter," whose title became the name of her bestselling 1976 autobiography.
"It's whatever I was going through at the time, and whatever I was thinking about at the time," Lynn told "Sunday Morning" in 2010.
And even as she rose to become a legend of American music – a three-time Grammy-winner, with 30 Top 10 country albums, and the first woman to win the Country Music Association's Entertainer of the Year Award, in 1972 – she never forgot her roots, as the second of eight children of a coal miner in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky. "I ain't about to be nobody else. I'm just me. And if I was trying to be somebody else, I'd have never made it, either," she said.
When she was just 13, Loretta met 21-year-old Oliver Lynn, known as Doo. They married one month later. Lynn would have four children by the time she was 18. "I'd rock them to sleep. That's where Doo found out I could sing," she said. So, Doo bought her a guitar. Lynn taught herself to play, and began writing her own songs. Her kids were her audience. "I'd stand them up in a row: Betty, Jack, Ernest, and Cissie, 'Stand right there and tell mommy what you think of her singing.' 'Oh, you sound pretty, mommy.'"
Doo arranged for Loretta to record her song "Honky Tonk Girl," and they hit the road to promote it. Lynn became an overnight success. But as she spent nights on the road in her tour bus, Doo stayed home drinking, womanizing, and hiring housekeepers to raise their now-six children. Their marriage lasted 48 years, until Doo's death in 1996. But as she told "48 Hours" in 2002, the two were regular sparring partners: "I've never written a song that my husband wasn't in – every song I wrote – but he didn't know which line he was in."
She stayed, she said, because she loved him: "I didn't need him, but he was my kids' daddy. Why leave hearts laying on the floor for me? … He broke my heart lots of time, but that would have broke the kids' hearts, wouldn't it?"
And she got some evocative songs out of it, like the #1 country hit "Fist City":
Come on and tell me what you told my friends
If you think you're brave enough
And I'll show you what a real woman is
Since you think you're hot stuff
You'll bite off more than you can chew
If you get too cute or witty
You better move your feet
If you don't wanna eat
A meal that's called fist city
Roger Welsch
A humorist, storyteller and activist for Native Americans, Roger Welsch (November 6, 1936-September 30, 2022) was a longtime contributor to "CBS Sunday Morning" with his witty "Postcard from Nebraska" segments in the 1980s and '90s.
Clad in his familiar overalls, Welsch told stories from his beloved state, including his hometown of Dannebrog, so small, he noted, the town square only has three sides.
Welsch's segments developed after Charles Kuralt featured him in an "On the Road" segment about the Nebraskan's 1970s campaign for the Lancaster County Weed Control Authority, running on a "pro-weed" platform. Not marijuana, weeds – edible wild plants that were being sprayed with pesticides. His slogan: "If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em," He won.
Welsch wrote dozens of books, penned newspaper columns, and proudly admitted to having founded the National Liars Hall of Fame, claiming nearly two million visitors a year in tiny Dannebrog.
He also worked to reform the Nebraska State Historical Society after they refused to repatriate human remains of native peoples to the Pawnee Nation. In addition to the nickname "Captain Nebraska," Welsch also went by the names afforded him by indigenous tribes: Tenugahai "Bull Buffalo Chief" by the Omaha Tribe, Panitaka "White Wolfhite Pawnee" by the Pawnee Tribe, and Heyoka ta Pejuta "His Medicine is Contrary" by the Oglala Sioux.
Coolio
Born Artis Leon Ivey Jr., the rapper Coolio (August 1, 1963-September 28, 2022) garnered fame in the 1990s with such hits as "Gangsta's Paradise" (winner of the Grammy for best solo rap performance) and "Fantastic Voyage."
Raised in California, he began rapping at 15. He went to community college and worked as a volunteer firefighter and in airport security before devoting himself full-time to hip-hop.
He collaborated with WC and the Maad Circle, before releasing his debut album on Tommy Boy Records in 1994, "It Takes a Thief." The track "Fantastic Voyage" reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The following year, "Gangsta's Paradise" hit No. 1.
As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death
I take a look at my life and realize there's not much left
'Cause I've been blastin' and laughin' so long, that
Even my mama thinks that my mind is gone
Later hits included "1, 2, 3, 4 (Sumpin' New)" and "C U When U Get There."
Collio aimed to rise above the feud that arose between east and west coast hip-hop factions. "I'd like to claim this Grammy on behalf of the whole hip-hop nation, West Coast, East Coast, and worldwide, united we stand, divided we fall," he said from the stage as he accepted the award in 1996.
But he engaged in a kind of feud with Weird Al Yankovic, who parodied "Gangsta's Paradise" with his hit, "Amish Paradise" ("As I walk through the valley where I harvest my grain, I take a look at my wife and realize she's very plain"). Though Coolio voiced his upset at the time, it was later attributed to a "misunderstanding."
"I have to say, that was probably one of the least smart things I've done over the years," he later told Rolling Stone. "I should have never been upset about that; I should have embraced it like everybody else did. Michael Jackson never got mad at him; Prince never got mad at him. Who the f*** was I to take the position that I took? It was actually years later before I realized how stupid that was of me [laughs]. But hey, you live and you learn."
Bill Plante
CBS News correspondent Bill Plante (January 14, 1938-September 28, 2022) was one of the longest-serving White House broadcast journalists in history. During his more than half-century with CBS News, Plante covered the civil rights movement (the "Mississippi Burning" murders in 1964, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in March 1965), and served four tours in Vietnam. (He reported from Saigon during its fall.)
He began his broadcasting career in 1956 at Chicago area radio stations, reading news and playing classical music. He then landed a job as assistant news director at the CBS affiliate in Milwaukee, before beginning a CBS Fellowship at Columbia University in New York. In his audition reel, his goals foreshadowed his long, varied career: "Politics, general assignment, writing, editing, reporting, air work, you name it, I'd like to do it," he said.
He was named a CBS News correspondent in 1966, assigned to the Chicago bureau, where he covered riots, strikes, campus unrest, and the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa. His overseas reporting includes stories on the war between India and Pakistan over Bangladesh, and conflict in Northern Ireland.
Plante also covered 13 presidential elections, and joined CBS News' Washington bureau in December 1976. In addition to senior White House correspondent, Plante was also, from 1988 to 1995, the anchor of the "CBS Sunday Night News." He won several Emmy Awards, including for his reports on the 1997 death of Princess Diana; the 1986 Reagan-Gorbachev summit; and Reagan's 1984 reelection campaign.
One of Washington's most knowledgeable wine aficionados, Plante became known as the White House press corps' sommelier. He reported on wine occasionally for the "CBS Early Show" and "CBS Sunday Morning."
At his retirement in 2016, Plante said, "Fifty years plus, I have had a wonderful window, a closeup, on the human condition, telling the stories of civil rights and of the wastes of war and the politics of power. Through it all, you come to see how human nature is universal. People continue to behave in both altruistic and destructive ways. So that's why what we do continues to be so important."
Louise Fletcher
In the 1960s actress Louise Fletcher (July 22, 1934-September 23, 2022), who'd gotten work on TV series like "The Untouchables," "77 Sunset Strip," and "Wagon Train," put her career on hold to raise her two children. She came back in the '70s and, after a notable turn in Robert Altman's "Thieves Like Us," was chosen to star opposite Jack Nicholson in the tragi-comedy "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."
Fletcher played the cruel and calculating Nurse Ratched, who rules over the mental institution to which Nicholson's Randle McMurphy is sent for evaluation. She engages in a cruel and violent battle of wills with McMurphy, and the other inmates, exerting her authority against his rebelliousness. Her performance – a rigid imperiousness coated with a frightening serenity – made her a villainess for the ages.
In a 2004 interview Fletcher said she was the last actress considered for the role: "It wasn't until we were halfway through shooting that I realized the part had been offered to other actresses who didn't want to appear so horrible on the screen."
"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" became only the second film ever to win Academy Awards for best picture, best director, best actor, best actress and best screenplay.
At the 1976 ceremony, Fletcher accepted her Oscar and thanked her deaf parents in Birmingham, Alabama, using sign language: "I want to thank you for teaching me to have a dream. You are seeing my dream come true."
Fletcher was later nominated for two Emmy Awards, for guest appearances on "Picket Fences" and "Joan of Arcadia." Other TV credits included "The Karen Carpenter Story." "The Boys of Twilight," "ER," "Shameless," and a recurring role on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine."
Her films included "Exorcist II: The Heretic," "The Cheap Detective," "The Magician of Lublin," "Strange Behavior," "Strange Invaders," "Brainstorm," "Firestarter," "Invaders from Mars," "The Boy Who Could Fly," "Blue Steel," "Cruel Intentions," and "A Perfect Man."
Hilary Mantel
Novelist Hilary Mantel (July 6, 1952-September 22, 2022) won the first of her two Booker Prizes for "Wolf Hall," a bloody 16th-century political drama featuring Thomas Cromwell and King Henry VIII. Translated to the stage and television, it launched a trilogy of books about Tudor intrigue that included "Bring Up the Bodies" (which also won the Booker Prize) and "The Mirror and the Light."
Mantel's first novel, 1985's "Every Day Is Mother's Day," drew on her experience working as a social worker in a geriatric hospital. She returned to the characters with "Vacant Possession." She would regularly publish for nearly 25 years, earning critical praise but only modest commercial success, with such books as "Eight Months on Ghazzah Street" (inspired by her move with her geologist husband to Saudi Arabia), "Fludd," "A Place of Greater Safety" (about the French Revolution), "A Change of Climate" (about missionaries in Africa), "An Experiment in Love," "The Giant," and "Beyond Black" (about a psychic medium). She also published short story collections and a memoir, "Giving Up the Ghost."
After a quarter-century, Mantel broke out with "Wolf Hall."
In a 2020 interview with the Guardian, Mantel reflected on the appeal of writing historical fiction, or of figures long gone: "I do have the sense of it being a very proximate world," she said. "And sometimes the barrier seems like an enormous stone wall, and sometimes it's just whisper thin. But you can be misunderstood in talking about it. Because none of it can be literal. It's all just a series of metaphors."
Irene Papas
Greek actress and recording artist Irene Papas (September 3, 1929-September 14, 2022) became an international star with her roles in the films "The Guns of Navarone" and "Zorba the Greek."
She appeared in more than 80 movies and TV programs, from classical tragedies ("Antigone," "Electra," "The Trojan Women," "Iphigenia") to Walt Disney family fare ("The Moon Spinners"). Among her films were "Tribute to a Bad Man," The Brotherhood," "Z," "Anne of the Thousand Days," "Christ Stopped at Eboli," "Mohammad, Messenger of God," "Chronicle of a Death Foretold," "Lion of the Desert," "Captain Corelli's Mandolin," and the miniseries "Moses the Lawgiver."
Of her stage work she was particularly celebrated for Greek tragedies, appearing on Broadway in "Medea" and "The Bacchae."
Her recordings included collaborations with Mikis Theodorakis, Aphrodite's Child, and one of that band's founding members, Vangelis.
In 1992, starring in a production of "Medea" in Barcelona, Papas evoked the mystery of acting: "I don't know if I am living memory, or a ghost that encourages."
Jean-Luc Godard
French-Swiss filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard (December 3, 1930-September 13, 2022) was a lightning rod for film fans and critics since his emergence as a founding member of the French New Wave movement. The director of such classics as "Breathless" and "Weekend," and the recipient (though begrudgingly) of an Honorary Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Godard's narrative tricks and his weaving of personal observations into his films would inspire younger generations of filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese, Brian de Palma and Quentin Tarantino.
A contributor to the French film journal Cahiers du Cinema in the 1950s, Godard and several like-minded film buffs began making their own films, founding what came to be known as the French New Wave (Nouvelle Vogue) – works that reinvigorated staid, traditional forms of motion picture storytelling and eschewed the artifice of Hollywood. A fan of such giants as Alfred Hitchcock, Godard was an advocate of the "auteur" theory behind filmmaking, in which a single vision (usually the director's) aimed all facets of filmmaking through their personal lens.
After making a documentary and several shorts, Godard directed his first feature, "Breathless (A Bout de Souffle)" (1960), a brisk, dark comedy shot on the streets with a handheld camera, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo as a petty thief and Jean Seberg as an American ex-pat. It was a hybrid of Continental and Hollywood styles that paid homage to Godard's hero Howard Hawks, while also reveling in an untethered narrative. The film became an international success – a breath of fresh cinematic air – and began a string of Godard movies that were more blatantly political, and more esoteric, than those of his contemporaries. As critic Roger Ebert noted, "Godard depends on us to do the heavy lifting."
Typically shunning traditional forms of editing, composition and music, Godard would regularly break the fourth wall, using stylized dialogue and off-handed delivery, suggesting the actors were self-consciously aware of being in a film, watched by an audience. He experimented with video editing, sound editing, 3-D, and smearing colors.
"In my opinion the cinema should be more poetic," Godard told Cahiers du Cinema in 1965. "Two or three years ago I felt that everything had been done [in film]. 'Ivan the Terrible' had been made, and 'Our Daily Bread.' Make films about people, they said; but 'The Crowd' had already been made, so why remake it? I was, in a word, pessimistic. After '[Pierrot le Fou],' I no longer feel this. Yes, one must film, talk about, everything. Everything remains to be done."
Godard would direct more than 125 features, documentaries, shorts, and TV series, including the miniseries "History of Cinema." Credits include "Contempt," with Brigitte Bardot; several starring his then-wife, Anna Karina, such as "A Woman Is a Woman," "Vivre Sa Vie," "Le Petit Soldat," "Alphaville" (a sci-fi homage to film noir detective films), "Pierrot le Fou," "Band of Outsiders," and "Made in U.S.A."; "Masculin Féminin"; "2 or 3 Things I Know About Her," "La Chinoise"; "Weekend"; "Tout Va Bien," with Jane Fonda and Yves Montand; "Every Man for Himself" and "Passion," with Isabelle Huppert; "First Name: Carmen"; "Hail Mary"; "Detective"; "King Lear," featuring himself, Norman Mailer and Woody Allen; "Film Socialisme"; "Goodbye to Language"; and "The Image Book."
In a 2002 poll of critics by the British Film Institute for Sight + Sound, Godard ranked #3 on the list of Top 10 Directors (behind Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock), but he did not fare as well among his peers — his name did not appear when the BFI polled directors on their choices for Top Ten.
For "Sympathy for the Devil" (a documentary depicting American counterculture and revolutionary movements like the Black Panthers, interwoven with film taken of the Rolling Stones recording in the studio), the producer re-edited Godard's version, leaving the director so incensed he punched the producer in the nose in front of a London audience.
Godard's reputation as an enfant terrible was not limited to what appeared on screen. In his early days he was something of a kleptomaniac with his family and colleagues; and when fellow filmmaker and longtime friend Agnes Varda visited his home in Rolle, Switzerland, while filming her 2017 documentary "Faces Places," Godard refused even to come to the door. Hurt, Varda left a note on his window glass ("No thanks for your bad hospitality"), but, she admitted, "I drew a heart anyway."
Queen Elizabeth II
Since ascending to the throne in 1952 at the age of 25, Queen Elizabeth II (April 21, 1926-September 8, 2022) was Great Britain's longest-reigning monarch, her rule marking years of change in the U.K. and throughout the British Empire following World War II. Her endurance as a stoic symbol of heritage and tradition, even as her country underwent enormous social upheavals, made her the most significant figure in British culture, a huge unifying symbol across generations, and a beloved matriarch far beyond the Empire's shifting boundaries.
The eldest daughter of George VI (who'd become king following the abdication of his older brother, Edward VIII), Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor worked to raise her country's morale during wartime, and volunteered as a mechanic in the women's auxiliary service. She married Philip Mountbatten, a member of the Greek royal family, and gave birth to four children — Charles, Anne, Andrew and Edward.
After her father's death, Elizabeth's sense of duty became her primary image to the world. "I declare before you all that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service," she told the nation.
But the course of the British monarchy over the past seven decades would be a rocky one. In contrast to her steadfast union with Prince Philip, the marriages of her sister Margaret, her daughter Anne, and her sons Charles and Andrew all ended in divorces. The queen's lowest point was the death in 1997 of Princess Diana, following her tabloid-fodder separation from Charles, when the monarch's reputation for being unflappable stood in stark contrast to the public's very demonstrative show of emotion and grief.
After days of public silence, Elizabeth addressed the nation on television: "What I say to you now, as your Queen and as a grandmother, I say from my heart. First, I want to pay tribute to Diana myself. She was an exceptional and gifted human being. In good times and bad, she never lost her capacity to smile and laugh, nor to inspire others with her warmth and kindness. I admired and respected her — for her energy and commitment to others, and especially for her devotion to her two boys."
During Diana's funeral procession, the queen offered a bow to her coffin — a notably significant departure from royal protocol.
The queen would make gradual accommodations to the times and to the changing expectations of a less-deferential British public, for example agreeing to pay taxes on her income after complaints about the costs of repairing a fire-damaged Windsor Castle. She also helped guide the maturation of her grandchildren, Prince William and Prince Harry, after Diana's death.
When Prince Charles remarried Camilla Parker Bowles, the queen hosted the reception, and in time made her preference known that once Charles succeeded her as king, Camilla should be honored with the title Queen Consort.
Bernard Shaw
Bernard Shaw (May 22, 1940-September 7, 2022), who became the first anchor of the fledgling CNN upon its launch in 1980, would cover such stories as the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan, student demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square, the first Gulf War in 1991, and the 2000 presidential election.
Born in Chicago, Shaw was a U.S. Marine in Hawaii in 1961, when he managed to secure a meeting with one of his journalistic heroes, Walter Cronkite, who later described Shaw to the Washington Post as "the most persistent guy I've ever met in my life … I was going to give him five begrudging minutes, and ended up talking to him for a half-hour. He was just determined to be a journalist."
Shaw got a radio job as a reporter in Chicago, where he interviewed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He worked as a political reporter at CBS during the Watergate years, and was later ABC's Latin America correspondent and bureau chief. He was one of the first reporters on the scene of the 1978 Jonestown massacre in Guyana.
At CNN, the first 24-hour news channel, Shaw anchored the network's on-the-scene reporting from Baghdad as airstrikes marked the beginning of the U.S. invasion to liberate Kuwait.
"In all of the years of preparing to being anchor, one of the things I strove for was to be able to control my emotions in the midst of hell breaking out," Shaw told NPR in 2014. "And I personally feel that I passed my stringent test for that in Baghdad."
In 1988 Shaw was the first African American to moderate a presidential debate. When Shaw asked Democrat Michael Dukakis – who opposed the death penalty – whether he would condone capital punishment if his own wife had been raped and killed, Dukakis' cool, legalistic response was deemed fatally damaging to his candidacy. Shaw himself was criticized for even asking it.
"Since when did a question hurt a politician?" Shaw said in a 2001 CSPAN interview. "It wasn't the question. It was the answer."
Peter Straub
Bestselling horror writer and poet Peter Straub (March 2, 1943-September 4, 2022) was best known for his lyrical novels that helped revive the supernatural genre, namely "Ghost Story" and "Julia," and for his collaborations with Stephen King: "The Talisman" and its sequel, "Black House."
A Milwaukee native, Straub almost died when he was hit by a car at age seven. He told Salon in 2016, "It took me a long time to see this, but of course it kind of darkened my view of life in general. It meant that I was way more open to fear than any child ought to be, and that I knew more about fear and its first cousin terror, and pain, than children are normally expected to know. And it meant that I was kind of pushed forward into an emotional understanding that I wasn't quite prepared for.
"It was very, very complex. I had nightmares; my behavior suffered. I darkened in character; I was less amenable, less friendly. I was way less a child than I had been beforehand. It took me a long time to understand the consequences of that single event. Once I did understand the consequences then I was far more able to deal with them. It meant also that I had that material available for conscious thematic use."
Straub taught at a private school before moving with his wife to Ireland, where he studied for his doctorate. Instead of a dissertation, though, he wrote a novel, "Marriages." But after publishing poetry, he tried for more commercial success by writing about the supernatural (given the popularity of "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Exorcist"). "Julia," about a mother whose child had died and is haunted by the ghost of another, was a success, and was turned into a film starring Mia Farrow, "The Haunting of Julia."
Straub continued writing about fantasy, horror, murder and the supernatural, with "If You Could See Me Now," "Ghost Story" (which became a 1981 film with John Houseman and Fred Astaire), "Shadowland," "Floating Dragon," "Koko," "Mystery," "The Throat," "The Hellfire Club," "Mr. X," "Lost Boy, Lost Girl," "In the Night Room," and "Dark Matter." He also published several novellas and short story collections. (Neil Gaiman once likened Straub's short fiction to "tiny novels you drown in.") He also edited the Library of America's volume of H.P. Lovecraft tales.
In 1998 he told Locus Magazine, "A recent novella I wrote for 'Murder For Revenge,' an Otto Penzler anthology, 'Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff', is based very loosely on 'Bartleby the Scrivener' by Melville. I reread 'Bartleby' when it came out in one of those 'Penguin 60s' that also included my 'Blue Rose', and to say I was impressed and moved is drastically to understate. I thought it was one of the most beautiful, most profound things I'd ever read. It also addressed and spoke to an interest of mine which could loosely be called 'indeterminacy.' That is, what you know to be part of the greatness of 'Bartleby' is that it's very difficult to describe in any terms but its own. You cannot reduce it to an equation. You cannot extract a comforting little moral from it. It's hard to say exactly what it means, but it is completely profound."
Barbara Ehrenreich
A prolific writer of articles for The Nation, The New York Times, Harper's, Vogue and others, activist Barbara Ehrenreich (August 26, 1941-September 1, 2022) was a teacher and researcher (she received a Ph.D. from Rockefeller University). She became more involved in the feminist movement following the birth of her daughter, Rosa, she explained, as she was appalled by her hospital's treatment of patients.
She authored or co-authored 23 books, her most famous being 2001's "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America," in which she recounted taking on minimum-wage jobs (such as a hotel maid, waitress, cleaning woman, and Wal-Mart sales clerk), and moving into cheap lodging, to find out firsthand about the lives and struggles of the working poor – people she dubbed "the major philanthropists of our society."
She wrote, "They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else."
Other books included "Long March, Short Spring: The Student Uprising at Home and Abroad" (written with her then-husband, John Ehrenreich); "Fear of Falling: The Inner Life of the Middle Class"; "The Worst Years of Our Lives: Irreverent Notes from a Decade of Greed"; "This Land is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation"; "Blood Rites: Origins and History of the Passions of War"; "Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything"; and "Natural Causes: An Epidemic of Wellness, the Certainty of Dying, and Killing Ourselves to Live Longer."
In 2011 Ehrenreich, who'd gone through a grueling bout with breast cancer, talked with "Sunday Morning" correspondent Rita Braver about her resistance to the notion of "positive thinking" being a determinant of one's experience, which she characterized as, "If things don't go well, if you get sick, or if you lose your job, or fall into poverty, it must be your fault because you weren't sending the right thoughts out into the universe."
"Well, what's wrong with that attitude? A lot of people have it," said Braver.
"It's wrong because it's not true!" Ehrenreich laughed.
In her book "Bright-Sided," she argued that the relentless promotion of positive thinking has undermined America.
"Is the alternative to positive thinking to be negative or pessimistic or fatalistic?" asked Braver.
"The alternative is to try to see the world as it is more. Realism, I would call that," she replied.
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev (March 2, 1931-August 30, 2022) was the last president of the U.S.S.R., whose efforts to revitalize his country's lagging economy and to advance a staid communist bureaucracy through the introduction of "glasnost" (openness) led to the fall of the Iron Curtain, the breakup of the Soviet Union, and an end to the Cold War. He survived an attempted coup in August 1991, but in a matter of months, after more and more Soviet republics declared their independence, he resigned on December 25, 1991. The next day, the Soviet Union ceased to exist.
During his short tenure (he had risen to become Soviet leader in March 1985), Gorbachev sought reforms freeing political prisoners, expanding the ability of citizens to travel and engage in open debate, and ending religious persecution. He established closer ties with the West, holding summits with leaders such as American Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, and moved to reduce nuclear arsenals, while watching Eastern European satellite states pull away from Moscow's influence.
He also oversaw the USSR's ignominious withdrawal from Afghanistan, and initially called Western reports about the effects of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident an "unbridled anti-Soviet campaign."
But the freedoms he promoted became synonymous to many of his countrymen with chaos, as long-suppressed ethnic tensions flared. There were uprisings and wars in the southern Caucasus and Baltic republics. Many seniors lost their life savings because of hyper-inflation. Price increases led to shortages, bread lines, factory shutdowns, and strikes.
"I see myself as a man who started the reforms that were necessary for the country and for Europe and the world," Gorbachev told the Associated Press in 1992. "I am often asked, would I have started it all again if I had to repeat it? Yes, indeed. And with more persistence and determination."
Gorbachev received numerous accolades, including the 1990 Nobel Peace Prize. But his global popularity was not matched back home, where he was blamed for the Soviet Union's collapse, and for the economic turmoil that followed. When he ran for president in 1996, he received less than 1% of the vote.
In his address to the nation upon stepping down from office, Gorbachev reflected, "The process of renovating this country and bringing about fundamental changes in the international community proved to be much more complex than originally anticipated. However, let us acknowledge what has been achieved so far. Society has acquired freedom; it has been freed politically and spiritually. And this is the most important achievement, which we have not fully come to grips with in part because we still have not learned how to use our freedom."
Wolfgang Petersen
German filmmaker Wolfgang Petersen (March 14, 1941-August 12, 2022) burst onto the international scene with his 1981 drama "Das Boot," one of the most compelling war films ever made, which perfectly captured the claustrophobia facing a German submarine crew during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II. What was then the most expensive movie in German film history, "Das Boot" would be nominated for six Academy Awards (including two for Petersen, for direction and screenwriting).
It would launch Petersen (who'd worked extensively in German television, but who grew up enamored by the films of John Ford) towards a Hollywood career, starting with the 1984 children's fantasy "The NeverEnding Story." He later directed the Clint Eastwood Secret Service drama "In the Line of Fire"; the Harrison Ford thriller "Air Force One"; the George Clooney disaster film "The Perfect Storm"; and the historical epic "Troy," starring Brad Pitt.
Other credits include "Enemy Mine," "Shattered," "Outbreak," and "Poseidon." His last film, which he shot back in Germany, was the comedy "Four vs. the Bank."
In 2016 he talked with German broadcaster Deutsche Welle about his fascination with American films while growing up: "It has very much to do with the situation in Germany after the war. We didn't learn about the situation under the Nazis. My parents never really talked about that. And for a kid at the age of 10 or 12, you want an answer. I had the feeling that everything in my world and in Germany around that time was unclear. There was no moral there; there was no understanding of why things happened.
"In these films, there was clarity – especially in Westerns – about what is good and what is bad and about what you have to fight against and why. Clarity is important for a boy, and it was missing from the world around us."
Anne Heche
Actress Anne Heche (May 25, 1969-August 11, 2022) first gained notice on the NBC soap "Another World," in which she played twins Marley and Vicky Hudson, for which she won a Daytime Emmy Award. Her subsequent film career included roles opposite Johnny Depp in "Donnie Brasco," Tommy Lee Jones in "Volcano," Harrison Ford in "Six Days, Seven Nights," and Vince Vaughn and Joaquin Phoenix in "Return to Paradise." One of her best performances was as a White House aide opposite media spin doctor Robert De Niro in the 1997 political satire "Wag the Dog."
Other credits included "Walking and Talking," "I Know What You Did Last Summer," the color shot-for-shot remake of "Psycho," "John Q," "Birth," "Cedar Rapids" and "Wild Card." On TV she starred in the comedy series "Men in Trees," "Save Me," "Dig," "Aftermath," "The Brave," and "The Idol," and appeared in "Ally McBeal," "Hung," "The Michael J. Fox Show," "Chicago P.D.," and "All Rise." In 2020 she was a contestant on "Dancing With the Stars."
In her candid 2001 memoir "Call Me Crazy," Heche recounted her peripatetic and oppressive childhood (her family moved nearly a dozen times), and years of sexual abuse by her father. She began acting at age 12 at a N.J. dinner theater to earn money for her family after her father died of complications from AIDS. The following year her 23-year-old brother died by suicide.
At 17 she began therapy for having experienced "a lot of death, and a lot of abuse and homelessness," she told the Associated Press. "I went through eight years of trying to be at peace with who I was and what had happened to me as a child." In her book she described developing a separate personality due to her suffering.
In 1997 she began a relationship with comedian Ellen Degeneres, making them one of Hollywood's first openly-gay couples. (They would be together for three years.) But Heche said it affected her professionally – she claimed the studio threatened her if she brought Degeneres to the "Volcano" premiere afterparty, and that it was Ford's support that kept her from being fired from the rom-com "Six Days, Seven Nights." As media outlets tut-tutted over "how to deal with a gay actress whose career has been built on playing heterosexual roles," Heche claimed to be blacklisted from studio pictures. She continued to work on TV, and on Broadway (in "Proof" and "Twentieth Century").
Heche's mental health issues would also become fodder for the media, as when she had a public breakdown following the end of her relationship with Degeneres. She would go on to have two children, one with husband Coleman Laffoon (whom she divorced in 2009), and one with actor James Tupper.
In 2020 Heche was asked by the magazine Mr. Warburton what advice she would share with a young up-and-comer struggling with insecurity or finding their true self: "Risk is the key. Be yourself. Be brave. Also, the longer I have been in the business, the more I know that everyone pretends to know more than they do. So don't be intimidated!"
Bill Pitman
A member of the elite cadre of Los Angeles session musicians known as the "Wrecking Crew," guitarist Bill Pitman (February 12, 1920-August 11, 2022) played on hundreds of recordings for such artists as Mel Torme, Buddy Rich, Frank Sinatra, The Mamas & the Papas, The Everly Brothers, The Ronettes, Elvis Presley, Jan & Dean, The Monkees, Sam Cooke, James Brown, The Carpenters, and The Beach Boys.
A New Jersey native (his father was a bass player for NBC in New York), Pitman went West after serving in World War II, to study at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and Arts. His session work would lead him to producer Phil Spector (to whom, years earlier, he'd given guitar lessons) and to countless pop and rock songs that helped define the era. He performed on hundreds of recordings (in one year alone he played in 425 recording sessions), such as The Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" album (including "Wouldn't It Be Nice"), Frank Sinatra's "Strangers In The Night," The Byrds' "Mr. Tambourine Man," and Barbra Streisand's "The Way We Were."
He also played on TV and movie soundtracks (from "MASH" to "Bonanza" and "Star Trek"). Though his performances were often anonymous, they were nonetheless memorable, whether he was wielding a Daneletro six-string bass guitar (on the theme for the TV series "The Wild, Wild West"), or a ukulele (on the Oscar-winning song from "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head").
Olivia Newton-John
Four-time Grammy Award-winning singer Olivia Newton-John (September 26, 1948-August 8, 2022) sold 100 million albums in a career that stretched from radio to the movie screen and Las Vegas, while radiating courage and grace in her years-long battle against cancer.
Born in England, the daughter of a German literature professor and granddaughter of a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, Newton-John's family moved to Australia when she was 5, but she returned to England in her teens to live with her mother after her parents split. She won singing contests, and recorded her first single, "Till You Say You'll Be Mine," in 1966.
From the early 1970s, Newton-John had 14 Top 10 singles in the U.S., beginning with several hits on the Adult Contemporary and Country charts (including "If Not For You" and "Let Me Be There," which climbed into the Billboard Top 10). In 1973 she was named the Country Music Association's top artist (beating out Dolly Parton and Loretta Lynn), but her music became more associated with the pop genre. She hit #1 with "I Honestly Love You" and "Have You Never Been Mellow."
In 1978 she starred with John Travolta in the film version of the musical "Grease," which featured their #1 duets, "You're the One That I Want" and "Summer Nights," as well as the #2 hit, "Hopelessly Devoted To You." In 1980 she starred in the film "Xanadu," from which the song "Magic" also hit #1.
The following year she topped the charts again with "Physical," which sat at #1 for 10 weeks and was named song of the year by Billboard, despite its being banned by some radio stations due to its somewhat provocative lyrics. Her music video for the song won a Grammy for best video.
At age 43, Newton-John felt a lump during a breast self-examination. She was diagnosed with cancer on the same day her father died. "I had a daughter, I had a child to care about," she told "CBS Sunday Morning" in 2019. "And that was my focus. You know, 'I've gotta get through this for her.'"
Declared cancer-free after chemotherapy, she became an activist and philanthropist, serving as a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Environment Programme, and founding the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Wellness & Research Centre in Melbourne in 2012.
And she continued to perform. Newton-John's later albums included "Stronger Than Before" (2005); the 2012 holiday album "This Christmas" (in which she re-teamed with Travolta); and 2015's "Summer Nights: Live in Las Vegas," which grew out of her three-year-long residency on the Strip.
But her cancer returned in 2013. "Why me? has never been a part of it," she said. "I never felt victimized." She chose instead to deal with it. The cancer went into remission, but in 2017 it returned.
In 2019, she penned an autobiography, "Don't Stop Believin'," and auctioned off hundreds of items from her collection, raising more than $2 million for her cancer center. One of the items sold: her skintight black leather pants from "Grease," which – she proved to "Sunday Morning" in 2019 – still fit her.
In talking about "Grease" to The Telegraph in 2017, she recalled: "Everything about making the film was fun, but if I had to pick a favorite moment, it was the transformation from what I call Sandy 1 to Sandy 2. I got to play a different character and wear different clothes, and when I put on that tight black outfit to sing 'You're the One That I Want,' I got a very different reaction from the guys on the set."
David McCullough
A familiar voice in television documentaries, historian David McCullough (July 7, 1933-August 7, 2022) won two Pulitzer Prizes for his biographies of presidents: the 1992 book "Truman," and the 2001 "John Adams," which became the basis of the HBO miniseries that won 13 Emmy Awards. He also authored books on Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
But McCullough's expertise went beyond the White House. He wrote books on the Johnstown Flood, the Brooklyn Bridge, the building of the Panama Canal, the Revolutionary War, and the settling of the American West.
He narrated documentaries on PBS' "American Experience," and series by Ken Burns (such as "The Civil War," "The Statue of Liberty" and "Brooklyn Bridge"). He also narrated the 2003 film "Seabiscuit," the real-life story of the racehorse that defied everyone's worst expectations.
He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006.
In a 2017 interview on CBS' "Face the Nation," in describing how the nation was living in "clearly a dangerous time," McCullough discussed how America needed to learn the lessons of how it overcame a civil war, the 1918 influenza epidemic and the Great Depression, as well as winning two world wars. "I think we need to remember who we are and how we got to be where we are and how much we owe to those who went before us," McCullough said. "And there's much to be learned from them, much to be learned from history. We are not doing very well or not doing as well as we should in raising our oncoming generations with an appreciation of the story of their country."
In addition to advocating for better teaching of history, McCullough was also active in historical preservation efforts, including, in the 1990s, fighting the Walt Disney Company's proposed theme park near Manassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia. The theme park plans were shelved.
For all of his writings about the successes and failures of America's past, and of its leaders (and despite his criticism of the 45th president's time in office as "disappointing" and "grotesque"), McCullough was an optimist about our country. He told "Sunday Morning" in 2019, "We're just getting started. That's the way I feel. Two hundred years is nothing!"
Dr. Raymond Damadian
In the late 1960s, Dr. Raymond Damadian (March 16, 1936-August 3, 2022) began experimenting at a Brooklyn medical center with nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy – hitting tissue with radio wave pulses within a magnetic field. When he discovered in 1970 that it provided a feasible means to detect cancerous cells in rats, he published his findings, which lead to his construction of the first MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanner.
The very first scan, in a machine he called "Indomitable," was conducted on July 3, 1977, on one of his assistants, he being skinny enough, after an earlier scan on Damadian failed. "I was just too fat for the coil," he told Inc. Magazine in 2011.
Damadian then founded a company, Fondar, to produce a commercial version of the scanner. He was immediately embroiled in legal tussles over infringement of his patents when competing companies tried to market their own MRI scanners; Damadian lost some fights, won others (including a 1997 judgment against General Electric for $128 million). Fonar would later introduce an upright MRI scanner.
Damadian would receive the National Medal of Technology and be inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. But when the 2003 Nobel Prize was awarded to two other scientists for the development of magnetic resonance imaging, Damadian launched a campaign to right what he characterized a "shameful wrong."
Melissa Bank
The 1999 New York Times bestseller "The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing," the first book by writer Melissa Bank (October 11, 1960-August 2, 2022), was a collection of seven interconnected stories about a young woman, Jane Rosenal, who ages from 14 to her 30s. It became a tremendous critical and commercial success, selling more than 1.5 million copies, and was translated into dozens of languages.
Bank, a Cornell University masters' graduate and copywriter for an ad firm, won a short-story competition in 1993. The "Girls' Guide" title story was published in 1998 in the magazine Zoetrope, prompting a bidding war for a collection. But it would take Bank 12 years to complete "Girls' Guide," her work interrupted by a bicycle accident from which she suffered short-term memory loss and an inability to remember words.
Upon the collection's publication, Bank was praised for her "exquisite portraits of loneliness," and for her wit and precise language, inspired by such writers as Vladimir Nabokov, John Cheever and Ernest Hemingway. Two stories from "Girls' Guide" were adapted for the 2007 romcom "Suburban Girl."
She also authored the story collection "The Wonder Spot," and taught in the MFA program at Stony Brook University in Southampton, New York.
In a 1999 interview with Salon.com, Bank said she was initially intimidated by other writers' voices: "Remarkably, I felt really freed when I got to college. At a certain point I had this breakthrough – I was really blocked, and I started saying this thing to myself: 'You're the only person who can write this story.' And that signaled more confidence in my voice. I stopped trying to write like other writers, all of whom were male, and just learned to be myself on the page."
Bank said she didn't set out to create in Jane an Everywoman: "I wanted a true character, but I didn't think, 'Oh, here's somebody everyone can relate to'; I wasn't thinking about an audience. You get somebody right by getting all of the little, tiny things right. Somehow that's how you wind up at anything universal."
Vin Scully
"Hi, everybody, and a very pleasant good evening to you wherever you may be."
He was the longest tenured broadcaster with a single team in pro sports history, a gracious commentator and storyteller, and a true fan of the game, even when his beloved Dodgers were behind. Vin Scully (November 29, 1927-August 2, 2022) began in the 1950s with the Brooklyn Dodgers, when the "Bums" fielded such stars as Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese, and followed the team to Los Angeles, announcing the exploits of such legends as Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Steve Garvey and Don Sutton. And while the team changed rosters and managers many times over, Scully was in the announcing booth as the Voice of the Dodgers for nearly seven decades, including for six World Series championships.
Born in the Bronx, Scully's family moved to Brooklyn following the death of his father. It was there he played stickball and listened to sports on the radio. He eventually broadcast games for the Fordham University radio station. Hired by the CBS radio affiliate in Washington, D.C. at age 22, Scully was soon picked by announcer Red Barber to sit in the Brooklyn Dodgers' broadcast booth, making his debut on Opening Day in 1950. He stayed with the team for 67 seasons.
During his tenure, he called 18 no-hitters and three perfect games. He was at the mic in 1974 in Atlanta when the Braves' Hank Aaron hit a home run off Dodger Al Downing to break Babe Ruth's all-time record. "A Black man is getting a standing ovation in the Deep South for breaking a record of an all-time baseball idol," Scully told his audience. "What a marvelous moment for baseball."
In addition to being the voice of the Dodgers, Scully called play-by-play for CBS and NBC for 25 World Series and 12 All-Star Games. He also called NFL games and PGA Tour events.
Scully was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1982, and in 2010 the American Sportscasters Association voted Scully "the greatest sportscaster of the 20th century." In 2016 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
It was in 2016 that the redhead who started with the Brooklyn Dodgers at 23 retired, just shy of his 89th birthday.
Scully told "Sunday Morning" in 2020 that in retirement he could enjoy watching baseball purely as a fan. "I don't watch it critically," he said. "I'm not listening really to what the announcers say: 'Are they trying to steal my stuff?' You know, I have none of that!"
That same year he auctioned off decades of sports memorabilia, raising more than $2 million, part of which was donated to UCLA for ALS research. He said he did not regret parting with any of his collection, from his Babe Ruth autograph to his 1988 World Series ring. "I would much rather treasure the memories," Scully told the Associated Press.
Bill Russell
"Today, we lost a giant," former President Barack Obama said of the loss of NBA legend Bill Russell (February 12, 1934-July 31, 2022). "On the court, he was the greatest champion in basketball history. Off of it, he was a civil rights trailblazer."
Russell was born in the segregated South and moved to Oakland, California, as a child. As a star player at the University of San Francisco, he led the team to two NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956, and then took home a gold medal from the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. Then he launched a legendary NBA career with the Boston Celtics, racking up a record 11 NBA championships while being named MVP five times and an all-star 12 times. After a decade with the Celtics, Russell took on the role of player-coach — the first Black head coach in NBA history — leading the team to titles in 1968 and '69.
Through it all, Russell stood tall for civil rights and social justice. He was at the March on Washington in 1963, when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, backed Muhammad Ali when the boxer was sidelined for refusing the draft, and refused to be cowed by racist taunts during his playing days in Boston.
"Bill stood for something much bigger than sports: the values of equality, respect and inclusion that he stamped into the DNA of our league," NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wrote.
Nichelle Nichols
From her iconic role on "Star Trek" to her real-life role recruiting for NASA, Nichelle Nichols (December 28, 1932-July 30, 2022) was a groundbreaker on multiple fronts.
As Lt. Nyota Uhura, Nichols was one of the first Black actresses to star in a primetime TV show, and she and "Star Trek" made history with television's first interracial kiss in 1968.
In 2015 Nichols, participating in a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" chat, said that she had been ready to leave the show after the first season, after being offered a role on Broadway. But she was convinced to stay by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who told her, "Nichelle, whether you like it or not, you have become a symbol. If you leave, they can replace you with a blonde-haired white girl, and it will be like you were never there. What you've accomplished, for all of us, will only be real if you stay."
"That got me thinking about how it would look for fans of color around the country if they saw me leave," she wrote. "I saw that this was bigger than just me."
She stayed for the original series' three seasons, and returned for six theatrical features.
"She was the third-highest ranking member in the space command," civil rights attorney Ben Crump, an executive producer of the documentary "Women in Motion: Nichelle Nichols, Star Trek and the Remaking of NASA," told "CBS Saturday Morning" in 2021. "I mean, you talk about every little Black boy and girl running to the TV to say, 'Hello that's a Black woman, and she's in charge?'"
The head of NASA took note of her impact and hired Nichols to travel the country to recruit women and people of color for the space program.
Mourning her loss, Nichols' "Star Trek" costar George Takei tweeted, "my heart is heavy, my eyes shining like the stars you now rest among, my dearest friend."
Tony Dow
The role of Wally Cleaver on TV's "Leave It to Beaver" shaped the life of actor Tony Dow (April 13, 1945-July 27, 2022) for years to come.
Dow was 12 years old when he started playing the older brother to Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver (Jerry Mathers) on the hit series that would quickly come to represent an idealized paradigm of mid-century American family life. The show ran from 1957 to 1963, and aired for decades afterwards in reruns. Dow reprised his role in a reunion movie and TV series in the 1980s.
But as he told CBS News' Jim Axelrod in a 2021 interview, it felt "sad to be famous at 12 years old or something, and then you grow up and become a real person, and nothing's happening for you." Depression, he said, is "a very powerful thing. And it's had a lot of effect on my life."
Dow found another creative outlet in art, which became his passion later in life. He credited his work as a sculptor — combined with medication and therapy — for helping him getting a handle on his depression.
In a 2012 interview with the Associated Press, Dow laughed when he recounted the day he decided it was time to take the leap from acting to sculpting. He was up for a role in a TV show and a 28-year-old executive asked, "Have you ever done comedy before," recalled Dow, co-star of one of the most classic TV comedies in history.
"Well, I sort of looked at him and I thought, `Hmmm, maybe it is time for me to retire. Maybe it is time to take the art seriously."'
James Lovelock
British scientist James Lovelock (July 26, 1919-July 26, 2022) popularized the concept of Gaia – that the Earth is a self-regulated living organism – and helped reshape thinking about the environment.
A chemist and inventor who worked as a consultant for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Shell, his ideas helped define what is now referred to as the "Lovelock test," when searching for chemical signs of life on other planets by studying their spectra.
In the 1970s Lovelock and microbiologist Lynn Margulis wrote of our planet as a synergistic body that self-regulates itself – the earth, the oceans and the atmosphere, as well as all living organisms on it. Named after the Greek deity, the holistic Gaia concept was described in journal articles that would form the basis of Lovelock's 1979 book, "Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth."
The Gaia concept would both inspire new studies in earth sciences and environmental activism (including warnings about the effects of man's contributions to climate change), and criticism for being "unscientific" and attributing causation or purpose to its existence.
In a 2021 article for the Guardian, Lovelock warned of "genocidal acts" – the proliferation of man-made greenhouse gases, and the clearcutting of rainforests – that have caused changes on a scale not seen in millions of years.
"My fellow humans must learn to live in partnership with the Earth, otherwise the rest of creation will, as part of Gaia, unconsciously move the Earth to a new state in which humans may no longer be welcome," he wrote. "The virus, COVID-19, may well have been one negative feedback. Gaia will try harder next time with something even nastier."
Paul Sorvino
In an acting career that spanned half a century, Paul Sorvino (April 13, 1939-July 25, 2022) made an indelible impact on screen, whether portraying a gangster or a cop, a communist or a statesman, a leading man or a comic character.
Born in Brooklyn, Sorvino trained in music and theater, making his Broadway debut in 1964 before Carl Reiner cast him in his first film role in "Where's Poppa?" More movies followed, including "The Panic in Needle Park" with Al Pacino, "The Gambler" with James Caan, "Oh, God!," "The Day of the Dolphin," "Bloodbrothers," "That Championship Season," Warren Beatty's "Reds" and "Dick Tracy," and Oliver Stone's "Nixon," playing Henry Kissinger. TV roles included "Bert D'Angelo/Superstar" (a spinoff from his appearance on "The Streets of San Francisco"), "Law & Order" (as NYPD sergeant Phil Cerreta), "Chiefs," "The Oldest Rookie," and "That's Life."
His best-known role was as mobster Paulie Cicero in Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas."
His early dream of being an opera singer was thwarted by asthma, but later in life he starred in a New York City opera production of "The Most Happy Fella." He also appeared in the 2008 film "Repo! The Genetic Opera."
He also had three children who followed him into the entertainment business, including the Oscar-winning actress Mira Sorvino, with whom he costarred in six films.
In a 1992 interview with Charlie Rose, Sorvino spoke of being drawn to performing as a moth is to flame: "If you ask me to weep, I will weep for you. I will not fake it. I won't put glycerin in my eyes. I will find the place in me that causes me to weep."
But for "Goodfellas," he admitted to Rose he had difficulty finding the emotional basis for crime boss Paulie Cicero, and spoke movingly about his personal quest as an actor: "When you ask me to express a certain lethality, to limn the unconscious of a murderer, a killer, a person who could kiss his grandchild and order your death in the next breath, I don't know what that is … When I took the role, I took it expressing to everyone that I knew exactly what to do when I knew nothing of how to do it. …
"I kept talking to myself for two months, day in and day out, looking for the place that would justify this lethality, this coldness and yet maintain a warm side, because just a coldness, that's an automaton. That's one-dimensional, a person who's killed himself off. Paulie Cicero had not killed himself off, but a certain part of him was absolutely dead – cold and dead. And I found that. And when I found that, I scared myself with it. It frightened the hell out of me, because I didn't suspect it, even in me. I did not suspect it was part of my building blocks. And one day I was crossing a mirror as I'd been working on it, I literally was jolted. I saw a dead look in my eyes. I said, 'Now I know the role.'"
Diana Kennedy
Chef and cookbook author Diana Kennedy (March 3, 1923-July 24, 2022) would become known as "the Julia Child of Mexican Cuisine," inspiring others such as José Andrés and Rick Bayless.
Born Diana Southwood in Britain, she studied culinary arts and collected recipes wherever she traveled. After moving to Mexico in the late 1950s (she soon married a New York Times foreign correspondent, Paul Kennedy), she became an authority on local cuisines and techniques, interviewing home cooks and researching local ingredients. She would later teach classes in traditional Mexican cooking.
Her nine books included "The Cuisines of Mexico" (1972), "The Tortilla Book" (1975), "Nothing Fancy: Recipes and Recollections of Soul-Satisfying Food" (1984), "My Mexico" (1998), and "From My Mexican Kitchen - Techniques and Ingredients" (2003).
She received the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame Award in 2014.
In a 2019 New York Times interview, Kennedy defended her reputation for being at time "prickly" with editors. "For God's sake, I'm not trying to win a popularity contest, I'm a cook!" she said. "There's far too much mediocrity in this world, and someone's got to say something."
David Warner
He played evil itself in the fantasy "Time Bandits," not to mention an evil computer program in "Tron," Jack the Ripper in "Time After Time," a Klingon in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," and a sinister henchman in "Titanic." David Warner (July 29, 1941-July 24, 2022) was one of the most dynamic actors of his generation. With numerous memorable appearances in films and TV, he won an Emmy Award as a Roman senator in the 1981 miniseries "Masada."
A student of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London (two of his fellow classmates were John Hurt and Ian McShane), Warner told The AV Club in 2017 that he had fallen into acting by default: "Academically I was hopeless, and athletically I was hopeless. In my Wikipedia entry, it says I had a messy childhood, and that's the truth! But I sort of drifted into the odd school play, and that was one thing that I kind of felt that I had some enthusiasm for."
A member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, Warner has played Henry VI, Richard II, Hamlet and King Lear, as well as roles in "Julius Caesar," "Twelfth Nigh
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https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/geoffrey-of-monmouth-arthurian-passages-from-the-history-of-the-kings-of-britain
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Arthurian Passages from The History of the Kings of Britain
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https://d.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/text/geoffrey-of-monmouth-arthurian-passages-from-the-history-of-the-kings-of-britain
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BOOK VI.
CHAP. I.--Gratian, being advanced to the throne, is killed by the common people. The Britons desire the Romans to defend them against Guanius and Melga.
But Gratian Municeps, hearing of the death of Maximian, seized the crown, and made himself king. After this he exercised such tyranny that the common people fell upon him in a tumultuous manner, and murdered him. When this news reached other countries, their former enemies returned back from Ireland, and bringing with them the Scots, Norwegians, and Dacians, made dreadful devastations with fire and sword over the whole kingdom, from sea to sea. Upon this most grievous calamity and oppression, ambassadors are despatched with letters to Rome, to beseech, with tears and vows of perpetual subjection, that a body of men might be sent to revenge their injuries, and drive out the enemy from them. The ambassadors in a short time prevailed so far, that, unmindful of past injuries, the Romans granted them one legion, which was transported in a fleet to their country, and there speedily encountered the enemy. At last, after the slaughter of a vast multitude of them, they drove them entirely out of the country, and rescued the miserable people from their outrageous cruelty. Then they gave orders for a wall to be built between Albania and Deira, from one sea to the other, for a terror to the enemy, and safeguard to the country. At that time Albania was wholly laid to waste, by the frequent invasions of barbarous nations; and whatever enemies made an attempt upon the country, met with a convenient landing-place there. So that the inhabitants were diligent in working upon the wall, which they finished partly at the public, partly upon private charge.
CHAP. II.--Guethelin's speech to the Britons when the Romans left them.
The Romans, after this, declared to the Britons, that they should not be able for the future to undergo the fatigue of such laborious expeditions; and that it was beneath the dignity of the Roman state to harass so great and brave an army, both by land and sea, against base and vagabond robbers; but that they ought to apply themselves to the use of arms, and to fight bravely in defending to the utmost of their power, their country, riches, wives, children, and, what is dearer than all these, their liberty and lives. As soon as they had given them this exhortation, they commanded all the men of the island that were fit for war, to appear together at London, because the Romans were about to return home. When, therefore, they were all assembled, Guethelin, the metropolitan of London, had orders to make a speech to them, which he did in these words:--
"Though I am appointed by the princes here present to speak to you, I find myself rather ready to burst into tears, than to make an eloquent oration. It is a most sensible affliction to me to observe the weak and destitute state into which you are fallen since Maximian drew away with him all the forces and youth of this kingdom. You that were left were people wholly inexperienced in war, and occupied with other employments, as tilling the ground, and several kinds of mechanical trades. So that when your enemies from foreign countries came upon you, as sheep wandering without a shepherd, they forced you to quit your folds, till the Roman power restored you to them again. Must your hopes, therefore, always depend upon foreign assistance? And will you never use yourselves to handle arms against a band of robbers, that are by no means stronger than yourselves, if you are not dispirited by sloth and cowardice? The Romans are now tired with the continual voyages wherewith they are harassed to defend you against your enemies: they rather choose to remit to you the tribute you pay them, than undergo any longer this fatigue by land and sea. Because you were only the common people at the time when we had soldiers of our own, do you therefore think that manhood had quite forsaken you? Are not men in the course of human generation often the reverse of one another? Is not a ploughman often the father of a soldier, and a soldier of a ploughman? Does not the same diversity happen in a mechanic and a soldier? Since then, in this manner, one produces another, I cannot think it possible for manhood to be lost among them. As then you are men, behave yourselves like men: call upon the name of Christ, that he may inspire you with courage to defend your liberties."
No sooner had he concluded his speech, than the people raised such a shout, that one would have thought them on a sudden inspired with courage from heaven.
CHAP. III.--The Britons are again cruelly harassed by Guanius and Melga.
After this the Romans encouraged the timorous people as much as they could, and left them patterns of their arms. They likewise commanded towers, having a prospect towards the sea, to be placed at proper distances along the all the south coast, where their ships were, and from whence they feared the invasions of the barbarians. But, according to the proverb, "It is easier to make a hawk of a kite, than a scholar of a ploughman;" all learning to him is but as a pearl thrown before swine. Thus, no sooner had the Romans taken their farewell of them, than the two leaders, Guanius and Melga, issued forth from their ships, in which they had fled over into Ireland, and with their bands of Scots, Picts, Norwegians, Dacians, and others, whom they had brought along with them, seized upon all Albania as far as the very wall. Understanding, likewise, that the Romans were gone, never to return any more, they now, in a more insolent manner than before, began their devastations in the island. Hereupon the country fellows upon the battlements of the walls sat night and day with quaking hearts, not daring to stir from their seats, and readier for flight than making the least resistance. In the meantime the enemies ceased not with their hooks to pull them down headlong, and dash the wretched herd to pieces upon the ground; who gained at least this advantage by their speedy death, that they avoided the sight of that most deplorable calamity, which forthwith threatened their relations and dearest children. Such was the terrible vengeance of God for that most wicked madness of Maximian, in draining the kingdom of all its forces, who, had they been present, would have repulsed any nation that invaded them; an evident proof of which they gave, by the vast conquests they made abroad, even in remote countries; and also by maintaining their own country in peace, while they continued here. But thus it happens when a country is left to the defence of country clowns. In short, quitting their high wall and their cities, the country people were forced again to fly, and to suffer a more fatal dispersion, a more furious pursuit of the enemy, a more cruel and more general slaughter than before; and like lambs before wolves, so was that miserable people torn to pieces by the merciless barbarians. Again, therefore, the wretched remainder send letters to Agitius, a man of great power among the Romans, to this effect. "To Agitius, thrice consul, the groans of the Britons." And after some few other complaints they add: "The sea drives us to the barbarians, and the barbarians drive us back to the sea: thus we are tossed to and fro between two kinds of death, being either drowned or put to the sword." Notwithstanding this most moving address, they procured no relief, and the ambassadors returning back in great heaviness, declared to their countrymen the repulse which they had suffered.
CHAP. IV.--Guethelin desires succours of Aldroen.
Hereupon, after a consultation together, Guethelin, archbishop of London, passed over into Lesser Britain, called them Armorica, or Letavia, to desire assistance of their brethren. At that time Aldroen reigned there, being the fourth king from Conan, to whom, as has been already related, Maximian had given that kingdom. This prince, seeing a prelate of so great dignity arrive, received him with honour, and inquired after the occasion of his coming. To whom Guethelin:--
"Your majesty can be no stranger to the misery which we, your Britons, have suffered (which may even demand your tears), since the time that Maximian drained our island of its soldiers, to people the kingdom which you enjoy, and which God grant you may long enjoy in peace. For against us the poor remains of the British race, all the people of the adjacent islands, have risen up, and made an utter devastation in our country, which then abounded with all kinds of riches; so that the people now are wholly destitute of all manner of sustenance, but what they can get in hunting. Nor had we any power or knowledge of military affairs left among us to encounter the enemy. For the Romans are tired of us, and have absolutely refused their assistance. So that now, deprived of all other hope, we come to implore your clemency, that you would furnish us with forces, and protect a kingdom, which is of right your own, from the incursions of barbarians. For who but yourself, ought, without your consent, to wear the crown of Constantine and Maximian, since the right your ancestors had to it is now devolved upon you? Prepare then your fleet, and go with me. Behold! I deliver the kingdom of Britain into your hands."
To this Aldroen made answer: "There was a time formerly when I would not have refused to accept of the island of Britain, if it had been offered me; for I do not think there was anywhere a more fruitful country while it enjoyed peace and tranquillity. But now, since the calamities that have befallen it, it is become of less value, and odious both to me and all other princes. But above all things the power of the Romans was so destructive to it, that nobody could enjoy any settled state or authority in it, without loss of liberty, and bearing the yoke of slavery under them. And who would not prefer the possession of a lesser country with liberty, to all the riches of that island in servitude? The kingdom that is now under my subjection I enjoy with honour, and without paying homage to any superior; so that I prefer it to all other countries, since I can govern it without being controlled. Nevertheless, out of respect to the right that my ancestors for many generations have had to your island, I deliver to you my brother Constantine with two thousand men, that with the good providence of God, he may free your country from the inroads of barbarians, and obtain the crown for himself. For I have a brother called by that name, who is an expert soldier, and in all other respects an accomplished man. If you please to accept of him, I will not refuse to send him with you, together with the said number of men; for indeed a larger number I do not mention to you, because I am daily threatened with disturbance from the Gauls." He had scarcely done speaking before the archbishop returned him thanks, and when Constantine was called in, broke out into these expressions of joy: "Christ conquers; Christ commands; Christ reigns: behold the king of desolate Britain! Be Christ only present, and behold our defence, our hope and joy." In short, the ships being got ready, the men who were chosen out from all parts of the kingdom, were delivered to Guethelin.
CHAP. V.--Constantine, being made king of Britain, leaves three sons.
When they had made all necessary preparations, they embarked, and arrived at the port of Totness; and then without delay assembled together the youth that was left in the island, and encountered the enemy; over whom, by the merit of the holy prelate, they obtained the victory. After this the Britons, before dispersed, flocked together from all parts and in a council held at Silchester, promoted Constantine to the throne, and there performed the ceremony of his coronation. They also married him to a lady, descended from a noble Roman family, whom archbishop Guethelin had educated, and by whom the king had afterwards three sons, Constans, Aurelius Ambrosius, and Uther Pendragon. Constans, who was the eldest, he delivered to the church of Amphibalus in Winchester, that he might there take upon him the monastic order. But the other two, viz. Aurelius and Uther, he committed to the care of Guethelin for their education. At last, after ten years were expired, there came a certain Pict, who had entered in his service, and under pretence of holding some private discourse with him, in a nursery of young trees where nobody was present, stabbed him with a dagger.
CHAP. VI.--Constans is by Vortigern crowned king of Britain.
Upon the death of Constantine, a dissension arose among the nobility, about a successor to the throne. Some were for setting up Aurelius Ambrosius; others Uther Pendragon; others again some other persons of the royal family. At last, when they could come to no conclusion, Vortigern, consul of the Gewisseans, who was himself very ambitious of the crown, went to Constans the monk, and thus addressed himself to him: "You see your father is dead, and your brothers on account of their age are incapable of the government; neither do I see any of your family besides yourself, whom the people ought to promote to the kingdom. If you will therefore follow my advice, I will, on condition of your increasing my private estate, dispose the people to favour your advancement, and free you from that habit, notwithstanding that it is against the rule of your order." Constans, overjoyed at the proposal, promised, with an oath, that upon these terms he would grant him whatever he would desire. Then Vortigern took him, and investing him in his regal habiliments, conducted him to London, and made him king, though not with the free consent of the people. Archbishop Guethelin was then dead, nor was there any other that durst perform the ceremony of his unction, on account of his having quitted the monastic order. However, this proved no hindrance to his coronation, for Vortigern himself performed the ceremony instead of a bishop.
CHAP. VII.--Vortigern treacherously contrives to get king Constans assassinated.
Constans, being thus advanced, committed the whole government of the kingdom to Vortigern, and surrendered himself up so entirely to his counsels, that he did nothing without his order. His own incapacity for government obliged him to do this, for he had learned any thing else rather than state affairs within his cloister. Vortigern became sensible of this, and therefore began to deliberate with himself what course to take to obtain the crown, of which he had been before extremely ambitious. He saw that now was his proper time to gain his end easily, when the kingdom was wholly intrusted to his management; and Constans, who bore the title of king, was no more than the shadow of one; for he was of a soft temper, a bad judge in matters of right, and not in the least feared, either by his own people, or by the neighbouring states. And as for his two brothers, Uther Pendragon and Aurelius Ambrosius, they were only children in their cradles, and therefore incapable of the government. There was likewise this farther misfortune, that all the older persons of the nobility were dead, so that Vortigern seemed to be the only man surviving, that had craft, policy, and experience in matters of state; and all the rest in a manner children, or raw youths, who only inherited the honours of their parents and relations that had been killed in the former wars. Vortigern, finding a concurrence of so many favourable circumstances, contrived how he might easily and cunningly depose Constans the monk, and immediately establish himself in his place. But in order to do this, he waited until he had first well established his power and interest in several countries. He therefore petitioned to have the king's treasures, and his fortified cities, in his own custody; pretending there was a rumour, that the neighbouring islanders designed an invasion of the kingdom. This being granted him, he placed his own creatures in those cities, to secure them for himself. Then having formed a scheme how to execute his treasonable designs, he went to the king, and represented to him the necessity of augmenting the number of his domestics, that he might more safely oppose the invasion of the enemy. "Have I not left all things to your disposal?" said Constans: "Do what you will as to that, so that they be but faithful to me." Vortigern replied, "I am informed that the Picts are going to bring the Dacians and Norwegians in upon us, with a design to give us very great annoyance. I would therefore advise you, and in my opinion it is the best course you can take, that you maintain some Picts in your court, who may do you good service among those of that nation. For if it is true that they are preparing to begin a rebellion, you may employ them as spies upon their countrymen in their plots and stratagems, so as easily to escape them." This was the dark treason of a secret enemy; for he did not recommend this out of regard to the safety of Constans, but because he knew the Picts to be a giddy people, and ready for all manner of wickedness; so that, in a fit of drunkenness or passion, they might easily be incensed against the king, and make no scruple to assassinate him. And such an accident, when it should happen, would make an open way for his accession to the throne, which he so often had in view. Hereupon he despatched messengers into Scotland, with an invitation to a hundred Pictish soldiers, whom accordingly he received into the king's household; and when admitted, he showed them more respect than all the rest of the domestics, by making them several presents, and allowing them a luxurious table, insomuch that they looked upon him as the king. So great was the regard they had for him, that they made songs of him about the streets, the subject of which was, that Vortigern deserved the government, deserved the sceptre of Britain; but that Constans was unworthy of it. This encouraged Vortigern to show them still more favour, in order the more firmly to engage them in his interest; and when by these practices he had made them entirely his creatures, he took an opportunity, when they were drunk, to tell them, that he was going to retire out of Britain, to see if he could get a better estate; for the small revenue he had then, he said, would not so much as enable him to maintain a retinue of fifty men. Then putting on a look of sadness, he withdrew to his own apartment, and left them drinking in the hall. The Picts at this sight were in inexpressible sorrow, as thinking what he had said was true, and murmuring said one to another, "Why do we suffer this monk to live? Why do not we kill him, that Vortigern may enjoy his crown? Who is so fit to succeed as he? A man so generous to us is worthy to rule, and deserves all the honour and dignity that we can bestow upon him."
CHAP. VIII.--Aurelius Ambrosius and Uther Pendragon flee from Vortigern, and go to Lesser Britain.
After this, breaking into Constan's bed-chamber, they fell upon him and killed him, and carried his head to Vortigern. At the sight of it, he put on a mournful countenance, and burst forth into tears, though at the same time he was almost transported with joy. However, he summoned together the citizens of London, (for there the fact was committed,) and commanded all the assassins to be bound, and their heads to be cut off for this abominable parricide. In the meantime there were some who had a suspicion, that this piece of villany was wholly the contrivance of Vortigern, and that the Picts were only his instruments to execute it. Others again as positively asserted his innocence. At last the matter being left in doubt, those who had the care of the two brothers, Aurelius Ambrosius, and Uther Pendragon, fled over with them into Lesser Britain, for fear of being killed by Vortigern. There they were kindly received by king Budes, who took care to give them an education suitable to their royal birth.
CHAP. IX.--Vortigern makes himself king of Britain.
Now Vortigern, seeing nobody to rival him in the kingdom, placed the crown on his own head, and thus gained the preeminence over all the rest of the princes. At last his treason being discovered, the people of the adjacent islands, whom the Picts had brought into Albania, made insurrection against him. For the Picts were enraged on account of the death of their fellow soldiers, who had been slain for the murder of Constans, and endeavoured to revenge that injury upon him. Vortigern therefore was daily in great distress, and lost a considerable part of his army in a war with them. He had likewise no less trouble from another quarter, for fear of Aurelius Ambrosius, and his brother Uther Pendragon, who, as we said before, had fled, on his account, into Lesser Britain. For he heard it rumoured, day after day, that they had now arrived at man's estate, and had built a vast fleet, with a design to return back to the kingdom, which was their undoubted right.
CHAP. X.--Vortigern takes the Saxons that were new-comers, to his assistance.
In the meantime there arrived in Kent three brigandines, or long galleys, full of armed men, under the command of two brothers, Horsa and Hengist. Vortigern was then at Dorobernia, now Canterbury, which city he used often to visit; and being informed of the arrival of some tall strangers in large ships, he ordered that they should be received peaceably, and conducted into his presence. As soon as they were brought before him, he cast his eyes upon the two brothers, who excelled all the rest both in nobility and gracefulness of person; and having taken a view of the whole company, asked them of what country they were, and what was the occasion of their coming into his kingdom. To whom Hengist (whose years and wisdom entitled him to a precedence), in the name of the rest, made the following answer:--
"Most noble king, Saxony, which is one of the countries of Germany, was the place of our birth; and the occasion of our coming was to offer our service to you or some other prince. For we were driven out of our native country, for no other reason, but that the laws of the kingdom required it. It is customary among us, that when we come to be overstocked with people, our princes from all the provinces meet together, and command all the youths of the kingdom to assemble before them; then casting lots, they make choice of the strongest and ablest of them, to go into foreign nations, to procure themselves a subsistence, and free their native country from a superfluous multitude of people. Our country, therefore, being of late overstocked, our princes met, and after having cast lots, made choice of the youth which you see in your presence, and have obliged us to obey the custom which has been established of old. And us two brothers, Hengist and Horsa, they made generals over them, out of respect to our ancestors, who enjoyed the same honour. In obedience, therefore, to the laws so long established, we put out to sea, and under the good guidance of Mercury have arrived in your kingdom."
The king, at the name of Mercury, looking earnestly upon them, asked them what religion they professed. "We worship," replied Hengist, "our country's gods, Saturn and Jupiter, and the other deities that govern the world, but especially Mercury, whom in our language we call Woden, and to whom our ancestors consecrated the fourth day of the week, still called after his name Wodensday. Next to him we worship the powerful goddess, Frea, to whom they also dedicated the sixth day, which after her name we call Friday." Vortigern replied, "For your credulity, or rather incredulity, I am much grieved, but I rejoice at your arrival, which, whether by God's providence or some other agency, happens very seasonably for me in my present difficulties. For I am oppressed by my enemies on every side, and if you will engage with me in my wars, I will entertain you honourably in my kingdom, and bestow upon you lands and other possessions." The barbarians readily accepted his offer, and the agreement between them being ratified, they resided at his court. Soon after this, the Picts, issuing forth from Albania, with a very great army, began to lay waste the northern parts of the island. When Vortigern had information of it, he assembled his forces, and went to meet them beyond the Humber. Upon their engaging, the battle proved very fierce on both sides, though there was but little occasion for the Britons to exert themselves, for the Saxons fought so bravely, that the enemy, formerly so victorious, were speedily put to flight.
CHAP. XI.--Hengist brings over great numbers of Saxons into Britain: his crafty petition to Vortigern.
Vortigern, therefore, as he owed the victory to them, increased his bounty to them, and gave their general, Hengist, large possessions of land in Lindesia, for the subsistence of himself and his fellow soldiers. Hereupon Hengist, who was a man of experience and subtilty, finding how much interest he had with the king, addressed him in this manner:--"Sir, your enemies give you disturbance from all quarters, and few of your subjects love you. They all threaten you, and say, they are going to bring over Aurelius Ambrosius from Armorica, to depose you, and make him king. If you please, let us send to our country to invite over some more soldiers, that with our forces increased we may be better able to oppose them. But there is one thing which I would desire of your clemency, if I did not fear a refusal." Vortigern made answer, "Send your messengers to Germany, and invite over whom you please, and you shall have no refusal from me in whatever you shall desire." Hengist, with a low bow, returned to him thanks, and said, "The possessions which you have given me in land and houses are very large, but you have not yet done me that honour which becomes my station and birth, because, among other things, I should have had some town or city granted me, that I might be entitled to greater esteem among the nobility of your kingdom. I ought to have been made a consul or prince, since my ancestors enjoyed both those dignities." "It is not in my power," replied Vortigern, "to do you so much honour, because you are strangers and pagans; neither am I yet so far acquainted with your manners and customs, as to set you upon a level with my natural born subjects. And, indeed, if I did esteem you as my subjects, I should not be forward to do so, because the nobility of my kingdom would strongly dissuade me from it." "Give your servant," said Hengist, "only so much ground in the place you have assigned me, as I can encompass with a leathern thong, for to build a fortresss upon, as a place of retreat if occasion should require. For I will always be faithful to you, as I have been hitherto, and pursue no other design in the request which I have made." With these words the king was prevailed upon to grant him his petition; and ordered him to despatch messengers into Germany, to invite more men over speedily to his assistance. Hengist immediately executed his orders, and taking a bull's hide, made one thong out of the whole, with which he encompassed a rocky place that he had carefully made choice of, and within that circuit began to build a castle, which, when finished, took its name from the thong wherewith it had been measured; for it was afterwards called, in the British tongue, Kaercorrei; in Saxon, Thancastre, that is, Thong Castle.
CHAP. XII.--Vortigern marries Rowen, the daughter of Hengist.
In the meantime, the messengers returned from Germany, with eighteen ships full of the best soldiers they could get. They also brought along with them Rowen, the daughter of Hengist, one of the most accomplished beauties of that age. After their arrival, Hengist invited the king to his house, to view his new buildings, and the new soldiers that were come over. The king readily accepted of his invitation, but privately, and having highly commended the magnificence of the structure, enlisted the men into his service. Here he was entertained at a royal banquet; and when that was over, the young lady came out of her chamber bearing a golden cup full of wine, with which she approached the king, and making a low courtesy, said to him, "Lauerd king wacht heil!" The king, at the sight of the lady's face, was on a sudden both surprised and inflamed with her beauty; and calling to his interpreter, asked him what she said, and what answer he should make her. "She called you, 'Lord king,'" said the interpreter, "and offered to drink your health. Your answer to her must be, 'Drinc heil!'" Vortigern accordingly answered, "Drinc heil!" and bade her drink; after which he took the cup from her hand, kissed her, and drank himself. From that time to this, it has been the custom in Britain, that he who drinks to any one says, "Wacht heil!" and he that pledges him, answers "Drinc heil!" Vortigern being now drunk with the variety of liquors, the devil took this opportunity to enter into his heart, and to make him in love with the damsel, so that he became suitor to her father for her. It was, I say, by the devil's entering into his heart, that he, who was a Christian, should fall in love with a pagan. By this example, Hengist, being a prudent man, discovered the king's levity, and consulted with his brother Horsa and the other ancient men present, what to do in relation to the king's request. They unanimously advised him to give him his daughter, and in consideration of her to demand the province of Kent. Accordingly the daughter was without delay delivered to Vortigern, and the province of Kent to Hengist, without the knowledge of Gorangan, who had the government of it. The king the same night married the pagan lady, and became extremely delighted with her; by which he quickly brought upon himself the hatred of the nobility, and of his own sons. For he had already three sons, whose names were Vortimer, Catigern, and Pascentius.
CHAP. XIII.--The bishops, Germanus and Lupus, restore the Christian faith that had been corrupted in Britain. Octa and Ebissa are four times routed by Vortimer.
At that time came St. Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, and Lupus, bishop of Troyes, to preach the gospel to the Britons. For the Christian faith had been corrupted among them, partly by the pagans whom the king had brought into society with them, partly by the Pelagian heresy, with the poison whereof they had been a long time infected. But by the preaching of these holy men, the true faith and worship was again restored, the many miracles they wrought giving success to their labours. Gildas has in his elegant treatise given an account of the many miracles God wrought by them. The king being now, as we have said, possessed of the lady, Hengist said to him: "As I am your father, I claim the right of being your counsellor: do not therefore slight my advice, since it is to my countrymen you must owe the conquest of all your enemies. Let us invite over my son Octa and his brother Ebissa, who are brave soldiers, and give them the countries that are in the northern parts of Britain, by the wall, between Deira and Albania. For they will hinder the inroads of the barbarians, and so you shall enjoy peace on the other side of the Humber." Vortigern complied with his request, and ordered them to invite over whomsoever they knew able to assist him. Immediately upon the receipt of this message, came Octa, Ebissa, and Cherdich, with three hundred ships filled with soldiers, who were all kindly received by Vortigern, and had ample presents made them. For by their assistance he vanquished his enemies, and in every engagement proved victorious. Hengist in the meantime continued to invite over more and more ships, and to augment his numbers daily. Which when the Britons observed, they were afraid of being betrayed by them, and moved the king to banish them out of his coasts. For it was contrary to the rule of the gospel that Christians should hold fellowship, or have any intercourse, with pagans. Besides which, the number of those that were come over was now so great, that they were a terror to his subjects; and nobody could now know who was a pagan, or who a Christian, since pagans married the daughters and kinswomen of Christians. These things they represented to the king, and endeavoured to dissuade him from entertaining them, lest they might, by some treacherous conspiracy, prove an overmatch for the native inhabitants. But Vortigern, who loved them above all other nations on account of his wife, was deaf to their advice. For this reason the Britons quickly desert him, and unanimously set up Vortimer his son for their king; who at their instigation began to drive out the barbarians, and to make dreadful incursions upon them. Four battles he fought with them, and was victorious in all: the first upon the river Dereuent; the second upon the ford of Epsford, where Horsa and Catigern, another son of Vortigern, met and, after a sharp encounter, killed each other; the third upon the sea-shore, where the enemies fled shamefully to their ships, and betook themselves for refuge to the Isle of Thanet. But Vortimer besieged them there, and daily distressed them with his fleet. And when they were no longer able to bear the assaults of the Britons, they sent king Vortigern, who was present with them in all those wars, to his son Vortimer, to desire leave to depart, and return back safe to Germany. And while a conference upon this subject was being held, they in the meantime went on board their long galleys, and, leaving their wives and children behind them, returned back to Germany.
CHAP. XIV.--Vortimer's kindness to his soldiers at his death.
Vortimer, after this great success, began to restore his subjects to their possessions which had been taken from them, and to show them all marks of his affection and esteem, and at the instance of St. Germanus to rebuild their churches. But his goodness quickly stirred up the enmity of the devil against him, who entering into the heart of his stepmother Rowen, excited her to contrive his death. For this purpose she consulted with the poisoners, and procured one who was intimate with him, whom she corrupted with large and numerous presents, to give him a poisonous draught; so that this brave soldier, as soon as he had taken it, was seized with a sudden illness, that deprived him of all hopes of life. Hereupon he forthwith ordered all his men to come to him, and having shown them how near he was to his end, distributed among them all the treasure his predecessors had heaped up, and endeavoured to comfort them in their sorrow and lamentation for him, telling them, he was only going the way of all flesh. But he exhorted those brave and warlike young men, who had attended him in all his victories, to persist courageously in the defence of their country against all hostile invasion; and with wonderful greatness of mind, commanded a brazen pyramid to be placed in the port where the Saxons used to land, and his body when dead to be buried on the top of it, that the sight of his tomb might frighten back the barbarians to Germany. For he said none of them would dare approach the country, that should but get a sight of his tomb. Such was the admirable bravery of this great man, who, as he had been a terror to them while living, endeavoured to be no less so when dead. Notwithstanding which, he was no sooner dead, than the Britons had no regard to his orders, but buried him at London.
CHAP. XV.--Hengist, having wickedly murdered the princes of Britain, keeps Vortigern prisoner.
Vortigern, after the death of his son, was again restored to the kingdom, and at the request of his wife sent messengers into Germany to Hengist, with an invitation to return into Britain, but privately, and with a small retinue, to prevent a quarrel between the barbarians and his subjects. But Hengist, hearing that Vortimer was dead, raised an army of no less than three hundred thousand men, and fitting out a fleet returned with them to Britain. When Vortigern and the nobility heard of the arrival of so vast a multitude, they were immoderately incensed, and, after consultation together, resolved to fight them, and drive them from their coasts. Hengist, being informed of their design by messengers sent from his daughter, immediately entered into deliberation what course to pursue against them. After several stratagems had been considered, he judged it most feasible, to impose upon the nation by making show of peace. With this view he sent ambassadors to the king, to declare to him, that he had not brought so great a number of men for the purpose either of staying with him, or offering any violence to the country. But the reason why he brought them, was because he thought Vortimer was yet living, and that he should have occasion for them against him, in case of an assault. But now since he no longer doubted of his being dead, he submitted himself and his people to the disposal of Vortigern; so that he might retain as many of them as he should think fit, and whomsoever he rejected Hengist would allow to return back without delay to Germany. And if these terms pleased Vortigern, he desired him to appoint a time and place for their meeting, and adjusting matters according to his pleasure. When these things were represented to the king, he was mightily pleased, as being very unwilling to part with Hengist; and at last ordered his subjects and the Saxons to meet upon the kalends of May, which were now very near, at the monastery of Ambrius, for the settling of the matters above mentioned. The appointment being agreed to on both sides, Hengist, with a new design of villany in his head, ordered his soldiers to carry every one of them a long dagger under their garments; and while the conference should be held with the Britons, who would have no suspicion of them, he would give them this word of command, "Nemet oure Saxas;" at which moment they were all to be ready to seize boldly every one his next man, and with his drawn dagger stab him. Accordingly they all met at the time and place appointed, and began to treat of peace; and when a fit opportunity offered for executing his villany, Hengist cried out, "Nemet oure Saxas," and the same instant seized Vortigern, and held him by his cloak. The Saxons, upon the signal given, drew their daggers, and falling upon the princes, who little suspected any such design, assassinated them to the number of four hundred and sixty barons and consuls; to whose bodies St. Eldad afterwards gave Christian burial; not far from Kaercaradauc, now Salisbury, in a burying-place near the monastery of Ambrius, the abbat, who was the founder of it. For they all came without arms, having no thoughts of anything but treating of peace; which gave the others a fairer opportunity of exercising their villainous design against them. But the pagans did not escape unpunished while they acted this wickedness; a great number of them being killed during this massacre of their enemies. For the Britons, taking up clubs and stones from the ground, resolutely defended themselves, and did good execution upon the traitors.
CHAP. XVI.--Eldol's valiant exploit. Hengist forces Vortigern to yield up the strongest fortifications in Britain, in consideration of his release.
There was present one Eldol, consul of Gloucester, who, at the sight of this treachery, took up a stake which he happened to find, and with that made his defence. Every blow he gave carried death along with it; and by breaking either the head, arms, shoulders, or legs of a great many, he struck no small terror into the traitors, nor did he move from the spot before he had killed with that weapon seventy men. But being no longer able to stand his ground against such numbers, he made his escape from them, and retired to his own city. Many fell on both sides, but the Saxons got the victory; because the Britons, having no suspicion of treachery, came unarmed, and therefore made a weaker defence. After the commission of this detestable villany, the Saxons would not kill Vortigern; but having threatened him with death and bound him, demanded his cities and fortified places in consideration of their granting him his life. He, to secure himself, denied them nothing; and when they had made him confirm his grants with an oath, they released him from his chains, and then marched first to London, which they took, as they did afterwards York, Lincoln, and Winchester; wasting the countries through which they passed, and destroying the people, as wolves do sheep when left by their shepherds. When Vortigern saw the desolation which they made, he retired into the parts of Cambria, not knowing what to do against so barbarous a people.
CHAP. XVII.--Vortigern, after consultation with magicians, orders a youth to be brought that never had a father.
At last he had recourse to magicians for their advice, and commanded them to tell him what course to take. They advised him to build a very strong tower for his own safety, since he had lost all his other fortified places. Accordingly he made a progress about the country, to find out a convenient situation, and came at last to Mount Erir, where he assembled workmen from several countries, and ordered them to build the tower. The builders, therefore, began to lay the foundation; but whatever they did one day the earth swallowed up the next, so as to leave no appearance of their work. Vortigern being informed of this again consulted with his magicians concerning the cause of it, who told him that he must find out a youth that never had a father, and kill him, and then sprinkle the stones and cement with his blood; for by those means, they said, he would have a firm foundation. Hereupon messengers were despatched away over all the provinces, to inquire out such a man. In their travels they came to a city, called afterwards Kaermerdin, where they saw some young men, playing before the gate, and went up to them; but being weary with their journey, they sat down in the ring, to see if they could meet with what they were in quest of. Towards evening, there happened on a sudden quarrel between two of the young men, whose names were Merlin and Dabutius. In the dispute, Dabutius said to Merlin: "You fool, do you presume to quarrel with me? Is their any equality in our birth? I am descended of royal race, both by my father and mother's side. As for you, nobody knows what you are, for you never had a father." At that word the messengers looked earnestly upon Merlin, and asked the by-standers who he was. They told him, it was not known who was his father; but that his mother was daughter to the king of Dimetia, and that she lived in St. Peter's church among the nuns of that city.
CHAP. XVIII.--Vortigern inquires of Merlin's mother concerning her conception of him.
Upon this the messengers hastened to the governor of the city, and ordered him, in the king's name, to send Merlin and his mother to the king. As soon as the governor understood the occasion of their message, he readily obeyed the order, and sent them to Vortigern to complete his design. When they were introduced into the king's presence, he received the mother in a very respectful manner, on account of her noble birth; and began to inquire of her by what man she had conceived. "My sovereign lord," said she, "by the life of your soul and mine, I know nobody that begot him of me. Only this I know, that as I was once with my companions in our chambers, there appeared to me a person in the shape of a most beautiful young man, who often embraced me eagerly in his arms, and kissed me; and when he had stayed a little time, he suddenly vanished out of my sight. But many times after this he would talk with me when I sat alone, without making any visible appearance. When he had a long time haunted me in this manner, he at last lay with me several times in the shape of a man, and left me with child. And I do affirm to you, my sovereign lord, that excepting that young man, I know no body that begot him of me." The king full of admiration at this account, ordered Maugantius to be called, that he might satisfy him as to the possibility of what the woman had related. Maugantius, being introduced, and having the whole matter repeated to him, said to Vortigern: "In the books of our philosophers, and in a great many histories, I have found that several men have had the like original. For, as Apuleius informs us in his book concerning the Demon of Socrates, between the moon and the earth inhabit those spirits, which we will call incubuses. These are of the nature partly of men, and partly of angels, and whenever they please assume human shapes, and lie with women. Perhaps one of them appeared to this woman, and begot that young man of her."
CHAP. XIX.--Merlin's speech to the king's magicians, and advice about the building of the tower.
Merlin in the meantime was attentive to all that had passed, and then approached the king, and said to him, "For what reason am I and my mother introduced into your presence?"-- "My magicians," answered Vortigern, "advised me to seek out a man that had no father, with whose blood my building is to be sprinkled, in order to make it stand."-- "Order your magicians," said Merlin, "to come before me, and I will convict them of a lie." The king was surprised at his words, and presently ordered the magicians to come, and sit down before Merlin, who spoke to them after this manner: "Because you are ignorant what it is that hinders the foundation of the tower, you have recommended the shedding of my blood for cement to it, as if that would presently make it stand. But tell me now, what is there under the foundation? For something there is that will not suffer it to stand." The magicians at this began to be afraid, and made him no answer. Then said Merlin, who was also called Ambrose, "I entreat your majesty would command your workmen to dig into the ground, and you will find a pond which causes the foundations to sink." This accordingly was done, and then presently they found a pond deep under ground, which had made it give way. Merlin after this went again to the magicians, and said, "Tell me ye false sycophants, what is there under the pond." But they were silent. Then said he again to the king, "Command the pond to be drained, and at the bottom you will see two hollow stones, and in them two dragons asleep." The king made no scruple of believing him, since he had found true what he said of the pond, and therefore ordered it to be drained: which done, he found as Merlin had said; and now was possessed with the greatest admiration of him. Nor were the rest that were present less amazed at his wisdom, thinking it to be no less than divine inspiration.
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BOOK VII.
CONCERNING THE PROPHECIES OF MERLIN.
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CHAP. I.--Geoffrey of Monmouth's preface to Merlin's prophecy.
I had not got thus far in my history, when the subject of public discourse happening to be concerning Merlin, I was obliged to publish his prophecies at the request of my acquaintance, but especially of Alexander, bishop of Lincoln, a prelate of the greatest piety and wisdom. There was not any person, either among the clergy or laity, that was attended with such a train of knights and noblemen, whom his settled piety and great munificence engaged in his service. Out of a desire, therefore, to gratify him, I translated these prophecies, and sent them to him with the following letter.
CHAP. II.--Geoffrey's letter to Alexander, bishop of Lincoln.
"The regard which I owe to your great worth, most noble prelate, has obliged me to undertake the translation of Merlin's prophecies out of British into Latin, before I had made an end of the history which I had begun concerning the acts of the British kings. For my design was to have finished that first, and afterwards to have taken this work in hand; lest by being engaged on both at once, I should be less capable of attending with any exactness to either. Notwithstanding, since the deference which is paid to your penetrating judgment will screen me from censure, I have employed my rude pen, and in a coarse style present you with a translation out of a language with which you are unacquainted. At the same time, I cannot but wonder at your recommending this matter to one of my low genius, when you might have caused so many men of greater learning, and a richer vein of intellect, to undertake it; who, with their sublime strains, would much more agreeably have entertained you. Besides, without any disparagement to all the philosophers in Britain, I must take the liberty to say, that you yourself, if the business of your high station would give you leisure, are capable of furnishing us with loftier productions of this kind than any man living. However, since it was your pleasure that Geoffrey of Monmouth should be employed in this prophecy, he hopes you will favourably accept of his performance, and vouchsafe to give a finer turn to whatever you shall find unpolished, or otherwise faulty in it.
CHAP. III.--The prophecy of Merlin.
As Vortigern, king of the Britons, was sitting upon the bank of the drained pond, the two dragons, one of which was white, the other red, came forth, and, approaching one another, began a terrible fight, and cast forth fire with their breath. But the white dragon had the advantage, and made the other fly to the end of the lake. And he, for grief at his flight, renewed the assault upon his pursuer, and forced him to retire. After this battle of the dragons, the king commanded Ambrose Merlin to tell him what it portended. Upon which he, bursting into tears, delivered what his prophetical spirit suggested to him, as follows:--
"Woe to the red dragon, for his banishment hasteneth on. His lurking holes shall be seized by the white dragon, which signifies the Saxons whom you invited over; but the red denotes the British nation, which shall be oppressed by the white. Therefore shall its mountains be levelled as the valleys, and the rivers of the valleys shall run with blood. The exercise of religion shall be destroyed, and churches be laid open to ruin. At last the oppressed shall prevail, and oppose the cruelty of foreigners. For a boar of Cornwall shall give his assistance, and trample their necks under his feet. The islands of the ocean shall be subject to his power, and he shall possess the forests of Gaul. The house of Romulus shall dread his courage, and his end shall be doubtful. He shall be celebrated in the mouths of the people; and his exploits shall be food to those that relate them. Six of his posterity shall sway the sceptre, but after them shall arise a German worm. He shall be advanced by a sea-wolf, whom the woods of Africa shall accompany. Religion shall be again abolished, and there shall be a translation of the metropolitan sees. The dignity of London shall adorn Dorobernia, and the seventh pastor of York shall be resorted to in the kingdom of Armorica. Menevia shall put on the pall of the City of Legions, and a preacher of Ireland shall be dumb on account of an infant growing in the womb. It shall rain a shower of blood, and a raging famine shall afflict mankind. When these things happen, the red one shall be grieved; but when his fatigue is over, shall grow strong. Then shall misfortunes hasten upon the white one, and the buildings of his gardens shall be pulled down. Seven that sway the sceptre shall be killed, one of whom shall become a saint. The wombs of mothers shall be ripped up, and infants be abortive. There shall be a most grievous punishment of men, that the natives may be restored. He that shall do these things shall put on the brazen man, and upon a brazen horse shall for a long time guard the gates of London. After this, shall the red dragon return to his proper manners, and turn his rage upon himself. Therefore shall the revenge of the Thunderer show itself, for every field shall disappoint the husbandmen. Mortality shall snatch away the people, and make a desolation over all countries. The remainder shall quit their native soil, and make foreign plantations. A blessed king shall prepare a fleet, and shall be reckoned the twelfth in the court among the saints. There shall be a miserable desolation of the kingdom, and the floors of the harvests shall return to the fruitful forests. The white dragon shall rise again, and invite over a daughter of Germany. Our gardens shall be again replenished with foreign seed, and the red one shall pine away at the end of the pond. After that, shall the German worm be crowned, and the brazen prince buried. He has his bounds assigned to him, which he shall not be able to pass. For a hundred and fifty years he shall continue in trouble and subjection, but shall bear sway three hundred. Then shall the north wind rise against him, and shall snatch away the flowers which the west wind produced. There shall be gilding in the temples, nor shall the edge of the sword cease. The German dragon shall hardly get to his holes, because the revenge of his treason shall overtake him. At last he shall flourish for a little time, but the decimation of Neustria shall hurt him. For a people in wood and in iron coats shall come, and revenge upon him his wickedness. They shall restore the ancient inhabitants to their dwellings, and there shall be an open destruction of foreigners. The seed of the white dragon shall be swept out of our gardens, and the remainder of his generation shall be decimated. They shall bear the yoke of slavery, and wound their mother with spades and ploughs. After this shall succeed two dragons, whereof one shall be killed with the sting of envy, but the other shall return under the shadow of a name. Then shall succeed a lion of justice, at whose roar the Gallican towers and the island dragons shall tremble. In those days gold shall be squeezed from the lily and the nettle, and silver shall flow from the hoofs of bellowing cattle. The frizzled shall put on various fleeces, and the outward habit denote the inward parts. The feet of barkers shall be cut off; wild beasts shall enjoy peace; mankind shall be grieved at their punishment; the form of commerce shall be divided; the half shall be round. The ravenousness of kites shall be destroyed, and the teeth of wolves blunted. The lion's whelps shall be transformed into sea-fishes; and an eagle shall build her nest upon Mount Aravius. Venedotia shall grow red with the blood of mothers, and the house of Corineus kill six brethren. The island shall be wet with night tears; so that all shall be provoked to all things. Woe to thee, Neustria, because the lion's brain shall be poured upon thee; and he shall be banished with shattered limbs from his native soil. Posterity shall endeavour to fly above the highest places; but the favour of new comers shall be exalted. Piety shall hurt the possessor of things got by impiety, till he shall have put on his Father: therefore, being armed with the teeth of a boar, he shall ascend above the tops of mountains, and the shadow of him that wears a helmet. Albania shall be enraged, and, assembling her neighbours, shall be employed in shedding blood. There shall be put into her jaws a bridle that shall be made on the coast of Armorica. The eagle of the broken covenant shall gild it over, and rejoice in her third nest. The roaring whelps shall watch, and, leaving the woods, shall hunt within the walls of cities. They shall make no small slaughter of those that oppose them, and shall cut off the tongues of bulls. They shall load the necks of roaring lions with chains, and restore the times of their ancestors. Then from the first to the fourth, from the fourth to the third, from the third to the second, the thumb shall roll in oil. The sixth shall overturn the walls of Ireland, and change the woods into a plain. He shall reduce several parts to one, and be crowned with the head of a lion. His beginning shall lay open to wandering affection, but his end shall carry him up to the blessed, who are above. For he shall restore the seats of saints in their countries, and settle pastors in convenient places. Two cities he shall invest with two palls, and shall bestow virgin-presents upon virgins. He shall merit by this the favour of the Thunderer, and shall be placed among the saints. From him shall proceed a lynx penetrating all things, who shall be bent upon the ruin of his own nation; for, through him, Neustria shall lose both islands, and be deprived of its ancient dignity. Then shall the natives return back to the island; for there shall arise a dissension among foreigners. Also a hoary old man, sitting upon a snow-white horse, shall turn the course of the river Periron, and shall measure out a mill upon it with a white rod. Cadwallader shall call upon Conan, and take Albania into alliance. Then shall there be a slaughter of foreigners; then shall the rivers run with blood. Then shall break forth the fountains of Armorica, and they shall be crowned with the diadem of Brutus. Cambria shall be filled with joy; and the oaks of Cornwall shall flourish. The island shall be called by the name of Brutus: and the name given it by foreigners shall be abolished. From Conan shall proceed a warlike boar, that shall exercise the sharpness of his tusks within the Gallic woods. For he shall cut down all the larger oaks, and shall be a defence to the smaller. The Arabians and Africans shall dread him; for he shall pursue his furious course to the farther part of Spain. There shall succeed the goat of the Venereal castle, having golden horns and a silver beard, who shall breathe such a cloud out of his nostrils, as shall darken the whole surface of the island. There shall be peace in his time; and corn shall abound by reason of the fruitfulness of the soil. Women shall become serpents in their gait, and all their motions shall be full of pride. The camp of Venus shall be restored; nor shall the arrows of Cupid cease to wound. The fountain of a river shall be turned into blood; and two kings shall fight a duel at Stafford for a lioness. Luxury shall overspread the whole ground; and fornication not cease to debauch mankind. All these things shall three ages see; till the buried kings shall be exposed to public view in the city of London. Famine shall again return; mortality shall return; and the inhabitants shall grieve for the destruction of their cities. Then shall come the board of commerce, who shall recall the scattered flocks to the pasture they had lost. His breast shall be food to the hungry, and his tongue drink to the thirsty. Out of his mouth shall flow rivers, that shall water the parched jaws of men. After this shall be produced a tree upon the Tower of London, which, having no more than three branches, shall overshadow the surface of the whole island with the breadth of its leaves. Its adversary, the north wind, shall come upon it, and with its noxious blast shall snatch away the third branch; but the two remaining ones shall possess its place, till they shall destroy one another by the multitude of their leaves; and then shall it obtain the place of those two, and shall give sustenance to birds of foreign nations. It shall be esteemed hurtful to native fowls; for they shall not be able to fly freely for fear of its shadow. There shall succeed the ass of wickedness, swift against the goldsmiths, but slow against the ravenousness of wolves. In those days the oaks of the forests shall burn, and acorns grow upon the branches of teil trees. The Severn sea shall discharge itself through seven mouths, and the river Uske burn seven months. Fishes shall die with the heat thereof; and of them shall be engendered serpents. The baths of Badon shall grow cold, and their salubrious waters engender death. London shall mourn for the death of twenty thousand; and the river Thames shall be turned into blood. The monks in their cowls shall be forced to marry, and their cry shall be heard upon the mountains of the Alps."
CHAP. IV.--The continuation of the prophecy.
"Three springs shall break forth in the city of Winchester, whose rivulets shall divide the island into three parts. Whoever shall drink of the first, shall enjoy long life, and shall never be afflicted with sickness. He that shall drink of the second, shall die of hunger, and paleness and horror shall sit in his countenance. He that shall drink of the third, shall be surprised with sudden death, neither shall his body be capable of burial. Those that are willing to escape so great a surfeit, will endeavour to hide it with several coverings: but whatever bulk shall be laid upon it, shall receive the form of another body. For earth shall be turned into stones; stones into water; wood into ashes; ashes into water, if cast over it. Also a damsel shall be sent from the city of the forest of Canute to administer a cure, who, after she shall have practised all her arts, shall dry up the noxious fountains only with her breath. Afterwards, as soon as she shall have refreshed herself with the wholesome liquor, she shall bear in her right hand the wood of Caledon, and in her left the forts of the walls of London. Wherever she shall go, she shall make sulphureous steps, which will smoke with a double flame. That smoke shall rouse up the city of Ruteni, and shall make food for the inhabitants of the deep. She shall overflow with rueful tears, and shall fill the island with her dreadful cry. She shall be killed by a hart with ten branches, four of which shall bear golden diadems; but the other six shall be turned into buffalo's horns, whose hideous sound shall astonish the three islands of Britain. The Daneian wood shall be stirred up, and breaking forth into a human voice, shall cry: Come, O Cambria, and join Cornwall to thy side, and say to Winchester, the earth shall swallow thee up. Translate the seat of thy pastor to the place where ships come to harbour, and the rest of the members will follow the head. For the day hasteneth, in which thy citizens shall perish on account of the guilt of perjury. The whiteness of wool has been hurtful to thee, and the variety of its tinctures. Woe to the perjured nation, for whose sake the renowned city shall come to ruin. The ships shall rejoice at so great an augmentation, and one shall be made out of two. It shall be rebuilt by Eric, loaden with apples, to the smell whereof the birds of several woods shall flock together. He shall add to it a vast palace, and wall it round with six hundred towers. Therefore shall London envy it, and triply increase her walls. The river Thames shall encompass it round, and the fame of the work shall pass beyond the Alps. Eric shall hide his apples within it, and shall make subterraneous passages. At that time shall the stones speak, and the sea towards the Gallic coast be contracted into a narrow space. On each bank shall one man hear another, and the soil of the island shall be enlarged. The secrets of the deep shall be revealed, and Gaul shall tremble for fear. After these things shall come forth a hern from the forest of Calaterium, which shall fly round the island for two years together. With her nocturnal cry she shall call together the winged kind, and assemble to her all sorts of fowls. They shall invade the tillage of husbandmen, and devour all the grain of the harvests. Then shall follow a famine upon the people, and a grievous mortality upon the famine. But when this calamity shall be over, a detestable bird shall go to the valley of Galabes, and shall raise it to be a high mountain. Upon the top thereof it shall also plant an oak, and build its nest in its branches. Three eggs shall be produced in the nest, from whence shall come forth a fox, a wolf, and a bear. The fox shall devour her mother, and bear the head of an ass. In this monstrous form shall she frighten her brothers, and make them fly into Neustria. But they shall stir up the tusky boar, and returning in a fleet shall encounter with the fox; who at the beginning of the fight shall feign herself dead, and move the boar to compassion. Then shall the boar approach her carcass, and standing over her, shall breathe upon her face and eyes. But she, not forgetting her cunning, shall bite his left foot, and pluck it off from his body. Then shall she leap upon him, and snatch away his right ear and tail, and hide herself in the caverns of the mountains. Therefore shall the deluded boar require the wolf and bear to restore him his members; who, as soon as they shall enter into the cause, shall promise two feet of the fox, together with the ear and tail, and of these they shall make up the members of a hog. With this he shall be satisfied, and expect the promised restitution. In the meantime shall the fox descend from the mountains, and change herself into a wolf, and under pretence of holding a conference with the boar, she shall go to him, and craftily devour him. After that she shall transform herself into a boar, and feigning a loss of some members, shall wait for her brothers; but as soon as they are come, she shall suddenly kill them with her tusks, and shall be crowned with the head of a lion. In her days shall a serpent be brought forth, which shall be a destroyer of mankind. With its length it shall encompass London, and devour all that pass by it. The mountain ox shall take the head of a wolf, and whiten his teeth in the Severn. He shall gather to him the flocks of Albania and Cambria, which shall drink the river Thames dry. The ass shall call the goat with the long beard, and shall borrow his shape. Therefore shall the mountain ox be incensed, and having called the wolf, shall become a horned bull against them. In the exercise of his cruelty he shall devour their flesh and bones, but shall be burned upon the top of Urian. The ashes of his funeral-pyre shall be turned into swans, that shall swim on dry ground as on a river. They shall devour fishes in fishes, and swallow up men in men. But when old age shall come upon them, they shall become sea-wolves, and practise their frauds in the deep. They shall drown ships, and collect no small quantity of silver. The Thames shall again flow, and assembling together the rivers, shall pass beyond the bounds of its channel. It shall cover the adjacent cities, and overturn the mountains that oppose its course. Being full of deceit and wickedness, it shall make use of the fountain Galabes. Hence shall arise factions provoking the Venedotians to war. The oaks of the forest shall meet together, and encounter the rocks of the Gewisseans. A raven shall attend with the kites, and devour the carcasses of the slain. An owl shall build her nest upon the walls of Gloucester, and in her nest shall be brought forth an ass. The serpent of Malvernia shall bring him up, and put him upon many fraudulent practices. Having taken the crown, he shall ascend on high, and frighten the people of the country with his hideous braying. In his days shall the Pachaian mountains tremble, and the provinces be deprived of their woods. For there shall come a worm with a fiery breath, and with the vapour it sends forth shall burn up the trees. Out of it shall proceed seven lions deformed with the heads of goats. With the stench of their nostrils they shall corrupt women, and make wives turn common prostitutes. The father shall not know his own son, because they shall grow wanton like brute beasts. Then shall come the giant of wickedness, and terrify all with the sharpness of his eyes. Against him shall arise the dragon of Worcester, and shall endeavour to banish him. But in the engagement the dragon shall be worsted, and oppressed by the wickedness of the conqueror. For he shall mount upon the dragon, and putting off his garment shall sit upon him naked. The dragon shall bear him up on high, and beat his naked rider with his tail erected. Upon this the giant rousing up his whole strength, shall break his jaws with his sword. At last the dragon shall fold itself up under its tail, and die of poison. After him shall succeed the boar of Totness, and oppress the people with grievous tyranny. Gloucester shall send forth a lion, and shall disturb him in his cruelty, in several battles. He shall trample him under his feet, and terrify him with open jaws. At last the lion shall quarrel with the kingdom, and get upon the backs of the nobility. A bull shall come into the quarrel, and strike the lion with his right foot. He shall drive him through all the inns in the kingdom, but shall break his horns against the walls of Oxford. The fox of Kaerdubalem shall take revenge on the lion, and destroy him entirely with her teeth. She shall be encompassed by the adder of Lincoln, who with a horrible hiss shall give notice of his presence to a multitude of dragons. Then shall the dragons encounter, and tear one another to pieces. The winged shall oppress that which wants wings, and fasten its claws into the poisonous cheeks. Others shall come into the quarrel, and kill one another. A fifth shall succeed those that are slain, and by various stratagems shall destroy the rest. He shall get upon the back of one with his sword, and sever his head from his body. Then throwing off his garment, he shall get upon another, and put his right and left hand upon his tail. Thus being naked shall he overcome him, whom when clothed he was not able to deal with. The rest he shall gall in their flight, and drive them round the kingdom. Upon this shall come a roaring lion dreadful for his monstrous cruelty. Fifteen parts shall he reduce to one, and shall alone possess the people. The giant of the snow white colour shall shine, and cause the white people to flourish. Pleasures shall effeminate the princes, and they shall suddenly be changed into beasts. Among them shall arise a lion swelled with human gore. Under him shall a reaper be placed in the standing corn, who, while he is reaping, shall be oppressed by him. A charioteer of York shall appease them, and having banished his lord, shall mount upon the chariot which he shall drive. With his sword unsheathed shall he threaten the East, and fill the tracks of his wheels with blood. Afterwards he shall become a sea-fish, who, being roused up with the hissing of a serpent, shall engender with him. From hence shall be produced three thundering bulls, who having eaten up their pastures shall be turned into trees. The first shall carry a whip of vipers, and turn his back upon the next. He shall endeavour to snatch away the whip, but shall be taken by the last. They shall turn away their faces from one another, till they have thrown away the poisoned cup. To him shall succeed a husbandman of Albania, at whose back shall be a serpent. He shall be employed in ploughing the ground, that the country may become white with corn. The serpent shall endeavour to diffuse his poison, in order to blast the harvest. A grievous mortality shall sweep away the people, and the walls of cities shall be made desolate. There shall be given for a remedy the city of Claudius, which shall interpose the nurse of the scourger. For she shall bear a dose of medicine, and in a short time the island shall be restored. Then shall two successively sway the sceptre, whom a horned dragon shall serve. One shall come in armour, and shall ride upon a flying serpent. He shall sit upon his back with his naked body, and cast his right hand upon his tail. With his cry shall the seas be moved, and he shall strike terror into the second. The second therefore shall enter into confederacy with the lion; but a quarrel happening, they shall encounter one another. They shall distress one another, but the courage of the beast shall gain the advantage. Then shall come one with a drum, and appease the rage of the lion. Therefore shall the people of the kingdom be at peace, and provoke the lion to a dose of physic. In his established seat he shall adjust the weights, but shall stretch out his hands into Albania. For which reason the northern provinces shall be grieved, and open the gates of the temples. The sign-bearing wolf shall lead his troops, and surround Cornwall with his tail. He shall be opposed by a soldier in a chariot, who shall transform that people into a boar. The boar therefore shall ravage the provinces, but shall hide his head in the depth of Severn. A man shall embrace the lion in wine, and the dazzling brightness of gold shall blind the eyes of beholders. Silver shall whiten in the circumference, and torment several wine presses. Men shall be drunk with wine, and, regardless of heaven, shall be intent upon the earth. From them shall the stars turn away their faces, and confound their usual course. Corn will wither at their malign aspects; and there shall fall no dew from heaven. The roots and branches will change their places, and the novelty of the thing shall pass for a miracle. The brightness of the sun shall fade at the amber of Mercury, and horror shall seize the beholders. Stilbon of Arcadia shall change his shield; the helmet of Mars shall call Venus. The helmet of Mars shall make a shadow; and the rage of Mercury pass his bounds. Iron Orion shall unsheath his sword: the marine Phoebus shall torment the clouds; Jupiter shall go out of his lawful paths; and Venus forsake her stated lines. The malignity of the star Saturn shall fall down in rain, and slay mankind with a crooked sickle. The twelve houses of the star shall lament the irregular excursions of their guests; and Gemini omit their usual embraces, and call the urn to the fountains. The scales of Libra shall hang obliquely, till Aries puts his crooked horns under them. The tail of Scorpio shall produce lightning, and Cancer quarrel with the Sun. Virgo shall mount upon the back of Sagittarius, and darken her virgin flowers. The chariot of the Moon shall disorder the zodiac, and the Pleiades break forth into weeping. No offices of Janus shall hereafter return, but his gate being shut shall lie hid in the chinks of Ariadne. The seas shall rise up in the twinkling of an eye, and the dust of ancients shall be restored. The winds shall fight together with a dreadful blast, and their sound shall reach the stars.
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BOOK VIII.
CHAP. I.--Vortigern asks Merlin concerning his own death.
Merlin, by delivering these and many other prophecies, caused in all that were present an admiration at the ambiguity of his expressions. But Vortigern above all the rest both admired and applauded the wisdom, and prophetical spirit of the young man: for that age had produced none that ever talked in such a manner before him. Being therefore curious to learn his own fate, he desired the young man to tell him what he knew concerning that particular. Merlin answered:-- "Fly the fire of the sons of Constantine, if you are able to do it: already are they fitting out their ships: already are they leaving the Armorican shore: already are they spreading out their sails to the wind. They will steer towards Britain: they will invade the Saxon nation: they will subdue that wicked people; but they will first burn you being shut up in a tower. To your own ruin did you prove a traitor to their father, and invite the Saxons into the island. You invited them for your safeguard; but they came for a punishment to you. Two deaths instantly threaten you; nor is it easy to determine, which you can best avoid. For on the one hand the Saxons shall lay waste your country, and endeavour to kill you: on the other shall arrive the two brothers, Aurelius Ambrosius and Uther Pendragon, whose business will be to revenge their father's murder upon you. Seek out some refuge if you can: to-morrow they will be on the shore of Totness. The faces of the Saxons shall look red with blood, Hengist shall be killed, and Aurelius Ambrosius shall be crowned. He shall bring peace to the nation; he shall restore the churches; but shall die of poison. His brother Uther Pendragon shall succeed him, whose days also shall be cut short by poison. There shall be present at the commission of this treason your own issue, whom the boar of Cornwall shall devour." Accordingly the next day early, arrived Aurelius Ambrosius and his brother, with ten thousand men.
CHAP. II.--Aurelius Ambrosius, being anointed king of Britain, burns Vortigern besieged in a tower.
As soon as the news of his coming was divulged, the Britons, who had been dispersed by their great calamities, met together from all parts, and gaining this new accession of strength from their countrymen, displayed unusual vigour. Having assembled together the clergy, they anointed Aurelius king, and paid him the customary homage. And when the people were urgent to fall upon the Saxons, he dissuaded them from it, because his desire was to pursue Vortigern first. For the treason committed against his father so very much affected him, that he thought nothing done till that was first avenged. In pursuance therefore of this design, he marched with his army into Cambria, to the town of Genoreu, whither Vortigern had fled for refuge. That town was in the country of Hergin, upon the river Gania, in the mountain called Cloarius. As soon as Ambrosius was arrived there, bearing in his mind the murder of his father and brother, he spake thus to Eldol, duke of Gloucester.
"See, most noble duke, whether the walls of this city are able to protect Vortigern against my sheathing this sword in his bowels. He deserves to die, and you cannot, I suppose, be ignorant of his desert. Oh most villainous of men, whose crimes deserve inexpressible tortures! First he betrayed my father Constantine, who had delivered him and his country from the inroads of the Picts; afterwards my brother Constans whom he made king on purpose to destroy him. Again, when by his craft he had usurped the crown, he introduced pagans among the natives, in order to abuse those who continued stedfast in their loyalty to me: but by the good providence of God, he unwarily fell into the snare, which he had laid for my faithful subjects. For the Saxons, when they found him out in his wickedness, drove him from the kingdom; for which nobody ought to be concerned. But this I think matter of just grief, that this odious people, whom that detestable traitor invited over, has expelled the nobility, laid waste a fruitful country, destroyed the holy churches, and almost extinguished Christianity over the whole kingdom. Now, therefore, my countrymen, show yourselves men; first revenge yourselves upon him that was the occasion of all these disasters; then let us turn our arms against our enemies, and free our country from their brutish tyranny."
Immediately, therefore, they set their engines to work, and laboured to beat down the walls. But at last, when all other attempts failed, they had recourse to fire, which meeting with proper fuel, ceased not to rage, till it had burned down the tower and Vortigern in it.
CHAP. III.--The praise of Aurelius's valour. The levity of the Scots exposed. Forces raised against Hengist.
Hengist, with his Saxons, was struck with terror at this news, for he dreaded the valour of Aurelius. Such was the bravery and courage this prince was master of, that while he was in Gaul, there was none that durst encounter with him. For in all encounters he either dismounted his adversary, or broke his spear. Besides, he was magnificent in his presents, constant at his devotions, temperate in all respects, and above all things hated a lie. A brave soldier on foot, a better on horseback, and expert in the discipline of an army. Reports of these his noble accomplishments, while he yet continued in Armorican Britain, were daily brought over into the island. Therefore, the Saxons, for fear of him, retired beyond the Humber, and in those parts fortified the cities and towns; for that country always was a place of refuge to them; their safety lying in the neighborhood of Scotland, which used to watch all opportunities of distressing the nation; for that country being in itself a frightful place to live in, and wholly uninhabited, had been a safe retreat for strangers. By its situation it lay open to the Picts, Scots, Dacians, Norwegians, and others, that came to plunder the island. Being, therefore, secure of a safe reception in this country, they fled towards it, that, if there should be occasion, they might retreat into it as into their own camp. This was good news to Aurelius, and made him conceive greater hopes of victory. So assembling his people quickly together, he augmented his army, and made an expeditious march towards the north. In his passage through the countries, he was grieved to see the desolation made in them, but especially that the churches were levelled with the ground: and he promised to rebuild them, if he gained the victory.
CHAP. IV.--Hengist marches with his army against Aurelius, into the field of Maisbeli.
But Hengist, upon his approach, took courage again, and chose out the bravest of his men, whom he exhorted to make a gallant defence, and not be daunted at Aurelius, who, he told them, had but few Armorican Britons with him, since their number did not exceed ten thousand. And as for the native Britons, he made no account of them, since they had been so often defeated by him. He therefore promised them the victory, and that they should come off safely, considering the superiority of their number, which amounted to two hundred thousand men in arms. After he had in this manner animated his men, he advanced with them towards Aurelius, into a field called Maisbeli, through which Aurelius was to pass. For his intention was to make a sudden assault by a surprise, and fall upon the Britons before they were prepared. But Aurelius perceived the design, and yet did not, on that account of them, since they had been so often defeated by him. He therefore promised them the victory, and that they should come off safely, considering the superiority of their number, which amounted to two hundred thousand men in arms. After he had in this manner animated his men, he advanced with them towards Aurelius, into a field called Maisbeli, through which Aurelius was to pass. For his intention was to make a sudden assault by a surprise, and fall upon the Britons before they were prepared. But Aurelius perceived the design, and yet did not, on that account, delay going into the field, but rather pursued his march with more expedition. When he was come within sight of the enemy, he put his troops in order, commanding three thousand Armoricans to attend the cavalry, and drew out the rest together with the islanders into line of battle. The Dimetians he placed upon the hills, and the Venedotians in the adjacent woods. His reason for which was, that they might be there ready to fall upon the Saxons, in case they should flee in that direction.
CHAP. V.--A battle between Aurelius and Hengist.
In the meantime, Eldol, duke of Gloucester, went to the king, and said, "This one day should suffice for all the days of my life, if by good providence I could but get an opportunity to engage with Hengist; for one of us should die before we parted. I still retain deeply fixed in my memory the day appointed for our peaceably treating together, but which he villainously made use of to assassinate all that were present at the treaty, except myself only, who stood upon my defence with a stake which I accidentally found, until I made my escape. That very day proved fatal, through his treachery, to no less than four hundred and sixty barons and consuls, who all went unarmed. From that conspiracy God was pleased to deliver me, by throwing a stake in my way, wherewith I defended myself and escaped." Thus spoke Eldol. Then Aurelius exhorted his companions to place all their hope in the Son of God, and to make a brave assault with one consent upon the enemy, in defence of their country. Nor was Hengist less busy on the other hand in forming his troops, and giving them directions how to behave themselves in the battle; and he walked himself through their several ranks, the more to spirit them up. At last, both armies, being drawn out in order of battle, began the attack, which they maintained with great bravery, and no small loss of blood, both to the Britons and Saxons. Aurelius animated the Christians, Hengist the pagans; and all the time of the engagement, Eldol's chief endeavour was to encounter Hengist, but he had no opportunity for it. For Hengist, when he found that his own men were routed, and that the Christians, by the especial favour of God, had the advantage, fled to the town called Kaerconan, now Cunungeburg. Aurelius pursued him, and either killed or made slaves of all he found in the way. When Hengist saw that he was pursued by Aurelius, he would not enter the town, but assembled his troops, and prepared them to stand another engagement. For he knew the town would not hold out against Aurelius, and that his whole security now lay in his sword. At last Aurelius overtook him, and after marshalling his forces, began another most furious fight. And here the Saxons steadily maintained their ground, notwithstanding the numbers that fell. On both sides there was a great slaughter, the groans of the dying causing a greater rage in those that survived. In short, the Saxons would have gained the day, had not a detachment of horse from the Armorican Britons come in upon them. For Aurelius had appointed them the same station which they had in the former battle; so that, upon their advancing, the Saxons gave ground, and when once a little dispersed, were not able to rally again. The Britons, encouraged by this advantage, exerted themselves, and laboured with all their might to distress the enemy. All the time Aurelius was fully employed, not only in giving commands, but encouraging his men by his own example; for with his own hand he killed all that stood in his way, and pursued those that fled. Nor was Eldol less active in all parts of the field, running to and fro to assault his adversaries; but still his main endeavour was to find opportunity of encountering Hengist.
CHAP. VI.--Hengist, in a duel with Eldol, is taken by him. The Saxons are slain by the Britons without mercy.
As there were therefore several movements made by the parties engaged on each side, an opportunity occurred for their meeting, and briskly engaging each other. In this encounter of the two greatest champions in the field, the fire sparkled with the clashing of their arms, and every stroke in a manner produced both thunder and lightning. For a long time was the victory in suspense, as it seemed sometimes to favour the one, sometimes the other. While they were thus hotly engaged, Gorlois, duke of Cornwall, came up to them with the party he commanded, and did great execution upon the enemies' troops. At the sight of him, Eldol, assured of victory, seized on the helmet of Hengist, and by main force dragged him in among the Britons, and then in transports of joy cried out with a loud voice, "God has fulfilled my desire! My brave soldiers, down, down, with your enemies the Ambrons. The victory is now in your hands: Hengist is defeated, and the day is your own." In the meantime the Britons failed not to perform every one his part against the pagans, upon whom they made many vigorous assaults; and though they were obliged sometimes to give ground, yet their courage did not fail them in making a good resistance; so that they gave the enemy no respite till they had vanquished them. The Saxons therefore fled withersoever their consternation hurried them, some to the cities, some to the woods upon the hills, and others to their ships. But Octa, the son of Hengist, made his retreat with a great body of men to York: and Eosa, his kinsmen, to the city of Alclud, where he had a very large army for his guard.
CHAP. VII.--Hengist is beheaded by Eldol.
Aurelius, after this victory, took the city of Conan above-mentioned, and stayed there three days. During this time he gave orders for the burial of the slain, for curing the wounded, and for the ease and refreshment of his forces that were fatigued. Then he called a council of his principal officers, to deliberate what was to be done with Hengist. There was present at the assembly Eldad, bishop of Gloucester, and brother of Eldol, a prelate of very great wisdom and piety. As soon as he beheld Hengist standing in the king's presence, he demanded silence, and said, "Though all should be unanimous for setting him at liberty, yet would I cut him to pieces. The prophet Samuel is my warrant, who, when he had Agag, king of Amalek, in his power, hewed him in pieces, saying, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless among women. Do therefore the same to Hengist, who is a second Agag." Accordingly Eldol took his sword, and drew him out of the city, and then cut off his head. But Aurelius, who showed moderation in all his conduct, commanded him to be buried, and a heap of earth to be raised over his body, according to the custom of the pagans.
CHAP. VIII.--Octa, being besieged in York, surrenders himself to the mercy of Aurelius.
From hence Aurelius conducted his army to York, to besiege Octa, Hengist's son. When the city was invested, Octa was doubtful whether he should give him any opposition, and stand a siege against such a powerful army. After consultation upon it, he went out with his principal nobility that were present, carrying a chain in his hand, and sand upon his head, and presented himself to the king with this address: "My gods are vanquished, and I doubt not that the sovereign power is in your God, who has compelled so many noble persons to come before you in this suppliant manner. Be pleased therefore to accept of us, and of this chain. If you do not think us fit objects of your clemency, we here present ourselves ready to be fettered, and to undergo whatever punishment you shall adjudge us to." Aurelius was moved with pity at the spectacle, and demanded the advice of his council what should be done with them. After various proposals upon this subject, Eldad the bishop rose up, and delivered his opinion in these words: "The Gibeonites came voluntarily to the children of Israel to desire mercy, and they obtained it. And shall we Christians be worse than the Jews, in refusing them mercy? It is mercy which they beg, and let them have it. The island of Britain is large, and in many places uninhabited. Let us make a covenant with them, and suffer them at least to inhabit the desert places, that they may be our vassals for ever." The king acquiesced in Eldad's advice, and suffered them to partake of his clemency. After this Eosa and the rest that fled, being encouraged by Octa's success, came also, and were admitted to the same favour. The king therefore granted them the country bordering upon Scotland, and made a firm covenant with them.
CHAP. IX.--Aurelius, having entirely routed the enemies, restores all things in Britain, especially ecclesiastical affairs, to their ancient state.
The enemies being now entirely reduced, the king summoned the consuls and princes of the kingdom together at York, where he gave orders for the restoration of the churches, which the Saxons had destroyed. He himself undertook the rebuilding of the metropolitan church of that city, as also the other cathedral churches in that province. After fifteen days, when he had settled workmen in several places, he went to London, which city had not escaped the fury of the enemy. He beheld with great sorrow the destruction made in it, and recalled the remainder of the citizens from all parts, and began the restoration of it. Here he settled the affairs of the whole kingdom, revived the laws, restored the right heirs to the possessions of their ancestors; and those estates, whereof the heirs had been lost in the late grievous calamity, he distributed among his fellow soldiers. In these important concerns, of restoring the nation to its ancient state, repairing the churches, re-establishing peace and law, and settling the administration of justice, was his time wholly employed. From hence he went to Winchester, to repair the ruins of it, as he did of other cities; and when the work was finished there, he went, at the instance of bishop Eldad, to the monastery near Kaercaradoc, now Salisbury, where the consuls and princes, whom the wicked Hengist had treacherously murdered, lay buried. At this place was a convent that maintained three hundred friars, situated on the mountain of Ambrius, who, as is reported, had been the founder of it. The sight of the place where the dead lay, made the king, who was of a compassionate temper, shed tears, and at last enter upon thoughts, what kind of monument to erect upon it. For he thought something ought to be done to perpetuate the memory of that piece of ground, which was honoured with the bodies of so many noble patriots, that died for their country.
CHAP. X.--Aurelius is advised by Merlin to remove the Giant's Dance from the mountain Killaraus.
For this purpose he summoned together several carpenters and masons, and commanded them to employ the utmost of their art, in contriving some new structure, for a lasting monument to those great men. But they, in diffidence of their own skill, refusing to undertake it, Tremounus, archbishop of the City of Legions, went to the king, and said, "If any one living is able to execute your commands, Merlin, the prophet of Vortigern, is the man. In my opinion there is not in all your kingdom a person of a brighter genius, either in predicting future events, or in mechanical contrivances. Order him to come to you, and exercise his skill in the work which you design." Whereupon Aurelius, after he had asked a great many questions concerning him, despatched several messengers into the country to find him out, and bring him to him. After passing through several provinces, they found him in the country of Gewisseans, at the fountain of Galabes, which he frequently resorted to. As soon as they had delivered their message to him, they conducted him to the king, who received him with joy, and, being curious to hear some of his wonderful speeches, commanded him to prophesy. Merlin made answer: "Mysteries of this kind are not to be revealed but when there is the greatest necessity for it. If I should pretend to utter them for ostentation or diversion, the spirit that instructs me would be silent, and would leave me when I should have occasion for it." When he had made the same refusal to all the rest present, the king would not urge him any longer about his predictions, but spoke to him concerning the monument which he designed. "If you are desirous," said Merlin, "to honour the burying-place of these men with an ever-lasting monument, send for the Giant's Dance, which is in Killaraus, a mountain in Ireland. For there is a structure of stones there, which none of this age could raise, without a profound knowledge of the mechanical arts. They are stones of a vast magnitude and wonderful quality; and if they can be placed here, as they are there, round this spot of ground, they will stand for ever."
CHAP. XI.--Uther Pendragon is appointed with Merlin to bring over the Giant's Dance.
At these words of Merlin, Aurelius burst into laughter, and said, "How is it possible to remove such vast stones from so distant a country, as if Britain was not furnished with stones fit for the work?" Merlin replied, "I entreat your majesty to forbear vain laughter; for what I say is without vanity. They are mystical stones, and of a medicinal virtue. The giants of old brought them from the farthest coast of Africa, and placed them in Ireland, while they inhabited that country. Their design in this was to make baths in them, when they should be taken with any illness. For their method was to wash the stones, and put their sick into the water, which infallibly cured them. With the like success they cured wounds also, adding only the application of some herbs. There is not a stone there which has not some healing virtue." When the Britons heard this, they resolved to send for the stones, and to make war upon the people of Ireland if they should offer to detain them. And to accomplish this business, they made choice of Uther Pendragon, who was to be attended with fifteen thousand men. They chose also Merlin himself, by whose direction the whole affair was to be managed. A fleet being therefore got ready, they set sail, and with a fair wind arrived in Ireland.
CHAP. XII.--Gillomanius being routed by Uther, the Britons bring over the Giant's dance into Britain.
At that time Gillomanius, a youth of wonderful valour, reigned in Ireland; who, upon the news of the arrival of the Britons in his kingdom, levied a vast army, and marched out against them. And when he had learned the occasion of their coming, he smiled, and said to those about him, "No wonder a cowardly race of people were able to make so great a devastation in the island of Britain, when the Britons are such brutes and fools. Was ever the like folly heard of? What are the stones of Ireland better than those of Britain, that our kingdom must be put to this disturbance for them? To arms, soldiers, and defend your country; while I have life they shall not take from us the least stone of the Giant's Dance." Uther, seeing them prepared for a battle, attacked them; nor was it long ere the Britons had the advantage, who, having dispersed and killed the Irish, forced Gillomanius to flee. After the victory they went to the mountain Killaraus, and arrived at the structure of stones, the sight of which filled them both with joy and admiration. And while they were all standing round them, Merlin came up to them and said, "Now try your forces, young men, and see whether strength or art can do the most towards taking down these stones." At this word they all set to their engines with one accord, and attempted the removing of the Giant's Dance. Some prepared cables, others small ropes, others ladders for the work, but all to no purpose. Merlin laughed at their vain efforts, and then began his own contrivances. When he had placed in order the engines that were necessary, he took down the stones with an incredible facility, and gave directions for carrying them to the ships, and placing them therein. This done, they with joy set sail again, to return to Britain; where they arrived with a fair gale, and repaired to the burying-place with the stones. When Aurelius had notice of it, he sent messengers to all parts of Britain, to summon the clergy and people together to the mount of Ambrius, in order to celebrate with joy and honour the erection of the monument. Upon this summons appeared the bishops, abbats, and people of all other orders and qualities; and upon the day and place appointed for their general meeting, Aurelius placed the crown sepulchre upon his head, and with royal pomp celebrated the feast of Pentecost, the solemnity whereof he continued the three following days. In the meantime, all places of honour that were vacant, he bestowed upon his domestics as rewards for their good services. At that time the two metropolitan sees of York and Legions were vacant; and with the general consent of the people, whom he was willing to please in this choice, he granted York to Sanxo, a man of great quality, and much celebrated for his piety; and the City of Legions to Dubricius, whom divine providence had pointed out as a most useful pastor in that place. As soon as he had settled these and other affairs in the kingdom, he ordered Merlin to set up the stones brought over from Ireland, about the sepulcher; which he accordingly did, and placed them in the same manner as they had been in the mountain Killaraus, and th
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Dylan
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American singer-songwriter (born 1941)
This article is about the musician. For his debut album, see Bob Dylan (album).
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan;[3] born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often considered to be one of the greatest songwriters in history,[4][5][6] Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his 60-year career. He rose to prominence in the 1960s, when songs such as "The Times They Are a-Changin'" (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements. Initially modeling his style on Woody Guthrie's folk songs,[7] Robert Johnson's blues[8] and what he called the "architectural forms" of Hank Williams's country songs,[9] Dylan added increasingly sophisticated lyrical techniques to the folk music of the early 1960s, infusing it "with the intellectualism of classic literature and poetry".[4] His lyrics incorporated political, social and philosophical influences, defying pop music conventions and appealing to the burgeoning counterculture.[10]
Dylan was born and raised in St. Louis County, Minnesota. Following his self-titled debut album of traditional folk songs in 1962, he made his breakthrough with The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963). The album featured "Blowin' in the Wind" and "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall", which adapted the tunes and phrasing of older folk songs. He released the politically charged The Times They Are a-Changin' and the more lyrically abstract and introspective Another Side of Bob Dylan in 1964. In 1965 and 1966, Dylan drew controversy among folk purists when he adopted electrically amplified rock instrumentation, and in the space of 15 months recorded three of the most influential rock albums of the 1960s: Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. When Dylan made his move from acoustic folk and blues music to rock, the mix became more complex. His six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" (1965) expanded commercial and creative boundaries in popular music.[11][12]
In July 1966, a motorcycle accident led to Dylan's withdrawal from touring. During this period, he recorded a large body of songs with members of the Band, who had previously backed him on tour. These recordings were later released as The Basement Tapes in 1975. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dylan explored country music and rural themes on John Wesley Harding (1967), Nashville Skyline (1969) and New Morning (1970). In 1975, he released Blood on the Tracks, which many saw as a return to form. In the late 1970s, he became a born-again Christian and released three albums of contemporary gospel music before returning to his more familiar rock-based idiom in the early 1980s. Dylan's Time Out of Mind (1997) marked the beginning of a career renaissance. He has released five critically acclaimed albums of original material since, most recently Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020). He also recorded a trilogy of albums covering the Great American Songbook, especially songs sung by Frank Sinatra, and an album smoothing his early rock material into a mellower Americana sensibility, Shadow Kingdom (2023). Dylan has toured continuously since the late 1980s on what has become known as the Never Ending Tour.[13]
Since 1994, Dylan has published nine books of paintings and drawings, and his work has been exhibited in major art galleries. He has sold more than 125 million records,[14] making him one of the best-selling musicians ever. He has received numerous awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, ten Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award. Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 2008, the Pulitzer Prize Board awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power." In 2016, Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.[15]
Life and career
1941–1959: Origins and musical beginnings
Bob Dylan was born Robert Allen Zimmerman (Hebrew: שבתאי זיסל בן אברהם Shabtai Zisl ben Avraham)[1][16][17] in St. Mary's Hospital on May 24, 1941, in Duluth, Minnesota,[18] and raised in Hibbing, Minnesota, on the Mesabi Range west of Lake Superior. Dylan's paternal grandparents, Anna Kirghiz and Zigman Zimmerman, emigrated from Odessa in the Russian Empire (now Odesa, Ukraine) to the United States, following the pogroms against Jews of 1905.[19] His maternal grandparents, Florence and Ben Stone, were Lithuanian Jews who had arrived in the United States in 1902.[19] Dylan wrote that his paternal grandmother's family was originally from the Kağızman district of Kars Province in northeastern Turkey.[20]
Dylan's father Abram Zimmerman and his mother Beatrice "Beatty" Stone were part of a small, close-knit Jewish community.[21][22][23] They lived in Duluth until Dylan was six, when his father contracted polio and the family returned to his mother's hometown of Hibbing, where they lived for the rest of Dylan's childhood, and his father and paternal uncles ran a furniture and appliance store.[23][24]
In the early 1950s Dylan listened to the Grand Ole Opry radio show and heard the songs of Hank Williams. He later wrote: “The sound of his voice went through me like an electric rod.”[9] Dylan was also impressed by the delivery of Johnnie Ray: “He was the first singer whose voice and style, I guess, I totally fell in love with… I loved his style, wanted to dress like him too.” [25] As a teenager, Dylan heard rock and roll on radio stations broadcasting from Shreveport and Little Rock.[26]
Dylan formed several bands while attending Hibbing High School. In the Golden Chords, he performed covers of songs by Little Richard[27] and Elvis Presley.[28] Their performance of Danny & the Juniors' "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay" at their high school talent show was so loud that the principal cut the microphone.[29] In 1959, Dylan's high school yearbook carried the caption "Robert Zimmerman: to join 'Little Richard'".[27][30] That year, as Elston Gunnn, he performed two dates with Bobby Vee, playing piano and clapping.[31][32][33] In September 1959, Dylan enrolled at the University of Minnesota.[34] Living at the Jewish-centric fraternity Sigma Alpha Mu house, Dylan began to perform at the Ten O'Clock Scholar, a coffeehouse a few blocks from campus, and became involved in the Dinkytown folk music circuit.[35][36] His focus on rock and roll gave way to American folk music, as he explained in a 1985 interview:
The thing about rock'n'roll is that for me anyway it wasn't enough ... There were great catch-phrases and driving pulse rhythms ... but the songs weren't serious or didn't reflect life in a realistic way. I knew that when I got into folk music, it was more of a serious type of thing. The songs are filled with more despair, more sadness, more triumph, more faith in the supernatural, much deeper feelings.[37]
During this period, he began to introduce himself as "Bob Dylan".[38] In his memoir, he wrote that he considered adopting the surname Dillon before unexpectedly seeing poems by Dylan Thomas, and deciding upon the given name spelling.[39][a 1] In a 2004 interview, he said, "You're born, you know, the wrong names, wrong parents. I mean, that happens. You call yourself what you want to call yourself. This is the land of the free."[40]
1960s
Relocation to New York and record deal
In May 1960, Dylan dropped out of college at the end of his first year. In January 1961, he traveled to New York City to perform and visit his musical idol Woody Guthrie[41] at Greystone Park Psychiatric Hospital.[42] Guthrie had been a revelation to Dylan and influenced his early performances. He wrote of Guthrie's impact: "The songs themselves had the infinite sweep of humanity in them... [He] was the true voice of the American spirit. I said to myself I was going to be Guthrie's greatest disciple".[43] In addition to visiting Guthrie, Dylan befriended his protégé Ramblin' Jack Elliott.[44]
From February 1961, Dylan played at clubs around Greenwich Village, befriending and picking up material from folk singers, including Dave Van Ronk, Fred Neil, Odetta, the New Lost City Ramblers and Irish musicians the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem.[45] In September, The New York Times critic Robert Shelton boosted Dylan's career with a very enthusiastic review of his performance at Gerde's Folk City: "Bob Dylan: A Distinctive Folk-Song Stylist".[46] That month, Dylan played harmonica on folk singer Carolyn Hester's third album, bringing him to the attention of the album's producer John Hammond,[47] who signed Dylan to Columbia Records.[48] Dylan's debut album, Bob Dylan, released March 19, 1962,[49][50] consisted of traditional folk, blues and gospel material with just two original compositions, "Talkin' New York" and "Song to Woody". The album sold 5,000 copies in its first year, just breaking even.[51]
In August 1962, Dylan changed his name to Bob Dylan,[a 2] and signed a management contract with Albert Grossman.[52] Grossman remained Dylan's manager until 1970, and was known for his sometimes confrontational personality and protective loyalty.[53] Dylan said, "He was kind of like a Colonel Tom Parker figure ... you could smell him coming."[36] Tension between Grossman and John Hammond led to the latter suggesting Dylan work with the jazz producer Tom Wilson, who produced several tracks for the second album without formal credit. Wilson produced the next three albums Dylan recorded.[54][55]
Dylan made his first trip to the United Kingdom from December 1962 to January 1963.[56] He had been invited by television director Philip Saville to appear in Madhouse on Castle Street, which Saville was directing for BBC Television.[57] At the end of the play, Dylan performed "Blowin' in the Wind", one of its first public performances.[57] While in London, Dylan performed at London folk clubs, including the Troubadour, Les Cousins, and Bunjies.[56][58] He also learned material from UK performers, including Martin Carthy.[57]
By the release of Dylan's second album, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, in May 1963, he had begun to make his name as a singer-songwriter. Many songs on the album were labeled protest songs, inspired partly by Guthrie and influenced by Pete Seeger's topical songs.[59] "Oxford Town" was an account of James Meredith's ordeal as the first Black student to enroll at the University of Mississippi.[60] The first song on the album, "Blowin' in the Wind", partly derived its melody from the traditional slave song "No More Auction Block",[61] while its lyrics questioned the social and political status quo. The song was widely recorded by other artists and became a hit for Peter, Paul and Mary.[62] "A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall" was based on the folk ballad "Lord Randall". With its apocalyptic premonitions, the song gained resonance when the Cuban Missile Crisis developed a few weeks after Dylan began performing it.[63][a 3] Both songs marked a new direction in songwriting, blending a stream-of-consciousness, imagist lyrical attack with traditional folk form.[64]
Dylan's topical songs led to his being viewed as more than just a songwriter. Janet Maslin wrote of Freewheelin':
These were the songs that established [Dylan] as the voice of his generation—someone who implicitly understood how concerned young Americans felt about nuclear disarmament and the growing Civil Rights Movement: his mixture of moral authority and nonconformity was perhaps the most timely of his attributes.[65][a 4]
Freewheelin' also included love songs and surreal talking blues. Humor was an important part of Dylan's persona,[66] and the range of material on the album impressed listeners, including the Beatles. George Harrison said of the album: "We just played it, just wore it out. The content of the song lyrics and just the attitude—it was incredibly original and wonderful".[67]
The rough edge of Dylan's singing unsettled some but attracted others. Author Joyce Carol Oates wrote: "When we first heard this raw, very young, and seemingly untrained voice, frankly nasal, as if sandpaper could sing, the effect was dramatic and electrifying".[68] Many early songs reached the public through more palatable versions by other performers, such as Joan Baez, who became Dylan's advocate and lover.[69] Baez was influential in bringing Dylan to prominence by recording several of his early songs and inviting him on stage during her concerts.[70] Others who had hits with Dylan's songs in the early 1960s included the Byrds, Sonny & Cher, the Hollies, the Association, Manfred Mann and the Turtles.
"Mixed-Up Confusion", recorded during the Freewheelin' sessions with a backing band, was released as Dylan's first single in December 1962, but then swiftly withdrawn. In contrast to the mostly solo acoustic performances on the album, the single showed a willingness to experiment with a rockabilly sound. Cameron Crowe described it as "a fascinating look at a folk artist with his mind wandering towards Elvis Presley and Sun Records".[71]
Protest and Another Side
In May 1963, Dylan's political profile rose when he walked out of The Ed Sullivan Show. During rehearsals, Dylan had been told by CBS television's head of program practices that "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues" was potentially libelous to the John Birch Society. Rather than comply with censorship, Dylan refused to appear.[72]
Dylan and Baez were prominent in the civil rights movement, singing together at the March on Washington on August 28, 1963. Dylan performed "Only a Pawn in Their Game" and "When the Ship Comes In".[73]
Dylan's third album, The Times They Are a-Changin', reflected a more politicized Dylan.[74] The songs often took as their subject matter contemporary stories, with "Only a Pawn in Their Game" addressing the murder of civil rights worker Medgar Evers, and the Brechtian "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" the death of Black hotel barmaid Hattie Carroll at the hands of young White socialite William Zantzinger.[75] "Ballad of Hollis Brown" and "North Country Blues" addressed despair engendered by the breakdown of farming and mining communities. This political material was accompanied by two personal love songs, "Boots of Spanish Leather" and "One Too Many Mornings".[76]
By the end of 1963, Dylan felt manipulated and constrained by the folk and protest movements.[77] Accepting the "Tom Paine Award" from the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee shortly after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, an intoxicated Dylan questioned the role of the committee, characterized the members as old and balding, and claimed to see something of himself and of every man in Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.[78]
Another Side of Bob Dylan, recorded in a single evening on June 9, 1964,[79] had a lighter mood. The humorous Dylan reemerged on "I Shall Be Free No. 10" and "Motorpsycho Nightmare". "Spanish Harlem Incident" and "To Ramona" are passionate love songs, while "Black Crow Blues" and "I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)" suggest the rock and roll soon to dominate Dylan's music. "It Ain't Me Babe", on the surface a song about spurned love, has been described as a rejection of the role of political spokesman thrust upon him.[80] His new direction was signaled by two lengthy songs: the impressionistic "Chimes of Freedom", which sets social commentary against a metaphorical landscape in a style characterized by Allen Ginsberg as "chains of flashing images,"[a 5] and "My Back Pages", which attacks the simplistic and arch seriousness of his own earlier topical songs and seems to predict the backlash he was about to encounter from his former champions.[81]
In the latter half of 1964 and into 1965, Dylan moved from folk songwriter to folk-rock pop-music star. His jeans and work shirts were replaced by a Carnaby Street wardrobe, sunglasses day or night, and pointed "Beatle boots". A London reporter noted "Hair that would set the teeth of a comb on edge. A loud shirt that would dim the neon lights of Leicester Square. He looks like an undernourished cockatoo."[82] Dylan began to spar with interviewers. Asked about a movie he planned while on Les Crane's television show, he told Crane it would be a "cowboy horror movie." Asked if he played the cowboy, Dylan replied, "No, I play my mother."[83]
Going electric
Main articles: Electric Dylan controversy and Folk rock
Dylan's late March 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home was another leap,[84] featuring his first recordings with electric instruments, under producer Tom Wilson's guidance.[85] The first single, "Subterranean Homesick Blues", owed much to Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business";[86] its free-association lyrics described as harking back to the energy of beat poetry and as a forerunner of rap and hip-hop.[87] The song was provided with an early music video, which opened D. A. Pennebaker's cinéma vérité presentation of Dylan's 1965 British tour, Dont Look Back.[88] Instead of miming, Dylan illustrated the lyrics by throwing cue cards containing key words on the ground. Pennebaker said the sequence was Dylan's idea, and it has been imitated in music videos and advertisements.[89]
The second side of Bringing It All Back Home contained four long songs on which Dylan accompanied himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica.[90] "Mr. Tambourine Man" became one of his best-known songs when The Byrds recorded an electric version that reached number one in the US and UK.[91][92] "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" and "It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)" were two of Dylan's most important compositions.[90][93]
In 1965, headlining the Newport Folk Festival, Dylan performed his first electric set since high school with a pickup group featuring Mike Bloomfield on guitar and Al Kooper on organ.[94] Dylan had appeared at Newport in 1963 and 1964, but in 1965 was met with cheering and booing and left the stage after three songs. One version has it that the boos were from folk fans whom Dylan had alienated by appearing, unexpectedly, with an electric guitar. Murray Lerner, who filmed the performance, said: "I absolutely think that they were booing Dylan going electric."[95] An alternative account claims audience members were upset by poor sound and a short set.[96][97]
Dylan's performance provoked a hostile response from the folk music establishment.[98][99] In the September issue of Sing Out!, Ewan MacColl wrote: "Our traditional songs and ballads are the creations of extraordinarily talented artists working inside disciplines formulated over time ...'But what of Bobby Dylan?' scream the outraged teenagers ... Only a completely non-critical audience, nourished on the watery pap of pop music, could have fallen for such tenth-rate drivel".[100] On July 29, four days after Newport, Dylan was back in the studio in New York, recording "Positively 4th Street". The lyrics contained images of vengeance and paranoia,[101] and have been interpreted as Dylan's put-down of former friends from the folk community he had known in clubs along West 4th Street.[102]
Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde
In July 1965, Dylan's six-minute single "Like a Rolling Stone" peaked at number two in the US chart. In 2004 and in 2011, Rolling Stone listed it as number one on "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[11][103] Bruce Springsteen recalled first hearing the song: "that snare shot sounded like somebody'd kicked open the door to your mind."[104] The song opened Dylan's next album, Highway 61 Revisited, named after the road that led from Dylan's Minnesota to the musical hotbed of New Orleans.[105] The songs were in the same vein as the hit single, flavored by Mike Bloomfield's blues guitar and Al Kooper's organ riffs. "Desolation Row", backed by acoustic guitar and understated bass,[106] offers the sole exception, with Dylan alluding to figures in Western culture in a song described by Andy Gill as "an 11-minute epic of entropy, which takes the form of a Fellini-esque parade of grotesques and oddities featuring a huge cast of celebrated characters".[107] Poet Philip Larkin, who also reviewed jazz for The Daily Telegraph, wrote "I'm afraid I poached Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited (CBS) out of curiosity and found myself well rewarded."[108]
In support of the album, Dylan was booked for two US concerts with Al Kooper and Harvey Brooks from his studio crew and Robbie Robertson and Levon Helm, former members of Ronnie Hawkins's backing band the Hawks.[109] On August 28 at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium, the group was heckled by an audience still annoyed by Dylan's electric sound. The band's reception on September 3 at the Hollywood Bowl was more favorable.[110]
From September 24, 1965, in Austin, Texas, Dylan toured the US and Canada for six months, backed by the five musicians from the Hawks who became known as The Band.[111] While Dylan and the Hawks met increasingly receptive audiences, their studio efforts foundered. Producer Bob Johnston persuaded Dylan to record in Nashville in February 1966, and surrounded him with top-notch session men. At Dylan's insistence, Robertson and Kooper came from New York City to play on the sessions.[112] The Nashville sessions produced the double album Blonde on Blonde (1966), featuring what Dylan called "that thin wild mercury sound".[113] Kooper described it as "taking two cultures and smashing them together with a huge explosion": the musical worlds of Nashville and of the "quintessential New York hipster" Bob Dylan.[114]
On November 22, 1965, Dylan quietly married 25-year-old former model Sara Lownds.[115] Some of Dylan's friends, including Ramblin' Jack Elliott, say that, immediately after the event, Dylan denied he was married.[115] Writer Nora Ephron made the news public in the New York Post in February 1966 with the headline "Hush! Bob Dylan is wed".[116]
Dylan toured Australia and Europe in April and May 1966. Each show was split in two. Dylan performed solo during the first half, accompanying himself on acoustic guitar and harmonica. In the second, backed by the Hawks, he played electrically amplified music. This contrast provoked many fans, who jeered and slow clapped.[117] The tour culminated in a raucous confrontation between Dylan and his audience at the Manchester Free Trade Hall in England on May 17, 1966.[118] A recording of this concert was released in 1998: The Bootleg Series Vol. 4: Bob Dylan Live 1966. At the climax of the evening, a member of the audience, angered by Dylan's electric backing, shouted: "Judas!" to which Dylan responded, "I don't believe you ... You're a liar!" Dylan turned to his band and said, "Play it fucking loud!"[119]
During his 1966 tour, Dylan was described as exhausted and acting "as if on a death trip".[120] D. A. Pennebaker, the filmmaker accompanying the tour, described Dylan as "taking a lot of amphetamine and who-knows-what-else".[121] In a 1969 interview with Jann Wenner, Dylan said, "I was on the road for almost five years. It wore me down. I was on drugs, a lot of things ... just to keep going, you know?"[122]
Motorcycle accident and reclusion
On July 29, 1966, Dylan crashed his motorcycle, a Triumph Tiger 100, near his home in Woodstock, New York. Dylan said he broke several vertebrae in his neck.[123] The circumstances of the accident are unclear since no ambulance was called to the scene and Dylan was not hospitalized.[123][124] Dylan's biographers have written that the crash offered him the chance to escape the pressures around him.[123][125] Dylan concurred: "I had been in a motorcycle accident and I'd been hurt, but I recovered. Truth was that I wanted to get out of the rat race."[126] He made very few public appearances, and did not tour again for almost eight years.[124][127]
Once Dylan was well enough to resume creative work, he began to edit D. A. Pennebaker's film of his 1966 tour. A rough cut was shown to ABC Television, but they rejected it as incomprehensible to mainstream audiences.[128] The film, titled Eat the Document on bootleg copies, has since been screened at a few film festivals.[129] Secluded from public gaze, Dylan recorded over 100 songs during 1967 at his Woodstock home and in the basement of the Hawks' nearby house, "Big Pink".[130] These songs were initially offered as demos for other artists to record and were hits for Julie Driscoll, the Byrds, and Manfred Mann. The public heard these recordings when Great White Wonder, the first "bootleg recording", appeared in West Coast shops in July 1969, containing Dylan material recorded in Minneapolis in 1961 and seven Basement Tapes songs. This record gave birth to a minor industry in the illicit release of recordings by Dylan and other major rock artists.[131] Columbia released a Basement selection in 1975 as The Basement Tapes.
In late 1967, Dylan returned to studio recording in Nashville,[132] accompanied by Charlie McCoy on bass,[132] Kenny Buttrey on drums[132] and Pete Drake on steel guitar.[132] The result was John Wesley Harding, a record of short songs thematically drawing on the American West and the Bible. The sparse structure and instrumentation, with lyrics that took the Judeo-Christian tradition seriously, was a departure from Dylan's previous work.[133] It included "All Along the Watchtower", famously covered by Jimi Hendrix.[37][a 6] Woody Guthrie died in October 1967, and Dylan made his first live appearance in twenty months at a memorial concert held at Carnegie Hall on January 20, 1968, where he was backed by the Band.[134]
Nashville Skyline (1969), featured Nashville musicians, a mellow-voiced Dylan, a duet with Johnny Cash and the single "Lay Lady Lay".[136] Variety wrote, "Dylan is definitely doing something that can be called singing. Somehow he has managed to add an octave to his range."[137] During one recording session, Dylan and Cash recorded a series of duets, but only their version of "Girl from the North Country" appeared on the album.[138][139] The album influenced the nascent genre of country rock.[4]
In 1969, Dylan was asked to write songs for Scratch, Archibald MacLeish's musical adaptation of "The Devil and Daniel Webster". MacLeish initially praised Dylan's contributions, writing to him "Those songs of yours have been haunting me—and exciting me," but creative differences led to Dylan leaving the project. Some of the songs were later recorded by Dylan in a revised form.[140] In May 1969, Dylan appeared on the first episode of The Johnny Cash Show where he sang a duet with Cash on "Girl from the North Country" and played solos of "Living the Blues" and "I Threw It All Away". Dylan traveled to England to top the bill at the Isle of Wight Festival on August 31, 1969, after rejecting overtures to appear at the Woodstock Festival closer to home.[141]
1970s
In the early 1970s, critics charged that Dylan's output was varied and unpredictable. Greil Marcus asked "What is this shit?" upon first hearing Self Portrait, released in June 1970.[142][143] It was a double LP including few original songs and was poorly received.[144] In October 1970, Dylan released New Morning, considered a return to form.[145] The title track was from Dylan's ill-fated collaboration with MacLeish,[140] and "Day of the Locusts" was his account of receiving an honorary degree from Princeton University on June 9, 1970.[146] In November 1968, Dylan co-wrote "I'd Have You Anytime" with George Harrison;[147] Harrison recorded that song and Dylan's "If Not for You" for his album All Things Must Pass. Olivia Newton-John covered "If Not For You" on her debut album and "The Man in Me" was prominently featured in the film The Big Lebowski (1998).
Tarantula, a freeform book of prose-poetry, had been written by Dylan during a creative burst in 1964–65.[148] Dylan shelved his book for several years, apparently uncertain of its status,[149] until he suddenly informed Macmillan at the end of 1970 that the time had come to publish it.[150] The book attracted negative reviews but later critics have suggested its affinities with Finnegans Wake and A Season In Hell.[151]
Between March 16 and 19, 1971, Dylan recorded with Leon Russell at Blue Rock, a small studio in Greenwich Village. These sessions resulted in "Watching the River Flow" and a new recording of "When I Paint My Masterpiece".[152] On November 4, 1971, Dylan recorded "George Jackson", which he released a week later. For many, the single was a surprising return to protest material, mourning the killing of Black Panther George Jackson in San Quentin State Prison.[153] Dylan's surprise appearance at Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh on August 1, 1971, attracted media coverage as his live appearances had become rare.[154]
In 1972, Dylan joined Sam Peckinpah's film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, providing the soundtrack and playing "Alias", a member of Billy's gang.[155] Despite the film's failure at the box office, "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" became one of Dylan's most covered songs.[156][157] That same year, Dylan protested the move to deport John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who had been convicted for marijuana possession, by sending a letter to the US Immigration Service which read in part: "Hurray for John & Yoko. Let them stay and live here and breathe. The country's got plenty of room and space. Let John and Yoko stay!"[158]
Return to touring
Dylan began 1973 by signing with a new label, David Geffen's Asylum Records, when his contract with Columbia Records expired.[160] His next album, Planet Waves, was recorded in the fall of 1973, using the Band as his backing group as they rehearsed for a major tour.[161] The album included two versions of "Forever Young", which became one of his most popular songs.[162] As one critic described it, the song projected "something hymnal and heartfelt that spoke of the father in Dylan",[163] and Dylan said "I wrote it thinking about one of my boys and not wanting to be too sentimental".[37] Columbia Records simultaneously released Dylan, a collection of studio outtakes, widely interpreted as a churlish response to Dylan's signing with a rival record label.[164]
In January 1974, Dylan, backed by the Band, embarked on a North American tour of 40 concerts—his first tour for seven years. A live double album, Before the Flood, was released on Asylum Records. Soon, according to Clive Davis, Columbia Records sent word they "will spare nothing to bring Dylan back into the fold".[165] Dylan had second thoughts about Asylum, unhappy that Geffen had sold only 600,000 copies of Planet Waves despite millions of unfulfilled ticket requests for the 1974 tour;[166] he returned to Columbia Records, which reissued his two Asylum albums.[167]
After the tour, Dylan and his wife became estranged. He filled three small notebooks with songs about relationships and ruptures, and recorded the album Blood on the Tracks in September 1974.[168][169] Dylan delayed the album's release and re-recorded half the songs at Sound 80 Studios in Minneapolis with production assistance from his brother, David Zimmerman.[170] Released in early 1975, Blood on the Tracks received mixed reviews. In NME, Nick Kent described the "accompaniments" as "often so trashy they sound like mere practice takes".[171] In Rolling Stone, Jon Landau wrote that "the record has been made with typical shoddiness".[171] Over the years critics came to see it as one of Dylan's masterpieces. In Salon, journalist Bill Wyman wrote:
Blood on the Tracks is his only flawless album and his best produced; the songs, each of them, are constructed in disciplined fashion. It is his kindest album and most dismayed, and seems in hindsight to have achieved a sublime balance between the logorrhea-plagued excesses of his mid-1960s output and the self-consciously simple compositions of his post-accident years.[172]
In the middle of 1975, Dylan championed boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, imprisoned for triple murder, with his ballad "Hurricane" making the case for Carter's innocence. Despite its length—over eight minutes—the song was released as a single, peaking at 33 on the US Billboard chart, and performed at every 1975 date of Dylan's next tour, the Rolling Thunder Revue.[a 7][173] Running through late 1975 and again through early 1976, the tour featured about one hundred performers and supporters from the Greenwich Village folk scene, among them Ramblin' Jack Elliott, T-Bone Burnett, Joni Mitchell,[174][175] David Mansfield, Roger McGuinn, Mick Ronson, Ronee Blakely, Joan Baez and Scarlet Rivera, whom Dylan discovered walking down the street, her violin case on her back.[176] The tour encompassed the January 1976 release of the album Desire. Many of Desire's songs featuring a travelogue-like narrative style, influenced by Dylan's new collaborator, playwright Jacques Levy.[177][178] The 1976 half of the tour was documented by a TV concert special, Hard Rain, and the LP Hard Rain.
The 1975 tour with the Revue provided the backdrop to Dylan's film Renaldo and Clara, a sprawling narrative mixed with concert footage and reminiscences. Actor and playwright Sam Shepard accompanied the Revue and was to serve as screenwriter, but much of the film was improvised. Released in 1978, it received negative, sometimes scathing, reviews.[179][180] Later in the year, a two-hour edit, dominated by the concert performances, was more widely released.[181] In November 1976, Dylan appeared at the Band's farewell concert with Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Martin Scorsese's 1978 film of the concert, The Last Waltz, included most of Dylan's set.[182]
In 1978, Dylan embarked on a year-long world tour, performing 114 shows in Japan, the Far East, Europe and North America, to a total audience of two million. Dylan assembled an eight-piece band and three backing singers. Concerts in Tokyo in February and March were released as the live double album Bob Dylan at Budokan.[183] Reviews were mixed. Robert Christgau awarded the album a C+ rating,[184] while Janet Maslin defended it: "These latest live versions of his old songs have the effect of liberating Bob Dylan from the originals".[185] When Dylan brought the tour to the US in September 1978, the press described the look and sound as a "Las Vegas Tour".[186] The 1978 tour grossed more than $20 million, and Dylan told the Los Angeles Times that he had debts because "I had a couple of bad years. I put a lot of money into the movie, built a big house ... and it costs a lot to get divorced in California."[183] In April and May 1978, Dylan took the same band and vocalists into Rundown Studios in Santa Monica, California, to record an album of new material, Street-Legal.[187] It was described by Michael Gray as "after Blood On The Tracks, arguably Dylan's best record of the 1970s: a crucial album documenting a crucial period in Dylan's own life".[188] However, it had poor sound and mixing (attributed to Dylan's studio practices), muddying the instrumental detail until a remastered CD release in 1999 restored some of the songs' strengths.[189][190]
Christian period
In the late 1970s, Dylan converted to Evangelical Christianity,[191][192] undertaking a three-month discipleship course run by the Association of Vineyard Churches.[193][194] He released three albums of contemporary gospel music. Slow Train Coming (1979) featured Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler and was produced by veteran R&B producer Jerry Wexler. Wexler said that Dylan had tried to evangelize him during the recording. He replied: "Bob, you're dealing with a 62-year-old Jewish atheist. Let's just make an album."[195] Dylan won the Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for the song "Gotta Serve Somebody". When touring in late 1979 and early 1980, Dylan would not play his older, secular works, and he delivered declarations of his faith from the stage, such as:
Years ago they ... said I was a prophet. I used to say, "No I'm not a prophet", they say "Yes you are, you're a prophet." I said, "No it's not me." They used to say "You sure are a prophet." They used to convince me I was a prophet. Now I come out and say Jesus Christ is the answer. They say, "Bob Dylan's no prophet." They just can't handle it.[196]
Dylan's Christianity was unpopular with some fans and musicians.[197] John Lennon, shortly before being murdered, recorded "Serve Yourself" in response to "Gotta Serve Somebody".[198] In 1981, Stephen Holden wrote in The New York Times that "neither age (he's now 40) nor his much-publicized conversion to born-again Christianity has altered his essentially iconoclastic temperament".[199]
1980s
In late 1980, Dylan briefly played concerts billed as "A Musical Retrospective", restoring popular 1960s songs to the repertoire. His second Christian album, Saved (1980), received mixed reviews, described by Michael Gray as "the nearest thing to a follow-up album Dylan has ever made, Slow Train Coming II and inferior".[200] His third Christian album was Shot of Love (1981).[201] The album featured his first secular compositions in more than two years, mixed with Christian songs. The lyrics of "Every Grain of Sand" recall William Blake's "Auguries of Innocence."[202] Elvis Costello wrote that "Shot of Love may not be your favorite Bob Dylan record, but it might contain his best song: 'Every Grain of Sand'."[203]
Reception of Dylan's 1980s recordings varied. Gray criticized Dylan's 1980s albums for carelessness in the studio and for failing to release his best songs.[204] Infidels (1983) employed Knopfler again as lead guitarist and also as producer; the sessions resulted in several songs that Dylan left off the album. Best regarded of these were "Blind Willie McTell", which was both a tribute to the eponymous blues musician and an evocation of African American history,[205] "Foot of Pride" and "Lord Protect My Child". These three songs were later released on The Bootleg Series Volumes 1–3 (Rare & Unreleased) 1961–1991.[206]
Between July 1984 and March 1985, Dylan recorded Empire Burlesque.[207] Arthur Baker, who had remixed hits for Bruce Springsteen and Cyndi Lauper, was asked to engineer and mix the album. Baker said he felt he was hired to make Dylan's album sound "a little bit more contemporary".[207] In 1985 Dylan sang on USA for Africa's famine relief single "We Are the World". He also joined Artists United Against Apartheid, providing vocals for their single "Sun City".[208] On July 13, 1985, he appeared at the Live Aid concert at JFK Stadium, Philadelphia. Backed by Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, he performed a ragged version of "Ballad of Hollis Brown", a tale of rural poverty, and then said to the worldwide audience: "I hope that some of the money ... maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe ... one or two million, maybe ... and use it to pay the mortgages on some of the farms and, the farmers here, owe to the banks".[209] His remarks were widely criticized as inappropriate, but inspired Willie Nelson to organize a concert, Farm Aid, to benefit debt-ridden American farmers.[210]
In October 1985, Dylan released Biograph, a box set featuring 53 tracks, 18 of them previously unreleased. Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote: “Historically, Biograph is significant not for what it did for Dylan's career, but for establishing the box set, complete with hits and rarities, as a viable part of rock history.”[211] Biograph also contained liner notes by Cameron Crowe in which Dylan discussed the origins of some of his songs.[212]
In April 1986, Dylan made a foray into rap when he added vocals to the opening verse of "Street Rock" on Kurtis Blow's album Kingdom Blow.[213] Dylan's next studio album, Knocked Out Loaded (1986), contained three covers (by Junior Parker, Kris Kristofferson and the gospel hymn "Precious Memories"), plus three collaborations (with Tom Petty, Sam Shepard and Carole Bayer Sager), and two solo compositions by Dylan. A reviewer wrote that "the record follows too many detours to be consistently compelling, and some of those detours wind down roads that are indisputably dead ends. By 1986, such uneven records weren't entirely unexpected by Dylan, but that didn't make them any less frustrating."[214] It was the first Dylan album since his 1962 debut to fail to make the Top 50.[215] Some critics have called the song Dylan co-wrote with Shepard, "Brownsville Girl", a masterpiece.[216]
In 1986 and 1987, Dylan toured with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, sharing vocals with Petty on several songs each night. Dylan also toured with the Grateful Dead in 1987, resulting in the live album Dylan & The Dead, which received negative reviews; Erlewine said it was "quite possibly the worst album by either Bob Dylan or the Grateful Dead".[217] Dylan initiated what came to be called the Never Ending Tour on June 7, 1988, performing with a back-up band featuring guitarist G. E. Smith. Dylan would continue to tour with a small, changing band for the next 30 years.[218] In 1987, Dylan starred in Richard Marquand's movie Hearts of Fire, in which he played Billy Parker, a washed-up rock star turned chicken farmer whose teenage lover (Fiona) leaves him for a jaded English synth-pop sensation (Rupert Everett).[219] Dylan also contributed two original songs to the soundtrack—"Night After Night", and "Had a Dream About You, Baby", as well as a cover of John Hiatt's "The Usual". The film was a critical and commercial flop.[220]
Dylan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in January 1988. Bruce Springsteen, in his introduction, declared, "Bob freed your mind the way Elvis freed your body. He showed us that just because music was innately physical did not mean that it was anti-intellectual".[104] Down in the Groove (1988) sold even more poorly than Knocked Out Loaded.[221] Gray wrote: "The very title undercuts any idea that inspired work may lie within. Here was a further devaluing of the notion of a new Bob Dylan album as something significant."[222] The critical and commercial disappointment of that album was swiftly followed by the success of the Traveling Wilburys, a supergroup Dylan co-founded with George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. In late 1988, their Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 reached number three on the US albums chart,[221] featuring songs described as Dylan's most accessible compositions in years.[223] Despite Orbison's death in December 1988, the remaining four recorded a second album in May 1990, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3.[224]
Dylan finished the decade on a critical high note with Oh Mercy, produced by Daniel Lanois. Gray praised the album as "Attentively written, vocally distinctive, musically warm, and uncompromisingly professional, this cohesive whole is the nearest thing to a great Bob Dylan album in the 1980s."[222] "Most of the Time", a lost-love composition, was prominently featured in the film High Fidelity (2000), while "What Was It You Wanted" has been interpreted both as a catechism and a wry comment on the expectations of critics and fans.[225] The religious imagery of "Ring Them Bells" struck some critics as a re-affirmation of faith.[226]
1990s
Dylan's 1990s began with Under the Red Sky (1990), an about-face from the serious Oh Mercy. It contained several apparently simple songs, including "Under the Red Sky" and "Wiggle Wiggle". The album was dedicated to "Gabby Goo Goo", a nickname for the daughter of Dylan and Carolyn Dennis, Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, who was four.[227] Musicians on the album included George Harrison, Slash, David Crosby, Bruce Hornsby, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and Elton John. The record received negative reviews and sold poorly.[228] In 1990 and 1991 Dylan was described by his biographers as drinking heavily, impairing his performances on stage.[229][230] In an interview with Rolling Stone, Dylan dismissed allegations that drinking was interfering with his music: "That's completely inaccurate. I can drink or not drink. I don't know why people would associate drinking with anything I do, really".[231]
Defilement and remorse were themes Dylan addressed when he received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award from Jack Nicholson in February 1991.[232] The event coincided with the start of the Gulf War and Dylan played "Masters of War"; Rolling Stone called his performance "almost unintelligible".[233] He made a short speech: "My daddy once said to me, he said, 'Son, it is possible for you to become so defiled in this world that your own mother and father will abandon you. If that happens, God will believe in your ability to mend your own ways'".[232][234] This was a paraphrase of 19th-century Orthodox Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch's commentary on Psalm 27.[235] On October 16, 1992, the thirtieth anniversary of Dylan's debut album was celebrated with a concert at Madison Square Garden, christened "Bobfest" by Neil Young and featuring John Mellencamp, Stevie Wonder, Lou Reed, Eddie Vedder, Dylan and others. It was recorded as the live album The 30th Anniversary Concert Celebration.[233]
Over the next few years Dylan returned to his roots with two albums covering traditional folk and blues songs: Good as I Been to You (1992) and World Gone Wrong (1993), backed solely by his acoustic guitar.[236] Many critics and fans noted the quiet beauty of the song "Lone Pilgrim",[237] written by a 19th-century teacher. In August 1994, he played at Woodstock '94; Rolling Stone called his performance "triumphant".[233] In November, Dylan recorded two live shows for MTV Unplugged. He said his wish to perform traditional songs was overruled by Sony executives who insisted on hits.[238] The resulting album, MTV Unplugged, included "John Brown", an unreleased 1962 song about how enthusiasm for war ends in mutilation and disillusionment.[239]
With a collection of songs reportedly written while snowed in on his Minnesota ranch,[240] Dylan booked recording time with Daniel Lanois at Miami's Criteria Studios in January 1997. The subsequent recording sessions were, by some accounts, fraught with musical tension.[241] Before the album's release Dylan was hospitalized with life-threatening pericarditis, brought on by histoplasmosis. His scheduled European tour was canceled, but Dylan made a speedy recovery and left the hospital saying, "I really thought I'd be seeing Elvis soon".[242] He was back on the road by mid-year, and performed before Pope John Paul II at the World Eucharistic Conference in Bologna, Italy. The Pope treated the audience of 200,000 to a homily based on Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind".[243]
In September, Dylan released the new Lanois-produced album, Time Out of Mind. With its bitter assessments of love and morbid ruminations, Dylan's first collection of original songs in seven years was highly acclaimed. Alex Ross called it "a thrilling return to form."[244] "Cold Irons Bound" won Dylan another Grammy For Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, and the album won him his first Grammy Award for Album of the Year.[245] The album's first single, "Not Dark Yet", has been called one of Dylan's best songs[246] and "Make You Feel My Love" was covered by Billy Joel, Garth Brooks, Adele and others. Elvis Costello said "I think it might be the best record he's made."[247]
2000s
In 2001, Dylan won an Academy Award for Best Original Song for "Things Have Changed", written for the film Wonder Boys.[249] "Love and Theft" was released on September 11, 2001. Recorded with his touring band, Dylan produced the album under the alias Jack Frost.[250] Critics noted that Dylan was widening his musical palette to include rockabilly, Western swing, jazz and lounge music.[251] The album won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.[252] Controversy ensued when The Wall Street Journal pointed out similarities between the album's lyrics and Junichi Saga's book Confessions of a Yakuza. Saga was not familiar with Dylan's work, but said he was flattered. Upon hearing the album, Saga said of Dylan: "His lines flow from one image to the next and don't always make sense. But they have a great atmosphere."[253][254]
In 2003, Dylan revisited the evangelical songs from his Christian period and participated in the project Gotta Serve Somebody: The Gospel Songs of Bob Dylan. That year, Dylan released Masked & Anonymous, which he co-wrote with director Larry Charles under the alias Sergei Petrov.[255] Dylan starred as Jack Fate, alongside a cast that included Jeff Bridges, Penélope Cruz and John Goodman. The film polarized critics.[256] In The New York Times, A. O. Scott called it as an "incoherent mess";[257] a few treated it as a serious work of art.[258][259]
In 2004, Dylan published the first part of his memoir, Chronicles: Volume One. Confounding expectations,[260] Dylan devoted three chapters to his first year in New York City in 1961–1962, virtually ignoring the mid-1960s when his fame was at its height, while devoting chapters to the albums New Morning (1970) and Oh Mercy (1989). The book reached number two on The New York Times' Hardcover Non-Fiction bestseller list in December 2004 and was nominated for a National Book Award.[261]
Martin Scorsese's Dylan documentary No Direction Home was broadcast on September 26–27, 2005, on BBC Two in the UK and as part of American Masters on PBS in the US.[262] It covers the period from Dylan's arrival in New York in 1961 to his motorcycle crash in 1966, featuring interviews with Suze Rotolo, Liam Clancy, Joan Baez, Allen Ginsberg, Pete Seeger, Mavis Staples and Dylan himself. The film earned a Peabody Award[263] and a Columbia-duPont Award.[264] The accompanying soundtrack featured unreleased songs from Dylan's early years.[265]
Modern Times
Dylan's career as a radio presenter began on May 3, 2006, with his weekly program, Theme Time Radio Hour, on XM Satellite Radio. He played songs with a common theme, such as "Weather", "Weddings", "Dance" and "Dreams".[266][267] Dylan's records ranged from Muddy Waters to Prince, L.L. Cool J to the Streets. Dylan's show was praised for the breadth of his musical selections[268] and for his jokes, stories and eclectic references.[269][270] In April 2009, Dylan broadcast the 100th show in his radio series; the theme was "Goodbye" and he signed off with Woody Guthrie's "So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh".[271]
Dylan released Modern Times in August 2006. Despite some coarsening of Dylan's voice (a critic for The Guardian characterized his singing on the album as "a catarrhal death rattle"[272]) most reviewers praised the album, and many described it as the final installment of a successful trilogy, encompassing Time Out of Mind and "Love and Theft".[273] Modern Times entered the US charts at number one, making it Dylan's first album to reach that position since 1976's Desire.[274] The New York Times published an article exploring similarities between some of Dylan's lyrics in Modern Times and the work of the Civil War poet Henry Timrod.[275] Modern Times won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album and Dylan won Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for "Someday Baby".[276] Modern Times was named Album of the Year by Rolling Stone[277] and Uncut.[278] On the same day that Modern Times was released, the iTunes Music Store released Bob Dylan: The Collection, a digital box set containing all of his albums (773 tracks), along with 42 rare and unreleased tracks.[279]
On October 1, 2007, Columbia Records released the triple CD retrospective Dylan, anthologizing his entire career under the Dylan 07 logo.[280] The sophistication of the Dylan 07 marketing campaign was a reminder that Dylan's commercial profile had risen considerably since the 1990s. This became evident in 2004, when Dylan appeared in a TV advertisement for Victoria's Secret.[281] In October 2007, he participated in a multi-media campaign for the 2008 Cadillac Escalade.[282][283] In 2009 he gave the highest profile endorsement of his career to date, appearing with rapper will.i.am in a Pepsi ad that debuted during Super Bowl XLIII. The ad opened with Dylan singing the first verse of "Forever Young" followed by will.i.am doing a hip hop version of the song's third and final verse.[284]
The Bootleg Series Vol. 8 – Tell Tale Signs was released in October 2008, as both a two-CD set and a three-CD version with a 150-page hardcover book. The set contains live performances and outtakes from selected studio albums from Oh Mercy to Modern Times, as well as soundtrack contributions and collaborations with David Bromberg and Ralph Stanley.[285] The pricing of the album—the two-CD set went on sale for $18.99 and the three-CD version for $129.99—led to complaints about "rip-off packaging".[286][287] The release was widely acclaimed by critics.[288] The abundance of alternative takes and unreleased material suggested to one reviewer that this volume of old outtakes "feels like a new Bob Dylan record, not only for the astonishing freshness of the material, but also for the incredible sound quality and organic feeling of everything here".[289]
Together Through Life and Christmas in the Heart
Dylan released Together Through Life on April 28, 2009. In a conversation with music journalist Bill Flanagan, Dylan explained it originated when French director Olivier Dahan asked him to supply a song for his movie My Own Love Song. He initially intended to record a single track, "Life Is Hard", but "the record sort of took its own direction".[290] Nine of the album's ten songs are credited as co-written by Dylan and Robert Hunter.[291] The album received largely favorable reviews,[292] although several critics described it as a minor addition to Dylan's canon.[293] In its first week of release, the album reached number one on the Billboard 200 chart in the US, making Dylan, at 67 years of age, the oldest artist to ever debut at number one on that chart.[294]
Dylan's Christmas in the Heart was released in October 2009, comprising such Christmas standards as "Little Drummer Boy", "Winter Wonderland" and "Here Comes Santa Claus".[295] Edna Gundersen wrote that Dylan was "revisiting yuletide styles popularized by Nat King Cole, Mel Tormé, and the Ray Conniff Singers".[296] Dylan's royalties from the album were donated to the charities Feeding America in the US, Crisis in the UK, and the World Food Programme.[297] The album received generally favorable reviews.[298] In an interview published in The Big Issue, Flanagan asked Dylan why he had performed the songs in a straightforward style, and he replied: "There wasn't any other way to play it. These songs are part of my life, just like folk songs. You have to play them straight too."[299]
2010s
Tempest
Volume 9 of Dylan's Bootleg Series, The Witmark Demos, was issued in October 18, 2010. It comprised 47 demo recordings of songs taped between 1962 and 1964 for Dylan's earliest music publishers: Leeds Music in 1962, and Witmark Music from 1962 to 1964. One reviewer described the set as "a hearty glimpse of young Bob Dylan changing the music business, and the world, one note at a time."[300] On the critical aggregator Metacritic, the album has a score of 86, indicating "universal acclaim".[301] In the same week, Sony Legacy released Bob Dylan: The Original Mono Recordings, a box set that presented Dylan's eight earliest albums, from Bob Dylan (1962) to John Wesley Harding (1967), in their original mono mix in the CD format for the first time. The set was accompanied by a booklet featuring an essay by Greil Marcus.[302][303]
On April 12, 2011, Legacy Recordings released Bob Dylan in Concert – Brandeis University 1963, taped at Brandeis University on May 10, 1963, two weeks before the release of The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. The tape was discovered in the archive of music writer Ralph J. Gleason, and the recording carries liner notes by Michael Gray, who says it captures Dylan "from way back when Kennedy was President and the Beatles hadn't yet reached America. It reveals him not at any Big Moment but giving a performance like his folk club sets of the period ... This is the last live performance we have of Bob Dylan before he becomes a star."[304]
On Dylan's 70th birthday, three universities organized symposia on his work: the University of Mainz,[305] the University of Vienna,[306] and the University of Bristol[307] invited literary critics and cultural historians to give papers on aspects of Dylan's work. Other events, including tribute bands, discussions and simple singalongs, took place around the world, as reported in The Guardian: "From Moscow to Madrid, Norway to Northampton and Malaysia to his home state of Minnesota, self-confessed 'Bobcats' will gather today to celebrate the 70th birthday of a giant of popular music."[308]
Dylan's 35th studio album, Tempest, was released on September 11, 2012.[309] The album features a tribute to John Lennon, "Roll On John", and the title track is a 14-minute song about the sinking of the Titanic.[310] In Rolling Stone, Will Hermes gave Tempest five out of five stars, writing: "Lyrically, Dylan is at the top of his game, joking around, dropping wordplay and allegories that evade pat readings and quoting other folks' words like a freestyle rapper on fire".[311]
Volume 10 of Dylan's Bootleg Series, Another Self Portrait (1969–1971), was released in August 2013.[312] The album contained 35 previously unreleased tracks, including alternative takes and demos from Dylan's 1969–1971 recording sessions during the making of the Self Portrait and New Morning albums. The box set also included a live recording of Dylan's performance with the Band at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1969. Thom Jurek wrote, "For fans, this is more than a curiosity, it's an indispensable addition to the catalog."[313] Columbia Records released a boxed set containing all 35 Dylan studio albums, six albums of live recordings and a collection of non-album material (Sidetracks) as Bob Dylan: Complete Album Collection: Vol. One, in November 2013.[314][315] To publicize the box set, an innovative video of "Like a Rolling Stone" was released on Dylan's website. The interactive video, created by director Vania Heymann, allowed viewers to switch between 16 simulated TV channels, all featuring characters who are lip-synching the lyrics.[316][317]
Dylan appeared in a commercial for the Chrysler 200 car which aired during the 2014 Super Bowl. In it, he says that "Detroit made cars and cars made America... So let Germany brew your beer, let Switzerland make your watch, let Asia assemble your phone. We will build your car." Dylan's ad was criticized for its protectionist implications, and people wondered whether he had "sold out".[318][319] The Lyrics: Since 1962 was published by Simon & Schuster in the fall of 2014. The book was edited by literary critic Christopher Ricks, Julie Nemrow and Lisa Nemrow and offered variant versions of Dylan's songs, sourced from out-takes and live performances. A limited edition of 50 books, signed by Dylan, was priced at $5,000. "It's the biggest, most expensive book we've ever published, as far as I know", said Jonathan Karp, Simon & Schuster's president and publisher.[320][321] A comprehensive edition of the Basement Tapes, songs recorded by Dylan and the Band in 1967, was released as The Bootleg Series Vol. 11: The Basement Tapes Complete in November 2014. The album included 138 tracks in a six-CD box; the 1975 album The Basement Tapes contained just 24 tracks from the material which Dylan and the Band had recorded at their homes in Woodstock, New York in 1967. Subsequently, over 100 recordings and alternate takes had circulated on bootleg records. The sleeve notes are by author Sid Griffin.[322][323] The Basement Tapes Complete won the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album.[324] The box set earned a score of 99 on Metacritic.[325]
Shadows in the Night, Fallen Angels and Triplicate
In February 2015, Dylan released Shadows in the Night, featuring ten songs written between 1923 and 1963,[326][327] which have been described as part of the Great American Songbook.[328] All of the songs had been recorded by Frank Sinatra, but both critics and Dylan himself cautioned against seeing the record as a collection of "Sinatra covers".[326][329] Dylan explained: "I don't see myself as covering these songs in any way. They've been covered enough. Buried, as a matter a fact. What me and my band are basically doing is uncovering them. Lifting them out of the grave and bringing them into the light of day".[330] Critics praised the restrained instrumental backings and the quality of Dylan's singing.[328][331] The album debuted at number one in the UK Albums Chart in its first week of release.[332] The Bootleg Series Vol. 12: The Cutting Edge 1965–1966, consisting of previously unreleased material from the three albums Dylan recorded between January 1965 and March 1966 (Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde) was released in November 2015. The set was released in three formats: a 2-CD "Best Of" version, a 6-CD "Deluxe edition", and an 18-CD limited "Collector's Edition". On Dylan's website the "Collector's Edition" was described as containing "every single note recorded by Bob Dylan in the studio in 1965/1966".[333][334] The Best of the Cutting Edge entered the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart at number one on November 18, based on its first-week sales.[335]
Dylan released Fallen Angels, described as "a direct continuation of the work of 'uncovering' the Great Songbook that he began on Shadows In the Night", in May.[336] The album contained twelve songs by classic songwriters such as Harold Arlen, Sammy Cahn and Johnny Mercer, eleven of which had been recorded by Sinatra.[336] Jim Farber wrote in Entertainment Weekly: "Tellingly, [Dylan] delivers these songs of love lost and cherished not with a burning passion but with the wistfulness of experience. They're memory songs now, intoned with a present sense of commitment. Released just four days ahead of his 75th birthday, they couldn't be more age-appropriate".[337] The 1966 Live Recordings, including every known recording of Dylan's 1966 concert tour, was released in November 2016.[338] The recordings commence with the concert in White Plains New York on February 5, 1966, and end with the Royal Albert Hall concert in London on May 27.[339][340] The New York Times reported most of the concerts had "never been heard in any form", and described the set as "a monumental addition to the corpus".[341]
In March 2017, Dylan released a triple album of 30 more recordings of classic American songs, Triplicate. Dylan's 38th studio album was recorded in Hollywood's Capitol Studios and features his touring band.[342] Dylan posted a long interview on his website to promote the album, and was asked if this material was an exercise in nostalgia.
Nostalgic? No I wouldn't say that. It's not taking a trip down memory lane or longing and yearning for the good old days or fond memories of what's no more. A song like 'Sentimental Journey' is not a way back when song, it doesn't emulate the past, it's attainable and down to earth, it's in the here and now.[343]
Critics praised the thoroughness of Dylan's exploration of the Great American Songbook, though, in the opinion of Uncut, "For all its easy charms, Triplicate labours its point to the brink of overkill. After five albums' worth of croon toons, this feels like a fat full stop on a fascinating chapter."[344] The next volume of Dylan's Bootleg Series revisited his "Born Again" Christian period of 1979 to 1981, described by Rolling Stone as "an intense, wildly controversial time that produced three albums and some of the most confrontational concerts of his long career".[345] Reviewing the box set The Bootleg Series Vol. 13: Trouble No More 1979–1981, comprising 8 CDs and 1 DVD,[345] Jon Pareles wrote in The New York Times:
Decades later, what comes through these recordings above all is Mr. Dylan's unmistakable fervor, his sense of mission. The studio albums are subdued, even tentative, compared with what the songs became on the road. Mr. Dylan's voice is clear, cutting and ever improvisational; working the crowds, he was emphatic, committed, sometimes teasingly combative. And the band tears into the music.[346]
Trouble No More includes a DVD of a film directed by Jennifer Lebeau consisting of live footage of Dylan's gospel performances interspersed with sermons delivered by actor Michael Shannon.
In April 2018, Dylan made a contribution to the compilation EP Universal Love, a collection of reimagined wedding songs for the LGBT community.[347] The album was funded by MGM Resorts International and the songs are intended to function as "wedding anthems for same-sex couples".[348] Dylan recorded the 1929 song "She's Funny That Way", changing the gender pronoun to "He's Funny That Way". The song was previously recorded by Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra.[348][349] That same month, The New York Times reported that Dylan was launching Heaven's Door, a range of three whiskeys. The Times described the venture as "Mr. Dylan's entry into the booming celebrity-branded spirits market, the latest career twist for an artist who has spent five decades confounding expectations".[350] Dylan has been involved in both the creation and the marketing of the range; on September 21, 2020, Dylan resurrected Theme Time Radio Hour with a two-hour special with the theme of "Whiskey".[351] On November 2, 2018, Dylan released More Blood, More Tracks as Volume 14 in the Bootleg Series. The set comprises all Dylan's recordings for Blood On the Tracks and was issued as a single CD and also as a six-CD Deluxe Edition.[352]
In 2019, Netflix released Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story by Martin Scorsese, billed as "Part documentary, part concert film, part fever dream".[353][354] The film received largely positive reviews but caused confusion because it mixed documentary footage filmed during the Rolling Thunder Revue in the fall of 1975 with fictional characters and stories, and scenes from Dylan's Renaldo and Clara, which likewise mixed fact and fiction.[355][356] Coinciding with the film release, the box set The Rolling Thunder Revue: The 1975 Live Recordings, was released by Columbia Records. The set comprises five full Dylan performances from the tour and recently discovered tapes from Dylan's tour rehearsals.[357] The box set received an aggregate score of 89 on Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim".[358] The next installment of Dylan's Bootleg Series, Bob Dylan (featuring Johnny Cash) – Travelin' Thru, 1967 – 1969: The Bootleg Series Vol. 15, was released on November 1. The set comprises outtakes from Dylan's albums John Wesley Harding and Nashville Skyline, and songs that Dylan recorded with Johnny Cash in Nashville in 1969 and with Earl Scruggs in 1970.[359][360]
2020s
Rough and Rowdy Ways
Main article: Rough and Rowdy Ways
On March 26, 2020, Dylan released "Murder Most Foul", a seventeen-minute song revolving around the Kennedy assassination, on his YouTube channel.[361] Dylan posted a statement: "This is an unreleased song we recorded a while back that you might find interesting. Stay safe, stay observant and may God be with you."[362] Billboard reported on April 8 that "Murder Most Foul" had topped the Billboard Rock Digital Song Sales Chart, the first time that Dylan had scored a number one song on a pop chart under his own name.[363] Three weeks later, on April 17, 2020, Dylan released another new song, "I Contain Multitudes".[364][365] The title is from Walt Whitman's poem "Song of Myself".[366] On May 7, Dylan released a third single, "False Prophet", accompanied by the news that the three songs would all appear on a forthcoming double album.
Rough and Rowdy Ways, Dylan's 39th studio album and his first album of original material since 2012, was released on June 19 to favorable reviews.[367] Alexis Petridis wrote: "For all its bleakness, Rough and Rowdy Ways might well be Bob Dylan's most consistently brilliant set of songs in years: the die-hards can spend months unravelling the knottier lyrics, but you don't need a PhD in Dylanology to appreciate its singular quality and power."[368] Rob Sheffield wrote: "While the world keeps trying to celebrate him as an institution, pin him down, cast him in the Nobel Prize canon, embalm his past, this drifter always keeps on making his next escape. On Rough and Rowdy Ways, Dylan is exploring terrain nobody else has reached before—yet he just keeps pushing on into the future".[369] The album earned a score of 95 on Metacritic, indicating "universal acclaim".[367] In its first week of release Rough and Rowdy Ways reached number one on the UK album chart, making Dylan "the oldest artist to score a No. 1 of new, original material".[370]
In December 2020, it was announced that Dylan had sold his entire song catalog to Universal Music Publishing Group,[371] including both the income he receives as a songwriter and his control of their copyright. Universal, a division of the French media conglomerate Vivendi, will collect all future income from the songs.[372] The New York Times stated Universal had purchased the copyright to over 600 songs and the price was "estimated at more than $300 million",[372] although other reports suggested the figure was closer to $400 million.[373]
In February 2021, Columbia Records released 1970, a three-CD set of recordings from the Self Portrait and New Morning sessions, including the entirety of the session Dylan recorded with George Harrison on May 1, 1970.[374][375] Dylan's 80th birthday was commemorated by a virtual conference, Dylan@80, organized by the University of Tulsa Institute for Bob Dylan Studies. The program featured seventeen sessions over three days delivered by over fifty international scholars, journalists and musicians.[376] Several new biographies and studies of Dylan were published.[377][378]
In July 2021, livestream platform Veeps presented a 50-minute performance by Dylan, Shadow Kingdom: The Early Songs of Bob Dylan.[379] Filmed in black and white with a film noir look,[380] Dylan performed 13 songs in a club setting with an audience.[379][381] The performance was favorably reviewed,[381][380] and one critic suggested the backing band resembled the style of the musical Girl from the North Country.[382] The soundtrack to the film was released on 2 LP and CD formats in June 2023.[383] In September, Dylan released Springtime in New York: The Bootleg Series Vol. 16 (1980–1985), issued in 2 LP, 2 CD and 5 CD formats. It comprised rehearsals, live recordings, out-takes and alternative takes from Shot of Love, Infidels and Empire Burlesque.[384] In The Daily Telegraph, Neil McCormick wrote: "These bootleg sessions remind us that Dylan's worst period is still more interesting than most artists' purple patches".[385] Springtime in New York received an aggregate score of 85 on Metacritic.[386]
On July 7, 2022, Christie's, London, auctioned a 2021 recording of Dylan singing "Blowin' in the Wind". The record was in an innovative "one of one" recording medium, branded as Ionic Original, which producer T Bone Burnett claimed "surpasses the sonic excellence and depth for which analogue sound is renowned, while at the same time boasting the durability of a digital recording."[387][388] The recording fetched GBP £1,482,000—equivalent to $1,769,508.[389][390] In November, Dylan published The Philosophy of Modern Song, a collection of 66 essays on songs by other artists. The New Yorker described it as "a rich, riffy, funny, and completely engaging book of essays".[391] Other reviewers praised the book's eclectic outlook,[392] while some questioned its variations in style and dearth of female songwriters.[393]
In January 2023, Dylan released The Bootleg Series Vol. 17: Fragments – Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996–1997) in multiple formats. The 5-CD version comprised a re-mix of the 1997 album "to sound more like how the songs came across when the musicians originally played them in the room" without the effects and processing which producer Daniel Lanois applied later; 25 previously unreleased out-takes from the studio sessions; and a disc of live performances of each song on the album performed by Dylan and his band in concert.[394]
Never Ending Tour
Main article: Never Ending Tour
The Never Ending Tour commenced on June 7, 1988.[395] Dylan has played roughly 100 dates a year since, a heavier schedule than most performers who started in the 1960s.[396] By April 2019, Dylan and his band had played more than 3,000 shows,[397] anchored by long-time bassist Tony Garnier.[398]
To the dismay of some of his audience,[399] Dylan's performances are unpredictable as he often alters his arrangements and changes his vocal approach.[400] These variable performances have divided critics. Richard Williams and Andy Gill argued that Dylan has found a successful way to present his rich legacy of material.[401][402] Others have criticized his live performances for changing "the greatest lyrics ever written so that they are effectively unrecognisable", and giving so little to the audience that "it is difficult to understand what he is doing on stage at all".[403]
In September 2021, Dylan's touring company announced a series of tours which were billed as the "Rough and Rowdy Ways World Wide Tour, 2021–2024". The Rough and Rowdy Ways World Tour replaced Dylan's varied set lists with a more stable repertory, performing nine of the ten songs on his 2020 album. [404] Nevertheless, the tour has been referred to by the media as an extension of his ongoing Never Ending Tour.[405]
On June 21, 2024, Dylan initiated the Outlaw Music Festival Tour, sharing the bill with Willie Nelson and other musicians.[406] Dylan's setlist during this tour departed from the Rough and Rowdy Ways Tour by including songs from throughout his career as well as several covers.[407] The tour is scheduled to run until September 20, 2024.[408] Alex Ross has summarised Dylan's touring career: "his shows cause his songs to mutate, so that no definitive or ideal version exists. Dylan's legacy will be the sum of thousands of performances, over many decades... Every night, whether he's in good or bad form, he says, in effect, 'Think again.'"[244]
Personal life
Romantic relationships
Echo Helstrom
Echo Helstrom was Dylan's high school girlfriend. The couple listened together to rhythm-and-blues on the radio, and her family exposed him to singers such as Jimmie Rodgers on 78 RPM records, and a plethora of folk music magazines, sheet music, and manuscripts.[409] Helstrom is believed by some to be the inspiration for Dylan's song "Girl from the North Country", though this is disputed.[410]
Suze Rotolo
Dylan's first serious relationship was with artist Suze Rotolo, a daughter of Communist Party USA radicals. According to Dylan, "She was the most erotic thing I'd ever seen ... The air was suddenly filled with banana leaves. We started talking and my head started to spin".[411] Rotolo was photographed arm-in-arm with Dylan on the cover of his album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan. Critics have connected Rotolo to some of Dylan's early love songs, including "Don't Think Twice It's All Right". The relationship ended in 1964.[412] In 2008, Rotolo published a memoir about her life in Greenwich Village and relationship with Dylan in the 1960s, A Freewheelin' Time.[413]
Joan Baez
When Joan Baez met Dylan in April 1961, she had already released her first album and was acclaimed as the "Queen of Folk".[414] On hearing Dylan perform his song "With God on Our Side", Baez later said, "I never thought anything so powerful could come out of that little toad".[415] In July 1963, Baez invited Dylan to join her on stage at the Newport Folk Festival, setting the scene for similar duets over the next two years.[416] By the time of Dylan's 1965 tour of the UK, their romantic relationship had begun to fizzle out, as captured in D. A. Pennebaker's documentary film Dont Look Back.[416] Baez later toured with Dylan as a performer on his Rolling Thunder Revue in 1975–76. Baez also starred as "The Woman In White" in the film Renaldo and Clara (1978), directed by Dylan.[417] Dylan and Baez toured together again in 1984 with Carlos Santana.[416]
Baez recalled her relationship with Dylan in Martin Scorsese's documentary film No Direction Home (2005). Baez wrote about Dylan in two autobiographies—admiringly in Daybreak (1968), and less admiringly in And A Voice to Sing With (1987). Her song "Diamonds & Rust" has been described as "an acute portrait" of Dylan.[416]
Sara Lownds
Dylan married Sara Lownds, who had worked as a model and secretary at Drew Associates, on November 22, 1965.[418] They had four children: Jesse Byron Dylan (born January 6, 1966), Anna Lea (born July 11, 1967), Samuel Isaac Abram (born July 30, 1968), and Jakob Luke (born December 9, 1969). Dylan also adopted Sara's daughter from a prior marriage, Maria Lownds (later Dylan, born October 21, 1961). Sara Dylan played the role of Clara in Dylan's film Renaldo and Clara (1978). Bob and Sara Dylan were divorced on June 29, 1977.[418]
Carolyn Dennis
Dylan and his backing singer Carolyn Dennis (often professionally known as Carol Dennis) have a daughter, Desiree Gabrielle Dennis-Dylan, born on January 31, 1986.[419] The couple were married on June 4, 1986, and divorced in October 1992. Their marriage and child remained a closely guarded secret until the publication of Howard Sounes's biography Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan, in 2001.[420]
Home
When not touring, Dylan is believed to live primarily in Point Dume, a promontory on the coast of Malibu, California, though he owns property around the world.[421][422]
Religious beliefs
Growing up in Hibbing, Minnesota, Dylan and his family were part of the area's small, close-knit Jewish community, and Dylan had his Bar Mitzvah in May 1954.[423][23] Around the time of his 30th birthday, in 1971, Dylan visited Israel, and also met Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the New York-based Jewish Defense League.[424]
In the late 1970s, Dylan converted to Christianity. In November 1978, guided by his friend Mary Alice Artes, Dylan made contact with the Vineyard School of Discipleship.[192] Vineyard Pastor Kenn Gulliksen recalled: "Larry Myers and Paul Emond went over to Bob's house and ministered to him. He responded by saying yes, he did in fact want Christ in his life. And he prayed that day and received the Lord".[425][426] From January to March 1979, Dylan attended Vineyard's Bible study classes in Reseda, California.[192][427]
By 1984, Dylan was distancing himself from the "born again" label. He told Kurt Loder of Rolling Stone: "I've never said I'm 'born again'. That's just a media term. I don't think I've been an agnostic. I've always thought there's a superior power, that this is not the real world and that there's a world to come."[428] In 1997, he told David Gates of Newsweek:
Here's the thing with me and the religious thing. This is the flat-out truth: I find the religiosity and philosophy in the music. I don't find it anywhere else. Songs like "Let Me Rest on a Peaceful Mountain" or "I Saw the Light"—that's my religion. I don't adhere to rabbis, preachers, evangelists, all of that. I've learned more from the songs than I've learned from any of this kind of entity. The songs are my lexicon. I believe the songs.[429]
Dylan has supported the Chabad Lubavitch movement,[430] and has privately participated in Jewish religious events, including his sons' Bar Mitzvahs and services at Hadar Hatorah, a Chabad Lubavitch yeshiva. In 1989 and 1991, he appeared on the Chabad telethon.[431]
Dylan has continued to perform songs from his gospel albums in concert, occasionally covering traditional religious songs. He has made passing references to his religious faith, such as in a 2004 interview with 60 Minutes, when he told Ed Bradley, "the only person you have to think twice about lying to is either yourself or to God". He explained his constant touring schedule as part of a bargain he made a long time ago with the "chief commander—in this earth and in the world we can't see".[40]
Speaking to Jeff Slate of The Wall Street Journal in December 2022, Dylan reaffirmed his religious outlook: "I read the scriptures a lot, meditate and pray, light candles in church. I believe in damnation and salvation as well as predestination. The Five Books of Moses, Pauline Epistles, Invocation of the Saints, all of it."[432][433]
Accolades
Dylan has been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1997, US President Bill Clinton presented Dylan with a Kennedy Center Honor in the East Room of the White House, saying: "He probably had more impact on people of my generation than any other creative artist. His voice and lyrics haven't always been easy on the ear, but throughout his career Bob Dylan has never aimed to please. He's disturbed the peace and discomforted the powerful".[434] In May 2000, Dylan received the Polar Music Prize from Sweden's King Carl XVI.[435] In June 2007, Dylan received the Prince of Asturias Award in the Arts category; the jury called him "a living myth in the history of popular music and a light for a generation that dreamed of changing the world."[4][436] In 2008, the Pulitzer Prize jury awarded him a special citation for "his profound impact on popular music and American culture, marked by lyrical compositions of extraordinary poetic power".[437]
Dylan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in May 2012.[438][439] President Barack Obama, presenting Dylan with the award, said "There is not a bigger giant in the history of American music." Obama praised Dylan's voice for its "unique gravelly power that redefined not just what music sounded like but the message it carried and how it made people feel".[440] In November 2013, Dylan was awarded France's highest honor, the Légion d'Honneur,[441] despite the misgiving of the grand chancellor of the Légion who had declared the singer was unworthy.[441] In February 2015, Dylan accepted the MusiCares Person of the Year award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, in recognition of his philanthropic and artistic contributions.[442]
Nobel Prize in Literature
In 1996, Gordon Ball of the Virginia Military Institute nominated Dylan for the Nobel Prize in Literature,[443][444] initiating a campaign that lasted for 20 years.[445] On October 13, 2016, the Nobel committee announced that it would be awarding Dylan the prize "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".[446] The New York Times reported: "Mr. Dylan, 75, is the first musician to win the award, and his selection on Thursday is perhaps the most radical choice in a history stretching back to 1901."[446] Dylan remained silent for days after receiving the award,[447] and then told journalist Edna Gundersen that it was "amazing, incredible. Whoever dreams about something like that?"[448] Dylan's Nobel Lecture was posted on the Nobel Prize website on June 5, 2017.[449] Horace Engdahl, a member of the Nobel Committee, described Dylan's place in literary history:
a singer worthy of a place beside the Greek bards, beside Ovid, beside the Romantic visionaries, beside the kings and queens of the blues, beside the forgotten masters of brilliant standards.[450]
Legacy
Dylan has been described as one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, musically and culturally. He was included in the Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century, where he was called "master poet, caustic social critic and intrepid, guiding spirit of the counterculture generation".[451] Paul Simon suggested that Dylan's early compositions virtually took over the folk genre: "[Dylan's] early songs were very rich ... with strong melodies. 'Blowin' in the Wind' has a really strong melody. He so enlarged himself through the folk background that he incorporated it for a while. He defined the genre for a while."[452]
For many critics, Dylan’s greatest achievement was the cultural synthesis exemplified by his mid-1960s trilogy of albums—Bringing It All Back Home, Highway 61 Revisited and Blonde on Blonde. In Mike Marqusee's words:
Between late 1964 and the middle of 1966, Dylan created a body of work that remains unique. Drawing on folk, blues, country, R&B, rock'n'roll, gospel, British beat, symbolist, modernist and Beat poetry, surrealism and Dada, advertising jargon and social commentary, Fellini and Mad magazine, he forged a coherent and original artistic voice and vision. The beauty of these albums retains the power to shock and console.[453]
Dylan's lyrics began to receive critical study as early as 1998, when Stanford University sponsored the first international academic conference on Bob Dylan held in the United States.[454] In 2004, Richard F. Thomas, Classics professor at Harvard University, created a freshman seminar titled "Dylan", which aimed "to put the artist in context of not just popular culture of the last half-century, but the tradition of classical poets like Virgil and Homer."[455] Thomas went on to publish Why Bob Dylan Matters, exploring Dylan's connections with Greco-Roman literature.[456] Literary critic Christopher Ricks published Dylan's Visions of Sin, an appreciation of Dylan's work.[457] Following Dylan's Nobel win, Ricks reflected: "I'd not have written a book about Dylan, to stand alongside my books on Milton and Keats, Tennyson and T.S. Eliot, if I didn't think Dylan a genius of and with language."[458] The critical consensus that Dylan's songwriting was his outstanding creative achievement was articulated by Encyclopædia Britannica: "Hailed as the Shakespeare of his generation, Dylan ... set the standard for lyric writing."[4] Former British poet laureate Andrew Motion said Dylan's lyrics should be studied in schools.[459] His lyrics have entered the vernacular; Edna Gundersen notes that
Lines that branded Dylan a poet and counterculture valedictorian in the '60s are imprinted on the culture: "When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose"; "a hard rain's a-gonna fall"; "to live outside the law you must be honest." Some lyrics — "you don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows" and "the times they are a-changin' " — appear in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.[460]
Rolling Stone ranked Dylan first on its 2015 list of the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time,[461] fifteenth on its 2023 list of the Greatest Singers of All Time,[462] and placed "Like A Rolling Stone" first on their list of greatest songs in 2004 and 2011.[11] He was listed second on the magazine's list of the hundred greatest artists.[463] The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll writes that "His lyrics—the first in rock to be seriously regarded as literature—became so well known that politicians from Jimmy Carter to Václav Havel have cited them as an influence."[233]
Dylan's voice also received critical attention. Robert Shelton described his early vocal style as "a rusty voice suggesting Guthrie's old performances, etched in gravel like Dave Van Ronk's".[464] His voice continued to develop as he began to work with rock'n'roll backing bands; Michael Gray described the sound of Dylan's vocal work on "Like a Rolling Stone" as "at once young and jeeringly cynical".[465] As Dylan's voice aged during the 1980s, for some critics, it became more expressive. Christophe Lebold writes in the journal Oral Tradition:
Dylan's more recent broken voice enables him to present a world view at the sonic surface of the songs—this voice carries us across the landscape of a broken, fallen world. The anatomy of a broken world in "Everything is Broken" (on the album Oh Mercy) is but an example of how the thematic concern with all things broken is grounded in a concrete sonic reality.[466]
Among musicians who have acknowledged his influence are John Lennon,[467] Paul McCartney,[468] Jerry Garcia,[469] Pete Townshend,[470] Syd Barrett,[471] Joni Mitchell,[472] Neil Young,[473] Bruce Springsteen,[104] David Bowie,[474][460] Bryan Ferry,[475] Patti Smith,[476] Joe Strummer,[477] Bono,[478][460] Nick Cave,[479] Leonard Cohen,[480] Tom Waits[481] and Chuck D.[482][460] Dylan significantly contributed to the initial success of both the Byrds and the Band: the Byrds achieved chart success with their version of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and the subsequent album, while the Band were Dylan's backing band on his 1966 tour, recorded The Basement Tapes with him in 1967[483] and featured three previously unreleased Dylan songs on their debut album.[484] Johnny Cash, introducing "Wanted Man", said "I don't have to tell you who Bob Dylan is—the greatest writer of our time."[485]
Some critics have dissented from the view of Dylan as a visionary figure in popular music. In his book Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom, Nik Cohn objected: "I can't take the vision of Dylan as seer, as teenage messiah, as everything else he's been worshipped as. The way I see him, he's a minor talent with a major gift for self-hype".[486] Australian critic Jack Marx credited Dylan with changing the persona of the rock star: "What cannot be disputed is that Dylan invented the arrogant, faux-cerebral posturing that has been the dominant style in rock since, with everyone from Mick Jagger to Eminem educating themselves from the Dylan handbook".[487]
Fellow musicians have also expressed critical views. Joni Mitchell described Dylan as a "plagiarist" and his voice as "fake" in a 2010 interview in the Los Angeles Times.[488][489][490] Mitchell's comments led to discussions on Dylan's use of other people's material, both supporting and criticizing him.[491] Talking to Mikal Gilmore in Rolling Stone in 2012, Dylan responded to the allegation of plagiarism, including his use of Henry Timrod's verse in his album Modern Times,[275] by saying that it was "part of the tradition".[492][a 8]
Dylan's music has inspired artists in other fields. Dave Gibbons recalls how he and Alan Moore were inspired by the lines of "Desolation Row" beginning "At midnight, all the agents/ And the superhuman crew...":
It was a glimpse, a mere fragment of something; something ominous, paranoid and threatening. But something that showed that comics, like poetry or rock and roll or Bob Dylan himself, might feasibly become part of the greater cultural continuum. The lines must have also lodged in Alan's consciousness for, nearly twenty years later, Dylan's words eventually provided the title of the first issue of our comic book series Watchmen.
Gibbons says of their seminal comic, "It began with Bob Dylan."[493]
In 2007, Todd Haynes released I'm Not There, "inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan".[494] The movie used six actors, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Ben Whishaw, to explore different facets of Dylan's life.[494][495] Dylan's previously unreleased 1967 song from which the film takes its name[496] was included on the original soundtrack along with covers of Dylan songs by such diverse artists as Sonic Youth, Calexico and Yo La Tengo. Irish playwright Conor McPherson wrote and directed the musical Girl From the North Country, which used Dylan's songs to tell the stories of various characters during the Depression years, set in Dylan's hometown of Duluth, Minnesota. The play premiered in London in 2017.[497][498]
If Dylan's work in the 1960s was seen as bringing intellectual ambition to popular music,[453] critics in the 21st century described him as a figure who had greatly expanded the folk culture from which he initially emerged. In his review of I'm Not There, J. Hoberman wrote:
Elvis might never have been born, but someone else would surely have brought the world rock 'n' roll. No such logic accounts for Bob Dylan. No iron law of history demanded that a would-be Elvis from Hibbing, Minnesota, would swerve through the Greenwich Village folk revival to become the world's first and greatest rock 'n' roll beatnik bard and then—having achieved fame and adoration beyond reckoning—vanish into a folk tradition of his own making.[499]
Archives and honors
The sale of Dylan's archive of about 6,000 items of memorabilia to the George Kaiser Family Foundation and the University of Tulsa was announced on March 2, 2016. It was reported the sale price was "an estimated $15 million to $20 million". The archive comprises notebooks, drafts of Dylan lyrics, recordings, and correspondence.[500][501] To house the archive, the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma opened on May 10, 2022.[502][503]
In 2005, 7th Avenue East in Hibbing, Minnesota, the street on which Dylan lived from ages 6 to 18, received the honorary name Bob Dylan Drive.[504][505] In 2006, a cultural pathway, Bob Dylan Way, was inaugurated in Duluth, Minnesota, where Dylan was born. The 1.8-mile path links "cultural and historically significant areas of downtown for the tourists".[506]
In 2015, a 160-foot-wide Dylan mural by Brazilian street artist Eduardo Kobra was unveiled in downtown Minneapolis.[507]
In December 2013, the Fender Stratocaster which Dylan had played at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival fetched $965,000, the second highest price paid for a guitar.[508] In June 2014, Dylan's hand-written lyrics of "Like a Rolling Stone" fetched $2 million at auction, a record for a popular music manuscript.[509][510]
Visual art
Dylan's visual art was first seen by the public via a painting he contributed for the cover of The Band's Music from Big Pink album in 1968.[511] The cover of Dylan's own 1970 album Self Portrait features the painting of a human face by Dylan.[512] More of Dylan's artwork was revealed with the 1973 publication of his book Writings and Drawings.[513] The cover of Dylan's 1974 album Planet Waves again featured one of his paintings. In 1994 Random House published Drawn Blank, a book of Dylan's drawings.[514] In 2007, the first public exhibition of Dylan's paintings, The Drawn Blank Series, opened at the Kunstsammlungen in Chemnitz, Germany;[515] it showcased more than 200 watercolors and gouaches made from the original drawings. The exhibition coincided with the publication of Bob Dylan: The Drawn Blank Series, which includes 170 reproductions from the series.[515][516] From September 2010 until April 2011, the National Gallery of Denmark exhibited 40 large-scale acrylic paintings by Dylan, The Brazil Series.[517]
In July 2011, a leading contemporary art gallery, Gagosian Gallery, announced their representation of Dylan's paintings.[518] An exhibition of Dylan's art, The Asia Series, opened at the Gagosian Madison Avenue Gallery on September 20, displaying Dylan's paintings of scenes in China and the Far East.[519] The New York Times reported that "some fans and Dylanologists have raised questions about whether some of these paintings are based on the singer's own experiences and observations, or on photographs that are widely available and were not taken by Mr. Dylan". The Times pointed to close resemblances between Dylan's paintings and historic photos of Japan and China, and photos taken by Dmitri Kessel and Henri Cartier-Bresson.[520] Art critic Blake Gopnik has defended Dylan's artistic practice, arguing: "Ever since the birth of photography, painters have used it as the basis for their works: Edgar Degas and Édouard Vuillard and other favorite artists—even Edvard Munch—all took or used photos as sources for their art, sometimes barely altering them".[521] The Magnum photo agency confirmed that Dylan had licensed the reproduction rights of these photographs.[522]
Dylan's second show at the Gagosian Gallery, Revisionist Art, opened in November 2012. The show consisted of thirty paintings, transforming and satirizing popular magazines, including Playboy and Babytalk.[523][524] In February 2013, Dylan exhibited the New Orleans Series of paintings at the Palazzo Reale in Milan.[525] In August 2013, Britain's National Portrait Gallery in London hosted Dylan's first major UK exhibition, Face Value, featuring twelve pastel portraits.[526]
In November 2013, the Halcyon Gallery in London mounted Mood Swings, an exhibition in which Dylan displayed seven wrought iron gates he had made. In a statement released by the gallery, Dylan said,
I've been around iron all my life ever since I was a kid. I was born and raised in iron ore country, where you could breathe it and smell it every day. Gates appeal to me because of the negative space they allow. They can be closed but at the same time they allow the seasons and breezes to enter and flow. They can shut you out or shut you in. And in some ways there is no difference.[527][528]
In November 2016, the Halcyon Gallery featured a collection of drawings, watercolors and acrylic works by Dylan. The exhibition, The Beaten Path, depicted American landscapes and urban scenes, inspired by Dylan's travels across the US.[529] The show was reviewed by Vanity Fair and Asia Times Online.[530][531][532] In October 2018, the Halcyon Gallery mounted an exhibition of Dylan's drawings, Mondo Scripto. The works consisted of Dylan hand-written lyrics of his songs, with each song illustrated by a drawing.[533]
Retrospectrum, the largest retrospective of Dylan's visual art to date, consisting of over 250 works in a variety of media, debuted at the Modern Art Museum in Shanghai in 2019.[534] Building on the exhibition in China, a version of Retrospectrum, which includes a new series of paintings, "Deep Focus", drawn from film imagery,[535] opened at the Frost Art Museum in Miami on November 30, 2021.[536]
Since 1994, Dylan has published nine books of paintings and drawings.[537] In November 2022, Dylan apologized for using an autopen to sign books and artwork which were subsequently sold as "hand-signed" since 2019.[538][539]
In 2024 an abstract painting by Dylan from the late 1960s sold at auction for approximately $200,000. The painting was originally given to a relative of the seller in exchange for an astrology chart.[540]
Written works
Main article: Bob Dylan bibliography
Dylan has published Tarantula, a work of prose poetry; Chronicles: Volume One, the first part of his memoirs; several books of the lyrics of his songs, and nine books of his art. Dylan's third full length book, The Philosophy of Modern Song, which contains 66 essays on songs by other artists, was published on November 1, 2022. Dylan has also been the subject of numerous biographies and critical studies.
Discography
Notes
References
Citations
Sources
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Former Hot Rod Circuit Drummer in Critical Condition After Stroke │ Exclaim!
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[
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Your daily dose of the best music, film and comedy news, reviews, streams, concert listings, interviews and other exclusives on Exclaim!
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Former Hot Rod Circuit Drummer in Critical Condition After Stroke │ Exclaim!
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https://exclaim.ca/music/article/former_hot_rod_circuit_drummer_in_critical_condition_after_stroke
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Former Hot Rod Circuit Drummer in Critical Condition After Stroke
BY Josiah HughesPublished May 3, 2010
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Milwaukee's showcase live music venue since 1989.
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images/favicon.ico
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Shank Hall
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TREATIES AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS: THE ROLE OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE
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[Senate Prints 106-71] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] 106th Congress COMMITTEE PRINT S. Prt. 2d Session 106-71 _______________________________________________________________________ TREATIES AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS: THE ROLE OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE ---------- A S T U D Y PREPARED FOR THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE BY THE CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TONGRESS.#13 JANUARY 2001 106th Congress 2d Session COMMITTEE PRINT S. Prt. 106-71 _______________________________________________________________________ TREATIES AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS: THE ROLE OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE __________ A S T U D Y PREPARED FOR THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE BY THE CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] TONGRESS.#13 JANUARY 2001 Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Relations __________ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 66922 cc WASHINGTON : 2001 COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS JESSE HELMS, North Carolina, Chairman JOSEPH R. BIDEN, JR., Delaware RICHARD G. LUGAR, Indiana PAUL S. SARBANES, Maryland CHUCK HAGEL, Nebraska CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, Connecticut GORDON SMITH, Oregon JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts ROD GRAMS, Minnesota RUSSELL D. FEINGOLD, Wisconsin SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas PAUL WELLSTONE, Minnesota CRAIG THOMAS, Wyoming BARBARA BOXER, California JOHN ASHCROFT, Missouri ROBERT G. TORRICELLI, New Jersey BILL FRIST, Tennessee LINCOLN D. CHAFEE, Rhode Island Stephen Biegun, Staff Director Edwin K. Hall, Minority Staff Director Richard J. Douglas, Chief Counsel Brian McKeon, Minority Counsel LETTER OF SUBMITTAL ---------- Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress, Washington, DC, January 2, 2001. Hon. Jesse Helms, Chairman, Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate, Washington, DC. Dear Mr. Chairman: In accordance with your request, we have revised and updated the study ``Treaties and Other International Agreements: The Role of the United States Senate,'' last published in 1993. This new edition covers the subject matter through the 106th Congress. This study summarizes the history of the treatymaking provisions of the Constitution and international and domestic law on treaties and other international agreements. It traces the process of making treaties from their negotiation to their entry into force, implementation, and termination. It examines differences between treaties and executive agreements as well as procedures for congressional oversight. The report was edited by Richard F. Grimmett, Specialist in National Defense. Individual chapters were prepared by policy specialists and attorneys of the Congressional Research Service identified at the beginning of each chapter. The Congressional Research Service would like to thank Richard Douglas, Chief Counsel of the Committee, Edwin K. Hall, Minority Staff Director of the Committee, Brian P. McKeon, Minority Counsel of the Committee, and Robert Dove, Parliamentarian of the Senate, for their comments on Senate procedures for consideration of treaties. We would also like to thank Robert E. Dalton, Assistant Legal Adviser for Treaty Affairs, Department of State, and other staff members of the Treaty Office for their assistance with various factual questions regarding treaties and executive agreements. Sincerely, Daniel P. Mulhollan, Director. C O N T E N T S ---------- Page Letter of submittal.............................................. iii Introductory note................................................ xi I. Overview of the treaty process................................ 1 A. Background................................................ 2 The evolution of the Senate role......................... 2 Treaties under international law......................... 3 Treaties under U.S. law.................................. 4 Executive agreements under U.S. law...................... 4 (1) Congressional-executive agreements............... 5 (2) Agreements pursuant to treaties.................. 5 (3) Presidential or sole executive agreements........ 5 Steps in the U.S. process of making treaties and executive agreements................................... 6 Negotiation and conclusion........................... 6 Consideration by the Senate.......................... 7 Presidential action after Senate action.............. 12 Implementation....................................... 12 Modification, extension, suspension, or termination.. 13 Congressional oversight.............................. 14 Trends in Senate action on treaties...................... 14 B. Issues in treaties submitted for advice and consent....... 15 Request for consent without opportunity for advice....... 15 Multilateral treaties.................................... 16 Diminishing use of treaties for major political commitments............................................ 17 Unilateral executive branch action to reinterpret, modify, and terminate treaties......................... 18 Difficulty in overseeing treaties........................ 19 Minority power........................................... 19 The House role in treaties............................... 19 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties................. 20 C. Issues in agreements not submitted to the Senate.......... 21 Increasing use of executive agreements................... 22 Oversight of executive agreements--the Case-Zablocki Act. 22 Learning of executive agreements......................... 22 Determining authority for executive agreements........... 23 Non-binding international agreements..................... 23 D. Deciding between treaties and executive agreements........ 24 Scope of the treaty power; proper subject matter for treaties............................................... 24 Scope of executive agreements; proper subject matter for executive agreements................................... 25 Criteria for treaty form................................. 26 II. Historical background and growth of international agreements. 27 A. Historical background of constitutional provisions........ 27 The Constitutional Convention............................ 28 Debate on adoption....................................... 29 B. Evolution into current practice........................... 31 Washington's administrations............................. 32 Presidencies from Adams to Polk.......................... 35 Indian treaties.......................................... 36 Conflicts and cooperation................................ 37 Executive agreements and multilateral agreements......... 38 Increasing proportion of executive and statutory agreements............................................. 40 Growth in multilateral agreements........................ 42 III. International agreements and international law.............. 43 A. The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.............. 43 International law status................................. 43 Senate action on the convention.......................... 45 B. Treaty definition......................................... 49 C. Criteria for a binding international agreement............ 50 Intention of the parties to be bound under international law.................................................... 50 Significance............................................. 51 Specificity.............................................. 52 Form of the agreement.................................... 52 D. Limitations on binding international agreements and grounds for invalidation................................... 53 Invalidation by fraud, corruption, coercion or error..... 53 Invalidation by conflict with a peremptory norm of general international law ( jus cogens)................ 54 Invalidation by violation of domestic law governing treaties............................................... 56 E. Non-binding agreements and functional equivalents........ 58 Unilateral commitments and declarations of intent....... 59 Joint communiques and joint statements.................. 60 Informal agreements..................................... 61 Status of non-binding agreements........................ 62 IV. International agreements and U.S. law........................ 65 A. Treaties.................................................. 65 Scope of the treaty power............................... 65 Treaties as law of the land............................. 72 B. Executive agreements...................................... 76 Congressional-executive agreements...................... 78 Agreements pursuant to treaties......................... 86 Presidential or sole executive agreements............... 87 V. Negotiation and conclusion of international agreements........ 97 A. Negotiation............................................... 97 Logan Act................................................ 98 B. Initiative for an agreement; setting objectives........... 100 C. Advice and consent on appointments........................ 103 Unconfirmed presidential agents.......................... 105 D. Consultations during the negotiations..................... 106 Inclusion of Members of Congress on delegations.......... 109 E. Conclusion or signing..................................... 111 F. Renegotiation of a treaty following Senate action......... 112 G. Interim between signing and entry into force; provisional application................................................ 113 VI. Senate consideration of treaties............................. 117 A. Senate receipt and referral............................... 118 Senate Rule XXX.......................................... 118 Executive session--proceedings on treaties............... 119 Action on receipt of treaty from the president........... 119 B. Foreign Relations Committee consideration................. 122 C. Conditional approval...................................... 124 Types of conditions...................................... 124 Condition regarding treaty interpretation................ 128 Condition regarding supremacy of the Constitution........ 131 D. Resolution of ratification................................ 136 E. Senate floor procedure................................... 136 Executive session........................................ 136 Non-controversial treaties.............................. 137 Controversial treaties.................................. 138 Consideration of treaties under cloture.................. 141 Final vote.............................................. 142 Failure to receive two-thirds majority.................. 143 F. Return or withdrawal..................................... 145 VII. Presidential options on treaties after Senate action........ 147 A. Ratification.............................................. 147 Ratification of the treaty............................... 147 Exchange or deposit of instruments of ratification (entry into force)............................................ 149 B. Resubmission of the treaty or submission of protocol...... 150 C. Inaction or refusal to ratify............................. 152 Procedure when other nations attach new conditions....... 153 VIII. Dispute settlement, rules of interpretation, and obligation to implement................................................... 157 A. Dispute settlement........................................ 157 Conciliation............................................. 158 Arbitration.............................................. 159 Judicial settlement...................................... 161 B. Rules of interpretation................................... 163 C. Obligation to implement................................... 166 IX. Amendment or modification, extension, suspension, and termination of treaties and other international agreements..... 171 A. Introduction.............................................. 171 B. Amendment and modification................................ 176 Treaties................................................. 176 Executive agreements..................................... 183 C. Extension................................................. 184 Treaties................................................. 184 Executive agreements..................................... 187 D. Suspension................................................ 187 Treaties................................................. 187 Executive agreements..................................... 192 E. Termination or withdrawal................................. 192 Treaties................................................. 192 Terms of treaty; unanimous consent................... 192 Breach............................................... 193 Impossibility of performance......................... 194 Rebus sic stantibus.................................. 194 Jus cogens........................................... 195 Severance of diplomatic relations.................... 195 Hostilities.......................................... 196 State succession..................................... 196 F. U.S. law and practice in terminating international agreements................................................. 198 General.................................................. 198 Treaties................................................. 201 Executive action pursuant to prior authorization or direction by the Congress.......................... 202 Executive action pursuant to prior authorization or direction by the Senate............................ 204 Executive action without prior specific authorization or direction, but with subsequent approval by the Congress........................................... 205 Executive action without specific prior authorization or direction, but with subsequent approval by the Senate............................................. 205 Executive action without specific prior authorization or direction, and without subsequent approval by either the Congress or the Senate.................. 206 Executive agreements..................................... 208 X. Congressional oversight of international agreements........... 209 A. The Case Act.............................................. 209 Origins................................................. 210 Provisions for publication.......................... 210 The Bricker amendment and its legacy................ 212 National commitments concerns....................... 213 Military base agreements (Spain, Portugal, Bahrain). 215 Separation of Powers Subcommittee approach.......... 216 Intent and content of the Case Act...................... 217 Implementation, 1972-1976............................... 218 Amendments of the Case Act, 1977-1978................... 222 Committee procedures under the Case Act................. 224 Senate Foreign Relations Committee procedures....... 224 House International Relations Committee procedures.. 225 Impact and assessment of the Case Act................... 225 Number of agreements transmitted.................... 226 Late transmittal of Case Act agreements............. 228 Insufficient transmittal of agreements to Congress.. 230 Pre-Case Act executive agreements................... 232 B. Consultations on form of agreement....................... 233 C. Congressional review or approval of agreements........... 235 D. Required reports to Congress............................. 238 E. Other tools of congressional oversight................... 239 Implementation legislation.............................. 240 Recommendations in legislation.......................... 240 Consultation requirements............................... 242 Oversight hearings...................................... 243 XI. Trends in major categories of treaties....................... 245 A. Political and security agreements......................... 246 National security and defense commitments................ 247 Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany............................................ 250 Maritime Boundary Agreement with the Soviet Union.... 251 Arms control treaties.................................... 251 INF Treaty........................................... 254 Threshold Test Ban Treaty and Protocol............... 256 CFE Treaty........................................... 257 CFE Flank Agreement.................................. 257 START I Treaty....................................... 258 START II............................................. 260 Open Skies Treaty.................................... 261 Chemical Weapons Convention.......................... 261 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty........................ 262 B. Economic treaties......................................... 265 Friendship, commerce, and navigation treaties............ 265 Investment treaties...................................... 266 Consular conventions..................................... 269 Tax conventions.......................................... 270 Treaty shopping...................................... 271 Exchange of information.............................. 272 Allocation of income of multinational business enterprises........................................ 272 Taxation of equipment rentals........................ 272 Arbitration of competent authority issues............ 272 Insurance excise tax................................. 273 C. Environmental treaties.................................... 273 No-reservations clauses.................................. 274 Fishery conventions...................................... 276 D. Legal cooperation......................................... 278 Extradition treaties..................................... 278 Mutual legal assistance treaties......................... 282 E. Human rights conventions.................................. 285 Genocide Convention...................................... 287 Labor conventions........................................ 288 Convention Against Torture............................... 290 Civil and Political Rights Covenant...................... 291 Racial Discrimination Convention......................... 292 Other human rights treaties.............................. 293 Appendixes 1. Treaties and other international agreements: an annotated bibliography................................................... 295 A. Introduction.............................................. 295 B. International agreements and international law............ 295 1. Overview.............................................. 295 a. General........................................... 295 b. Treaties and agreements involving international organizations...................................... 298 2. Negotiation and conclusion of treaties and international agreements............................... 299 a. Negotiation and the treatymaking process.......... 299 (1) General...................................... 299 (2) Multilateral treaties........................ 299 b. Amendments, interpretive declarations, and reservations....................................... 300 c. Acceptance, depositary, registration and publication........................................ 301 (1) Acceptance................................... 301 (2) Depositary................................... 301 (3) Registration and publication................. 302 3. Entry into force...................................... 302 4. Interpretation........................................ 303 5. Modification, suspension, and termination of treaties. 307 a. Overview.......................................... 307 b. Questions of treaty validity...................... 310 6. Dispute settlement.................................... 312 7. Succession of states.................................. 313 C. International agreements and U.S. law..................... 314 1. General............................................... 314 2. Congressional and Presidential roles in the making of treaties and international agreements.................. 319 3. Communication of international agreements to Congress. 330 4. U.S. termination of treaties.......................... 332 D. Guides.................................................... 334 1. Guides to resources on treaties....................... 334 2. Compilations of treaties, and indexes international in scope.................................................. 335 3. U.S. treaties and the treatymaking process............ 338 a. Sources for treaty information throughout the treatymaking process............................... 338 CIS/index........................................ 338 Congressional Index.............................. 338 Congressional Record............................. 341 Executive Journal of the Senate.................. 341 Senate executive reports......................... 341 Senate Foreign Relations Committee calendar...... 341 Senate treaty documents.......................... 341 Department of State Dispatch..................... 341 Department of State Bulletin..................... 341 Foreign Policy Bulletin.......................... 342 Department of State Press Releases............... 342 Federal Register................................. 342 Monthly Catalog.................................. 342 Shepard's United States Citations--Statutes Edition........................................ 342 Statutes at Large................................ 342 Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents..... 343 b. Official treaty series............................ 343 TIAS............................................. 343 UST.............................................. 343 c. Indexes and retrospective compilations............ 343 Current.......................................... 343 1950+............................................ 344 1776-1949........................................ 344 1776-1949 (Bevans)............................... 344 1776-1931 (Malloy)............................... 344 1776-1863 (Miller)............................... 344 d. Status of treaties................................ 345 Treaties in force................................ 345 Unperfected treaties............................. 345 Additional information........................... 345 4. Topical collections................................... 346 a. Diplomatic and national security issues........... 346 b. Economic and commercial issues.................... 347 c. International environmental issues and management of common areas.................................... 348 2. Case-Zablocki Act on Transmittal of International Agreements and Related Reporting Requirements............................. 349 3. Coordination and reporting of international agreements, State Department regulations......................................... 351 4. Department of State Circular 175 Procedures on Treaties....... 357 710 Purpose and disclaimer................................... 357 711 Purpose (state only)..................................... 357 712 Disclaimer (state only).................................. 357 720 Negotiation and signature................................ 357 721 Exercise of the international agreement power............ 358 722 Action required in negotiation and/or signature of treaties and agreements.................................... 359 723 Responsibility of office or officer conducting negotiations............................................... 361 724 Transmission of international agreements other than treaties to Congress: compliance with the Case-Zablocki Act 364 725 Publication of treaties and other international agreements of the United States............................ 364 730 Guidelines for concluding international agreements....... 364 731 Conformity of texts...................................... 366 732 Exchange or exhibition of full powers.................... 366 733 Signature and sealing.................................... 366 734 Exchange of ratifications................................ 367 740 Multilateral treaties and agreements..................... 367 741 Official and working languages........................... 368 742 Engrossing............................................... 369 743 Full powers.............................................. 370 744 Signature and sealing.................................... 370 745 Disposition of final documents of conference............. 370 746 Procedure following signature............................ 371 750 Responsibilities of the Assistant Legal Adviser for Treaty Affairs............................................. 371 5. The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, Senate Ex. L, 92d Congress 1st Session, with list of signatures, ratifications and accessions deposited as of December 11, 2000. 375 Letter of transmittal........................................ 377 Letter of submittal.......................................... 378 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties..................... 384 List of signatures, ratifications deposited and accessions deposited as of December 11, 2000.......................... 407 6. Glossary of treaty terminology................................ 411 7. Simultaneous consideration of treaties and amending protocols. 415 1. Treaty with Mexico Relating to Utilization of the Waters of Certain Rivers (Ex. A, 78-2, and Ex. H, 78-2)........... 415 2. Convention Between France and the United States as to Double Taxation and Fiscal Assistance and Supplementary Protocol (S. Ex. A, 80-1 and S. Ex. G, 80-2)............... 415 3. Tax Convention with Canada and Two Protocols (Ex. T, 96-2; Treaty Doc. 98-7; and Treaty Doc. 98-22)................... 416 4. Treaties with the U.S.S.R. on the Limitation of Underground Nuclear Weapon Tests and on Underground Nuclear Explosions for Peaceful Purposes and Protocols (Ex. N, 94- 2; and Treaty Doc. 101-19)................................. 416 8. Treaties approved by the Senate............................... 417 2000......................................................... 417 1999......................................................... 420 1998......................................................... 422 1997......................................................... 425 1996......................................................... 426 1995......................................................... 429 1994......................................................... 430 1993......................................................... 430 9. Treaties rejected by the Senate............................... 433 1999......................................................... 433 10. Letter of response from Acting Director Thomas Graham, Jr. to Senator Pell accepting the narrow interpretation of the ABM Treaty......................................................... 435 Tables II-1. Treaties and executive agreements concluded by the United States, 1789-1989.............................................. 39 II-2. Treaties and executive agreements concluded by the United States, 1930-1999.............................................. 39 X-1. Transmittal of executive agreements to Congress, 1978-1999.. 226 X-2. Agencies submitting agreements late, 1979-1999.............. 229 X-3. Statutory requirements for transmittal of agreements to Congress....................................................... 236 X-4. Required reports related to international agreements........ 239 X-5. Legislation implementing treaties........................... 241 XI-1. Human rights treaties pending on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee calendar................................... 286 A1-1. Publications providing information on U.S. treaties throughout the treatymaking process............................ 339 Charts 1. Steps in the making of a treaty............................... 8 2. Steps in the making of an executive agreement................. 10 INTRODUCTORY NOTE ---------- This study revises a report bearing the same title published in 1993. It is intended to provide a reference volume for use by the U.S. Senate in its work of advising and consenting to treaties. It summarizes international and U.S. law on treaties and other international agreements. It traces the process of making treaties through the various stages from their initiation and negotiation to ratification, entry into force, implementation and oversight, modification or termination--describing the respective senatorial and Presidential roles at each stage. The study also provides background information on issues concerning the Senate role in treaties and other international agreements through specialized discussions in individual chapters. The appendix contains, among other things, a glossary of frequently used terms, important documents related to treaties: the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (unratified by the United States); State Department Circular 175 describing treaty procedures in the executive branch; the State Department regulation, ``Coordination and Reporting of International Agreements,'' and material related to the Case-Zablocki Act on the reporting of international agreements to Congress. Also included are a list of treaties approved by the Senate from January 1993 through October 2000, examples of treaty documents, and an annotated bibliography. I. OVERVIEW OF THE TREATY PROCESS \1\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ Prepared by Richard F. Grimmett, Specialist in National Defense. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- Treaties are a serious legal undertaking both in international and domestic law. Internationally, once in force, treaties are binding on the parties and become part of international law. Domestically, treaties to which the United States is a party are equivalent in status to Federal legislation, forming part of what the Constitution calls ``the supreme Law of the Land.'' However, the word treaty does not have the same meaning in the United States and in international law. Under international law, a ``treaty'' is any legally binding agreement between nations. In the United States, the word treaty is reserved for an agreement that is made ``by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate'' (Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the Constitution). International agreements not submitted to the Senate are known as ``executive agreements'' in the United States, but they are considered treaties and therefore binding under international law. For various reasons, Presidents have increasingly concluded executive agreements. Many agreements are previously authorized or specifically approved by legislation, and such ``congressional-executive'' or statutory agreements have been treated almost interchangeably with treaties in several important court cases. Others, often referred to as ``sole executive agreements,'' are made pursuant to inherent powers claimed by the President under Article II of the Constitution. Neither the Senate nor the Congress as a whole is involved in concluding sole executive agreements, and their status in domestic law is not fully resolved. Questions on the use of treaties, congressional-executive agreements, and sole executive agreements underlie many issues. Therefore, any study of the Senate role in treaties must also deal with executive agreements. Moreover, the President, the Senate, and the House of Representatives have different institutional interests at stake, a fact which periodically creates controversy. Nonetheless, the President, Senate, and House share a common interest in making international agreements that are in the national interest in the most effective and efficient manner possible. The requirement for the Senate's advice and consent gives the Senate a check over all international agreements submitted to it as treaties. The Senate may refuse to give its approval to a treaty or do so only with specified conditions, reservations, or understandings. In addition, the knowledge that a treaty must be approved by a two-thirds majority in the Senate may influence the content of the document before it is submitted. Even so, the Senate has found it must be vigilant if it wishes to maintain a meaningful role in treaties that are submitted. The main threat of erosion of the Senate treaty power comes not from the international agreements that are submitted as treaties, however, but from the many international agreements that are not submitted for its consent. In addition to concluding hundreds of executive agreements, Presidents have made important commitments that they considered politically binding but not legally binding. Maintaining the Senate role in treaties requires overseeing all international agreements to assure that agreements that should be treaties are submitted to the Senate. A. Background the evolution of the senate role \2\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \2\ See Chapters II and VI for references and additional discussion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Constitution states that the President ``shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur.'' The Convention that drafted the Constitution did not spell out more precisely what role it intended for the Senate in the treatymaking process. Most evidence suggests that it intended the sharing of the treaty power to begin early, with the Senate helping to formulate instructions to negotiators and acting as a council of advisers to the President during the negotiations, as well as approving each treaty entered into by the United States. The function of the Senate was both to protect the rights of the states and to serve as a check against the President's taking excessive or undesirable actions through treaties. The Presidential function in turn was to provide unity and efficiency in treatymaking and to represent the national interest as a whole. The treaty clause of the Constitution does not contain the word ratification, which refers to the formal act by which a nation affirms its willingness to be bound by a specific treaty. From the beginning, the formal act of ratification has been performed by the President acting ``by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.'' The President ratifies the treaty, but, only after receiving the advice and consent of the Senate. When the Constitution was drafted, the ratification of a treaty was generally considered obligatory by the nations entering into it if the negotiators stayed within their instructions. Therefore Senate participation during the negotiations stage seemed essential if the Senate was to play a meaningful constitutional role. At the time, such direct participation by the Senate also seemed feasible, since the number of treaties was not expected to be large and the original Senate contained only 26 Members. Within several years, however, problems were encountered in treatymaking and Presidents abandoned the practice of regularly getting the Senate's advice and consent on detailed questions prior to negotiations. Instead, Presidents began to submit the completed treaty after its conclusion. Since the Senate had to be able to advise changes or deny consent altogether if its role was to be meaningful, the doctrine of obligatory ratification was for all practical purposes abandoned. Although Senators sometimes play a part in the initiation or development of a treaty, the Senate role now is primarily to pass judgment on whether completed treaties should be ratified by the United States. The Senate's advice and consent is asked on the question of Presidential ratification. When the Senate considers a treaty it may approve it as written, approve it with conditions, reject and return it, or prevent its entry into force by withholding approval. In practice the Senate historically has given its advice and consent unconditionally to the vast majority of treaties submitted to it. In numerous cases, the Senate has approved treaties subject to conditions. The President has usually accepted the Senate conditions and completed the ratification process. In some cases, treaties have been approved with reservations that were unacceptable either to the President or the other party, and the treaties never entered into force.\3\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \3\ These include treaties on income taxation with Thailand, signed March 1965, and Brazil, signed March 13, 1967. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Only on rare occasions has the Senate formally rejected a treaty. The most famous example is the Versailles Treaty, which was defeated on March 19, 1920, although 49 Senators voted in favor and 35 against. This was a majority but not the required two-thirds majority so the treaty failed. Since then, the Senate has definitively rejected only three treaties.\4\ In addition, the Senate sometimes formally rejects treaties but keeps them technically alive by adopting or entering a motion to reconsider. This has happened, for instance, with the Optional Protocol Concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes in 1960, the Montreal Aviation Protocols Nos. 3 and 4 in 1983, and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1999. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \4\ Treaty on General Relations with Turkey, January 18, 1927; St. Lawrence Waterway Treaty with Canada, July 18, 1932 (the St. Lawrence Seaway was subsequently approved by legislation); and adherence to the Permanent Court of International Justice, January 29, 1935. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- More often the Senate has simply not voted on treaties that did not have enough support for approval, and the treaties remained pending in the Foreign Relations Committee for long periods. Eventually, unapproved treaties have been replaced by other treaties, amended by protocols and then approved, or withdrawn by or returned to the President. Thus the Senate has used its veto sparingly, but still demonstrated the necessity of its advice and consent and its power to block a treaty from entering into force. treaties under international law \5\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \5\ See Chapter III for references and additional discussion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Under international law an international agreement is generally considered to be a treaty and binding on the parties if it meets four criteria: (1) The parties intend the agreement to be legally binding and the agreement is subject to international law; (2) The agreement deals with significant matters; (3) The agreement clearly and specifically describes the legal obligations of the parties; and (4) The form indicates an intention to conclude a treaty, although the substance of the agreement rather than the form is the governing factor. International law makes no distinction between treaties and executive agreements. Executive agreements, especially if significant enough to be reported to Congress under the Case- Zablocki Act, are to all intents and purposes binding treaties under international law.\6\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \6\ The Case-Zablocki Act (Public Law 92-403, as amended), is also examined in Chapter X. See Appendix 2 for text of the law. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the other hand, many international undertakings and foreign policy statements, such as unilateral statements of intent, joint communiques, and final acts of conferences, are not intended to be legally binding and are not considered treaties. treaties under u.s. law \7\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \7\ See Chapter IV for references and additional discussion. See also Chapter X. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Under the Constitution, a treaty, like a Federal statute, is part of the ``supreme Law of the Land.'' Self-executing treaties, those that do not require implementing legislation, automatically become effective as domestic law immediately upon entry into force. Other treaties do not become effective as domestic law until implementing legislation is enacted, and then technically it is the legislation, not the treaty unless incorporated into the legislation, that is the law of the land. Sometimes it is not clear on the face of a treaty whether it is self-executing or requires implementing legislation. Some treaties expressly call for implementing legislation or deal with subjects clearly requiring congressional action, such as the appropriation of funds or enactment of domestic penal provisions. The question of whether or not a treaty requires implementing legislation or is self-executing is a matter of interpretation largely by the executive branch or, less frequently, by the courts. On occasion, the Senate includes an understanding in the resolution of ratification that certain provisions are not self-executing or that the President is to exchange or deposit the instrument of ratification only after implementation legislation has been enacted. When a treaty is deemed self-executing, it overrides any conflicting provision of the law of an individual signatory state. If a treaty is in irreconcilable conflict with a Federal law, the one executed later in time prevails, although courts generally try to harmonize domestic and international obligations whenever possible. executive agreements under u.s. law \8\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \8\ See Chapter IV for references and additional discussion. See also Chapter X. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The status in domestic law of executive agreements, that is, international agreements made by the executive branch but not submitted to the Senate for its advice and consent, is less clear. Three types of executive agreements and their domestic legal status are discussed below. (1) Congressional-executive agreements Most executive agreements are either explicitly or implicitly authorized in advance by Congress or submitted to Congress for approval. Some areas in which Congress has authorized the conclusion of international agreements are postal conventions, foreign trade, foreign military assistance, foreign economic assistance, atomic energy cooperation, and international fishery rights. Sometimes Congress has authorized conclusion of agreements but required the executive branch to submit the agreements to Congress for approval by legislation or for a specified waiting period before taking effect. Congress has also sometimes approved by joint resolution international agreements involving matters that are frequently handled by treaty, including such subjects as participation in international organizations, arms control measures, and acquisition of territory. The constitutionality of this type of agreement seems well established and Congress has authorized or approved them frequently, (2) Agreements pursuant to treaties Some executive agreements are expressly authorized by treaty or an authorization for them may be reasonably inferred from the provisions of a prior treaty. Examples include arrangements and understandings under the North Atlantic Treaty and other security treaties. The President's authority to conclude agreements pursuant to treaties seems well established, although controversy occasionally arises over whether particular agreements are within the purview of an existing treaty. (3) Presidential or sole executive agreements Some executive agreements are concluded solely on the basis of the President's independent constitutional authority and do not have an underlying explicit or implied authorization by treaty or statute. Authorities from the Constitution that Presidents claim as a basis for such agreements include: --The President's general executive authority in Article II, Section 1, of the Constitution; --His power as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy in Article II, Section 2, Clause 1; --The treaty clause itself for agreements, which might be part of the process of negotiating a treaty in Article II, Section 2, Clause 2; --His authority to receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers in Article II, Section 3; and --His duty to ``take care that the laws be faithfully executed'' in Article II, Section 3. Courts have indicated that executive agreements based solely on the President's independent constitutional authority can supersede conflicting provisions of state law, but opinions differ regarding the extent to which they can supersede a prior act of Congress. What judicial authority exists seems to indicate that they cannot. steps in the u.s. process of making treaties and executive agreements Phases in the life of a treaty include negotiation and conclusion, consideration by the Senate, Presidential ratification, implementation, modification, and termination. Following is a discussion of the major steps and the roles of the President and the Senate in each phase. Executive agreements are negotiated and concluded in the same way as treaties, but they do not go through the procedure for advice and consent of the Senate. Some executive agreements are submitted to the Congress for approval and most are to be transmitted to Congress after their conclusion. (See charts 1 and 2.) Negotiation and conclusion \9\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \9\ See Chapter V for references and additional discussion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The first phase of treatymaking, negotiation and conclusion, is widely considered an exclusive prerogative of the President except for making appointments which require the advice and consent of the Senate. The President chooses and instructs the negotiators and decides whether to sign an agreement after its terms have been negotiated. Nevertheless, the Senate or Congress sometimes proposes negotiations and influences them through advice and consultation. In addition, the executive branch is supposed to advise appropriate congressional leaders and committees of the intention to negotiate significant new agreements and consult them as to the form of the agreement. Steps in the negotiating phase follow. (1) Initiation.--The executive branch formally initiates the negotiations. The original concept or proposal for a treaty on a particular subject, however, may come from Congress. (2) Appointment of negotiators.--The President selects the negotiators of international agreements, but appointments may be subject to the advice and consent of the Senate. Negotiations are often conducted by ambassadors or foreign service officers in a relevant post who have already been confirmed by the Senate. (3) Issuance of full powers and instructions.--The President issues full power documents to the negotiators, authorizing them officially to represent the United States. Similarly, he issues instructions as to the objectives to be sought and positions to be taken. On occasion the Senate participates in setting the objectives during the confirmation process, or Congress contributes to defining the objectives through hearings or resolutions. (4) Negotiation.--Negotiation is the process by which representatives of the President and other governments concerned agree on the substance, terms, wording, and form of an international agreement. Members of Congress sometimes provide advice through consultations arranged either by Congress or the executive branch, and through their statements and writings. Members of Congress or their staff have served as members or advisers of delegations and as observers at international negotiations. (5) Conclusion.--The conclusion or signing marks the end of the negotiating process and indicates that the negotiators have reached agreement. In the case of a treaty the term ``conclusion'' is a misnomer in that the agreement does not enter into force until the exchange or deposit of ratifications. In the case of executive agreements, however, the signing and entry into force are frequently simultaneous. Consideration by the Senate \10\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \10\ See Chapter VI for references and additional discussion. Chapter VI also contains the text of Senate Rule XXX. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- A second phase begins when the President transmits a concluded treaty to the Senate and the responsibility moves to the Senate. Following are the main steps during the Senate phase. (1) Presidential submission.--The Secretary of State formally submits treaties to the President for transmittal to the Senate. A considerable time may elapse between signature and submission to the Senate, and on rare occasions a treaty signed on behalf of the United States may never be submitted to the Senate at all and thus never enter into force for the United States. When transmitted to the Senate, treaties are accompanied by a Presidential message consisting of the text of the treaty, a letter of transmittal requesting the advice and consent of the Senate, and the earlier letter of submittal of the Secretary of State which usually contains a detailed description and analysis of the treaty. (2) Senate receipt and referral.--The Parliamentarian transmits the treaty to the Executive Clerk, who assigns it a document number. The Majority Leader then, as in executive session, asks the unanimous consent of the Senate that the injunction of secrecy be removed, that the treaty be considered as having been read the first time, and that it be referred to the Foreign Relations Committee and ordered to be printed. The Presiding Officer then refers the treaty, regardless of its subject matter, to the Foreign Relations Committee in accordance with Rule XXV of the Senate Rules. (Rule XXV makes an exception only for reciprocal trade agreements.) At this point the treaty text is printed and made available to the public. (3) Senate Foreign Relations Committee action.--The treaty is placed on the committee calendar and remains there until the committee reports it to the full Senate. While it is committee practice to allow a treaty to remain pending long enough to receive study and comments from the public, the committee usually considers a treaty within a year or two, holding a hearing and preparing a written report. The committee recommends Senate advice and consent by reporting a treaty with a proposed resolution of ratification. While most treaties have historically been reported without conditions, the committee may recommend that the Senate approve a treaty subject to conditions incorporated in the resolution of ratification. (4) Conditional approval.--The conditions traditionally have been grouped into categories described in the following way. --Amendments to a treaty change the text of the treaty and require the consent of the other party or parties. (Note that in Senate debate the term may refer to an amendment of the resolution of ratification, not the treaty itself, and therefore be comprised of some other type of condition.) [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T6922.001 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T6922.002 [GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T6922.003 --Reservations change U.S. obligations without necessarily changing the text, and they require the acceptance of the other party. --Understandings are interpretive statements that clarify or elaborate provisions but do not alter them. --Declarations are statements expressing the Senate's position or opinion on matters relating to issues raised by the treaty rather than to specific provisions. --Provisos relate to issues of U.S. law or procedure and are not intended to be included in the instruments of ratification to be deposited or exchanged with other countries. Whatever name a condition is given by the Senate, if a condition alters an international obligation under the treaty, the President is expected to transmit it to the other party. In recent years, the Senate on occasion has explicitly designated that some conditions were to be transmitted to the other party or parties and, in some cases, formally agreed to by them. It has also designated that some conditions need not be formally communicated to the other party, that some conditions were binding on the President, and that some conditions expressed the intent of the Senate. (5) Action by the full Senate.--After a treaty is reported by the Foreign Relations Committee, it is placed on the Senate's Executive Calendar and the Majority Leader arranges for the Senate to consider it. In 1986 the Senate amended Rule XXX of the Senate Rules, which governs its consideration of treaties, to simplify the procedure in this step. Still, under the full procedures of the revised Rule XXX, in the first stage of consideration the treaty would be read a second time and any proposed amendments to the treaty itself would be considered and voted upon by a simple majority. Usually the Majority Leader obtains unanimous consent to abbreviate the procedures, and the Senate proceeds directly to the consideration of the resolution of ratification as recommended by the Foreign Relations Committee. The Senate then considers amendments to the resolution of ratification, which would incorporate any amendments to the treaty itself that the Senate had agreed to in the first stage, as well as conditions recommended by the Foreign Relations Committee. Senators may then offer reservations, understandings, and other conditions to be placed in the resolution of ratification. Votes on these conditions, as well as other motions, are determined by a simple majority. Finally, the Senate votes on the resolution of ratification, as it has been amended. The final vote on the resolution of ratification requires, for approval, a two-thirds majority of the Senators present. Although the number of Senators who must be present is not specified, the Senate's practice with respect to major treaties is to conduct the final treaty vote at a time when most Senators are available. After approval of a controversial treaty, a Senator may offer a motion to reconsider which is usually laid on the table (defeated). In the case of a treaty that has failed to receive a two-thirds majority, if the motion to reconsider is not taken up, the treaty is returned to the Foreign Relations Committee. Prior to the final vote on the resolution of ratification, a Senator may offer a substitute amendment, proposing that the Senate withhold its advice and consent, or offer a motion to recommit the resolution to the Foreign Relations Committee. (6) Return to committee.--Treaties reported by the committee but neither approved nor formally returned to the President by the Senate are automatically returned to the committee calendar at the end of a Congress; the committee must report them out again in order for the Senate to consider them. (7) Return to President or withdrawal.--The President may request the return of a treaty, or the Foreign Relations Committee may report and the Senate adopt a simple resolution directing the Secretary of the Senate to return a treaty to the President. Otherwise, treaties that do not receive the advice and consent of the Senate remain pending on the committee calendar indefinitely. Presidential action after Senate action \11\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \11\ See Chapter VII for references and additional discussion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the Senate gives its advice and consent to a treaty, the Senate sends it to the President. He resumes control and decides whether to take further action to complete the treaty. (1) Ratification.--The President ratifies a treaty by signing an instrument of ratification, thus declaring the consent of the United States to be bound. If the Senate has consented with reservations or conditions that the President deems unacceptable, he may at a later date resubmit the original treaty to the Senate for further consideration, or he may renegotiate it with the other parties prior to resubmission. Or the President may decide not to ratify the treaty because of the conditions or for any other reason. (2) Exchange or deposit of instruments of ratification and entry into force.--If he ratifies the treaty, the President then directs the Secretary of State to take any action necessary for the treaty to enter into force. A bilateral treaty usually enters into force when the parties exchange instruments of ratification. A multilateral treaty enters into force when the number of parties specified in the treaty deposit the instruments of ratification at a specified location. Once a treaty enters into force, it is binding in international law on the parties who have ratified it. (3) Proclamation.--When the instruments of ratification have been exchanged or the necessary number deposited, the President issues a proclamation that the treaty has entered into force. Proclamation serves as legal notice for domestic purposes and publicizes the text. Implementation \12\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \12\ See Chapter VIII for references and additional discussion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The executive branch has the primary responsibility for carrying out treaties and ascertaining that other parties fulfill their obligations after treaties and other international agreements enter into force, but the Senate or the entire Congress share in the following phases. (1) Implementing legislation.\13\--When implementing legislation or appropriations are needed to carry out the terms of a treaty, it must go through the full legislative process including passage by both Houses and presentment to the President. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \13\ In addition to Chapter VIII, see Chapter X. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (2) Interpretation.\14\--The executive branch interprets the requirements of an agreement as it carries out its provisions. U.S. courts may also interpret a treaty's effect as domestic law in appropriate cases. The Senate has made clear that the United States is to interpret the treaty in accordance with the common understanding of the treaty shared by the President and the Senate at the time the Senate gave its advice and consent. This common understanding is based on the text of the treaty, the provisions of the resolution of ratification, and the authoritative representations provided by the executive branch to the Senate during its consideration. The Senate has further specified that the United States is not to agree to or adopt an interpretation different from the common understanding except pursuant to Senate advice and consent or enactment of a statute. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \14\ In addition to Chapter VIII, see Chapter VI, and discussion of INF Treaty in Chapter XI. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- (3) Settlement of international disputes.--When disputes arise between parties on the interpretation of a treaty or on the facts relating to compliance with the obligations of a treaty, the executive branch usually conducts negotiations aimed at resolving differences in interpretation. Treaties sometimes provide for formal procedures or mechanisms for dispute settlement. Members of Congress have sometimes played an important role by overseeing implementation of a treaty, bringing about public discussion of compliance issues, and urging procedures to resolve international disputes. Modification, extension, suspension, or termination \15\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \15\ See Chapter IX for references and additional discussion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Modifying and extending an international agreement amount to the making of a new agreement that should be done by the same method as the original agreement. For treaties, this means with the advice and consent of the Senate. Practice on termination, however, has not been consistent. (1) Modification.--At the international level, treaties are amended by agreement of the parties or in accordance with their terms. In the United States, amendments to treaties are ordinarily submitted to the Senate for its advice and consent, unless the treaty provides for modification in some other way. Less formal modifications have been made by executive agreements or decisions. (2) Extension.--An agreement to extend an existing international agreement is considered a new agreement, and ordinarily would be accomplished in the same fashion as the original, with an extension of a treaty submitted to the Senate. (3) Suspension.--The President conveys notice of suspension of a treaty and makes the determination that would justify suspension, such as a fundamental change in circumstances or material breach of a treaty by another party. (4) Termination.--At the international level, treaties often contain provisions regarding duration and the method of termination, or nations may terminate treaties by mutual consent. Grounds for termination include violation of the agreement, but violation does not automatically terminate a treaty. Domestically, the Constitution does not prescribe the process for the United States to terminate a treaty, and the process continues to be controversial. Treaties have been terminated in a variety of ways, including by the President following a joint resolution of Congress, by the President following action by the Senate, by the President and with subsequent congressional or Senate approval, and by the President alone. Congressional oversight \16\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \16\ See Chapter X for references and additional discussion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Congress has responsibility for overseeing the negotiation and conclusion of international agreements by the executive branch and the manner in which the executive branch interprets and carries out the agreements. It shares with the executive branch the responsibility for assessing the general effectiveness of international agreements at the international level and determining the course of action when agreements are not effective. (1) Hearings and reports.--Congress reviews actions under treaties and other international agreements as part of its responsibilities for overseeing executive branch activities. Senate and House rules direct committees to review the application of those laws within their jurisdiction, so the oversight function is distributed widely among the various committees of Congress. Methods for oversight include hearings, investigations, consultations, and requiring and reviewing reports. (2) Review of executive agreements.--Under the Case- Zablocki Act, all executive agreements are to be transmitted to Congress within 60 days of their entry into force, including those that are classified for security reasons. The receipt is noted in the Congressional Record, and unclassified agreements are listed in committee publications. Members of Congress may read the agreements in the Senate Foreign Relations and House Foreign Affairs Committee offices. trends in senate action on treaties \17\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \17\ See Chapter VI and Chapter XI for references and additional discussion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- In recent years the Senate has endeavored both to improve its efficiency in handling treaties and to assure a meaningful role. Among steps to streamline procedures, in 1986 it amended Senate Rule XXX to eliminate the requirement for consideration by the Senate as in Committee of the Whole. It has frequently approved groups of treaties with a single roll call vote, or approved treaties by a division vote. The Senate Legis computer system has made it easier for Senators to obtain current information on action on treaties before the Senate. Among steps to assure a meaningful role, the Senate has appointed observer groups to negotiations on important treaties, especially in the arms control and environmental areas. In 1987 and 1988 the Senate reviewed the constitutional principles of treaty interpretation and affirmed that the United States should not agree to or adopt an interpretation different from the common understanding shared by the President and the Senate at the time the Senate gave its advice and consent to ratification, except pursuant to Senate advice and consent or enactment of a statute. The Senate also provided a system to review the negotiating record of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. However, the Foreign Relations Committee said that Senate review of negotiating records should not become an institutionalized procedure, but that reference to the record on a case-by-case basis might sometimes be useful. Treaties and Senate action on them have begun to reflect new policy concerns since the end of the Cold War. Increased recognition has been given to the importance of economic treaties, including consular, investment, and tax agreements. The use of friendship, commerce, and navigation (FCN) treaties decreased after 1948 when the United States entered the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Since investment matters were outside the scope of GATT at that time, in 1981 the United States began to negotiate a series of bilateral investment treaties (BITs). Subsequently, the Senate has given its advice and consent to BITs with several countries. Treaties providing for cooperation in bringing suspected criminals to trial have become increasingly important with the growth of transnational criminal activity, including narcotics trafficking, terrorism, money laundering, and export control violations. The two chief types are extradition treaties and a new series called mutual legal assistance treaties (MLATs). The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has supported recent supplementary extradition treaties and new MLATs, although sometimes with conditions. Treaties for conservation of certain species of wildlife and regulation of fisheries have been supplemented with broad treaties for environmental cooperation. Although supportive of environmental cooperation treaties, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has expressed concern about articles prohibiting reservations and has cautioned that consent to three multilateral environmental treaties containing such articles should not be construed as a precedent. B. Issues in Treaties Submitted for Advice and Consent Although it can prevent a treaty from being ratified or attach conditions for ratification, the Senate frequently finds it difficult to advise on treaties effectively. Several obstacles to a meaningful Senate role have developed. request for consent without opportunity for advice A major problem derives from the executive branch practice of not submitting a treaty to the Senate until it is completed. Seeing the terms of the treaty only after it has been signed, the Senate frequently has little choice in practice except to consent to a treaty exactly as it has been negotiated, or to block it entirely. The President may present a treaty as vital to good relations with a nation, relations that would be set back immeasurably if the treaty were defeated. Or he may present it as a package that has been so delicately negotiated that the slightest change in understanding by the Senate would unbalance the package and kill the treaty. Or he may present it so late in the congressional session, or so near some type of international deadline, that Senate consideration in depth is pictured as impeding the beginning of a new beneficial regime. Administrations almost always discourage significant changes that might require renegotiation of a treaty, and the Senate usually defeats attempted reservations that would actually alter treaty obligations. Rather than adding reservations or attempting to amend the treaty itself, the Senate often addresses its concerns through understandings that do not alter the obligations under the treaty and therefore do not require renegotiation. The Senate has the choice of rejecting a treaty by a public vote, or by quietly not bringing the treaty to a vote. In recent years it has almost always chosen not to conduct a vote that might embarrass the U.S. negotiators, make the United States appear divided, and impair relations with other countries. In either event, Senate defeat of a treaty entails a loss of the time, energy, and in some cases U.S. international prestige invested in the negotiations. An option for avoiding defeats is legislative-executive consultation prior to or during negotiations. The President can initiate consultation through meetings or by inviting congressional observers to negotiations. The Senate can initiate consultation through hearings and other meetings or through resolutions or legislative directives. In the past, some Senators have been concerned that participating in the formulation of a treaty could pose a conflict of interest since Senators are subsequently asked to pass judgment on the completed treaty. With the increase in multilateral treaties and other developments, this concern appears to have diminished. multilateral treaties The Senate's problem of not receiving a treaty until it is completed is particularly acute in multilateral treaties. These treaties are often negotiated by many nations in large international conferences, sometimes over a period of years. States make concessions in one area to obtain concessions from other states in other areas. The result is often an interwoven package that the Senate is called upon to take or leave in its entirety, without amendments or reservations, because renegotiation may not be feasible. Some multilateral treaties have contained an article prohibiting reservations. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has taken the position that the executive branch negotiators should not agree to this prohibition. The Senate has given its advice and consent to a few treaties containing the prohibition, but the committee has stated that approval of these treaties should not be construed as a precedent for such clauses in future treaties. It has further stated that the President's agreement to such a clause could not constrain the Senate's right and obligation to attach reservations to its advice and consent.\18\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \18\ See section on Environmental Treaties in Chapter XI. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- A related problem arises from reservations made by other nations to a multilateral treaty. Although the reservations may modify international obligations, the Department of State has not been sending the reservations to the Senate for its advice and consent. It has been assumed that the Senate, aware of this practice, tacitly consents to the U.S. acceptance of the reservations.\19\ Without information on the reservations, however, the Senate cannot estimate the size or significance of the problem. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \19\ See section on Amendment in Chapter IX. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The trend toward more multilateral agreements seems inevitable. The United States entered virtually no multilateral agreements until the late 1800s, but after 1900 multilateral treaties steadily increased and their subject coverage expanded. From 1980 through 1991 the United States entered 259 multilateral agreements of which 79 were treaties. For the future, with the number of sovereign nations still growing, multilateral agreements on a subject offer an efficient alternative to bilateral agreements with 100 or 200 countries. The great increase in multilateral diplomacy and multilateral agreements is introducing another new phenomenon. The United States now has bilateral international agreements with approximately 50 international organizations. It might appear that the Senate would encounter the same difficulty in proposing modifications it does in the case of multilateral agreements. Renegotiation of bilateral treaties with multilateral organizations should be more feasible, however, because the United States is one of only two negotiating partners. Moreover, the United States is in most instances also a major player in the international organization, the other negotiating partner. diminishing use of treaties for major political commitments \20\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \20\ See Chapter XI for references and additional discussion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- At the end of World War II, treaties played an important part in shaping post-war U.S. foreign policy. Formal peace treaties were concluded with all belligerents except Germany. The Charters of the United Nations and the Organization of American States established a framework for international cooperation. The North Atlantic Treaty and other regional security treaties built a network of mutual security that endured throughout the Cold War. After 1955 the building of commitments through treaties appeared to halt, and many in Congress expressed concern with commitments made through executive action. In 1969 the Senate adopted the National Commitments Resolution expressing the sense that a national commitment ``results only from affirmative action taken by the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. Government by means of a treaty, statute, or concurrent resolution of both Houses of Congress specifically providing for such commitment.'' Yet for the rest of the Cold War, military and security commitments were not made as treaties but as executive agreements, non-binding political agreements, or unilateral executive branch statements and actions. Arms control treaties became the only type of agreement in the political-military field that have been concluded primarily in treaty form. In this area legislation specified that agreements be concluded as treaties or authorized by legislation, and the Senate insisted that most agreements be submitted as treaties. As a result, arms control treaties have been the main vehicle in recent years for special Senate influence on foreign policy. The end of the Cold War offers a new era in foreign policy comparable to that which existed at the end of World War II. As the agreements to provide the framework for the new era are concluded, the significance of the Senate's treaty power is again being tested. Some agreements to shape the new foreign policy already have been undertaken by executive agreement, non-binding political agreement, or unilateral executive branch statements or actions. In other cases, the Senate has insisted that agreements be concluded as treaties. Such insistence appears to have become necessary to ensure that significant political agreements are submitted as treaties. unilateral executive branch action to reinterpret, modify, and terminate treaties The Constitution is silent on procedures for modifying or terminating treaties, and agreement has not been reached between the branches on a single proper mode.\21\ The general rule is that international agreements are to be amended in the same way that they were made, thus for treaties requiring the advice and consent of the Senate. With the increase in numbers and complexity of treaties, more frequent changes and adjustments have become necessary. The Senate has again been challenged to be vigilant for unilateral executive branch action that might change a basic obligation agreed to in its advice and consent to a treaty. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \21\ See Chapter IX for references and additional discussion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- What portion of treaty modifications have been submitted to the Senate is unknown. Although certain changes have been routinely submitted to the Senate, such as amendments to tax treaties, others have been made solely by executive agreement or action. The most controversial unilateral action of the executive branch in recent years involved reinterpretation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty of 1972. In 1985, the Reagan Administration sought to reinterpret the ABM Treaty to permit development of mobile space-based anti-ballistic systems for the Strategic Defense Initiative. The Senate became concerned about both the future of the ABM Treaty and the failure to obtain its advice and consent for a major change in treaty obligations. It attached a condition to the INF Treaty restating the principle that the President may not adopt a treaty interpretation different from the common understanding shared by the Senate at the time it gave its advice and consent, without the advice and consent of the Senate or the enactment of a statute. In action on subsequent arms control treaties, the Senate affirmed the applicability of these principles to all treaties. In 1993 the Clinton Administration made clear it had returned to the ``narrow'' or ``traditional'' interpretation of the ABM Treaty.\22\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \22\ See Chapters VI, VIII, and IX for references and additional discussion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twice in recent years the method of terminating a treaty has raised serious controversy within the United States. In 1978, President Carter terminated the defense treaty with the Republic of China without the concurrence of either the Senate or Congress when he established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China. In 1977, the new Panama Canal Treaty terminated the 1903, 1936, and 1955 treaties with Panama. Although a new treaty was approved by the Senate, some contended that the termination of the earlier treaties required an act of Congress, thus including approval by the House of Representatives as well as the Senate. difficulty in overseeing treaties \23\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \23\ See Chapter X for references and additional discussion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once it has given its advice and consent to a treaty, the Senate often lacks the information necessary to oversee further action under the treaty. It does not receive a copy of the resolution of ratification signed by the President, or the proclamation, to enable comparison with the resolution of ratification adopted by the Senate. It does not receive copies of reservations or conditions established by other parties, to enable a determination of whether the advice and consent of the Senate should have been required. It is not always informed when a treaty has entered into force or been modified in some way. Completion by the Department of State of a computerized information system on treaties, with Senate access, might enable the Senate to oversee some aspects of the implementation of treaties more effectively. Compliance with treaties has also become an issue on some occasions, especially in the arms control field. Oversight of compliance has been done with traditional congressional tools such as hearings, investigations, and required reports. minority power Questions are sometimes raised because of the power of a minority to block a treaty. Since a two-thirds majority of the Senators present is required to advise and consent to a treaty, a minority of one-third plus one of the Senate may reject a treaty. In some cases Senators in the minority seem to have more influence on a treaty or the substance of future policy than other Senators because those in the minority can win concessions. The President may be certain of the support of a simple majority; he must make special concessions to win the extra votes necessary for a two-thirds majority. Nevertheless, a two-thirds majority was clearly the intention of the Framers of the Constitution, and any formal change would require a constitutional amendment. the house role in treaties Because treaties become part of the law of the land, concern is sometimes expressed that the House of Representatives does not share in the treaty power. The Framers confined the treatymaking power to the President and the Senate in the belief that the latter's smaller size would enable it to be a confidential partner in the negotiations. The need for maintaining secrecy during negotiations and acting with speed were also cited as justifications for not including the House. In addition, by making the treaty power a national power and requiring the advice and consent of the Senate, the Framers gave expression to their desire to form a strong central government while affording the states ample safeguards. The Supreme Court, in INS v. Chadha, cited the Senate's power to advise and consent to treaties negotiated by the President ``as one of only four provisions in the Constitution, explicit and unambiguous, by which one House may act alone with the unreviewable force of law, not subject to the President's veto.'' \24\ In 1945 the House adopted a resolution to amend the Constitution to require the advice and consent of both Houses for treaties, but the Senate did not act on the measure.\25\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \24\ 462 U.S. 919 (1983). \25\ H.J. Res. 60, Congressional Record (1945), pp. 4326-4368. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The House from the beginning has played a role in treaties that require implementing legislation. On occasion, as in 1796 with the Jay Treaty, problems have arisen when Presidents have completed ratification of treaties and then called upon Congress to pass implementing legislation to prevent the United States from defaulting on its international obligations. Treaties approved by the Senate have sometimes remained unfulfilled for long periods because implementing legislation was not passed. The increasing use of congressional-executive agreements has also equalized to some extent the role of the House vis-a- vis the Senate in the making of international agreements. Executive agreements authorized or approved by legislation give a majority in the House and Senate the power analogous to the Senate's advice and consent by a two-thirds majority. vienna convention on the law of treaties A pending issue for the Senate is what action to take on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, a codification of the international law of treaties which is increasingly cited as a source of international law, even though the United States has not yet ratified it. The United States played a leading role in negotiating the Vienna Convention at a conference of more than 100 nations and signed it with almost 50 other countries on May 23, 1969. As in the case of many treaties, however, the executive branch conducted the negotiations without congressional observers or consultations, although the subject matter was of clear concern to the Senate. The convention was signed by the United States on May 23, 1969, and submitted to the Senate on November 7, 1971. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee ordered reported a resolution of advice and consent to ratification, subject to an understanding and an interpretation, on September 7, 1972, but the Department of State and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee could not agree on acceptable conditions and the convention remains pending on the Foreign Relations Committee calendar.\26\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \26\ See section on the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties in Chapter III. The text of the Vienna Convention is contained in Appendix 5. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The main dilemma is that simple ratification would leave unresolved important constitutional issues relating to executive agreements. The Vienna Convention codifies an international law definition of treaties that makes no distinction between different forms of international agreements. Article 46 permits a state to invalidate a treaty if a violation of domestic law in concluding the treaty was ``manifest and concerned a rule of its internal law of fundamental importance.'' In 1972, however, the Department of State objected to the interpretation proposed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that it was ``a rule of internal law of the United States of fundamental importance'' that no treaty as defined by the convention would be valid unless it had received the advice and consent of the Senate or its terms had been approved by law. The second problem is that, although the United States has traditionally supported the progressive codification of international law, in a few instances the Vienna Convention formally codifies rules of international law that may not have been fully accepted as customary law by the United States. In particular, the Vienna Convention provides that an international agreement is void if it conflicts with a fundamental norm of general international law ``accepted and recognized by the international community of States as a whole as a norm from which no derogation is permitted * * *.'' The United States in principle does not object to this concept known as jus cogens, but the convention does not state by whom or how such norms are established. Furthermore, the Vienna Convention provides that if a treaty dispute relating to jus cogens is not resolved within 12 months, any party may invoke the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice unless the parties agree to submit it to arbitration. While the United States has entered a number of treaties providing for submission of disputes to the International Court of Justice, unqualified Senate approval of the Vienna Convention would appear to broaden significantly U.S. acceptance of the court's jurisdiction, a matter which has long been controversial. The United States withdrew its declaration accepting the court's compulsory jurisdiction on October 7, 1985. Moreover, in approving some treaties with provisions for submission of disputes to the International Court of Justice, the Senate has added conditions. In giving its advice and consent to the Genocide Convention, the Senate added a reservation that before any dispute to which the United States was a party could be submitted to the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, the specific consent of the United States was required in each case. C. Issues in Agreements Not Submitted to the Senate Any problems the Senate has in influencing treaties pale in comparison with problems in influencing many other international agreements entered into by the United States. For sole executive agreements, many executive agreements entered into under the authority of a treaty, and non-legally binding or political agreements, the Senate (and Congress as a whole) often have little timely knowledge and no opportunity to change them or prevent them from taking effect. An exception is the category of congressional-executive agreements that are authorized by Congress in legislation with procedures for congressional review and approval. The problem is one of both quantity and quality. The number of agreements not submitted to the Senate as treaties has risen sharply while the number of treaties has remained steady. At the same time, the subject matter coverage of executive agreements has expanded and their significance increased. increasing use of executive agreements \27\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \27\ See Chapter II for references and additional discussion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- As the United States became more involved in world affairs, international agreements multiplied. Most of the growth was in executive agreements. The executive branch found it was much easier to conclude an executive agreement than a treaty because it was not submitted to the Senate. (Compare charts 1 and 2 above.) The Senate, too, accepted executive agreements as an alternate method of making many international agreements, since submitting all agreements to the Senate as treaties would either overwhelm the Senate with work or force approval to become perfunctory. Of most concern to the Senate were executive agreements concluded solely on the President's own authority, without any influence from Congress. In other executive agreements, the Senate played a role anyway. In the case of executive agreements concluded under the authority of a treaty, the Senate consented to the original treaty. In the case of congressional-executive agreements, both Houses passed the legislation that authorized, required scrutiny of, or approved the agreements. oversight of executive agreements--the case-zablocki act \28\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \28\ See Chapter X for references and additional discussion. The text of the Case-Zablocki Act is contained in Appendix 2. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- To help in oversight of executive agreements, in 1972 the Case-Zablocki Act was enacted. This Act (1 U.S.C. 112b), usually referred to as the Case Act, requires the Secretary of State to transmit to Congress all executive agreements, including oral agreements which are to be reduced to written form, within 60 days after their entry into force. If the President deems that the immediate disclosure of an agreement would be prejudicial to national security, the agreement is to be transmitted to the Senate Foreign Relations and House International Relations Committees with a security classification. The Case Act has proved helpful in informing Congress of executive agreements and has provided machinery for additional oversight. If fully complied with by the executive branch and utilized by Members of Congress, a system exists for Congress to learn of executive agreements and to determine the adequacy of their authorization. learning of executive agreements The first problem dealt with by the Case Act was determining when executive agreements have been concluded. In the past, Presidents have entered into agreements secretly, as evidenced by the Yalta Agreement of 1945 and the Cuban missile crisis of 1962. The Case Act requires the State Department to send Congress copies of executive agreements. In most cases the agreements are submitted within the required 60 days after their entry into force, but some are submitted late. While the fact that the agreements have already entered into force means that Congress cannot prevent them from taking effect, timely knowledge does permit Congress an opportunity to consider the policy represented by the agreement and to use legislative means to modify the policy if it wishes. The Case Act has also helped the Department of State, as well as Congress, learn of and have some supervision over agreements made by agencies of the Government other than the State Department. The Case Act requires any department or agency that enters an international agreement to transmit the agreement to the Department of State within 20 days. In addition, it prohibits any international agreement from being signed or otherwise concluded on behalf of the United States without prior consultation with the Secretary of State. Such consultation may cover a class of agreements rather than each individual agreement. U.S. agencies frequently make contracts and arrangements with agencies in other countries. The Secretary of State determines for the executive branch whether an arrangement constitutes an international agreement required to be transmitted to Congress under the Case Act. Members and committees of Congress do not want to be deluged with trivia, yet they want to be sure to receive important agreements. One decision taken to this end by the Secretary of State with congressional concurrence was to exclude agreements made by the Agency for International Development to provide funds of less than $25 million for a foreign project, unless the agreement was otherwise significant. determining authority for executive agreements A basic concern of the Senate has been whether an executive agreement is properly within the authority of a treaty or statute. In 1973, in implementing the Case Act, the Department of State agreed to send with each executive agreement transmitted to Congress a background statement on the agreement that would include a precise citation of legal authority. Checking these citations could help the Senate distinguish between those agreements that are within the authority of a treaty or statute and those it would consider sole executive agreements. In recent years, however, a majority of agreements have been transmitted without such background statements. non-binding international agreements \29\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \29\ See Chapters III and X for references and additional discussion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Some international agreements are not intended to be legally binding, and these non-binding agreements may escape regular congressional oversight procedures. Sometimes called political agreements, these agreements are not considered treaties under international law. They are not enforceable in courts, and rules concerning compliance, modification, and withdrawal from treaties do not apply. Nevertheless, these agreements may be considered morally binding by the parties, and the President may be making a type of national commitment when he enters one. Moreover such agreements are occasionally later converted into legally binding agreements. Non-binding agreements are not new. Presidents have often made mutual declarations and agreed on final acts and communiques after international meetings. Recently some non- binding agreements appear to have become quite formal, however, assuming all the characteristics of a treaty except for a statement that they are politically, not legally, binding. Agreements under the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) are an example. Since non-binding agreements are not submitted to the Senate as treaties and are not transmitted to Congress as executive agreements under the Case-Zablocki Act, Congress may need to learn of the agreements and oversee them through other methods. In the case of the CSCE agreements, Congress has carried out vigorous oversight through the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. D. Deciding Between Treaties and Executive Agreements The crux of the problem is determining when international agreements should be concluded as treaties and when they should be executive agreements. For what subjects is it essential to use the treaty process? For what subjects are executive agreements appropriate? scope of the treaty power; proper subject matter for treaties \30\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \30\ See Chapters III and IV for references and additional discussion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The treaty power is recognized by the courts as extending to any matter properly the subject of international negotiations. In practice the subject matter dealt with by international negotiations has steadily expanded, particularly in the last half century, with new forms of international cooperation in political, military, economic, and social fields. From time to time concern has been expressed that treaties could have adverse implications for, or the effect of changing, domestic law. For example, the negotiation of human rights treaties under the auspices of the United Nations raised concern in the 1950s that some clauses, if ratified by the United States, might be in conflict with constitutional provisions safeguarding human rights, or that matters clearly in the domestic jurisdiction of the United States could be changed into matters of international concern. Other concerns were that some national powers might be transferred to an international organization, or that powers traditionally reserved to the states could be invaded by transferring them to the Federal Government or international bodies. Despite its breadth, the treaty power has certain limitations in addition to the procedural safeguard of the requirement for the Senate's advice and consent. Chief among these is that treaties, like laws, are subject to the requirements of the Constitution. Controversial constitutional issues involving treaties include: (1) Rights reserved to the states.--While it seems settled that the unspecified reserved powers of the 10th amendment are not a bar to exercise of the treaty power, specific powers conferred on states arguably might provide restrictions. (2) Subjects in which the Constitution gave participation to the House of Representatives.--Powers delegated to Congress are not a limitation on subject matter which can be embraced by a treaty, but for many treaties, domestic effectiveness may depend on implementing legislation. (3) Authorizations of U.S. participation in proceedings before certain types of international judicial tribunals.--The Constitution's vesting of the judicial power in one Supreme Court and such inferior courts as Congress might establish provides a safeguard against infringement by treaty on the domestic judicial power. (4) Matters of domestic jurisdiction, not of international concern.--While there is no clear test of what matters are of international concern, the existence of such limitations appears to be generally accepted. (5) Separation of powers and rights under the Bill of Rights.--As a general matter, an agreement cannot alter the constitutional distribution of powers or impair constitutionally protected rights. scope of executive agreements; proper subject matter for executive agreements \31\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \31\ See Chapter IV for references and additional discussion. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The extent to which executive agreements can be utilized instead of treaties is perhaps the fundamental question in studying the Senate role in treaties, and is by no means wholly resolved. Congressional-executive or statutory agreements, authorized or approved by legislation, would appear to have the broadest constitutional basis. They have been used for such important subjects as joining international organizations, and the Senate in legislation has endorsed their possible use for arms control agreements and the making of national commitments. Many legal scholars consider statutory agreements interchangeable with treaties as a method of making international agreements. Some might even argue that because
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Find your new favorite show within the the full collection of tv series on HBO. Browse comedies, crime shows, dramas, and much more. Stream now on Max.
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HBO
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https://www.hbo.com/series/a-z
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https://indiefilmhustle.com/ultimate-guide-to-quentin-tarantino-and-his-directing-techniques/
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en
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Ultimate Guide To Quentin Tarantino And His Directing Techniques
|
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"Indie Film Hustle"
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2023-01-13T15:30:42+00:00
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MY BEST FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY (1987) Few directors are as high profile and equally controversial than Quentin Tarantino. The man is a lightning rod for critici ...
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en
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Indie Film Hustle®
|
https://indiefilmhustle.com/ultimate-guide-to-quentin-tarantino-and-his-directing-techniques/
|
Few directors are as high profile and equally controversial than Quentin Tarantino. The man is a lightning rod for criticism and praise. Make no mistake, there is no middle ground here—you either love his work or are physically repulsed by it. However, one objective fact remains: he is syllabus-grade essential when it comes to the wider discussion of cinema during its centennial.
His impact on film has left a crater too big to ignore. Having broken out into the mainstream during the heady days of indie film in the 1990’s, Tarantino has influenced an obscene number of aspiring filmmakers my age. 80% of student films I saw in school were shameless rip-offs of Tarantino’s style and work.
I was even guilty of it myself, in some of my earlier college projects. Something about Tarantino– whether it’s his subject matter, style, or his own character– is luridly attractive. His energy is infectious, as is his unadulterated enthusiasm for films both good and bad.
Despite going on to international fame and fortune, Tarantino is a man who never forgot his influences, to the point where the cinematic technique of “homage” is his calling card.Why is this admittedly eccentric man so admired in prestigious film circles and high school film clubs alike? Objectively speaking, his pictures are pure pulp. Fetishizations of violence, drug-use, and sex. By some accounts even, trash.
If you were to ask me, it’s none of those things that make him a role model.
Tarantino represents filmmaking’s most fundamental ideal: the notion that anyone, regardless of who they are or where they come from, can make it in movies if they try hard enough. Any producer’s son can nepotism his way into the director’s chair, but for the scrawny teenager in Wyoming with a video camera in her hand and stars in her eyes, Tarantino is proof-positive that she could do it too.
Born in 1963 to separated parents in Knoxville, Tennessee, Tarantino grew up without privilege or the conventional nuclear sense of family. He was raised mostly by his mother, who moved him out near Long Beach, California when he was a toddler.
He dropped out of high school before he was old enough to drive, choosing instead to pursue a career in acting.
To support himself, he famously got a job as a clerk at the now-defunct Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, where he gained an extensive film education by watching as many movies as he could get his hands on, and cultivating an eclectic list of recommendations for his customers. He found himself enraptured by the fresh, dynamic styles of directors like Martin Scorsese, Sergio Leone, Brian DePalma, and Mario Bava, and he studied their films obsessively to see what made them tick.
This is noteworthy, because most directors traditionally gain their education via film school or working on professional shoots. Tarantino is the first mainstream instance of a director who learned his craft by simply studying films themselves.
Before the dawn of the digital era, aspiring filmmakers had to have a lot of money to practice their trade—something Tarantino simply didn’t have as a menial retail employee. What he did have, however, was time, and he used it well by gaining an encyclopedic knowledge of the medium and making a few crucial connections.
When he was twenty four, Tarantino met his future producing partner, Lawrence Bender, at a party. Bender encouraged him to write a screenplay, which would become the basis for Tarantino’s first film: MY BEST FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY (1987).
While the film didn’t exactly prove to be a stepping stone to a directing career, and still remains officially unreleased, it served as a crucial crash course for the budding director.
MY BEST FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY was intended to be a feature length film, but an unfortunate lab fire destroyed the final reel during editing. The only surviving elements run for roughly thirty minutes, and tell a slapdash story that only emphasizes the amateurish nature of the project.
Set during a wild California night, MY BEST FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY concerns Mickey Burnett (co-writer and co-producer Craig Hammann), whose birthday is the day of the story. His best friend, Clarence Pool (Tarantino himself), takes charge of the planning by buying the cake and hiring a call girl named Misty (Crystal Shaw) to… entertain his friend.
Along the way, things go seriously awry and Clarence must scramble to save the evening.At least, that’s what I took away from the story. It’s hard to know for sure when you’re missing more than half of the narrative. My first impression of the film is that it reads like a terrible student project, which is more or less what it is.
It was filmed over the course of three years (1984-1987), all while Tarantino worked at Video Archives. The characters are thinly drawn, performances are wooden, the technical quality is questionable, and the editing is awkward and jarring. However, Tarantino’s ear for witty dialogue is immediately apparent.
It sounds strange coming out of the mouths of untrained actors who don’t know how to channel its intricacies and cadences into music, but it’s there. The myriad pop culture references, the creative use of profanity, and the shout-outs to classic and obscure films are all staples of Tarantino’s dialogue, and it’s all there from the beginning.
There is no filter between Tarantino and his characters—it all comes gushing forth like a fountain straight from the auteur himself.
In his twenty years plus of filmmaking experience, Tarantino has been well-documented as a self-indulgent director, oftentimes casting himself in minor roles. It’s telling then, that the very first frame of Tarantino’s very first film prominently features Tarantino himself. Sure, it might be a little narcissistic, but it makes sense when taken into context; his characters are cinematic projections of him, each one signifying one particular corner of his densely packed persona.
Why not begin at the source?His performance as Clarence Pool is vintage Tarantino, with an Elvis-styled bouffant, outlandish clothes, and an overbearing coke-high energy. It’s almost like the cinematic incarnation of Tarantino himself, albeit at his most trashy.
He even goes so far as outright stating his foot fetish to Misty in one scene, a character trait we know all to well to be true of Tarantino in real life.For a director who is noted for his visually dynamic style, the look of MY BEST FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY is incredibly sedate. Of course, the film’s scratchy black and white, 16mm film look is to be expected given the low production budget.
For a film where the camera never moves save for one circular dolly shot, an astounding four cinematographers are credited: Roger Avary, Scott Magill, Roberto Quezada, and Rand Vossler. Visually, it’s an unimpressive film that contains none of the man’s stylistic flourishes, but Tarantino’s rapid-fire wit more than adequately covers for the lack of panache.
A distinct rockabilly aesthetic is employed throughout, from the costumes to the locations. It even applies to the music, which features various well-known surf rock, bar rock, and Johnny Cash cues.
Much has been made of Tarantino’s inspired music selections, and his eclectic choices have served as a calling card for his unique, daring style. Music is an indispensable part of Tarantino’s style, from its overt appearances over the soundtrack to certain recurring story elements like the K-Billy radio station (which makes its first appearance here). His signature use of off-kilter, counter-conventional music sees its first incarnation in MY BEST FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY, where he employs a jaunty pop song during a violent fist fight.
Watching MY BEST FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY, it’s clear that Tarantino’s films have always been unabashed manifestations of his personality and his influences. Tarantino’s storylines and characters exist in an alternate reality, where extreme violence and profanity are more commonplace.
There are whole fan theories that draw lines between his films and connect them together into a coherent universe. For instance, there’s a moment in the film where Tarantino’s character, Clarence, calls somebody using the fake name Aldo Ray.
Attentive listeners will note that a variation of the same name would show up over twenty years later in the incarnation of Brad Pitt’s Lt. Aldo Raine in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009).
Further adding to the theory of Tarantino’s “universe” is the fact that MY BEST FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY would go on to form the initial basis for his screenplay TRUE ROMANCE (which was later directed by the late Tony Scott). There’s even a kung-fu fight in MY BEST FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY, which would become the genesis for his fascination with the martial art form over the course of his filmography.
It’s interesting to watch this film, as it bears every hallmark of the traditional “terrible amateur film”. It has none of the slick polish that Tarantino would be known for, but it makes sense given his inexperience and meager budget. Everybody’s first film is terrible. But Tarantino’s unstoppable personality barrels forth, setting the stage for the firestorm he’d create with his debut feature.
MY BEST FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY didn’t lead to anything substantial, simply because it was never released. It’s a dynamic illustration of auteur theory at work, where the director’s personality shines through regardless of the resources or story. We can literally see Tarantino finding his sea legs, feeling it out as he goes along.
The film is basically an artifact, but it’s much more than that: it’s both a humble introduction to a dynamic new voice in film, as well as a (very) rough preview of the radical shift in filmmaking attitudes that would come in the wake of Tarantino’s explosive arrival.
RESERVOIR DOGS (1992)
In terms of American independent film, there is Before RESERVOIR DOGS (1992), and After RESERVOR DOGS. Director Quentin Tarantino’s feature debut was a truly paradigm-shattering event, single-handedly turning a sleepy Utah ski town into something of a promised land for aspiring filmmakers the world over. No one quite knew what to make of its razor-sharp wit and unflinching violence, but they knew that a forceful new voice had just descended with a vengeance on the complacent Hollywood system.
It’s hard not to speak in hyperbolic terms when discussing Tarantino—the man’s style and subject matter practically begs for it.
RESERVOIR DOGS has often been voted as one of, if not the best independent films of all time. As a hard-boiled gangster/crime picture, it wears its influences on its sleeve, but then proceeds to upend every expectation in the book like a bull in a china shop. Despite multiple viewings, it will still grip its audiences with gritted teeth and clenched knuckles like it did the first time.
I was a senior in high school when I familiarized myself with Tarantino, having casually heard how PULP FICTION (1994) was such an incredible film throughout my life. It wasn’t until I watched my first Tarantino film, 2004’s KILL BILL VOLUME 1 in theaters that I was compelled to visit his back catalog.
On a whim, I snatched up both DVDs of PULP FICTION and RESERVOIR DOGS, with only the faintest idea of what I was getting myself into.While his later films would sprawl out to broader scales, RESERVOIR DOGS tells a very tight, very compact story that could easily be translated into live theatre (and has, on multiple occasions).
Five common criminals team up to stage a simple diamond heist, only for it to go horribly wrong. The dazed and confused criminals rendezvous in an industrial warehouse on the fringes of town, trying to make sense of what happened.
As they argue and debate amongst themselves, they slowly realize that there’s a rat, or worse—an undercover cop—in their midst. But figuring out the identity of the rat won’t be so easy, with tempers flaring and unexpected loyalty defections that raise the stakes to Shakespearean proportions.
Tarantino got his break off of RESERVOIR DOGS simply by the strength of his crackerjack script. Through some personal connections, the screenplay winded up in the hands of character actor and frequent Martin Scorsese collaborator, Harvey Keitel.
Upon reading Tarantino’s script, Keitel immediately called up the young aspiring director and asked to take part in it. Keitel’s participation proved instrumental, bringing in $1.5 million in financing and serious name recognition for a film that Tarantino had initially envisioned shooting with his friends for $30,000.
Coupled with the opportunity to workshop his script in-depth at the Sundance Institute’s Directing Labs, Tarantino was able to come to set on the first day with all the tools he needed to deliver a knockout film. Tarantino has always had an impeccable eye for casting, and the ensemble he collected for RESERVOIR DOGS is filled with unconventional, yet incredibly inspired choices.
The aforementioned Mr. Keitel experienced a late-career resurgence as a result of his performance as Mr. White, the tough yet tender thug at the center of the story. Tim Roth, as Mr. Orange, is convincing as both a dangerous criminal and a cocky undercover cop.
Roth’s performance is superlatively dynamic despite spending the majority of his screen time lying in a pool of blood. Michael Madsen plays one of the film’s most terrifying characters, a smooth and squinty-eyed career criminal with a volatile sadistic streak—Mr. Blonde, real name Vic Vega.
Madsen’s too-cool-for-school performance results in a simple torture sequence becoming one of cinema’s most profoundly disturbing moments. Mr. Blonde is a sick fuck, taking great pleasure in torturing a cop by cutting off his ear and soaking him in gasoline, only for his own amusement.
Steve Buscemi plays Mr. Pink, a squirrelly, self-deluded member of the team. Tarantino initially wanted to play the part of Mr. Pink, but Buscemi’s energetic, bug-eyed audition convinced him otherwise. Buscemi’s performance is incredibly memorable, with his argument for why he doesn’t tip waitresses in the opening diner scene being one of the most iconic moments in the movie.
Veteran character actor Lawrence Tierney plays the gang’s curmudgeonly fat-cat boss, Joe Cabot, with a tough, yet paternal flair. Rounding out the cast is the late Chris Penn as Nice Guy Eddie, Joe Cabot’s vindictive rich-prick son.
As Tarantino’s first, true professional work, RESERVOIR DOGS looks slick and polished, with none of the amateur-looking roughness that plagued his first attempt, MY BEST FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY (1987). The first film to be produced with his frequent production partner, Lawrence Bender, RESERVOIR DOGS puts every cent of its $1.5 million budget on the screen.
For his first time working with 35mm film, Tarantino chooses the inherently-cinematic 2.35:1 aspect ratio to create dynamic wide compositions and infuse the maximum amount of style. Cinematographer Andrjez Sekula gives the film a mid-80’s Technicolor patina comprised of washed out colors to complement Tarantino’s “Valley burnout” aesthetic.
The muted color palette also makes the bold splashes of crimson blood all the more jarring and visceral. I’ve written before about how Tarantino educated himself on filmmaking primarily by the voracious consumption of films, so it’s interesting to see how he uses the camera when he has the financial resources to be creative.
For the most part, RESERVOIR DOGS assumes a somewhat formalist style, preferring wide compositions and deliberate, smooth dolly movements. This is interspersed with jarring handheld work, especially in the use of long tracking shots—a technique that would later become one component of Tarantino’s signature style.
For instance, there’s a moment halfway through the film when Mr. Blonde interrupts the torture of his captive to retrieve a gas can from his car outside. The camera follows Michael Madsen as he steps outside, grabs the canister, and returns inside in one continuous shot.
While admittedly simple visually, this technique is incredibly complicated to pull off in one long take—there’s exposure switches and focus pulling to worry about, not to mention the fact that film is designed in two different color temperatures (daylight and interior), and can’t exactly be switched out mid-take. Techniques like this require a competent, steady hand that fundamentally understands the nature of film-based acquisition.
RESERVOIR DOGS is full of these understated, incredibly complicated visual flourishes. For a first-time director with no formal film education to effortlessly do this time and time again, with style and grace to boot, is truly an astonishing thing to behold.
Tarantino’s mastery of the craft on his first time at bat also extends to the film’s sonic aspects, specifically the music. The director eschewed the use of a conventional composer or score, opting instead to create a rockabilly musical landscape of old 70’s rock songs.
This conceit is incorporated into his self-contained universe, as the broadcast content of Tarantino’s fictional, recurring radio station K-Billy. Tarantino’s eclectic taste in music is responsible for perhaps the film’s most infamous, enduring scene—who can easily forget the uneasy juxtaposition of watching a man’s ear hacked off while the jaunty rhythm of Stealer Wheel’s “Stuck In The Middle With You” bounces along the soundtrack?
As a developing filmmaker myself, Tarantino was a huge influence in the sense that his style exposed the unlimited possibilities of inspired and unexpected musical selections.
RESERVOIR DOGS put Tarantino’s bold, take-no-prisoners style on the map. It suddenly became very cool in mainstream entertainment to find creative combinations of wit and profanity, to play up violence to an almost-cartoonish degree, or to make left-field pop culture references.
When Tarantino used his crucial opening minutes to ramble at length about the true meaning of Madonna’s song, “Like A Virgin”, he jumpstarted the era of self-referential pop culture that gave us the likes of Joss Whedon and Wes Craven’s SCREAM (1996). As an interesting little aside, the characters mention Pam Grier at one point, who would later go on to start for Tarantino in his third feature, JACKIE BROWN (1997).
Other elements of Tarantino’s distinct style make their first appearance here in his filmography. He incorporates a nonlinear storytelling structure, a chronological conceit that withholds key information for maximum dramatic impact, courtesy of Tarantino’s most valuable collaborator: the late editor Sally Menke.
His penchant for twisting his characters’ motivations into Mexican Standoff scenarios manifests itself quite literally in the climax of RESERVOIR DOGS, an occurrence that accurately reflects the uncertain loyalties and hidden intentions of its characters. Other, lesser Tarantino-esque tropes also pop up throughout, like extended sequences set in bathrooms or diners.
Tarantino, along with Generation X contemporary Kevin Smith, were two of Sundance’s first high-profile breakout filmmakers. RESERVOIR DOGS was a game-changing picture, with its release launching the career of one of cinema’s most audacious, divisive characters.
All those years of watching countless films, hacking away at his old scripts, and good-old-fashioned networking had finally coalesced into a directorial style that was comprised of everything that came before it, yet completely unlike anything that had ever been seen.
PULP FICTION (1994)
Director Quentin Tarantino made waves in international pop culture with his 1992 debut, RESEROVOIR DOGS. Suddenly, his explosive, unpredictable style was the one to emulate, and he found himself besieged by Hollywood power players who wanted his grubby little paws all over their high-profile projects.
Proving himself as a true artist, Tarantino rejected the opportunity to turn himself into a big-budget tentpole director and instead retreated to Amsterdam to work on the script for his follow-up. The result was 1994’s PULP FICTION, and if Reservoir Dogs made waves, then PULP FICTION was a tsunami.
PULP FICTION, generally regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, is inarguably a zeitgeist film. Not only is it one of the definitive 90’s films, the film itself played a significant role in defining the 90’s. It influenced trends in fashion, music, art, film…the list goes on.
It remains most of the quotable films ever produced, and continues to have a huge impact on contemporary films. PULP FICTION is a once-in-a-lifetime cinematic event, a work that shakes the language of film so fundamentally to its core that the medium never truly recovers.
I was a senior in high school when I first saw PULP FICTION. I had heard about it all my life, and had that iconic teaser poster with Uma Thurman lying on a bed seared into my brain by virtue of a decade’s worth of pop culture exposure. Watching PULP FICTION was a visceral experience for me, one that I count as highly influential within my own development as a filmmaker.
Most of us have seen PULP FICTION. It is simply one of those films that, if you don’t seek it out yourself, is forced upon you by well-meaning friends. So much has been written about the film that I won’t go into the specifics of the labyrinthine plot.
Chances are that I could show you a picture of a guy in a black suit, white shirt and sunglasses, and you’d instantly think “Tarantino”. His stories and creations have entered the realm of archetype, becoming instantly recognizable across linguistic and cultural barriers.
In terms of the cast, PULP FICTION will always be remembered as the film that (briefly) resurrected John Travolta’s career. He had been one of Tarantino’s favorite performers and was plucked from actor jail to headline the film as long-haired hitman Vincent Vega.
While its arguable that Travolta has since squandered the goodwill he earned from this film, it’s hard to deny that he’s never been better than he is here. Samuel L. Jackson also received a considerable career boost as Vincent’s jheri-curled partner, Jules Winnenfield.
His wild-eyed performance results in a collection of some of the most memorable one-liners in cinematic history (“English motherfucker, do you speak it! Say what again, I dare you! This is a tasty burger!”). I’m not sure if Jackson himself has ever topped this performance, which quickly followed after his turn as “Hold On To Yo’ Butts” in Steven Spielberg’s massively successful JURASSIC PARK (1993).
The inclusion of Bruce Willis to the cast is heavily significant to Tarantino’s development as a filmmaker. For a guy who was on the outside for so long, who lived and breathed movies as if they were air, the signing of Willis to the cast must have felt like a monumental event.
Willis gamely leaps out of his comfort zone for Tarantino, resulting in one of his greatest performances as Butch, a gruff boxer whose dignity refuses to let him throw a fight for money.Tarantino fills out the remainder of his supporting cast with faces both new and old.
Returning to the Tarantino fold are Tim Roth as Pumpkin—a manic bloke and professional robber—and Harvey Keitel as The Wolf—an urbane, sophisticated “fixer” for Marcellus Wallace (Ving Rhames). Despite being the leads in RESERVOIR DOGS, here they are relegated to minor (albeit memorable) roles.
Amanda Plummer plays Honey Bonny, Pumpkin’s unstable wife and fellow partner-in-crime. As Marcellus Wallace, Rhames gives one of his most iconic performances, completely nailing the imposing, brutish nature required of him. Eric Stoltz and Rosanna Arquette steal their scenes as husband-and-wife heroin dealers Lance and Jody.
Christopher Walken appears in a cameo as the preternaturally creepy Captain Kuntz, who visits a pre-teen Butch to explain the significance of a watch that belonged to Butch’s father.And then there’s Uma Thurman, who is usually featured prominently in advertising for the film (see the aforementioned one-sheet poster).
Her unforgettable turn as Marcellus Wallace’s femme fatale, cokehead wife turned her into a star overnight. Tarantino has often gone on record declaring that Thurman is his “muse”, the one talent that inspires him more than any other. Their collaboration for the KILL BILL films began during production of PULP FICTION, when Tarantino and Thurman would hash out the Bride’s story during breaks in filming.
Indeed, Mia Wallace’s story about her work on the fictional “Fox Force 5” pilot reads like a rough draft of the character dynamics of The Viper Squad in KILL BILL. It’s easy to speculate that their relationship was/is romantic in nature, as most director/muse relationships are, but I’m not exactly here to talk about the man’s sex life.
With the financial backing of Miramax producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein (as well as a continuing collaboration with RESERVOIR DOGS producer Lawrence Bender), PULP FICTION jumps leagues beyond Tarantino’s debut in terms of visual presentation. Retaining the services of cinematographer Andrzej Sekula, Tarantino opts to shoot on 35mm film in the anamorphic 2.35:1 aspect ratio.
This makes for bold, frequently-wide compositions that highlight the characters amidst the dried-out San Fernando Valley landscape. Tarantino and Sekula cultivate a color palette that’s reminiscent of aged Technicolor—creamy highlights, slightly washed out primaries and slightly-muddled contrast.
The result is a burnt-out rockabilly aesthetic that jives with Tarantino’s Elvis-inspired, anachronistic visual style.For PULP FICTION, Tarantino also brings back his RESERVOIR DOGS production designer, David Wasco. Wasco does an incredible job of applying Tarantino’s signature sense of “movie-ness” to a realistic world.
Everything is believable, yet just a little larger than life. One of the film’s biggest set-pieces is the Jack Rabbit Slim’s set, which was built from scratch to evoke kitschy Americana diners that were popular in midcentury Los Angeles.
The restaurant reads as a geek shrine to Tarantino’s love of cinema, with posters adorning the walls, pop culture relics scattered left and right, and waitstaff dressed up as famous Old Hollywood icons (look out for RESERVOIR DOGS’ Steve Buscemi in an unrecognizable cameo as “Buddy Holly”).
The increased budget also means new toys for Tarantino to play with, and where RESERVOIR DOGS was compact and minimalist like a stage play, here he goes all-out with a dynamic camera that bobs and weaves as it follows its subjects. A Steadicam provides ample opportunity for Tarantino to explore his enthusiasm for long tracking shots.
Watching the film recently, I became acutely aware of how subtly complicated Tarantino’s tracking shots are. There’s one in particular about three quarters through the movie, where the camera follows Willis’ character as he stalks through a vacant lot and squeezes through a chain-link fence.
The camera doesn’t break stride as it glides through the hole after him. The hole was barely big enough for Willis to slip through, so it blows my mind how someone wielding a cumbersome Steadicam rig could effortlessly slide through the same opening without getting caught up in it.
This shot in particular has stuck in my mind, and I still can’t figure out how they did it. Tarantino’s mastery of camera movements is matched only by the sheer audacity with which he employs them.
The infamous “trunk shot”, one of Tarantino’s most well-known signatures, is employed here as well. It had previously turned up in RESERVOIR DOGS as well, but PULP FICTION was where Tarantino’s style became really established and the awareness of the trunk POV shot was first recognized.
One of the film’s more-subtle techniques, however, was the employment of rear projection during several driving sequences. Rear projection is an old filmmaking technique from the days before green screen that would project travelling road footage behind actors to simulate motion (i.e., driving).
More-realistic compositing capabilities were very much available during the production of PULP FICTION, but Tarantino’s employment of the outdated technology was an inspired melding with his vintage aesthetic. What’s so brilliantly subtle about it is that the rear projection itself is in black and white, while the actors are rendered in full color.
The effect is so understated that it’s easy to miss it, but adds a sophisticated, vintage flair to the film’s look. Of course, no discussion of PULP FICTION would be complete without mentioning its groundbreaking use of music.
A sourced soundtrack comprised of prerecorded music hasn’t been this revolutionary since Martin Scorsese made the practice en vogue with his debut film, WHO’S THAT KNOCKING ON MY DOOR? (1967). Instead of hiring a professional music supervisor, Tarantino assembled his eclectic mix from his own record collection, oftentimes sourcing it from the vinyl itself—hiss, cracks, and all.
This creates a warm, vintage sound that perfectly complements the use of various soul, pop, and surf rock tracks. In particular, Dick Dale’s “Miserlou” was rescued from relative obscurity to become one of the most iconic pieces of music of all time, all because PULP FICTION decided to use it as its de facto theme song.
It’s very rare that a piece of music becomes so indelibly tied to its appearance in a film, but Tarantino manages to do this regularly. It’s become so much of a calling card that his fans eagerly await the soundtrack listings of every upcoming project to see what musical treasures he’ll dig up.
There are numerous storytelling conceits that make up Tarantino’s directorial style. The razor-sharp wit. The creative use of profanity. Self-invented product brands like Red Apple Cigarettes and Kahuna Bruger as part of a fabricated sandbox reality his character inhabit.
But it is also his structural quirks that reveal a lot about him as an artist. Most Tarantino films begin with lengthy, simple opening credits of text over black. To me, this reads like a reverential nod to formalistic influences from classic cinema; a humble genuflection at the altar of The Church of Film before he delivers a fiery sermon.
His tendency to construct his films in a nonlinear timeline reflect the way his mind works—those who have watched an interview with him can attest that he’s all over the place mentally, hopping around from point to point at a dizzying speed, overlapping, pre-lapping forward-lapping while still somehow making sense.
The use of book-like intertitles and chapter designations to divide up his narratives come from the pulp inspirations behind his stories and the lack of a formal education in traditional three-act writing structure.Placing himself in a small cameo/supporting role speaks to both a mild narcissism on Tarantino’s part, but forgivable given how damn earnest he is about his work.
The lingering shots on feet, well…. that’s fairly obvious why he does that.Together with his longtime editor, the late Sally Menke, Tarantino has made a motif of the Mexican Standoff. Even when it’s not explicitly included in his films, as it is in RESERVOIR DOGS, he incorporates its compelling aspects seamlessly into the narrative structure.
He uses incredibly long, drawn-out dialogue sequences to sustain suspense almost to a breaking point, and when violence finally erupts, it is quick, shocking, and efficient. The magnitude of the carnage is amplified by the sustained build-up, a fact that Tarantino and Menke know all too well.
This dynamic is included in some form in virtually all of Tarantino’s film, with INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009) seemingly made up entirely of Mexican Standoff-like sequences.To prepare for writing this entry, I watched all of the supplemental features for PULP FICTION, including Tarantino’s appearance on the Charlie Rose Show in 1994.
I mention this because Tarantino regularly does something akin to The Directors Series himself, in which he watches a given director’s body of work in chronological order to determine the course of their career and the evolution of their style. I was blown away to see the reasoning behind my efforts validated by a successful major filmmaker.
A filmmaker like Tarantino knows that it’s absolutely essential, if you’re going to make film, to watch and study the broad spectrum of film works. One would be shocked to find that many aspiring filmmakers aren’t versed at all in the century-long history of the medium.
I forget who made this point (it might have been Charlie Rose or Siskel & Ebert), but there was an observation that those who tried to mimic Tarantino’s style as their own would cite him as a major influence, yet they showed an ignorance to the directors that inspired Tarantino himself. They had no interest in familiarizing themselves with Howard Hawks, Brian DePalma, or Mario Bava, all of whom left an indelible mark on Tarantino’s artistic formation.
A limited sphere of influence is a major hindrance to true creativity. I don’t need to elaborate on the windfall that the release of PULP FICTION bestowed on those behind its production. It was a major box office success, it won Tarantino his first Academy Award, and it won him one of the most prestigious prizes in all of cinema: the Cannes Palm d’Or.
It single-handedly enabled the Weinstein Brothers to become the producing and award-lobbying powerhouses that they are today. Audiences responded to it in a manner as violent as its content, with patrons suffering heart attacks in the theatre or laughing so hard their chairs broke.
By rousing the moviegoing audience from its unknowing complacency, Tarantino had become the hottest filmmaker in the world, and one of the leading cultural tastemakers of the 1990’s. And most importantly, he had done it entirely on his own terms. The cinema would never be the same.
E.R. EPISODE: MOTHERHOOD (1995)
I remember E.R. as a zeitgeist show, a conceit that strikes me as odd since I never watched it. Hospital procedurals were all the rage in the late 90’s/early 2000’s, but there was just something so off-putting about the entire concept to me. I hate spending time in real hospitals, so why would I want to spend an hour each week in a fictitious one?
The closest I ever got to E.R. was during my internship at Warner Bros, where the E.R. exterior set occupies a permanent place on the backlot. However, it’s not hard to see why other people would find this setting dramatic. Hospitals are where people go to be born, die and everything in-between. Suspense is the dominant tone of the day, followed by chaos.
It makes sense that so many television shows have mined the field of medicine for inspiration.After the success of 1994’s breakout hit, PULP FICTION, it’s a little perplexing to see director Quentin Tarantino segue into television. This guy practically lit the world of cinema on fire with his last feature, so why would his next move be a journeyman directing gig on a weekly episodic?
To me, it makes a weird sort of sense. Tarantino has always been associated with pop culture and genre-fare, and it’s entirely possible that he was a huge fan of the show and jumped at the opportunity to contribute to it.
E.R. is not very different from other serials of its ilk, in that it is essentially a soap opera set in a high-stress workplace. Tarantino’s episode, “MOTHERHOOD”, serves as the penultimate episode of the first season, so naturally the characters’ stakes are running high.
“MOTHERHOOD” takes place, appropriately, on Mother’s Day, so everyone is dealing with maternal nature in some way. Babies are born, mothers die, futures are considered. George Clooney rose to fame during his tenure on ER, and he’s easily the most watchable thing about the show.
Tarantino gets his first chance to work with his future FROM DUSK TILL DAWN (1996) co-star here, but the limitations of the episodic format means that he has to stay firmly within showrunner John Wells’ boundaries. Other actors of note are Noah Wyle as the indecisive, wide-eyed John Carter and a cameo by Tarantino’s then-girlfriend Kathy Lee Griffin (who also pops up in a cameo in Tarantino’s PULP FICTION).
By the nature of the television medium, where the showrunner– not the director– has final say on the overall direction of the production, Tarantino eschews his recurring collaborators for E.R.’s sanctioned department heads. He also has to forego his dynamic visual style and adapt his aesthetic to E.R.’s pre-defined look.
Thankfully, the style of E.R. is well within Tarantino’s wheelhouse, with a gritty, handheld sensibility. Tarantino makes extensive use of a Steadicam rig for long, complicated tracking shots, but I can’t tell if that is his own design or a regular technique on the show.
Granted, you don’t sign Tarantino to direct an episode of your TV show without allowing him to sprinkle in some of his signature touches. The dialogue is witty, laced with verbose profanity (albeit tamed by primetime TV standards), abundant references to pop culture and movies, and the inclusion of unexpected source music like hip-hop during a birthing sequence.
There’s even an overdose character that calls to mind the infamous overdose scene in PULP FICTION, and a girl with her ear cut off serving as a callback to the ear-cutting sequence in RESERVOIR DOGS (1992).For a director known to exclusively make his own material, “MOTHERHOOD” is an interesting anomaly in his canon.
It reads to me like an energetic, young director with a veritable buffet of opportunities laid out before him, and he wants to try one of everything. Perhaps he wanted to challenge himself by submitting his unique style to the strict parameters of a pre-established serial. Or maybe he just really, really likes E.R., you guys.
1995 was definitely an experimental year for Tarantino. He was in between features, and needed to do something to stay relevant and active. By taking a quick TV directing gig, he was able to find the unexpected creativity that comes from working under well-defined parameters.
“MOTHERHOOD” is a very minor entry in Tarantino’s filmography, owing to its more-or-less disposable subject matter, but it ultimately benefits him by throwing him out of his comfort zone. And as any director worth his salt knows, challenging yourself is the only real way towards growth.
FOUR ROOMS: THE MAN FROM HOLLYWOOD (1995)
Every director experiences a misfire at some point in his/her career. Even Stanley Kubrick, widely considered to be one of the greatest directors that ever lived, felt the bitter string of failure once or twice. It’s as inevitable as the sun coming up each day. For a director as strong-minded and controversial as Quentin Tarantino, it was only a matter of “when”, not “if” his misfire would occur.
It’s arguable that he may have had more than one of these ill-advised projects within his filmography, but I feel that most would agree his first brush with failure came when he involved himself in the 1995 anthology feature, FOUR ROOMS. All but forgotten within Tarantino’s own canon, FOUR ROOMS is only talked about now in hushed whispers in dark corners of movie nerd chat rooms.
FOUR ROOMS features the work of four directors—Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez and Tarantino—each contributing a short sequence that when put together, presents the story of Ted (Tim Roth), an anxious bellhop, and the eccentric characters he encounters during his first night of employment at a fictional Los Angeles hotel.
While the film admittedly possesses an intriguing executional premise, the film didn’t perform well at the box office, and was met with heaps of scorn by critics. While Tarantino can’t claim 100% of the blame here, his work can certainly be viewed objectively outside of the context of the larger project.
Tarantino’s section, entitled “THE MAN FROM HOLLYWOOD”, occurs as the film’s climax. Rightly so, as Tarantino is arguably the biggest name in the film. His section finds Ted nearing the end of a long, crazy night and called up to the penthouse to deliver a few very specific items to its guests.
Upon entering the penthouse, Ted is roped into the aftermath of a boozy Hollywood bender, hosted by film director Chester Rush (Tarantino himself). It’s New Year’s Eve, everyone’s drunk, and their wealth has left them bored and restless. Rush and friends devise a treacherous game- if one of the guests can successfully light his lighter ten consecutive times, he wins Rush’s cherry red Chevy convertible.
If the lighter fails to light even once, he loses his pinky finger. Soon enough, Ted finds himself in big dilemma when Rush coaxes him into wielding the hatchet intended for the aforementioned pinkie. Will he take the $1000 offered to him for going through this morbid gamble, or will he cave to fear and lose out on an easy payday?
This is the kind of story that’s perfect for short films. A simple, one-off scenario that creates natural conflict between characters who don’t need a lot of fleshing out. Roth, once again collaborating with his RESERVOIR DOGS and PULP FICTION director, assumes the effete, nebbish expectations of a stereotypical bellhop.
It’s not much of an acting challenge on its face, but it certainly pays off in the piece’s ending moments by a huge subversion of audience expectation. Tarantino has a penchant for casting himself, and he takes advantage of the opportunity afforded by a lower-profile project to give himself a starring role.
His Chester Rush character plays like an exaggerated, in-on-the-joke version of himself in real life. Rush is a motormouth with a short temper and a sense of self-importance that isn’t entirely earned. Roth’s PULP FICTION co-star Bruce Willis also makes a glorious, uncredited appearance as one of Rush’s freeloader friends undergoing severe marital troubles.
Willis wasn’t credited because he violated SAG rules by appearing in the film for free. Unexpectedly liberated by the constraints of Willis’ public image, Tarantino plays with his celebrity persona by dressing him up as an intellectual type boiling with impotent anger. It’s a deeply funny turn by Willis, the kind I’d like to see him do more often.
Despite being an anthology film with a singular through-story, each director is allowed to collaborate behind the camera with whomever they want. To this end, Tarantino recruits his regular collaborators—producer Lawrence Bender, director of photography Andrzej Sekula, and editor Sally Menke.
Taking a cue from Alfred Hitchock’s ROPE (1948), Tarantino strings along a series of long takes to construct his film. Sekula and Tarantino utilize a Steadicam rig to wantonly careen around the penthouse set. Tarantino and Roth also repeatedly break the fourth wall by talking directly to the camera, but the effect is jarring and counterintuitive rather than inspired.
THE MAN FROM HOLLYWOOD is most definitely a Tarantino creation, what with its creative profanity and numerous pop culture and film references. It’s worth noting that a very striking corner has been turned here. Now that he is in a position to directly influence pop culture, Tarantino’s signature references have begun referring back to himself and his creations.
For instance, Tarantino’s character not-so-casually mentions that a particular drink was a “tasty beverage”. Of course, Samuel L. Jackson made the line famous in PULP FICTION. It’s a very specific collection of words, first spoken by a black man and now—like so many arbiters of “cool” in our culture—appropriated by a white man trying to trade in his inherent nerdiness for an effortless swagger.
THE MAN FROM HOLLYWOOD also exists as a distilled example of Tarantino’s most potent signature conceit: the slow-burn suspense sequence capped off by a short explosion of violence. This is manifested in the film’s pinkie bet centerpiece, and is a classic Tarantino creation.
We see the elements of this absurdly-complicated bet slowly come together throughout the entirety of the piece, with Tarantino’s character verbally building anticipation with each passing minute. When the inevitable moment of violence comes, it still arrives with a great deal of surprise and unmitigated glee.
While they aren’t working directly with each other, THE MAN FROM HOLLYWOOD finds Tarantino in his first collaboration with fellow independent maverick and close personal friend, Robert Rodriguez. Tarantino would go on to script and star in FROM DUSK TILL DAWN for Rodriguez, beginning a decade-long fascination with each other that would result in shared directing projects like SIN CITY (2005) and GRINDHOUSE (2007).
When all is said and done however, THE MAN FROM HOLLYWOOD, like the larger FOUR ROOMS project encapsulating it, is a dud. Tarantino’s contribution is most likely the strongest part of the film, but it’s dramatically/comically inert.
Rather, it feels more like an indulgent victory lap celebrating Tarantino’s ascent into the Hollywood elite, painted in the broad strokes of caricature as a means to veil said victory lap. The aftermath of the pinkie bet is easily the best part about the film, but it only comes after a long, bloated slog through boring-town.
Thankfully, the low profile of the film upon its release didn’t have any sort of long-term negative effect on Tarantino’s career. Ultimately, THE MAN FROM HOLLYWOOD is forgivable as an act of experimentation, but shows no real growth on behalf of Tarantino besides more practice with long, complicated Steadicam takes.
JACKIE BROWN (1997)
Three years after his breakout hit, PULP FICTION (1994), set the cinema on fire, director Quentin Tarantino returned with a follow-up feature that again confounded his audience’s expectations. Primarily known for directing his own material, Tarantino found himself adapting pre-existing material for the first time.
He had always been a fan and kindred spirit of author Elmore Leonard, and found in Leonard’s novel “Rum Punch” the inspiration for what he would come to call “his take” on the Blaxploitation genre. The result was 1997’s JACKIE BROWN, a solid and surprising film that was met with modest commercial success, a warm critical reception, and indisputable proof that Tarantino wasn’t a one-trick pony.
JACKIE BROWN tells the story of the titular character, played by 1970’s blaxpoitation icon and sex symbol Pam Grier. Jackie is an aging career criminal, down on her luck and trying to save up legitimate money for retirement on her paltry airline stewardess salary.
To make ends meet, she smuggles cash for arms dealer Ordell Robbie (Samuel L. Jackson) across international borders. When she’s caught by agents from the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearm Bureau, she strikes a deal to help the ATF catch Ordell in exchange for her freedom.
An elaborate sting involving marked bills and a Torrance shopping mall is devised, drawing in aging bounty hunter Max Cherry (Robert Forster) and schlubby ex-con Louis Gara (Robert DeNiro) into the complicated plot.Emboldened by John Travolta’s career resurgence in the wake of PULP FICTION, Tarantino runs with the idea of stocking his JACKIE BROWN with aging (yet still excellent) performers that have seen better days.
Pam Grier is a revelation as the titular heroine. She’s a former sex symbol that is unafraid to show her age, which gives her the perfect amount of gravitas for the role of a weary stewardess with a con-man’s disposition.
It’s easily the best performance of her career, and I’m uncertain that any director will ever again use her as well as Tarantino does here. While she didn’t exactly go on to accumulate more work in the wake of JACKIE BROWN’s modest success, her profile was raised considerably as was the level of professional respect afforded to her.
Venerable character actor Robert Forster also became a beneficiary of Tarantino’s “Travolta Effect” when he signed on to play the role of Max Cherry, the bounty hunter with a heart of gold. Forster has certainly seen better days—a fact that Tarantino emphasizes with every close-up, revealing entire canyons of wrinkles etched into the man’s face like dry riverbeds.
Max Cherry is an honorable, decent, and good man whose judgment is compromised by his love for Jackie Brown, but he never approaches anywhere near unlikeable because of it. He gives the film a paternal presence that elegantly counters Grier’s feisty persona.
Tarantino had always been fond of Forster as an actor, and used his powers of cultural persuasion for good once again to make us remember Forster’s subtle, compelling talent for eons to come. Samuel L. Jackson, in his second consecutive Tarantino appearance, plays the film’s main heavy—the inimitable, ratty-ponytailed arms dealer Ordell Robbie.
There seems to be a thing with Jackson and having creepy/weird hair in his collaborations with Tarantino, because the style he rocks in JACKIE BROWN makes me all kinds of uneasy. Ordell is a cold-blooded psychopath who commits murder in the name of his business interests, and there is simply no other actor on earth that can convey that kind of charismatic menace.
Jackson plays the character like a classic Blaxploitation antagonist, albeit updated with a Kangol hat and a 90’s sensibility. Similar to Bruce Willis’ inclusion in Tarantino’s previous film, it must have been a dream come true for a director profoundly influenced by Martin Scorsese to sign an actor like Robert DeNiro to his film.
De Niro, who spent much of the late 90’s and 2000’s taking uninspired paycheck roles, gives one of his best performances in years as the fu-manchu’d ex-con Louis Gara. DeNiro wheezes and mumbles his way through his performance, giving off the impression of a weary tough guy who’s content living out the rest of his days as a total slob.
The veteran actor does a great job amping up the sleaze by going for broke with his greasy, unkempt hair and prison tattoos peeking out from underneath baggy Hawaiian shirts. It’s a deeply funny and macabre performance that shows us a side of DeNiro we’ve never seen before.
Michael Keaton also turns in one of the best performances of his career as ATF agent Ray Nicolette. He assumes a gum-smacking nervous energy as a man who thinks he’s cooler than he actually is. It’s an inspired, left-field casting choice on Tarantino’s part, but then again so was Keaton for Batman in Tim Burton’s 1989 film of the same name.
Keaton steals every scene he’s in, which says a lot when he’s up against the likes of Grier, Jackson or DeNiro. What makes Keaton’s participation even more charming is the fact that he reprised the role a year later in another Elmore Leonard adaptation (Steven Soderbergh’s OUT OF SIGHT), as a good-natured nod to Leonard’s wider literary universe.
When you’ve got a starring cast primarily composed of character actors, it stands to reason that the supporting cast might get overshadowed. However, the supporters of JACKIE BROWN hold their own against their leading counterparts. Bridget Fonda adopts the perfect beach bunny/stoner affectation as Melanie, Ordell’s Hermosa Beach girlfriend (he’s got them all around town).
Chris Tucker gives, frankly, his best performance ever as Beaumont, a petty criminal and squirrelly character that finds himself on the wrong side of Ordell’s good graces. And finally, Rob Zombie mainstay and veteran exploitation film actor Sid Haig has a brief cameo as the judge at Jackie Brown’s trial—a nice nod to the long list of films they’ve done together.
Right off the bat, most people will notice how visually sedate JACKIE BROWN is compared to PULP FICTION or RESERVOIR DOGS (or even his later work, for that matter). That’s not to say that the film isn’t visually dynamic, but it deals in metaphorical shades of grey, rather than stark black and white.
Working again with his regular producers Lawrence Bender and the Weinstein Brothers, Tarantino has a significantly-sized tool chest to pull from, but he opts for a restrained, mature approach. Foregoing his usual cinematographer, Andrzej Sekula, Tarantino instead has hired Guillermo Navarro, who brings a naturalistic look to the proceedings.
Gone are the burned-out Technicolor hues of Tarantino past—JACKIE BROWN’s 35mm film image boasts an earth-toned color palette, peppered with bold swaths of reds, blues, greens, and yellows that harken back to the colorful Blaxploitation films that inspired it. Returning production designer David Wasco helps translate Tarantino’s San Fernando Valley burnout aesthetic to the inner industrial wastelands of central LA.
The predominantly warm color scheme of the film further plays into the 1970’s vibe, along with the incorporation of other stylistic relics of the era, like parallel action shown in split-screen and punchy, detail-filled insert shots. Camera movements and pacing are a huge component of Tarantino’s style, and JACKIE BROWN showcases considerable development for the young director in that regard.
He has an uncanny intuition that tells him when (and how) to move a camera, and when to keep it still. This is complemented by his trusty editor Sally Menke’s keen ear for the natural rhythm or music of the scene. One example occurs early on in the movie, where Ordell has just locked Beaumont in his trunk under the auspices of rolling up on some shady arms customers with bad intentions.
Once inside the car, Ordell turns on a classic soul tune that stands in stark contrast to the pitch-black events on-screen. He drives him to an adjacent vacant lot, fires a couple rounds into Beaumont, and drives away. What’s remarkable about this scene, however, is that Tarantino presents the action from an objective, omniscient point of view, whereas he usually opts for an extremely subjective angle.
The camera slowly cranes from the street up over the vacant lot’s fence, where Ordell’s car and his crime are framed in the distance. Despite our emotional remove from the central action, it’s a haunting sequence because Ordell’s cold-blooded nature is emphasized even more so than if we had seen the blasts close-up.
The off-tone musical selection is the coup de grace, and a textbook example of why Tarantino stands apart from his contemporaries and copycats. Tarantino’s visual style is easily definable due to his recurring compositional conceits. There’s the well-known trunk POV shot (manifested in JACKIE BROWN prior to the aforementioned Beaumont murder scene, where Ordell squabbles with Beaumont about actually getting inside the trunk).
The film also sees the introduction of another major composition conceit- the profile shot. By this, I mean his tendency to frame his characters in profile. This is seen most often in dialogue sequences, but he also uses it to striking effect in motion, such as the iconic opening of the film featuring Jackie Brown riding an LAX people-mover while a colorful mosaic of wall tiles rolls past (which is itself a reference to the same opening shot in Mike Nichols’ THE GRADUATE (1967), that time against blank white tiles).
The use of profile shots points to parts of Tarantino’s aesthetic influenced not by film, but by pulp novels, Japanese manga, and comic books. These influences would go on to manifest themselves to a much larger degree in his next project: KILL BILL (2004).
The opening credits for THE GRADUATE for comparison:
While JACKIE BROWN is Tarantino’s first true linear storyline, he can’t help but incorporate nonlinear elements into the narrative. In a design inspired by Akira Kurosawa’s RASHOMON (1950)—a film about a singular event retold in the differing perspectives of its ensemble—Tarantino stages the central money-switch sting as a converging event for all the characters involved.
We see the plan carried out from the point of view of each key character, and each time a little more information is revealed until we have the complete picture. Tarantino makes extensive use of long tracking shots here to convey the size of the mall location, effortlessly weaving in dialogue of peripheral characters into the ambient sound mix in a way that conveys where the current subject is on the overall timeline.
It’s a showy technique, to be sure, but Tarantino resists the urge to showboat his directorial skills and lets his perspective shifts naturally build the story and the suspense. Music plays an integral role in JACKIE BROWN, as it does in all of Tarantino’s films.
While it is certainly an inspired and eclectic mix of source tracks, it is admittedly more on-the-nose than the likes of using surf rock for PULP FICTION’s pulp noir. The soundtrack throws many nods to the Blaxploitation genre by including a mix of classic R&B and soul cuts. Bobby Womack’s “Across 110th Street” in particular is used to striking effect in the opening credits, becoming the film’s de facto theme song.
Some hip-hop, as well as an off-tone country ballad by Johnny Cash also makes an appearance. Unlike his previous films, there is somewhat of a score element in JACKIE BROWN, albeit it is culled from a pre-existing work: Roy Hyer’s score for COFFY (1973), a classic in the Blaxploitation genre that made Pam Grier a star.
JACKIE BROWN effortlessly crosses out each item on the Tarantino Style checklist: closeups of feet implying the director’s own admitted fetish, chapter-like inter-titles used as scene divisions, yellow-colored title fonts, long tracking shots, creative profanity, abundant pop culture references, etc.
I wrote before in my analysis of FOUR ROOMS: THE MAN FROM HOLLYWOOD (1995) how Tarantino had become such a force in pop culture that he was now referencing himself. This trend continues over into JACKIE BROWN.
For instance, when Jackie Brown conducts the sting operation, she purchases and changes into a feminine version of the black suit and white shirt worn by the archetypical Tarantino criminals in RESERVOIR DOGS and PULP FICTION. There’s also a fictional “Chicks With Guns” TV program that the characters watch, which comes off as a satirical version of the way Tarantino’s films are negatively characterized by the press as violence porn.
Another interesting trope of Tarantino’s style that makes its first appearance in JACKIE BROWN is echoing a hard cut visual transition in the non-diagetic music mix. In other words, Tarantino and Menke simply cut the music without a fade or transition as the shot changes. It’s a jarring effect that traces its roots back to the innovations of the French New Wave, and I find it endlessly amusing.
Casual moviegoers might find it odd for a white man to tackle such a specific ethnic genre, but Tarantino has always been comfortable within African-American culture. By his own account, he grew up in a housing project in Tennessee shared by both blacks and whites, so he feels right at home in JACKIE BROWN’s cultural wheelhouse.
This conceit is not without its problems, however. Much has been written about Tarantino’s controversial use of the “n” word, and reactions to it fall on both sides of the line—director Spike Lee loathes it, Samuel L. Jackson defends it. I’m not here to debate whether Tarantino has a right to use the word by virtue of expressing his fictional characters’ convictions, but I am here to note its significant role in his legacy.
The “n” word has always lurked in Tarantino’s filmography: dropped casually/almost unnoticeably in RESERVOIR DOGS (1992), picking up steam and mild outrage when the director (acting in character) says the word himself in PULP FICTION, coming to a common, yet justifiable occurrence in JACKIE BROWN, and finally tipping the scales back into gratuitous-or-not uncertainty with its pervasive presence in Tarantino’s latest, DJANGO UNCHAINED (2012).
JACKIE BROWN occupies an interesting space in Tarantino’s filmography. Upon release it was hailed as a worthy successor to the groundbreaking PULP FICTION, with influential critics like Roger Ebert going nuts for it. It was a commercial success and kick-started the flagging careers of many of its cast.
A little less than twenty years later, JACKIE BROWN has been overshadowed by the sheer bombast of his more-recent work, enough to the point where most might consider JACKIE BROWN a minor, yet solid, entry. It hasn’t aged as well as PULP FICTION has, but then again it always belonged to another dated era entirely.
Among his major motion pictures, it is likely the least seen, but those who give the disc a spin are instantly charmed by its unique characters and throwback vibe. JACKIE BROWN is a love letter to a genre of films that profoundly influenced Tarantino, and this film is his way of giving back to the ideas and people that gave him so much.
KILL BILL: VOLUME 1 (2003)
The 4th film by Quentin Tarantino (as it reads in the film’s advertising copy), KILL BILL: VOLUME 1, was released during an odd time in my cinematic development. The year was 2003, and I had just entered my senior year of high school. By that time, I was of age to see R-rated films in theatres without any kind of hassle or sneaky spy shit—but my friends were not.
And that is how on a cold winter night in Portland, my younger brother and best friend were stuck in another auditorium watching a stale biopic on the religious reformer Martin Luther, while I was alone in another auditorium gleefully taking in the literal bloodbath that was KILL BILL: VOLUME 1.
I had heard of Tarantino prior to this, by virtue of being a casual participant in cinematic pop culture. However, KILL BILL: VOLUME 1 was the first Tarantino film I ever saw, and I was riveted for its duration. After leaving the theatre, I immediately (okay, maybe it was a week or two later) went out and bought PULP FICTION (1994) and RESERVOIR DOGS (1992) on DVD so I could check out his other work—the first time I had ever done so as for a given director.
I hadn’t yet gone to film school, so I had yet to learn about Andrew Sarris’ auteur theory, but I intuitively understood the sentiment because of Tarantino.
Tarantino’s grand return to cinema after 1997’s JACKIE BROWN, KILL BILL: VOLUME 1 was almost ten years in the making. What began as excited chattering and brainstorming between Tarantino and actress Uma Thurman during the production of PULP FICTION slowly grew over the years to become a gargantuan celebration of cinema’s various forms and a legitimate pop cultural phenomenon unto itself.
KILL BILL: VOLUME 2 (2004) was released only six months later, but Tarantino had initially conceived the idea as one epic revenge tale spanning vast swaths of time and space. Rather indulgently, Tarantino added new scenes to the script as he shot—a testament to the unfettered, unadulterated giddiness with which he approached the project—only to find himself in the editing room with a film that ran a (bladder-annihilating) four hours.
His producing partners—Lawrence Bender, Bob Weinstein, and Harvey Weinstein—successfully argued for the film to get released in two parts. Hence, VOLUME 1.
The KILL BILL saga tells the blood-soaked tale of The Bride (Thurman), who lost her baby and four years of her life when she was attacked and left for dead on her wedding day by her old boss and lover, Bill (David Carradine) and his gang of elite killers, the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad.
When she comes out of her coma, she immediately sets to work planning the execution of each and every person involved. KILL BILL: VOLUME 1 sets up the Bride’s quest, travelling as far as Japan as she pursues the first two ex-Viper Squad names on her Death List: Pasadena homemaker Vernita Green (Vivica A. Fox) and Yakuza boss O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Liu).
Along the way, she coaxes the legendary Hattori Hanzo (Sonny Chiba) into constructing a new samurai sword for her, and encounters a masked Yakuza gang called the Crazy 88’s.
Tarantino’s cast is first-rate, turning in performances that are at once both over-the-top and sincere. This is Thurman’s show, through and through, and she soaks up every ounce of energy in the scene, channeling it into an aggressive performance. With revenge tales, it’s easy for the protagonist to become so focused in their vendetta that they become one-note and cease being multi-dimensional.
Fortunately, Thurman imbues The Bride character with unfathomable complexity and grit. She courageously stares down every challenge and continually summons up vast wells of strength to overcome them. It’s one of Thurman’s most high-profile performances, and easily one of her best.
I’ll elaborate more on Carradine’s portrayal of Bill in my analysis of VOLUME 2, as he is only heard, and never seen during the entirety of VOLUME 1. However, his seasoned growl of a voice does the heavy lifting for us, telling us everything we need to know about the chief target of The Bride’s obsessive quest. Instead, the chief antagonist of VOLUME 1 is O-Ren Ishii, played by Lucy Liu in the role she was born to play.
O-Ren is a highly-skilled assassin and can match the Bride in sword combat blow for blow, so it was crucial that whoever plays the role can convey the appropriate amount of fierceness and conviction. Liu pulls this off effortlessly, channeling her years of experience in other action films into a surprisingly subversive performance.
Of all the members of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, she is given the most amount of backstory, which paints her as the dark mirror image of the Bride and the strongest possible antagonist for her to face in the first installment.
Tarantino’s supporting cast is stuffed with scene-stealing turns, their interactions against the relatively blank canvas of The Bride’s personality serving to highlight their unique character traits. Vivica A. Fox plays the most against type as the fierce, sassy Vernita Green, who—in a brilliant manipulation on Tarantino’s part—finds herself fighting for her life against the Bride while simultaneously trying to hide the violence from her young daughter.
Julie Dreyfus is the most conventionally-feminine presence in the film, as O-ren’s half-French, half-Japanese lawyer and protégé, Sofie Fatale. Chiaki Kuriyama plays Gogo Yubari, O-Ren’s teenage bodyguard with a mean psychotic streak and the appearance of a giggling Japanese schoolgirl. Sonny Chiba is a welcome comedic presence as Hattori Hanzo, a wisened sage and retired swordmaker who is called out of retirement when he learns the intended target of The Bride’s vendetta.
And finally, veteran character actor Michael Parks plays Earl McGraw, a Texas cop and gruff, tobacco-spittin’ sonabitch. This is Parks’ first collaboration with Tarantino, and he would continue working with Tarantino in bit roles throughout the mid-2000’s. He’d even go on to reprise his role as the fan-favorite McGraw character in both sections of the joint-Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez directorial effort GRINDHOUSE (2007).
KILL BILL: VOLUME 1 is arguably one of the most dynamic and strikingly visual films ever made. The utmost care and passion went into the composition of every shot, and Tarantino’s love for the art form and its seminal works comes through in every frame. He enlists the services of cinematographer Robert Richardson for the first time, who gorgeously captures Tarantino’s wild vision and arresting 2.35:1 compositions on Super 35mm film.
Gone are the burnished Technicolor hues of Tarantino past; this film is slick, with brightly saturated colors and high-key, expressionistic lighting. Each scene references some form of cinema that Tarantino loves, whether it’s a kung-fu flick, a spaghetti western, a Blaxploitation film, or even a Brian DePalma shlock thriller.
The umbrella term for Tarantino’s visual presentation here would be “grindhouse”, but he pulls inspiration from every corner of the film universe, mashing it together into a Frankenstein-ish form that’s astonishingly coherent.
Tarantino has always been a referential filmmaker, appropriating bits and pieces from his influences into a style that’s both his own and an homage to the works that came before it. KILL BILL VOLUME 1 is arguably the most nakedly referential film in Tarantino’s canon, adapting the look and style of each scene to the subgenre of film it is paying homage to.
For instance, the use of split-screen and that unsettling “whistle” song during the sequence where the eye-patched assassin Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah disguised as a nurse) sneaks into a comatose Bride’s room to inject poison into her veins is a direct reference to both Mario Bava’s BLACK SUNDAY (1960) and Brian De Palma’s DRESSED TO KILL (1980).
Both directors are commonly cited as huge influences on Tarantino, and he (along with the help of unsung hero, the late editor Sally Menke) manages to wordlessly reference both of them while creating something entirely his own. The KILL BILL saga is littered with mish-and-mash sequences like these.
For me personally, the most jarringly original thing about the film is Tarantino’s inclusion of an animated sequence midway through the film. Another reference to the director’s pulp inspirations, the sequence is rendered in the style of Japanese anime, depicting O-ren Ishii’s traumatic witnessing of the murder of her parents, and her eventual revenge on the man responsible (which makes her a kindred spirit with The Bride).
Her skill with murder leads her to becoming one of the best female assassins in the field, and her rise is chronicled in stylish animated fashion. When I first saw the film and this scene began unspooling, my jaw dropped. I specifically remember thinking to myself, “wait, we can do that?!”—I was literally shocked that someone would have the audacity to even include such a bracingly different animated style into a live-action film, much less pull it off with the effortless grace that Tarantino does here.
This inspired blend continues into the film’s centerpiece: The Bride’s showdown with the Crazy 88’s at the House of Blue Leaves. Japanese samurai and Yakuza crime films are the chief stylistic influence on VOLUME 1, reaching an apex in this brutal, bloody showdown. The extended sequence is undoubtedly one of the best pieces of work that Tarantino has ever done, containing little bits and pieces of his best techniques to delirious, expressionistic effect.
There are four key bits to this scene that illustrate Tarantino’s impeccably thought-through approach to the film. The first is the beginning, with O-Ren and her Crazy 88 entourage entering the House of Blue Leaves. Tarantino frames the action head-on in wide shot, with the actors walking towards the camera and breaking the fourth wall by looking directly into it.
Tarantino then punches in to closer shots, revealing the performers to be walking in slow-motion. All the while, he uses a Hotei Tomaya song, “Battle Without Honor or Humanity”, which has since become the de facto KILL BILL theme song. Granted, this scene has been endlessly parodied nearly shot for shot (TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE did it best in 2004) in the years since we first laid eyes on it.
However, Tarantino of all people knows that imitation is the best form of flattery, and the fact that this specific pairing of motion, composition and song choice has entered into our collective cinematic consciousness as the visual shorthand for “badasses on a mission” speaks to Tarantino’s intuitive connection to archetypal scenarios.
Shortly after The Bride arrives at the club, Tarantino takes us on an expansive, bird’s eye-view tour of the House of Blue Leaves. Over the course of a single shot, we zoom across the rafters looking down at the action, descend to eye-level and follow the Bride through the hallway into the bathroom, and pull back out again for a wide shot of the scene.
Whereas Tarantino usually opts for subtle tracking techniques that hide how complicated they actually are, here he is an unabashed showman. It’s almost a brazen “look what I can do” kind of statement, an elegant dance between camera and director to the accompaniment of Japanese surf rock, courtesy of real-life rock band The 5,6,78’s.
(Their iconic “Woo-Hoo” song would be driven into the ground by a particularly aggressive and annoying series of Vonage commercials a few years later). This kind of show-boaty tracking shot draws its inspiration from a cadre of influences like Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, and Tarantino contemporary Paul Thomas Anderson.
The actual fight itself is somewhat of a tour de force for Tarantino, who up to this point had never actually filmed anything as openly “action film-y” as this before. It helps that his location was a specially built set in China’s venerable Shaw Studios, where many of Tarantino’s favorite kung-fu films had been shot in the past (he even references the studio by including a vintage “Filmed In Shaw Scope” card at the beginning of the film).
This sequence alone has the highest body count within Tarantino’s entire canon, and is one of the most viscerally violent scenes ever put to film. It’s so violent, in fact, that Tarantino switches from color to black and white for a large portion of it to tone down the sight of the literal ocean of blood he sheds.
Despite its cartoonish brutality, Tarantino helms the sequence with such an artful eye that it becomes more expressionistic than violent. This is further evidenced when the sequence switches back to color, and The Bride and her adversaries are silhouetted against a bright blue grid (one of my favorite images in film, ever).
The final beat of the House of Blue Leaves setpiece is the final showdown between The Bride and O-Ren, which takes place in a gorgeously tranquil, moonlit & snow-covered garden. The transition from blood-soaked nightclub to the peaceful, quiet and beautiful scene lying just outside is breathtaking.
Tarantino is able to harness the full beauty of this sequence, crafting some of the most aesthetically gorgeous compositions of his career. The final battle between the two expert samurai swords-women is paired with the unexpected choice of a flamenco salsa music track. It works surprisingly well, and is a perfect illustration of the grindhouse/arthouse, East-West dichotomy Tarantino incorporated into his story and themes.
Everything that Tarantino is trying to aesthetically express with his KILL BILL saga is effortlessly distilled down to its essence in this single scene.
David Wasco returns as Production Designer for the film, this time collaborating with Yohei Taneda in creating a series of vibrant set-pieces. The House of Blue Leaves is an incredible set, as is the whimsical miniature model of Tokyo that The Bride watches roll by as her plane descends. The model itself doesn’t look photo-realistic, but its sublime, old-school charm gels the highly expressionistic vision Tarantino has cultivated.
Tarantino has always been known for his eclectic, tastemaking soundtracks. KILL BILL VOLUME 1 ups the bar considerably, drawing in a veritable potpourri of influences from every corner of the music world. The aforementioned “Battle Without Honor or Humanity” is undeniably the highest-profile piece, achieving a level of instant recognition and fame on par with Tarantino’s use of “Miserlou” in PULP FICTION.
VOLUME 1’s disparate musical styles bear no resemblance to each other on their face, but Tarantino combines them in a way that creates a unique character for the film. Nancy Sinatra, Charlie Parker, Ennio Morricone, and Zamfir the flutist all contribute to a mish-mash musical palette, weaving into one another in a rich tapestry.
In a first for Tarantino, original score elements have been commissioned by RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan. His work doesn’t particularly stand out against Tarantino’s needle drops, but it adds another layer of chop-socky/funky sound to an already-impressive landscape.
I mentioned earlier how KILL BILL VOLUME 1 was the first Tarantino film I ever saw, and for the uninitiated, it’s the clearest example of his directorial style. Every one of his signature flourishes is in here and amplified to an almost cartoonish degree. Creative dialogue and profanity is blended in with oddly formal language, which Tarantino cites as a callback to the formalist dialogue in the old samurai films that influenced his script.
Events are presented in non-chronological order, separated by inter-titles that divide the story up into book-like “chapters”. The use of the color yellow in his on-screen text is abundant (although he seems to switch between colors and fonts at will, and with reckless abandon). There’s a plethora of pop culture references, even at the beginning when Tarantino flashes the “revenge is a dish best served cold” quote from STAR TREK.
Non-diagetic music stops abruptly on a hard cut. Lots of close-ups of feet feed Tarantino’s personal fetish. Lots of compositions featuring characters in profile during build-ups to showdowns. A general grindhouse vibe helped by the inclusion of rack zooms and vintage sound effects. The black suit/white shirt combo reserved for Tarantino’s professional criminals is represented in the wardrobe of the Crazy 88’s.
Even the infamous Tarantino trunk POV shot is included here, manifested in the form of the Bride delivering a cryptic threat to Bill through Sofie Fatale, who lies bound and injured in the trunk. If one ever needs a crash course on what separates Tarantino from any other director, they only need look at KILL BILL: VOLUME 1.
Tarantino often cites Sergio Leone’s THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY (1966) as a huge influence on his style. The spaghetti western homages are liberally sprinkled through the KILL BILL saga, but one thing in particular stands out to me. The Sergio Leone DOLLARS TRILOGY famously featured Clint Eastwood as The Man With No Name.
The Bride has a similar unidentified persona, albeit she experiences a much wider range of emotions than her Leone counterpart. She does happen to have a real name, but whenever the characters speak it, Tarantino physically bleeps it out. It took me a few instances to catch on when I first saw the film, but it’s an amusing little conceit that pays off well in VOLUME 2, in addition to being a nice callback to one of Tarantino’s chief influences.
In a previous post, I mentioned how Tarantino’s characters inhabit a self-contained universe of the director’s own design. Some fans have taken his filmography as a whole and placed them along one timeline in an alternate reality branching off from ours sometime around the end of WW2.
I’m paraphrasing a loose collection of separate articles written by other people, but the general idea is that the events portrayed in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009)—the murder of Adolf Hitler in a movie theatre—began a different reality in which movies play a much larger part in society, and society as a whole has become more attuned to pop culture and exaggerated in violence, profanity and sex.
The KILL BILL films don’t fit into the timeline itself, but are rather a manifestation of what kind of movie that this exaggerated society would produce—in other words, a movie whose violent aspects would be cranked up to 11 for an audience already desensitized to violence as an everyday fact of life. When Vincent and Vic Vega go to the theatre together, they’d be seeing a movie much like KILL BILL.
KILL BILL: VOLUME 1 also begins what I like to refer to as the “Tex-Mex” phase of Tarantino’s career. It is with the KILL BILL films that he began working in earnest with good friend and fellow filmmaker Robert Rodriguez, who’s own distinctly Mexican/Texan aesthetic undoubtedly influenced Tarantino.
During this period, from roughly 2003-2008, Tarantino’s work takes on a distinctly southwestern vibe removed from the SoCal Valley locales that defined his earlier work. A great bulk of KILL BILL VOLUMES 1 & 2 takes place in Texas, Mexico, and California. His next project with Rodriguez, 2007’sGRINDHOUSE, again takes place in Texas and utilizes a lot of the same imagery.
During this time, Rodriguez and Tarantino were partners in crime, mimicking and riffing off each other in their own separate works until their directorial styles achieved a symbiosis in which it was hard to tell the two apart.
Tarantino’s distinct style played such a significant role in defining 1990’s pop culture that some rightly wondered after the release of 1997’s JACKIE BROWN whether Tarantino was fated to be a relic of that decade. He stayed off the screen long enough that it became a very serious question.
The world of cinema had already changed so much since the turn of the new millennium; would Tarantino still have a place at the table when he came back? Fortunately, the extended hiatus proved refreshing for Tarantino, and he returned to the cinema world with the same fury and intensity that had propelled PULP FICTION a decade earlier.
But don’t call it a comeback—the success of KILL BILL VOLUME 1 proved that Tarantino could adapt with the times while still doing what he does best: crafting a killer film.
KILL BILL: VOLUME 2 (2004)
Director Quentin Tarantino returned to cinemas with a vengeance with his 2003 hit, KILL BILL: VOLUME 1. A scant six months later, he capitalized on the film’s shocking cliffhanger ending by releasing the finale to his blood-soaked saga, KILL BILL VOLUME 2. Originally conceived as one epic film, an initial 4-hour running time prompted Tarantino to split the film in two—an inspired decision, considering that the second half of KILL BILL is radically different in tone and style than the first.
Audiences with expectations of another high-octane blood bath were shocked to find themselves watching a different kind of film entirely—a slower, more somber movie that put a priority on dialogue over action. The Bride must have killed upwards of forty people in VOLUME 1, but her body count in VOLUME 2 can be tallied on one hand.
Audiences were understandably disappointed by what they deemed a lackluster conclusion to a brilliant set-up, but they fail to see a richer, more personal film that eloquently carries the Bride’s bloody quest to a satisfying, emotionally resonant close.
Shifting the action from exotic Japan, Tarantino brings us back to the western deserts of California and Mexico as The Bride closes in on the last few names remaining on her Death List: burnt-out strip club bouncer Budd (Michael Madsen), treacherous and one-eyed assassin Elle Driver (Daryl Hannah), and the big man himself (David Carradine).
Along the way, we find out more about the circumstances of Bill’s original attack on our hero’s wedding party that began this whole story. Most importantly, we learn that The Bride’s unborn baby, thought lost in the wake of the wedding rehearsal massacre, is alive and well— a fact that complicates The Bride’s desire to kill Bill, given that he’s the father.
Uma Thurman continues her scorched-earth performance as the Bride, with VOLUME 2 requiring her to convey startlingly real vulnerability while still retaining almost-biblical levels of courage. Her evolution from cold-blooded killer to fierce lioness protecting her cub is the film’s heart and soul, creating a surprising dramatic resonance amidst all the bloodshed. And along the way, we find out her real name—Beatrix Kiddo.
I’d say you can’t make that shit up, but Tarantino clearly did.
The late David Carradine is a revelation as the film’s eponymous target. Heard only in voice in VOLUME 1, Tarantino chooses to reveal his weathered visage in spectacularly anticlimactic fashion. Carradine plays the sadistic boss as a warmly paternal poet. It’s easy to see why The Bride once loved him; Bill is intelligent, cultured, and– despite his criminality– very fair.
His actions in massacring The Bride’s entire bridal party, while undeniably cruel, come from a place of honor that supersedes his relationships. It’s the mark of a man with integrity and conviction—the kind of man you wouldn’t expect to be the chief antagonist.
Carradine, who featured in a variety of kung-fu films that Tarantino cites as huge influences, had largely fallen out of the public eye when he was cast as Bill. Much like John Travolta or Robert Forster before him, he became blessed by the Tarantino Effect, whereby aging character actors experience a career resurgence after working for the director.
Unlike the others, this resurgence manifested itself in a general awareness and newfound respect to his long career, but didn’t really result in getting more high-profile work. It’s very possible that he might have, but sadly Carradine passed away in 2009 before he could really capitalize on it. His performance as Bill is probably the best career capstone and farewell anybody could ask for.
Michael Madsen– in his second performance for Tarantino after RESERVOIR DOGS (1992)–was barely alluded to in VOLUME 1, but VOLUME 2 allows us to experience his Budd character in all his burnt-out, redneck glory. Essentially a recluse living out of a trailer in the desert, Budd has forsaken the assassin lifestyle and brings in a meager salary as an underappreciated strip club bouncer.
Madsen breathes palpable life into his performance, his withdrawn eyes channeling a fundamental regret and weariness. He relishes the opportunity to ham it up in a gross mullet and a beer belly, but he still hasn’t lost his dangerous, sadistic edge. Despite looking nothing like Carradine, Madsen makes us really believe that he is Bill’s brother.
Daryl Hannah continues her devious, eye-patched performance as Bill’s current beau and arguably the deadliest member of the Viper Assassination Squad, Elle Driver. She gets a fantastic, no-holds-barred fight sequence with The Bride in Budd’s cramped trailer, and she plays up her insidiousness to the requisite cartoonish degree.
Hannah doesn’t seem to do much acting these days, but it’s easy to see why Tarantino wanted her in the film. Despite her playing someone far from her type, she embraces every challenge and really puts all of herself into the role.
Michael Parks also returns, albeit as a completely different character than the Texan cowboy cop he played in VOLUME 1. This time around, he’s completely unrecognizable as Esteban, an elderly Mexican pimp and father figure to Bill. I remember being absolutely shocked when I learned that it was Parks buried underneath some incredible makeup.
He’s easily characterized as the Texas lawman archetype, but he has a startling range that further lends credence to my personal theory that character actors are the most legitimately talented kind of actors.
This is further illustrated by Tarantino’s recurring guest stars, who continue popping up in small roles and cameos in his films, regardless of how big of a name they are. Sid Haig, who appeared as a judge in JACKIE BROWN (1997) turns in another small cameo here as the bespectacled bartender of Budd’s nudie bar.
Tarantino mainstay Samuel L. Jackson appears as Rufus, the blind piano player caught in the unfortunate crossfire of Bill’s wrath during the Bride’s wedding rehearsal. We don’t even see Jackson’s face in the film, so it says something about Tarantino in regards to the respect afforded to him by his actors that they’ll show up for what essentially amounts to a walk-on voice role despite being internationally-known stars.
Stylistically speaking, KILL BILL VOLUME 2 turned a lot of people off when it was released. After gleefully taking in the frenzied bloodbath of VOLUME 1, they were shocked to find that Tarantino had chosen to make the concluding entry so drastically different. Since both films were shot at the same time, VOLUME 2 retains many of the main visual conceits as VOLUME 1: Super 35mm film negative source, dramatic 2.35:1 anamorphic aspect ratio, a brightly-hued color scheme and book-like chapter designations to divide up big sequences.
However, if VOLUME 1 represented the East with its Japanese stylings, than VOLUME 2 is full-on Sergio Leone West, placing the bulk of its action in dusty California, Texas, and Mexico.
Despite its drastic departure from VOLUME 1’s presentation, the structure of VOLUME 2 reveals it to be very much of the same mind. The non-chronological order of sequences is retained, as are the stylized compositions that have come to characterize not only the series itself, but Tarantino’s aesthetic as a whole.
Take, for instance, the sequence where The Bride trains with ancient martial arts master Pai Mei (Gordon Liu). One shot in particular shows The Bride and Pai Men practicing their kicks, silhouetted against an expressionistic red background. This mirrors, as well as contrasts, a similar shot in VOLUME 1, where the silhouettes of The Bride and her Crazy 88 adversaries are set up against a similarly-expressionistic blue background. This illustrates how each film is really half of a whole, with one thematic through-line running across both of them.
Tarantino continues utilizing various camera techniques that are emblematic of the genres he is paying homage to, most notably the quick rack zooms that have become associated with pulpy grindhouse films. Ironically enough, the film’s best moments come when he stops moving the camera altogether and lets the characters do the heavy lifting. Halfway through the film, The Bride is captured by Budd and buried alive.
This terrifying scene is one of the strongest moments in Tarantino’s entire career, and he does it all by simply and subtly evoking the very real horror of being buried alive. He throws the image into complete darkness, letting his creative sound design drive the tension in the scene. As each shovel-full of dirt lands on top of The Bride’s coffin with a horrifying thud, we feel hopelessness and utter fear set in. It’s pure brilliance on Tarantino’s part, making for one of the most harrowing, unforgettable cinematic experiences I’ve ever encountered.
The music also takes a decidedly different tack than VOLUME 1, opting for a spaghetti western sound to reflect Tarantino’s arid and dusty images. Interestingly enough, the film isn’t as loaded with pre-recorded needle drops as its predecessor—which means that for the first time, Tarantino is making substantial use of original score, provided by fellow filmmaker and friend Robert Rodriguez. Rodriguez does a great job emulating Morricone’s sound, enough so that the difference between score and Tarantino’s well-placed Morricone source tracks is hard to discern.
VOLUME 2’s ties to its predecessor are further solidified by the inclusion of a few Blaxploitation/funk tracks, but for the most part VOLUME 2 is very much its own beast.
Tarantino’s characters continue to be an exceedingly verbose lot, with filthy mouths to match their creative wits, a tendency for those of the female persuasion to not wear shoes, and an-almost meta awareness of pop/film culture. This is most easily seen in Bill’s climactic monologue where he espouses the theory that Superman’s alter ego of Clark Kent is really his critique on what he perceives to be a weak, ineffectual race of life forms.
Another moment is the film’s beginning, which seems to achieve multiple layers of meta in its presentation. In the sequence, Thurman is driving to kill Bill, and she’s talking directly to the camera. That’s one layer of meta, the 4th wall-breaking that Tarantino loves to do. Her dialogue is basically re-capping the events of VOLUME 1, but said in such a way as if she just came from the movie herself—she even references critic quotes from the trailer. Now that’s two layers of meta.
Finally, no effort is made to conceal the old-school rear projector technique that throws up a moving background behind her as she speaks. At this point, I’ve lost track of how many layers of meta we’re dealing with here. The important thing is that it works.
There’s a lot of other stylistic conceits I could list here, like characters being shown in profile, long dialogue sequences building up to violent outbursts, professional criminals clad in variations on the black suit/white shirt aesthetic, long tracking shots, etc. Tarantino’s style is one of the most well-known in all of cinema—so much so that I feel like I’m insulting your intelligence by even writing it here.
His style has been more or less established since day one, and each film builds on it according to the demands of the story.
Many are divided over which volume of KILL BILL is actually better. Personally, I find them so different that it’s hard to compare them. If I had to choose a favorite, however, it would be VOLUME 2. In my eyes, it is the stronger film because the substance, and not the style, is driving the plot forward. It’s one of the most subversive films Tarantino has ever made.
A VOLUME 3 has been rumored for years, tentatively featuring the exploits of Vernita Green’s daughter as she seeks out the Bride for her own vengeance, but given how Tarantino regularly speculates but never follows through on sequels to his films (nothing ever did come of that Vega Brothers film, I highly doubt a VOLUME 3 would ever come to fruition.
I would be remiss to mention the cut that combines both films into a semblance of Tarantino’s original vision, titled KILL BILL: THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIR. Currently unavailable on home video, this rare print premiered at Cannes and has been shown in arthouse theatres across the country (most notably at Los Angeles’ New Beverly Cinema, which Tarantino just so happens to own).
I’ve been curious to see this four hour cut, which reportedly contains a longer animation sequence and restores the color to the Massacre at House of Blue Leaves sequence. It seems to me like THE WHOLE BLOODY AFFAIRwould be the superior version of either film, but who knows if I’ll ever get to make that conclusion.
KILL BILL VOLUME 2 finds Tarantino at the apex of his “Tex-Mex” phase, with his closest collaborator (outside of editor Sally Menke, of course) being Robert Rodriguez. The film is Tarantino’s own personal zeitgeist, where his tendency for homage and imitation reaches its zenith. The KILL BILL saga is the biggest thing he’s ever done, and he pulled it off with obscene style.
Literally no other person could dream up what Tarantino did here, and the result is a piece of pop culture that helped to define the Aughts, just like PULP FICTION did for the 90’s.
SIN CITY SEQUENCE: “DESIGNATED DRIVER” (2005)
In 2005, filmmaker Robert Rodriguez and comic book auteur Frank Miller collaborated on a film adaptation of Miller’s seminal work, “Sin City”. Shot digitally entirely against a green-screen virtual “backlot”, the film told three lurid stories in the tone of classic noir and pulp fiction. The film was released to critical and audience acclaim, and to date stands as the biggest hit of Rodriguez’s career.
It was around this time that Rodriguez began regularly collaborating with his close friend, director Quentin Tarantino. Similarly influenced by little-known classics of the grindhouse genre, the two formed an easy rapport in their working relationship. Rodriguez, wanting Tarantino to experience the pleasures of an original score, performed said duties on KILL BILL: VOLUME 2 (2004) for the price of one dollar.
To return the favor, Tarantino charged Rodriguez a dollar to shoot a special segment in Rodriguez’s SIN CITY (2005). This segment was titled “DESIGNATED DRIVER”, and features the actors Clive Owen and Benicio Del Toro conversing with each other as Owen drives through a particularly soggy night.
I remember going to see a midnight screening of SIN CITY when it was released. I was a sophomore in college, and was becoming acutely aware of Andrew Sarris’ auteur theory after learning about it in my Media Studies class. 2004 had been a particularly energizing year for me in that regard, thanks to the release of Tarantino’s KILL BILL: VOLUME 2 and Rodriguez’s ONCE UPON A TIME IN MEXICO.
The prospect of both men teaming up for a slick neo-noir promised to be a hell of an experience.
Oddly enough, Tarantino’s segment isn’t presented with any kind of moment that alerts you to the scene’s director. The trailers billed Tarantino as a special guest director, but no one knew which scene was actually his; each scene flowed so effortlessly into the next. I spent the entirety of my first viewing trying to figure out which sequence it was, only to later learn that it was the DESIGNATED DRIVER scene.
It’s one of the film’s strongest moments, so I wasn’t surprised at all to learn that fact.
In the film, Owen’s character- Dwight- has just killed Jackie Boy (Del Toro) outside Sin City’s Red Light District. His prostitute allies have hooked him up with a stolen car to drive to the tar pits so that he can dispose of Jackie Boy’s body, and thus of the murder evidence. As he drives, Jackie Boy appears to come back to life—a macabre sight with his throat slit and the barrel of a gun lodged firmly through his head.
We realize that Jackie Boy’s re-animation is only a manifestation of Dwight’s imagination, taunting him with the gravity of the situation, which is only made worse when his gas runs out and a cop pulls him over.
The performances are consistently great throughout the feature, but this scene in particular belongs to Del Toro as some of his greatest work. The dull glimmer in his eyes, along with that painted on grin is absolutely haunting. I can’t be the only one who thinks he’d make a perfect Joker in a future BATMAN film, right?
Because he’s acting as a special guest director, Tarantino doesn’t get to impose his own style on Rodriguez’s pre-established aesthetic. As such, DESIGNATED DRIVER marks Tarantino’s first brush with the digital format and the Sony CineAlta series of cameras. Rodriguez serves as the Director of Photography, deftly lighting the car set against a green-screen so as to believably convey motion.
Shot in full color, the footage was later digitally de-saturated to a high contrast black-and-white, with punches of color and the stormy, wet environs added later via CGI.
After shooting, control of the film was taken away from Tarantino so Rodriguez could conform the footage to his vision. This meant he, not Tarantino’s usual editor Sally Menke, edited the dailies, and he also composed the scene’s ominous score together with John Debney and Graeme Revell. Really, the only dead giveaway that this is Tarantino’s scene is the handful of references to famous films in the dialogue.
DESIGNATED DRIVER is admittedly a very small part of Tarantino’s oeuvre, but it’s incredibly notable for its digital production aspect. A vocal proponent of celluloid, Tarantino has famously eschewed digital filmmaking out of a purist mentality, and its entirely possible that he would never have touched the format if it weren’t for SIN CITY.
Whether it convinced him that film is the only way to go, or made him reconsider the usefulness of digital, he won’t say. But what we do know is that he can make the jump between formats with ease, while still delivering some of the most arresting moments in cinema.
CSI “GRAVE DANGER” EPISODES (2005)
The crime procedural is a staple of primetime television. There’s at least three different shows focused on criminal investigations for every major broadcast network. As someone who doesn’t regularly watch these shows, much less primetime broadcast TV, I frequently joke that they’re all the same show. One of my best friends works on USA’S BURN NOTICE and I frequently ask him what antics David Caruso is getting into this week.
If I have to explain that joke to you, perhaps it’s better that you don’t have to put up with me on a regular basis.
The chief target of my impotent assassination attempts is the CSI brand, which seemingly has a separate series for every major American city. Until recently, I had never watched an episode and had no intention to start. I was surprised to find that the mainline series takes place in Las Vegas, instead of where I thought it log
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https://rvamag.com/music/dan-duggins-2-day-benefit-show.html
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Dan Duggins’ 2 Day Benefit Show
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On April 27th, 34 year old Dan Duggins suffered a catastrophic brainstem stroke. As a long term member of the Richmond music community Dan’s former bands include Hot Rod Circuit and Lazy Cain. At the time of his stroke Dan was living in New York and was the drummer for The Queen Killing Kings and […]
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RVA Mag
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https://rvamag.com/music/dan-duggins-2-day-benefit-show.html
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On April 27th, 34 year old Dan Duggins suffered a catastrophic brainstem stroke. As a long term member of the Richmond music community Dan’s former bands include Hot Rod Circuit and Lazy Cain. At the time of his stroke Dan was living in New York and was the drummer for The Queen Killing Kings and Zagmat. Although his condition has improved over this past month Dan and his family have a long road of rehabilitation and medical bills ahead of them.
Please join Dan’s friends July 23rd and 24th at Plaza Bowl in Richmond VA for a benefit in his honor. The Friday night line-up will include Lights East, 12 Step Revenge, Meat Cleaver, El Presidente, and The Tori ($10 admission, doors at 6pm). Saturday night features Strike the Chord & Burn, Dave Watkins, Last Century, Lewd Baron, I Am The Emperor, Throttlerod, Hex Machine, & Suzukiton ($10 admission, doors at 3pm).
All proceeds will be donated to Dan and his family.
For any of you knowing Dan, you also know how stubborn he was and so he wanted to wait to be put on my health insurance. We are facing a tidal wave of medical bills and I’ve appreciated all the efforts to help us out. If you would like to make a donation please do so by paypal ( dandugginstrust@gmail.com ) or you can send directly to me:
Jo Ann Duggins
PO Box 14747
Richmond, VA 23221
or his brother:
Ste Duggins
1611 olde coalmine rd
midlothian va 23113.
I cannot thank you all enough for all the support and kind words and I look forward to seeing Dan’s face when he gets to read all of it.
All my love,
Lady D
On April 27th, 34 year old Dan Duggins suffered a catastrophic brainstem stroke. As a long term member of the Richmond music community Dan’s former bands include Hot Rod Circuit and Lazy Cain. At the time of his stroke Dan was living in New York and was the drummer for The Queen Killing Kings and Zagmat. Although his condition has improved over this past month Dan and his family have a long road of rehabilitation and medical bills ahead of them.
Please join Dan’s friends July 23rd and 24th at Plaza Bowl in Richmond VA for a benefit in his honor. The Friday night line-up will include Lights East, 12 Step Revenge, Meat Cleaver, El Presidente, and The Tori ($10 admission, doors at 6pm). Saturday night features Strike the Chord & Burn, Dave Watkins, Last Century, Lewd Baron, I Am The Emperor, Throttlerod, Hex Machine, & Suzukiton ($10 admission, doors at 3pm).
All proceeds will be donated to Dan and his family.
For any of you knowing Dan, you also know how stubborn he was and so he wanted to wait to be put on my health insurance. We are facing a tidal wave of medical bills and I’ve appreciated all the efforts to help us out. If you would like to make a donation please do so by paypal ( dandugginstrust@gmail.com ) or you can send directly to me:
Jo Ann Duggins
PO Box 14747
Richmond, VA 23221
or his brother:
Ste Duggins
1611 olde coalmine rd
midlothian va 23113.
I cannot thank you all enough for all the support and kind words and I look forward to seeing Dan’s face when he gets to read all of it.
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https://www.25bedfordrow.com/site/people/profile/john.cooper
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en
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Professor John Cooper KCÂ
|
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25 Bedford Row
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https://www.25bedfordrow.com/site/people/profile/john.cooper
|
Leading in serious crime including murder, serious violence, drug trafficking, terrorism, fraud, appellate work, human rights, public protest and media. Regulatory work including professional and sports regulation. Public Inquiries and Inquest work including Judicial Review. Also Pre-Charge and Crisis Management.
Ferocious cross-examiner. Legal 500
Professor John Cooper KC is recognised as one of the most effective cross-examiners at the Bar and has been instructed in some of the most high-profile court cases in recent years, including cases requiring searching examinations, of members of the Security Service, Armed Forces and the police service. Professor Cooper is well-known for his ability to effectively and rigorously represent his clients and stand up to the most probing scrutiny at tribunals - his reputation for being fearless is well merited.
A former lawyer at the Magic Circle firm, Clifford Chance, John also is one of the most effective and popular KCs practising at the Old Bailey and has achieved many notable acquittals both there and up and down the country, successfully representing clients in cases ranging from the most serious of allegations to those which are potentially, individually and personally devastating to the accused and their families.
John represented the majority of bereaved families at the Manchester Arena inquiry, gaining an intimate and detailed understanding of terrorist-related issues.
As a former prosecutor (highest category) and senior Attorney General Prosecutor (top A list category), he has gained vital experience enabling him to take every advantage for the benefit of his clients, exploiting that insight to great effect in his exclusive defence practice. He uses this valuable experience to advise and undertake private prosecution work.
Internationally, John Cooper KC was the Chair of the International Steering Committee and Prosecutor at the Iran Tribunal in The Hague. The full judgment can be downloaded here. He also represented the captain of the seized Grace I in Gibraltar as a result of disputes between the British and Iranian Governments. He was called to the NSW Bar, in Australia, in 1989.
He has been named by The Times as a star of the Criminal Bar and one of the Top 10 influential lawyers in the UK. He is also a visiting Professor of Law at Newcastle University, and a Master of the Bench at Middle Temple.
He is available to be instructed by Direct Access.
He has represented clients in many significant Public Inquires and Inquests. As well as the Manchester Arena Inquiry, John’s work includes, the Deepcut Barracks inquests and High Court hearings and the Hercules inquest in relation to the multiple loss of life following enemy action. He acted for bereaved families in the Puma Helicopter inquest and in the Nimrod mid-air explosion cases for nine deceased service people. He represented the Labour Group in submissions to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. He represented the family of JS in her inquest, following the Australian D.J Royal Family hoax.
The preferred KC for cases which challenge the Establishment, John represented the occupiers outside St Paul’s Cathedral throughout their High Court hearings and argued successfully on behalf of the Euston Square Tunneler’s in their public protest actions against HS2. He represented the Sheffield Tree Campaigns, in the High Court, whose arguments have been recently vindicated. He also led the judicial review of the Government’s deal with the DUP and represented 43 Labour MPs in written argument during the prorogation of Parliament Supreme Court case.
John has been instructed by Gina Millar to advise on the Public Protest Bill.
He was instructed to judicially review the inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly, the government weapons inspector in Iraq, and advised the Mayor of London in the John Warboys Parole judicial review.
Media Management
Mr Cooper uniquely utilises in-depth knowledge of the media, press and broadcasting to advise clients upon reputation and crisis management, as well as neutralising in advance any legal action and adverse publicity. He has done this to great effect for high-ranking politicians, corporate leaders, A-list celebrities and sports people.
He has represented and advised high-net-worth clients including the Tetra Pac owner and a leading Bitcoin developer.
Mr Cooper was Vice Chair of the Bar Council Public Affairs Committee, a former director of media communications for the Halsbury Law Exchange, Lexis Nexis for a number of years and writes regularly for a series of newspapers including The Times, Observer and the Daily Telegraph.
He is regularly instructed in the most sensitive of cases, often pre-charge proceedings and astutely advises clients as to the most effective strategies to neutralise harmful outcomes.
He has been described as “One of the most politically astute KC's in the country”.
He is a former lawyer at Clifford Chance in their Media and Communications department. John wrote a regular column for The Times for ten years and edited the Criminal Bar quarterly for over 17 years. He was Vice Chair of the Bar Conference organising board, completing his wide appreciation of the political, media, broadcasting, and sporting world.
Articles & Publications
Books
Cruelty – An Analysis of Article 3 (Sweet & Maxwell) with a foreword by Lord Hope
Judicial Review (Sweet & Maxwell)
Police Interviews (Sweet & Maxwell)
Encyclopaedia of Data Protection and Privacy (contributor; Sweet and Maxwell)
The Link between Animal Abuse and Human Violence (Sussex Academic Press 2009)
Inquests (Hart Publishing, 2011) with a foreword from the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Judge
Cases that Changed our Lives (Butterworth’s) 2011
Sentencing (Oxford University Press) 2019
Papers and Articles
Over 500 papers and articles appearing in most legal publications, including;
Columnist for the Times and regular writer for the main paper since 1999.
Editor for Criminal Bar Quarterly 2000-2018
Consultant editor for Criminal Law and Justice weekly 2009-2019
Regular columnist for New Law Journal 2017 to date.
Broadcasting
John Cooper KC has appeared in many television and radio broadcasts, both as a presenter and contributor. His credits include:
Teens on Trial, Channel 4 Presented six-part documentary.
Mindfield, BBC presented studio discussion programme.
Trial of the Allies, a Newsnight Special, BBC (2006) co-presenting.
Any Questions, Radio 4 Panellist.
The Moral Maze, Radio 4 guest
The Reunion, Radio 4 guest.
In My View , Al Jazeera
Regularly reviews newspapers for Sky News.
Regular appearances on BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Radio 4 and other major broadcasting.
Associated Work (Present & Former)
Former Board member of Prisoners of Conscience
Trustee of the Young Citizens (including National Bar Mock Trial Competition)
Former President of League Against Cruel Sports
Special advisor to the Bach Commission on Access to Justice
Special advisor to the Shadow Attorney General and Shadow Minister for Legal Aid.
Advisor to Foreign Office on Cambodian War Trials.
Assisted Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture.
Trustee of Citizen Aid (as a result of Johns work at the Manchester Arena Inquiry)
Former lawyer at Clifford Chance.
Member of Law Commission Working Parties on (i) Reform of the Law of Homicide & (ii) Expert Evidence Procedure in Criminal Trials.
Other Interests
Writer for television and theatre including “The Law Lord” [BBC2]; “The Advocates” [ITV] “The Cure” [Royal Court Theatre], Burning Point [Tricycle Theatre]. Represented by Independent Talent.
Speaks regularly at professional conferences and seminars.
Education
LLB (Hons), Butterworth Law Prizeman, University of Newcastle. In 2022, Professor Cooper was awarded the Allimuin Achievement Award for the graduate of the university who had achieve the most significant impact during his career.
Accreditation, Awards & Appointments
Visiting Professor of Law at Newcastle University
Law school advisory board at Newcastle University
Listed in Debrett’s People of the Today as one of the most influential people in his field.
Entry in Who’s Who
Listed in the Legal 500 as a Leading KC in Crime and Civil Liberties.
Listed in the Chambers & Partners directory as a Leading KC in Crime and Liberties.
Testimonials
"A man who's not afraid to ask difficult questions in court."- Chambers UK 2023, Crime
"His preparation for his cases is epic and he's good at getting to the kernel of a case." - Chambers UK 2023, Crime
"John is a committed and tenacious advocate, who is genuinely bothered about his clients and wants the best for them; and he always identifies and pursues important points." - Legal 500 2023, Inquests and Inquiries
"A skilled advocate." - Legal 500 2023, Administrative Law and Human Rights
"John brings very incisive advocacy and negotiation skills." Legal 500 2023, Crime
“A fire brand silk” –Regarding work for the Manchester Arena Inquiry (Manchester Evening News)
“Has fast developed a reputation as being head and shoulders above the majority of other QC’s” Legal 500
“Forensic skills that are of the highest order” Legal 500
“Star of the Criminal Bar” The Times
“Utterly fearless in his representation of his clients” Legal 500
“Talented and above all utterly reliable” Chambers & Partners
“John Cooper has an acute instinct when it comes to media relations. He understands perfectly how to win both the legal care and the PR battle. He is the “go to” barrister for this mix of skills” John Underwood, Former Director of Campaigning & Communications for the Labour Party.
“One of the country’s leading human rights QC’S” Lynn Carter, Former director of Prisoners of Conscience.
“Outstanding dedication and commitment over a considerate period of time, not only did he offer his support in a legal capacity, it’s clear that the clients considered him no less than a friend, thus promoting all that’s good about the Bar of England & Wales” Bar Council Pro Bono Judges.
“Without Mr Cooper’s skill & support during this difficult time, the burden of the case would have been almost unbearable.” Bereaved in the case of Gordon Gentle, roadside bomb inquest.
“The detail and analysis contained in Mr Coopers work has been inspirational. At a time when myself, my family and others in the situation of loss or harm as a result of military service, have felt isolated and vulnerable, John Cooper’s commitment to our carer has been unflinching and sustained.” Bereaved in deep cut barracks hearings.
“Provided lucid and powerful advice...a fearless and eloquent advocate for his clients” Former Chair of Home affairs select committee.
“Leaves the jury on the edge of their seats.” Geoffrey Rivlin QC. Former resident judge at Southwark Crown Court.
“John Cooper has an impressive capacity to absorb and understand complex financial material and then utilise it to devastating effect in the interests of his client. He always brings the best out of his expert” Andrew Donaldson, forensic accounting partner, Dains Forensic LLP.
“Clearly he is not only a most excellent lawyer, but has the kind of sensitive people skills that are not always associated with barristers” Bar Council Pro Bono Judges.
“Highly specialised expertise with great sensitivity, doing ground breaking work in support of people facing powerful interests and with nowhere else to turn” Bar Council Pro Bono Judges.
“His attitude to all the bereaved families has been that nothing is too much trouble for him and the fact that we know that he will always be there for us has sustained us through very difficult times” Bereaved in Hercules Air Explosion Inquest.
“It is not only this family who have benefitted from John Cooper’s commitment and sustained tenacity but familiar and ultimately those still serving, who now consider themselves better protected by our legal system” Instructing solicitor, Hercules.
“John Cooper has provided me with lucid and analytical advice of the highest standard and continues to supply me with wise and practical counsel as my special advisor” Lord Bach, Bach Commission on the Right to Justice.
“Outstanding ability to communicate complex ideas in an engaging and straightforward but thoughtful way with exceptional quality in terms of presentation” Professor Jeremy Horder UCL. Former Law Commissioner for England and Wales.
“Mr Cooper is a formidable QC, informed, intelligent and impressively mindful of media sensitivities in big cases” Alastair Stewart, former ITN News Anchor.
“A true passion for fighting injustice” Dr Brian May, Queen Guitarist.
“John Cooper is at the top of his game representing an impressive portfolio of sports personalities. He is trusted and respected throughout the press and media and knows how to pitch a story which guarantees attention”. Matt Lawson, The Times.
“John Cooper has represented a number of high profile and sports people and sensitively but effectively protects their interests. I would not hesitate to refer anyone needing legal and reputational help to him” Geoff Shreeves, Sky Sports and Fox Sports.
“John Cooper always provides clear, prompt and accessible comment on stories and issues that I can rely on with complete confidence” Frances Gibb, Former legal editor, The Times.
Associated Work
Finalist Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year, Lexis Nexis 2008.
Finalist & commended, Bar Council Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year, 2008.
Lawyer of the Year, Asian Voice 2015.
Alumni Achievement Award, Newcastle University 2022
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA)
Freeman of the City of London; Worshipful Company of Coopers.
Middle Temple Senior Advocacy Trainer and accredited Vulnerable Witness Trainer.
Professional Memberships
Master of the Bench at Middle Temple.
Vice Chairman of Bar Council’s Public Affairs Committee.
Vice Chairman of Bar Conference Organising Board.
Director of Education for the SE Circuit.
Criminal Bar Association.
Editor of Criminal Bar Quarterly (National Magazine for Criminal Practitioners).
Called to Australian Bar 1989.
Data Protection Officer for John Cooper KC: Peter Allsopp DPO@hostileriskmanagement.co.uk
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https://artsfuse.org/236802/music-remembrance-singer-songwriter-nanci-griffith-1953-2021/
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songwriter Nanci Griffith (1953
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2024-08-27T00:00:00
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There were no performers who possessed more talent than singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith in the 1980s and early '90s, when she was at her remarkable best.
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The Arts Fuse
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https://artsfuse.org/236802/music-remembrance-singer-songwriter-nanci-griffith-1953-2021/
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By Daniel Gewertz
There were no performers who possessed more talent than singer-songwriter Nanci Griffith in the 1980s and early ’90s, when she was at her remarkable best.
Nanci Griffith, the Texan “folkabilly” singer-songwriter, died in August at the age of 68, after fighting two different cancers for 25 years. In my decades of writing about contemporary folk music, I’d venture to say there were no performers who possessed more talent than Griffith in the 1980s and early ’90s, when she was at her remarkable best. Her single Grammy win was in the Contemporary Folk category, for Other Voices, Other Rooms, a guest-star-laden 1993 project of folk gems written by others. That she never won a Grammy for any of her own compositions is an injustice. She was both a stunning songwriter and a savvy song-finder. And as a singer, she gave “precious” a good name.
Boston took to Griffith earlier and stronger than any American city outside her native Texas. I got to interview her for the Boston Herald many times, starting right before she signed with the locally based Philo/Rounder Records in 1984; I felt I knew Griffith as well as a Northern journalist could. She was a tightly wound tumble of conflicting instincts: both forthright and private, both steely and prickly, proud of her achievements and openly hurt that she was not more widely rewarded for them. I saw a lot of gigs, many of them solo. But there was a single show in the mid-’80s that best displayed Griffith’s indomitable strength. It was at the Harvard Square basement room then called Passim Coffeehouse.
Let me set the scene. The late Bob Donlin was introducing her from the tiny Passim stage in his usual charming yet wooden way. Nanci was standing still in the back of the tightly packed little club, aware that most eyes were already upon her. At the utterance of her name, she stepped forward with resolute energy. But she had forgotten there were two brick steps at the edge of the seating area. She pitched violently forward, landing on hands and knees, almost prone. The crowd emitted a collective gasp. But Nanci jumped up and darted purposefully to the stage. She laughed, said something self-deprecating about her innate awkwardness, and then launched into one of her favorite upbeat songs full force, her energy perfectly focused. There were no further comments in the hour-long set about the mishap. It was a great show. Only days later did we hear that Griffith had suffered bruises to both skin and bone, and was seen at a local hospital.
That was Nanci Griffith: more or less equal parts gumption and vulnerability; a force of nature and a delicate, worried soul. She was a waiflike Texas sweetheart at first glance, but while the simple word “heart” was one of her favorites as a writer, Griffith’s own heart was, in interviews, often hidden. She was almost as likely to complain about slights as exhibit contentment. But one thing you could always expect: fierce affection for her talented musical friends and band-members.
Nanci Caroline Griffith was born on July 6, 1953, in Seguin, TX; the family moved to Austin soon afterward. She began singing at Austin open-mic nights at age 12, brought to the bars by her father. For a short spell in her early 20s she was a schoolteacher, but music called her. By 24 she had recorded her first LP for a tiny label, Featherbed. There was an early marriage and divorce, to a fellow Texan singer-songwriter, Eric Taylor, a Vietnam veteran and heroin addict. They later became friends.
I am not alone in thinking that Griffith’s best LPs were the two she did on the Philo/Rounder label in the mid-’80s, Once in a Very Blue Moon (1984) and Last of the True Believers (1986), both produced by folk-legend Jim Rooney. The musicians were mostly little known at the time. Now is a different story. Among the players and singers: Bela Fleck, Mark O’Connor, Lyle Lovett, Roy Husky Jr., Lloyd Green, Pat Alger, Robert Earl Keen, Tom Russell and Maura O’Connell.
A group photo in the CD booklet of Very Blue Moon shows Rooney and all the musicians and engineers at Jack Clement’s Cowboy Arms Hotel & Recording Spa. Taken beside a swimming pool, the photo is captioned “The Once in a Very Blue Moon Sink or Swim Team,” and the baker’s dozen of guys and gals assembled in shorts, jeans, and swim-trunks were obviously a loose, happy bunch. From that point on, Griffith named every band she fronted, big or small, The Blue Moon Orchestra. The clear desire, I assume, was to honor and recall that album’s familial spirit. The core of the band stayed with her for the long haul.
Essentially that same group created Last of the True Believers, in 1986, another graceful merging of folk and country, revved up by bluegrass fast-picking wizardry. That album copped a Grammy nomination, and “won” Nanci Griffith a contract at MCA Records, a big label in Nashville. It is no accident I put the word won in quotes, for the move to MCA, in my opinion, ultimately diminished Griffith’s career. MCA was signing a lot of new talent willy-nilly back in the late ’80s. (The Nashville industry joke at the time was that MCA stood for “More Crummy Artists.”) Griffith told me, and others, that the label didn’t know what to do with her. Yet her first two albums didn’t muck up the basic Griffith sound. It was Nanci herself who coined the term folkabilly, the merging of folk and rockabilly. It’s a pretty fair term. Griffith always had two distinct voices, her exceedingly high, delicate ballad voice, and the gutsy, mid-range crowing that she unleashed for life-affirming uptempo numbers. They seemed to almost come from two different people, those two voices, and it is not surprising that her country radio audience did not cotton to them.
“The radio person at MCA Nashville told me that I would never be on radio because my voice hurt people’s ears,” Griffith told me once, and she told it to a lot of journalists. She was hurt.
She actually didn’t do badly for MCA. She had a couple of singles in the country Top 40, and her first two albums made it above the #30 mark. That wasn’t good enough for the label, though: they wanted a full-stop radio star. I don’t think that her failure to achieve adulation from the country music audience was about Griffith’s very high voice: it was about her lack of traditional sexiness, or even traditional “womanliness.” Nanci might’ve been the darling of the blue state folk circuit, but on country radio she was a sad-voiced skinny girl without a whit of sex appeal. And she was no good ol’ girl, either.
There was a brief period in the late ’80s when the Nashville-centered country music industry flirted with a wider artistic palette. Steve Earle called it, with biting wit, “country music’s great credibility scare.” By 1990 it was nearly over, and MCA farmed Griffith out to their pop division. That meant MOR, Middle of the Road. She was suddenly a rootsy poet wandering among the synthesizers. Ghost is a favorite word in Griffith’s lyrics, but it was her later years at MCA that really might have spooked her. On a few later albums she vacillated between her natural balladic voice and an oddly pretentious vocal approach that sounded like a cloying little girl.
Her next label, Elektra, brought about two triumphs: her Grammy-winning Other Voices, Other Rooms (named after the Truman Capote novel) and The Dust Bowl Symphony with the London Symphony Orchestra. But ultimately, her great victories in life weren’t about awards, label deals, or Top 40s. It is about the dozens of fine songs — many of them little short stories in concise song-form. A few were hits for other singers, such as “Love at the Five & Dime” and “Listen to the Radio” (Kathy Mattea) and “Outbound Plane” (Suzy Boggus). “Gulf Coast Highway,” “I Wish It Would Rain” and the sublime Dust Bowl ballad “Trouble in the Fields” were sung by many, including Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris. And then there’s the remarkable “It’s a Hard Life Wherever You Go,” which bounds between Dublin and Chicago, the present and the past, to show that “If we poison our children with hatred / Then the hard life is all that they’ll know.” That one was even done by Cher.
Her love songs often struck an honest yet wistful tone, at times unusual in phrasing and the pattern of thoughts. But it was her story-songs — inspired by such favorite Southern writers as Capote, Carson McCullers, and Tennessee Williams — that employed striking narrative choices. None were bolder than “Mary & Omie,” a song she chose to sing in the first person as a middle-aged Black woman whose loving husband moved the family north and fought for a middle-class existence “because Omie wouldn’t settle for less.”
Considering her battle with two cancers, her lack of recent albums, and her bitterness over her pursuit of mainstream success, it is possible to paint a melancholy personal picture of Griffith in her later years. While her story-songs about other people remained hopeful, her personal songs of loneliness and brief love affairs became less poignant and enchanting as the years progressed. In the old days, her songs could break your heart and mend it again. Some later ones merely emitted frustrated sadness. But there is grace to be found even in those weaker works. After all, the courage to sing about the neurotic feelings of the heart is uncommon. She left a large body of notable work. There is no better testament to her talent than the 84-minute concert film Winter Marquee, recorded in Knoxville in 2002 (available on YouTube).
It shows Griffith not only in prime form, at 49, but also fronting a phenomenally talented version of her long-lasting Blue Moon Orchestra. The communal feeling of her early albums is evident. The live CD version of the concert also finds Griffith back on her old label, Rounder.
I was delighted she chose to revive one of my favorite songs from her 1984 Blue Moon album, “I’m Not Drivin’ These Wheels.” For starters, it takes place in Massachusetts, on a bus ride Nanci took from Boston to Marshfield to be interviewed by Dick Pleasants on WATD. As in many of her songs, the lyrics have odd little jumps in logic and narrative that force the listener to fill in the blanks. So when the chorus goes “Bring the prose to the wheel / I’m not driving these wheels,” she is singing of the wheels of literary inspiration as well as the wheels of the bus she rides, and the word prose refers to the book in her lap as well as the song lyrics she is beginning to dream up. She sounds positively exultant that the creative forces come from outside herself.
So many of her compositions reveal her own life, lived alone. On the great song “Daddy Said,” the titular character advises, “You’ll never learn to fish on a borrowed line / you’ll never learn to write if you’re walkin’ round cryin’ / And it’s a pity your lover died young / but you’ll never get tired of living alone.”
That may have proven true of Griffith’s hit-and-miss romantic life. But her real love life was with her musicians and friends, and that life lasted. The Winter Marquee show feels like something more than a superb concert: it is a career benediction. Near its end, Griffith brings out a surprise guest — Emmylou Harris, a good friend. Harris walks up to the mic with a grin as wide as it is authentic. “I just have one thing to say,” she announces, looking at her friend. “Isn’t she lovely?”
She was.
The talent at Club Passim’s Nanci Griffith night represented at least two generations: it was a nice, low-key salute to the singer/songwriter, who played the venue often in the mid-’80s. Arts Fuse review
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https://extra.shu.ac.uk/emls/iemls/renplays/dumbknight.htm
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The Dumb Knight
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by Gervase Markham and Lewis Machin
Edited by Kris Towse (2009)
The Dumb Knight.
A historical comedy, acted sundry times by the Children of his Majesties Revels.
London.
Printed by Nicholas Okes, for John Bache, and are to be sold at his shop in Popes-head Palace, near to the Royal Exchange. 1608.
Introduction to the play
The Dumb Knight, first published in 1608 (and it is from this quarto the play is edited), is a troubled but entertaining play. The play has two authors, Gervase Markham and Lewis Machin, although evidence the two collaborated is minimal, leading to an incoherent play that nevertheless is highly entertaining.
The Authors:
Gervase Markham (1568? -1637) is by far the more famous of the two authors, if only by virtue of the:
Astonishing variety of literary publicationspoetry, drama, and prose combined with an equally astonishing variety of non-literary works on topics such as horsemanship, veterinary medicine, husbandry, domestic economy, and even military training
However, as F.N.L Poynter rather cruelly points out, Markham's brief interest in theatre during his previously successful literary career "is no substitute for dramatic talent" . An attack that is somewhat justified by reading any plot summary of The Dumb Knight, as this reveals Markham's unfortunate affliction of "not knowing when to stop" as the play easily covers "enough material for two plays" . Outside of theatre however Markham is an accomplished poet, and as Joseph Quincy Adams Jr. states, Markham is an "excellent classical scholar" .
Lewis Machin, by contrast, is at best a "shadowy figure" and knowledge of his career is almost entirely based on the plays we are relatively certain he was at least partly responsible for writing: The Insatiable Countess and Every woman in her Humour. These, alongside The Dumb Knight were performed by an acting company associated with Machin known as the 'Children of the King's Revels', a "controversial theatrical company" with a penchant for performing a "generally bawdy repertoire" of plays at the Whitefriars theatre, which "had a rather shadowy existence before 1613" .
The Main and Sub-plots
Given their history of literary productions, the task of distinguishing the work of the two authors becomes quite simple: "The serious main plot, written in smooth blank verse that is sometimes illuminated with beautiful passages" is almost certainly the work of Gervase Markham, whilst: "the comic sub-plot, written for the most part in prose, full of coarse humour and abounding in the most indelicate allusions" is probably the work of Lewis Machin.
The main plot is concerned not with wit and base comedy, but with exploring issues of "Love and honour, of the limits of oaths, and of the relationship between gender and power, wrapped up in a pleasingly violent storyline" . This contrasts starkly with the sub-plot, and lends support to the almost certainly correct theory that the main plot was a play in its own right, before Machin was allowed to modify it for the early modern stage.
The many classical allusions from the characters of the main plot solidify Markham's individual claim to it, as "Gervase's elder brother Francis was educated at Winchester and Cambridge, and it is probable that something similar was true of Gervase" . Indeed Poynter goes on to doubt "whether it was a play [intended] to appeal to a Jacobean audience" at all, a theory the above certainly supports.
However dating when exactly the main plot was written has proven difficult: Lines such as "Heaven, in thy palm, this day the balance hinges!" can do little more than date it as pre-1606, the date when the 'Act to restrain the Abuses of Players' came into force. That said:
We are on firmer ground in saying that The Dumb Knight was being performed, at some point after 1601, in Nuremberg by a group of touring English actors, the Englische Kömedianten. There, Jakob Ayrer, a notary and amateur playwright, adapted it into a German version, which survives. Ayrer died in 1605, so the adaptation was completed before then.
Both these deductions, it is worth pointing out, lend a little credence to the theory that "Heywood took the idea from Markham" for the extremely similar card-scene in A Woman Killed with Kindness and not "Markham from Heywood" . Although this is far from conclusive evidence as neither of these factors do not manage to date the main plots creation precisely.
Whilst the main plot is influenced by the classics, and notably the "Bandello novels, which provided plots for so many English writers of the time" , the sub-plot, as Adams Jr. elaborates in his essay "Every Woman in her Humor" and "The Dumb Knight" clearly borrows heavily from Every Woman in her Humour: The two characters, "Lollia and Coloquintida, are identical with the Hostess and Citty Wife" from Every Woman in her Humour. The first comic sub-plot scene beginning with Lollia's speech "Now fie upon't, who would be an orators wife and not a gentlewoman" for example, is copied almost verbatim from Every woman in her Humour, and as The Dumb Knight is very likely the later of the two plays to reach Machin, it becomes highly improbable that Machin is copying these from another playwright. Indeed, Machin's signed address to the reader is evidence against this theory, even though Every Woman in her Humour is technically an anonymous play; the sheer improbability that Machin would write and sign a preface to a play where he had "been guilty of an extensive and impudent plagiarism of another playwright" and then send it that play to print makes it near certain the plays share an author in Machin.
Issues and inconstancies of the play
Here I shall be brief, as the play has a veritable myriad of inconsistencies: Initially, the play is described as a "historical comedy" on the title-page, however:
Evidently, Markham
was not pleased by the printing of The Dumb Knight without his name on, since a new title-page attributing the play solely to "Gervase Markham" was hastily printed and inserted into the unsold copies.
And on this new title-page a new description is inserted, describing the play as a "pleasant comedy". In this disparity of description we have in microcosm the central problem that haunts The Dumb Knight : Markham's hand in this correction from "historical" (it's only claim for being historical is it's occasional borrowing from one of Shakespeare's history plays) to "pleasant" is by no means certain, however it still show's Markham clearly was not in collaboration with Machin at all during the plays revisions, as describing the base-comedy and frequently obscene puns of the sub-plot "pleasant" is possibly the cleanest source of humour to be found in the play.
The failure of both descriptions to accurately summarise the play's content highlights both the scope of the play, and the lack of understanding between the authors (mainly, it has to be said, on the part of Machin). The inconsistency therefore provides an explanation for the play's lack of coherent message: The main plot's "pleasant" moral message of chastity and honesty rewarded is subverted by a separate author adding a subplot that celebrates flamboyant dress, and rejoices in the cuckoldry and deception of the unpopular. The most noticeable issue however, as Poynter explains, is the "fact that the main plot occupies a time span of several weeks, while the sub-plot cannot last more than thirty-six hours" . The two plots are at best described as "inartistically joined" and at worst as blindly forced upon each other by Machin.
The play's contemporary reception and popularity
There are two main sources available to give insight into the plays reception: The first being Machin's signed address to the reader, which refers to "sharp critical censures", which if nothing else "implies that its production was sufficiently successful to raise some publicity and some controversy."
The other clue as to the play's popularity is the 1633 folio, which would imply at least a resurgence of interest in the play, if not a continued popularity (although probably not with the same company, as the "Children of the Kings Revels" ran into financial difficulties and had to close in 1609), despite the plays length and jarring inconsistency's.
In Conclusion
The play's frighteningly obvious lack of collaborations between the authors and the play's length may make it difficult for a modern reader to view The Dumb Knight as anything other than two plays who just so happen to share a title and a few characters. However it cannot be ignored, that despite this, the two plays combined "clearly touched a raw nerve in early modern culture" and "enjoyed success over thirty years or more, and in a range of forms and venues" .
The solution as to why this is the case, one suspects, comes from viewing the play the perspective of what it would deliver to a contemporary audience: Everything they could want in a comedy, bar complexity.
Where Shakespeare is brilliant in creating complex characters and plots to hook an audience, The Dumb Knight goes for the far simpler approach of simply providing everything it's audience could want, and unsubtly cramming it into a single play. The Dumb Knight possesses larger than life characters, fanfare (each act is started with "music"), intrigue, poetic verse and suspense in the main plot and simple comic relief in the sub-plot. The key to the plays success appears to be that each scene does it's "job" well: The play is constantly providing entertainment and spectacle either via humour, drama, suspense or a fight whilst adhering to a single, simple (if not entirely coherent) plot.
Even if the jigsaw does not fit together to form a complete enough picture for the critic's purposes, the pieces of the puzzle are entertaining and well executed enough to maintain even the modern reader's interest.
To the understanding reader,
Rumour, that hydra-headed monster, with more tongues than eyes, by help of his intelligencer Envy, hath made strange misconstructions on this dumb knight, which then could not answer for himself: But now this publication doth untie his tongue, to answer the objections of all sharp critical censures which heretofore have undeservedly past upon him. And for my part, I protest the wrongs I have received by some, whose worths I will not traduce. With a mild neglect I have laughed at their follies; for I think my self happy, because I have been envied, since the best now in grace have been subject to some slanderous tongues that want worth themselves, and think it great praise to them to detract praise from others that deserve it; yet having a partner in the wrong, whose worth hath been often approved, I count the wrong but half a wrong, because he knows best how to answer for himself: But I now in his absence, make this apology, both for him and me. Thus leaving you and the book together, I ever rest yours,
Lewis Machin.
Dramatis Personae
·King of Cyprus.
·Philocles, The Dumb Knight, and second in command to the King.
·Alphonso, A wealthy and extravagantly dressed lord.
·Duke of Epire, Brother to Mariana.
·Lord Alphonso, A lord of the Queens.
·Florio, A servant under Epire.
·Caelio, High marshal for the Queen.
·Prate, An orator.
·Precedent, Prates Clerk.
·Mechant
·VeloursClients of Prate the orator.
·Drap
·Queen of Sicily.
·Mariana, Friend of the Queen, and sister to Epire.
·Lollia, Prates wife.
·Coloquintida, Lollias friend.
Attendants, Chip, Doctors, Executioner, Gentleman-Usher, Heralds, Shaving, Watchmen and Jailor.
Scene: Sicily.
Act One.
Scene One. Music.
Enter the King of Cyprus, Philocles, Florio, and attendants in arms.
Cyprus.
Enough! These loud sounds deafes my passions:
How long shall love make me a slave to hope,
And mix my calm desires with tyranny?
O Philocles, tis heresy I hold,
Thought and affection cannot be controlled.
Philocles.
Yet may it be bent and suppled with extremes,
Sith few dare see the end of violence.
What makes the skilful leech to use the fire ,
Or war her engines, or states policy,
But to recover things most desperate?
Revolt is recreant when pursuit is brave,
Never to faint doth purchase what we crave.
Cyprus.
True, my Philocles, yet my recreant soul,
Slaved to her beauty, would renounce all war
And yield her right to love. Did not thy spirit,
Mixed with my longing, fortify these arms?
But I am now resolved, and this sad hour
Shall give an end to my distemperature.
Summon a parley.
Enter aloft the Queen of Sicily, the Duke of Epire, Alphonso, [Mariana] and attendants.
Queen.
What says our tyrant suitor, our disease in love,
That makes our thoughts a slave unto his sword;
What says my lord?
Cyprus.
Madam attend me, this is my latest summons:
The many suns my sorrows have beheld,
And my sad nights of longings, all through hope
T'enjoy the eye of earth (your own dear self),
Are grown so infinite in length and weight,
That like to wearied Atlas , I enforce
These wars as Hercules to bear my load :
Briefly I must enjoy you, or else lose
The breath of life. Which to prevent, behold!
My sword must be my Cupid, and with feathered steel,
Force pity from your breast. Your citys walls,
Chidden with my cannons, have set open a path
And boldly bids me enter. All your men of war,
Feebled with famine and a weary siege,
Take danger from mine actions. Only yourself,
Strong in your will, oppose even destiny:
And like the giants war offend the heavens.
Which to prevent, do but descend and give
Peace to my love-suit, and as oercome thereby
I'll yield myself your prisoner, and be drawn
A thrall in your triumphant victory.
If otherwise, behold! These fatal swords
Shall never be sheathed til we be conquerors:
And not respecting innocence nor sex,
The cries of infants, nor the prayers of age,
All things shall perish, til within my arms
I fold yourself, my thrall and conqueror.
Queen.
Thou may be master of my bodys tomb,
But for my soul and mind, they are as free
As their creation; and with angels wings
Can soar beyond thy reach. Trust me, King of Cyprus,
Those coals the Roman Porcia did devour
Are not burnt out, nor have th' Egyptian worms
Yet lost their stings ; steel holds his temper still:
And these are ransoms from captivity.
But art thou noble? Hast thou one royal thought?
Cyprus.
Approve me by your question.
Queen.
Then briefly thus:
To shun the great effusion of their bloods,
Who feel no touch in mine affections,
Dare you to single combat, two to two,
Refer your right in love?
Cyprus.
Who are your combatants? We love equality.
Queen.
This is the first, the Epire duke, a man
Sprung from the line of famous Skanderbeg .
The next Alphonso, sprung from noble blood:
Who laden with rich Lusitanian prize,
Hath rode through Syracuse twice in pomp.
Cyprus.
Their likings to the motion?
Epire.
They are like wrath,
Never unarmed to bear weak injury.
Alphonso.
Nay, more! We are the sons of destiny,
Virtue's our guide, our aim is dignity.
Philocles.
Sfoot, king shalt not forsake them, this I see:
Love, fight, and death are ruled by destiny.
Cyprus.
My spirit speaks thy motion.
Madam, although advantage might evade
And give my love more hope, yet my bent will,
Bowed to your pleasure, doth embrace your law.
We do accept the combat, and our self
Will with that duke try fortunes; this my friend,
The more part of my self, my dearest Philocles,
One of an angels temper, shall with that, that lord ,
Try best and worst. The place? The time? The sword?
Epire.
They are your rights; we claim as challengers.
Cyprus.
And we would lose that vantage , but since fame
Makes virtue dulat , we embrace our rights :
The place before these walls, the hour next sun,
The poleaxe and the hand axe for the fight.
Queen.
It is enough.
My hostage is my person and my love.
Cyprus.
And mine my hope, my faith and royalty.
Epire.
They are of poise sufficient, and one light
Shall at one instant, give us day and night.
Exeunt Queen, Mariana, Alphonso [and Epire.]
Cyprus.
She's gone, my Philocles: And as she goes, even so
The sun forsakes the heavens to kiss the sea;
Day in her beauty leaves us, and methinks,
Her absence doth exile all happiness
Tell me my Philocles; nay pray thee tell me true,
Even from that love,
Which to us both should bend one sympathy,
Discharge an open breast: Dost thou not think,
She is the mirror of her beauteous sex?
Unparalleled, and uncompanioned?
Philocles.
Envy will say she's rare; then truth must vow
She is beyond compare, sith in her looks,
Each motion hath a speaking majesty,
She is herself, compared with herself:
For but herself, she hath no companion.
But when I think of beauty, wit and grace,
The elements of active delicacy:
Those all eye pleasing harmonies of sight
Which do enchant mens fancies, and stir up
The life blood of dull earth; O then methinks
Fair Mariana hath an equal place,
And if not outshine, it shows more beautiful.
Cyprus.
More than my queen?
Philocles.
More in the gloss of beauty, less in worth
Of wisdom and great thoughts. The one I find
As made for wonder, th' other for admire.
Cyprus.
Thine equal praises makes my fancies rich,
And I am pleasd with thy comparisons.
Things of like nature live in best consent:
Beauty with subjects, majesty with kings.
Then let those two ideas lively move,
Spirit beyond all spirit, in our breasts;
That in the end of our great victory,
We may attain both love and majesty.
Philocles.
Although my first creation and my birth,
My thoughts, and other tempers of my souls,
Took all their noble beings from the sword,
And made me only for the use of wars:
Yet in this combat, something methinks appears
Greater than greatest glory; and doth raise
My mind beyond herself.
Sfoot! Methinks Caesars Pharsalia ,
Nor Scipios Carthage, nor Emilias acts,
Were worthy chairs of triumph: They oer mens
Poor mangled bodies, and fire wasted climes
Made their triumphant passage, but we two
Must conquer thoughts and love; more than the gods can do!
[Enter Florio]
Cyprus.
True, and therein
Consists the glorious garland of our praise:
But we neglect th' affairs of preparation. Florio, be it your charge
To see th' erection of the squared lists ,
Fit ground for either army, and what else
Belongs unto such royal eminence.
Florio.
How near will your majestys hand the lists extend
Unto the citys walls?
Cyprus.
So as the dullest eye,
May see the most heedful passage in the fight.
Florio.
What square or circuit?
Cyprus.
Threescore pace each way.
Florio.
Your majesty shall have your will performed.
Philocles.
Do, and you do us grace. And now, thou sun!
That art the eye of heaven, whose pure sight
Shall be our guide, and Joves great chronicler;
Look from thy sphere.
No guilt of pride, of malice, or of blood
Puts on our armour; only pure naked love
Tutors our hopes, and doth our actions move!
Cyprus.
Enough my Philocles, thine orisons are heard.
Come lets away.
Exeunt.
[Scene Two]
Enter Lollia , the wife of Prate the orator.
Lollia.
Now fie upon't, who would be an orators wife and not a gentlewoman if she could choose? A Lady is the most sweet lascivious life, conveys and kisses, the tire, O the tire, made castle upon castle, jewel upon jewel, knot upon knot, crowns, garlands, gardens, and what not? The hood, the rebato , the French fall, the loose bodied gown, the pin in the hair; now clawing the pate, then picking the teeth, and every day change; when we poor souls must come and go for every mans pleasure, and what's a lady more than another body? We have legs and hands, and rolling eyes, hanging lips, sleek brows, cherry cheeks and other things as ladies have; but the fashion carries it away.
Enter Mistress Coloquintida .
Coloquintida.
Why how now mistress Prate? I'the old disease still, will it never be better, cannot a woman find one kind man amongst twenty? O, the days that I have seen! When the law of a womans wit could have put her husbands purse to execution.
Lollia.
O mistress Coloquintida, mine is even the most unnatural man to his wife.
Coloquintida.
Faith, for the most part, all scholars are so, for they take so upon them to know all things, that indeed they know nothing. And besides they are with study and ease grown so unwieldy, that a woman shall neer want a sore stomach that's troubled with them.
Lollia.
And yet they must have the government of all!
Coloquintida.
True, and great reason they have for it, but a wise man will put it in a womans hand. What! Shell save what he spends.
Lollia.
You have a pretty ruff, how deep is it?
Coloquintida.
Nay this is but shallow! Marry I have a ruff is a quarter deep, measured by the yard .
Lollia.
Indeed, by the yard?
Coloquintida.
By the standard I assure you! You have a pretty set too, how big is the steele you set with?
Lollia.
As big as a reasonable sufficient. Pity of my life! I have forgot myself! If my husband should rise from his study and miss me, we should have such a coil !
Coloquintida.
A coil? Why, what coil? If he were my husband and did but thwart me, I would ring him so many alarms, sound him so many brass trumpets, beat him so many drums to his confusion, and thunder him such a peal of great shot, that I would turn his brain in the pan, and make him mad with an eternal silence.
Lollia.
O mistress Coloquintida, but my husbands anger is the worst favourdest without all conscience of any mans in all Sicily. He is even as peevish as a sick monkey, and as waspish as an ill pleased bride the second morning!
Coloquintida.
Let your wrath be reciprocal, and pay him at his own weapon. But to the purpose for which I came: The party you wrote of commends him to you in this diamond, he that met the party you know, and said the partys party was a party of a partly pretty understanding.
Lollia.
O, the Lord Alphonso?
Coloquintida.
The very same, believe it! He loves you, and swears he so loves you, that if you do not credit him you are worse then an infidel.
Lollia.
Indeed mistress Coloquintida, he hath the right garb for apparel, the true touch with the tongue in the kiss, and he dances well but falls heavily: But my husband, woman, my husband! If we could put out his cats eyes, there were something to be said, but they are ever peeping and prying, that they are able to pierce through a millstone. Besides, I may say to you, he is a little jealous too and see where he comes? We shall have a coil now.
Enter Prate the orator.
Coloquintida.
Begin you to pout first, for thats a womans prevention.
Prate.
What, Lollia I say, where are you? My house looks you, my men lack you, I seek you, and a whole quest of inquiry cannot find you! Fie, fie, fie, fie, idleness is the whip of thrift! A good housewife should ever be occupied.
Lollia.
Indeed I have much joy to be occupied in anybodys company.
Prate.
Why, whats the matter?
Lollia.
Why, orators wives shortly will be known like images on water stairs; ever in one weather-beaten suit, as if none wore hoods but monks and ladies; nor feathers but fore-horses and waiting gentlewomen; nor chains but prisoners and lords officers; nor periwigs but players and hot brains: But the weakest must to the walls still .
Prate.
Go to, you shall have what you will.
Lollia.
Nay, nay, 'twas my hard fortune to be your wife Time was I might have done otherwise, but it matters not; you esteem me as you do yourself and think all things costly enough that covers shame, and that a pair of silken fore-sleeves to a satin breastplate, is a garment good enough for a capitol: But is master Wrangle, master Tangle, or master Trolbeare of that opinion? In faith sir, no.
Theres never a gallant in our state,
That goes more rich in gaudy bravery:
And yet I hope for quality of speech,
Audacious words or quirks or quiddities ,
You are not held their much inferior.
Fie, fie, I am ashamed to see your baseness.
Coloquintida.
Indeed master Prate, she tells you truly; I wonder that you, being a proper man and an orator, will not go brave according to the custom of the country!
Prate.
Go to, neighbour: He that will rise to the top of a high ladder must go up, not leap up. But be patient wench, and thou shalt shortly see me gallant it with the best, and for thyself, my Lollia,
Not Lollia Paulina, nor those blazing stars,
Which makes the world the apes of Italy:
Shall match thyself in sun-bright splendour!
Lollia.
Nay, verily for myself I care not, tis you that are my pride, if you would go like yourself I were appeased.
Prate.
Believe it, wench, so I will, but to the purpose for which I came, the end of this great war is now brought to a combat, two to two, the duke of Epire and Alphonso for our Queen, against the King and Prince Philocles: Now wench if thou wilt go see the fight, I will send and provide thee of a good standing.
Lollia.
Indeed, for you have never a good one of your own.
Prate.
What, Precedent I say?
Precedent. [From within]
Anon, anon sir.
Prate.
Why, when I say! The villains belly is like a bottomless pit, ever filling and yet empty! At your leisure, sir!
Enter Precedent , Prates man eating.
Precedent.
I can make no more haste than my teeth will give me leave.
Prate.
Well sir, get you without the town to the place for the combat, and provide me for my wife some good standing to see the conflict.
Precedent.
How master? How must I provide a good standing for you for my mistress? Truly master I think a marrow-bone pie, candi'd erringoes, preserv'd dates, or marmalade of cantharides were much better harbingers; cock sparrows stew'd, doves brains or swans pizzles are very provocative; roasted potatoes or boiled skirrets are your only lofty dishes, methinks these should fit you better than I can do.
Prate.
Whats this? Whats this I say? Provide me a standing for my wife upon a scaffold!
Precedent.
And truly master, I think a private chamber were better!
Prate.
I grant you, if there were a chamber convenient.
Precedent.
Willing minds will make shift in a simple hole: Close windows, strong locks, hard bed and sure posts are your only ornaments.
Prate.
I think the knave be mad, sirrah! You chop logic, blockhead, you that have your brain-pan made of dry leather, and your wit ever wetshod: Pack about your business, or Ill pack your pen and inkhorn about your ears!
Precedent.
Well sir, I may go or so, but would my mistress take a standing of my preferment, I would so mount her, she should love strange things the better all her life after.
Prate.
Why, when sir?
Exit Precedent.
[From offstage]
And come, sweet wife. Nay, neighbour! Let us have your company too.
Exeunt.
[Scene Three]
Enter at one door a herald and Florio, marshal for the King, with officers bearing the lists, at the other door a herald and Caelio, marshal for the Queen.
Caelio.
Holla, what are you?
Florio.
High marshal for the King, your character?
Caelio.
I likewise for the Queen, where lies your equal ground?
Florio.
Here underneath these walls, and there and there ground for the battles.
Caelio.
Place there the Queens seat,
And there and there chairs for the combatants.
Florio.
Place here the lists, fix every joint as strong
As twere a wall, for on this foot of earth
This day shall stand two famous monuments:
The one a throne of glory bright as gold,
Burnishd with angels lustre, and with stars
Plucked from the crown of conquest, in which shall sit
Men made half gods through famous victory;
The other a rich tomb of memorable fame,
Built by the curious thoughts of noble minds,
In which shall sleep these valiant souls in peace,
Whom fortunes hand shall only overthrow.
Heaven , in thy palm, this day the balance hinges!
Which makes kings gods, or men more great than kings.
Caelio.
So now let the heralds give the champions sign
Of ready preparations.
Exeunt Heralds.
The cornets sound, and enter at one end of the stage a herald, two pages, one with pollaxes, the other with hand axes, the Duke of Epire, and Alphonso like combatants, the Queen, Mariana, Prate, Lollia, Coloquintida and Precedent aloft.
Florio.
What are you that appear, and what desire
Draws you within these lists?
Epire.
I am the Duke of Epire, and the desire
Which doth attract my spirit to run this marshal course,
Is the fair guard of a distressed queen;
Would wed to hate and inequality and brutish force,
Which to withstand I boldly enter thus,
And will defail , or else prove recreant .
Florio.
And what are you or your intendiments ?
Alphonso.
I am Alphonso, marshal of this realm,
Who of like tempered thoughts and like desires,
Have grounded this, my sanctimonious zeal,
And will approve the Dukes assertions,
Or in this field lie slain and recreant.
Florio.
Enter and prosper as your cause deserves.
The cornets sound, and enter at the other end of the stage a herald, two pages with axes and pollaxes, then the King of Cyprus and Philocles, like combatants and their army.
Caelio.
What are you that appear, and what desire
Draws you within these lists?
Cyprus.
I am the King of Cyprus, who led on
By the divine instinct of heavenly love,
Come with my sword to beg that royal maid,
And to approve by gift of heaven and fate,
She is a one to me appropriate:
Which to maintain I challenge entrance here,
Where I will live a king or recreant.
Caelio.
And what are you or your intendiments?
Philocles.
I am less than my thoughts, more than myself,
Yet nothing but the creature of my fate.
By name my nature only is obscur'd,
And yet the world baptis'd me Philocles.
My entrance here is proof of holy zeal,
And to maintain that no severe disdain,
False shape of chastity, nor womans will,
Neglective petulance, or uncertain hope,
Foul wizard coyness, nor seducing fame
Should rob the royal temper of true love
From the desired aim of his desires,
Which my best blood shall witness, or this field
Entomb my body made a recreant.
Caelio.
Enter and prosper as your cause deserves.
Draws 2 swords.
Florio.
Princes, lay your hands on these swords points:
Here you shall swear by hope, by heaven, by Jove ;
And by the right you challenge in true fame,
That here you stand not arm'd with any guile,
Malignant hate, or usurpation
Of philtres charms, of night-spells characters,
Or other black infernal vantages;
But even with thoughts as pure
As your pure valours, or the suns pure beams,
T' approve the right of pure affection;
And howsoe're your fortunes rise or fall,
To break no faith in your conditions,
So help you Jove.
All.
We swear.
Queen.
How often doth my maiden thoughts correct
And chide my forward will, for this extreme
Pursuit of blood! Believe me, fain I would
Recall mine oaths vow, did not my shame
Hold fast my cruelty, by which is taught
Those gems are prized best, are dearest bought.
Sleep, my loves softness then, waken my flame,
Which guards a vestal sanctity. Princes behold,
Upon those weapons sits my god of love,
And in their powers my loves severity.
If them you conquer, we are all your slaves,
If they triumph, well mourn upon your graves.
Mariana.
Now by my maiden modesty I wish
Good fortune to that Philocles. My mind
Presages virtue in his eaglets eyes.
Sfoot! He looks like a sparrow-hawk, or a wanton fire,
A flash of lightning, or a glimpse of day;
His eye steals to my heart, and lets it see
More than it would peace! Blab no secrecy,
He must have blows.
Florio.
Sound cornets, princes, respect your guards.
Here they fight, and Philocles overthrows Alphonso, and Epire overthrows Cyprus.
Philocles.
I crave the Queens conditions, or this blow
Sends this afflicted soul to heaven or hell.
Speak madam, will you yield or shall he die?
Epire.
Neither bold prince, if thou but touch a hair,
The Kings breath shall redeem it: Madam your love
Is safe in angels guarding, let no fear
Shake hands with doubtfulness, you are as safe
As in a tower of diamonds!
Philocles.
O tis but glass,
And cannot bear this axes massiness!
Duke, thy brave words that second thy brave deeds,
Fills me with emulation: Only we two
Stand equal victors; then if thou hast that tie
And bond of well knit valour, which unites
Virtue and same together; let us restore
Our captives unto freedom, and we two,
In single combat try out the mastery.
Where whoso falls each other, shall subscribe
To every clause in each condition.
Epire.
Thou art the index of mine ample thought,
And I am pleas'd with thine election.
Speak madam, if eer I deserved grace,
Grace me with your consent.
Queen.
Tis all my will,
Thy noble hand erect and perfect me.
Philocles.
What says his majesty?
My stars are writ in heaven, nor death nor fate
Are slaves to fear, to hope, or human state.
Cyprus.
I neither fear thy fortune nor my ruin,
But hold them all beyond all prophesy.
Thou hast my free consent, and on thy power
Lies my lifes date or my deaths hour.
Epire.
Then rise and live with safety.
Philocles.
Alphonso, here my hand,
Thy fortune lends thy peace no infamy.
And now, thou glorious issue of Joves brain,
That burnt the Telamonian ravisher ,
Look from thy sphere, and if my heart contain
An impure thought of lust, send thy monsters forth
And make me more than earthly miserable.
Here the cornets sound, they fight, and Philocles overcomes the Duke, the Queen descends.
Philocles.
Yield, recant or die.
Epire.
Thine axe hath not the power to wound my thought,
And yields a word my tongue could never sound.
I say th'art worthy valiant, for my death,
Let the Queen speak it, tis an easy breath.
Queen.
Not for the worlds large circuit. Hold, gentle prince,
Thus I do pay his ransom, low as the ground,
I tender mine unspotted virgin love,
To thy great wills commandment: Let not my care,
My woman tyranny, or too strict guard,
In bloody purchase take away those sweets
Till now have governed your amazed desires;
For trust me, King, I will redeem my blame,
With as much love as Philocles hath fame.
Cyprus.
Thus comes a calm unto a sea-wrecked soul,
Ease to the pained, food unto the starv'd,
As you to me, my best creation.
Trust me my queen, my loves large chronicle
Thou never shalt over read, because each day
It shall beget new matter of amaze:
And live to do thee grace eternally.
Next, whom my Philocles, my bounteous friend,
Author of life, and sovereign of my love,
My heart shall be thy throne, thy breast the shrine,
Where I will sit to study gratefulness.
To you and you my lords, my best of thoughts,
Whose loves have showed a duteous carefulness.
To all, free thanks and graces; this unity
Of love and kingdoms is a glorious sight.
Mount up the royal champion, music and cornets sound,
Let shouts and cries make heaven and earth rebound!
Exeunt [Everyone except Epire.]
Epire.
How like the suns great bastard oer the world,
Rides this man mounted engine, this proud prince
And with his breath singes our continents!
Sit fast proud Phaeton , for by heaven Ill kick
And plunge thee in the sea: If thou'lt needs ride,
Thou shouldst have made thy seat upon a slave,
And not upon mine honours firmament!
Thou hast not heard the god of wisdoms tale,
Nor can thine youth curb greatness, till my hate,
Confound thy life with villain policy.
I am resolv'd since virtue hath disdained
To clothe me in her riches; henceforth to prove
A villain fatal, black and ominous.
Thy virtue is the ground of my dislike
And my disgrace. The edge of envys sword,
Which like a razor shall unplume thy crest;
And rob thee of thy native excellence.
When great thoughts give their homage to disgrace,
Theres no respect of deeds, time, thoughts or place.
[Exit].
Act Two.
Scene One. Music.
Enter Prate, Lollia, Coloquintida, and Precedent.
Prate.
Come wife, methought our party stood stiffly to it.
Precedent.
Indeed they were stiff whilst they stood, but when they were down, they were like men of a low world; a man might have wound their worst anger about his finger.
Lollia.
Go to sirrah, you must have your fools bolt in everybodys quiver!
Precedent.
Indeed mistress, if my master should break his arrow with foul shooting or so, I would be glad if mine might supply the whole.
Prate.
I find you kind, sir.
Precedent.
True sir, according to my kind, and to pleasure my kind mistress.
Prate.
Go to sirrah! I will not have your kindness to intermeddle with her kind; she is meat for your master.
Precedent.
And your man sir, may lick your foul trencher .
Coloquintida.
Aye, but not eat of his mutton.
Precedent.
Yet I may dip my bread in the wool, mistress Coloquintida!
Prate.
Go to sirrah! You will be obscene, and then I shall knock you. But to the combat, methought our side were the more proper men.
Lollia.
True, and therefore they had the worse fortune: But see here is the Lord Florio.
Enter Florio.
Florio.
Master orator, it is the King and Queens majestys pleasure that you presently repair unto the court, touching the drawing out of certain articles for the benefit of both the kingdoms.
Prate.
My lord, I will instantly attend their majesties.
Florio.
Do, for they expect you seriously.
Exit Florio.
Prate.
Wife, you can have my service no longer. Sirrah, Precedent, attend you upon your mistress home: And wife, I would have you to hold your journey directly homeward, and not to imitate princes in their progress, step not out of your way to visit a new gossip, to see a new garden-house, to smell the perfumes of court jerkins, or to handle other tools than may fit for your modesty. I would not have you to step into the suburbs, and acquaint yourself either with monsters or motions, but holding your way directly homeward, show yourself still to be a rare housewife.
Lollia.
I'faith, I'faith, your black out-side will have a yellow lining .
Prate.
Content thee wife, it is but my love that gives thee good council. But here comes one of my clients.
Enter Drap, a country gentleman.
Drap.
Sir, master orator, I am bold to trouble you about my suit.
Prate.
Sir, master country gentleman, I am now for present business of the Kings.
Drap.
You may the better remember me.
Prate.
Hey day, I shall mix your business with the Kings!
Drap.
No but you may let his majesty know my necessity.
Prate.
Sir, sir, you must not confine me to your seasons, I tell you I will collect mine own leisures.
Enter Velours a citizen.
Velours.
Master orator, is it your pleasure I attend you about my dispatches?
Prate.
Sir, it is my pleasure you dispatch yourself from mine encumbrance, I tell you I am for instant business of the Kings.
Velours.
Sir, I have borne mine attendance long.
Prate.
Bear it till your bones ache! I tell you, I cannot bear it now; I am for new business!
Drap. Velours.
Yet the old would be dispatched, it was first paid for.
Prate.
If you be gentlemen do not make me mad!
Drap. Velours.
Sir, our suits are of great weight!
Prate.
If you be Christians, do not make me an atheist! I shall profane if you vex me thus!
Enter the lord Mechant .
What, more vexation? My lord, my lord, save your breath for your broth; I am not now at leisure to attend you.
Mechant.
A word good Mr. Orator.
Prate.
Not a word, I beseech your lordship; I am for the Kings business, you must attend me at my chamber.
Exit Prate.
Mechant. Drap. Velours.
And every where else, we will not leave you!
Exeunt.
[Scene Two]
Enter Precedent, Lollia and Coloquintida.
Precedent.
Now methinks my master is like a horse-leech, and these suitors so many sick of the gout, that come to have him suck their blood: O, tis a mad world.
Lollia.
Go to, sirrah! You will never leave your crab-tree similes . But pity of me, who have we here?
Enter Alphonso.
O tis the Lord Alphonso.
Alphonso.
Mistress, God save: Nay your lip, I am a stranger. And how doth mistress Coloquintida? O you are an excellent seasoner of city stomachs.
Coloquintida.
Faith my lord, I have done my best to make somebody relish your sweet meats; but hark you my lord! I have struck the stroke, I have done the deed, there wants nothing but time, place and her consent
Alphonso.
Call you that nothing?
Coloquintida.
A trifle, a trifle, upon her, upon her my lord, she may seem a little rough at the first; but if you stand stiffly to her, shell fall: A word with you, Mr. Precedent!
They whisper.
Alphonso.
Mistress Prate, I am a soldier, and can better act my love than speak it. My suit you know by your neighbour, my love you shall prove by my merit, to both which my tokens have been petty witnesses, and my body shall seal and deliver upon thee such a brave confirmation, that not all the orators in Sicily shall be able to cancel the deed.
Lollia.
Truly my lord, methinks you being witty should be honest.
Alphonso.
Nay wench, if I were a fool, there's no question but I would be honest. But to the purpose; say wench, shall I enjoy, shall I possess?
Lollia.
To enjoy my love, is not to possess my body.
Alphonso.
Tut, wench, they be words of one signification, and cannot be separated.
Lollia.
Nay then I should wrong my husband.
Alphonso.
Sfoot! Thou shouldst but do for him as he does for the whole world; why an orator were a needle name, if it were not to defend wrong: Then wench, do as he doth, write by a precedent.
Lollia.
O my lord, I have a husband,
A man who's waking jealousy survives,
And like a lion, sleeps with open eyes ;
That not a minute of mine hours are free
From the intelligence of his secret spies.
I am a very toward Danae :
Sorrow whose roof, suspicion will not let
Gold showers have passage, nor can I deceive
His Argus eyes with any policy:
And yet I swear I love you.
Alphonso.
Death of affection! If thou lov'st me as thou says thou dost,
Thou canst invent some means for our delight.
The rather sith it ever hath been said:
That walls of brass withstand not willing minds?
And women when th'are prone make love admir'd
For quaint endeavours. Come, instruct thy wit,
And find some scale to our high height of bliss.
Lollia.
Then briefly thus, my lord:
Tomorrow doth the senate sit to judge,
Causes both criminal and of the state;
Where of necessity my husbands place
Must be filled by himself, because his tongue
Must gild his clients causes. Now if you please,
All that self hour, when he is turmoil'd
About those serious trifles, to vouchsafe
To visit me, his absence and my care
Shall give us liberty of more delight.
You know my meaning, and I am asham'd
My love should thus betray my modesty;
But make the use according to your fancy.
Alphonso.
What hour assures his absence?
Lollia.
Eight is the latest time.
Alphonso.
This kiss leave my faith with thee, farewell.
Th'ast given me double glory from thy breath,
Nothing shall lose me time but certain death.
[They kiss] Exit Alphonso.
Precedent.
Truly mistress Coloquintida, you are an excellent piece of sweet gall .
Lollia.
Well sir, will you lead the way homeward?
Precedent.
To your bed chamber mistress, or your privy lodging!
Exeunt.
[Scene Four]
Enter Philocles alone.
Philocles.
Night, clad in black, mourns for the loss of day;
And hides the silver spangles of the air,
That not a spark is left to light the world.
Whilst quiet sleep, the nourisher of life
Takes full possession on mortality.
All creatures take their rest in soft repose
Save malcontents, and we accursed lovers,
Whose thoughts perturbed, makes us passions slave:
And robs us of the juice of happiness.
Dear Mariana, shaped in an angels mould,
Thou thrall'st my senses, and inflam'st my blood,
Love, power, by wisdom cannot be withstood.
But see, the morning star breaks from the east,
To tell the world her great eye is awak'd,
To take his journey to the western vales:
And now the court begins to rise with him.
Here passes over the stage a physician, a gentleman usher, and a waiting maid.
There goes the physician, the waiting maid,
And a fine straight legg'd gentleman usher,
The preface to a kirtle all puff paste .
One that writes sonnets in his ladys praise,
And hides her crimes with flattering poesy.
Enter Mariana.
But peace, amazement! See the day of life,
Natures best work, the worlds chief paragon!
Madam, one word!
Mariana.
Aye; so now farewell!
Philocles.
You do mistake me.
Mariana.
That yourself can tell,
You ask'd me one word, which I gave; said aye,
A word of least use in a virgins breath!
Urge not my patience then with fond reply.
Philocles.
Dear lady, lend an ear unto my voice,
Sith each were made for others happiness:
My tongues not oiled with courtly flatterings,
Nor can I paint my passions to the life:
But by that power which shaped this heavenly form,
I am your bond-slave, forc'd by loves command:
Then let soft pity with such beauty dwell
Madam I love you.
Mariana.
As I am a virgin so do I.
Philocles.
But madam whom?
Mariana.
Myself, no lady better!
Philocles.
But will you love me?
Mariana.
No, by my chastity.
Philocles.
I hope you do but jest.
Mariana.
Nay, Ill keep mine oath.
Men shall abandon pride and jealousy
Ere Ill be bound to their captivity.
They shall live continent , and leave to range,
But men like to the moon, each month must change.
Yet we must seek that naught their sight displeases,
And mix our wedlock sweets with loathed diseases:
When we consume ourselves and our best beauty,
All our reward is why, twas but our duty!
Philocles.
Judge not so hard of all for some offenders,
For you are subject to the self same crimes;
Of men and women always have been had
Some good of each.
Mariana.
But for the most part bad:
Therefore Ill have none at all but die a perfect maid.
Philocles.
That humour, like a flower soon will fade,
Once did mine own thoughts sing to that delight,
Till love and you reformed my barbarousness:
Therefore dear lady, pity my wounded heart.
Mariana.
A surgeon here for this love-wounded man!
How deep's your ulcer'd orifice, I pray you tell?
Philocles.
Quite through my heart.
Mariana.
Tis strange and look so well;
Yet ladies eyes have power to murder men,
And with one smile to make them whole again;
Achilles lance to a hare . But do you love me, Prince?
Philocles.
Dearer than my soul.
Mariana.
Would I could love you.
Philocles.
Madam so you may.
Mariana.
As yet I cannot, therefore let me go.
Philocles.
O do not leave me; grant me but one request,
And here I vow by that divinest power,
The salt-seas glorious issue , who's bright sphere
Rules my sick heart, and knows my chaste intent,
That if you please t'impose on me that task
Which neither men nor monster can achieve,
Which even angels have a dread to touch,
Deeds which outstretch all possibility,
Sfoot! More than can be thought, and I'll effect,
Or else Ill perish in th'accomplishment.
Mariana.
Let your request fit virgin modesty,
And you obey your vow, I am content
To give your thoughts contented happiness.
Philocles.
Tis but a kiss I ask, a minutes joy.
Mariana.
Now, Cupid help thee! Is thy grief for this?
Keep thy strong vow, and freely take a kiss.
He kisses her.
Philocles.
I have obtained my heaven, and in this touch
I feel the breath of all deliciousness:
Then freely give the sentence of my work,
Muster up all the engines of your wit,
Teach Juno rules beyond maliciousness;
Whateer it be, I'll die but Ill perform it.
Mariana.
Thou shalt not kill thyself, nor fight with monsters,
Nor bring the Great Turks beard to show thy zeal:
Thy life thou shalt not hazard for my love,
Nor will I tie thee to an endless task:
But even with ease, and gentle wrangled knots,
Thou shalt unwind thy clew of miseries.
Philocles.
Let it have passage, madam, give me my doom.
Mariana.
Then Philocles, knit silence to my words,
And mark thy doom: For thus my stricter will
Loads grief upon thy vainer levity.
Hence, for the space and compass of one year,
Thou shalt abjure the liberty of speech.
Thou shalt not speak for fully twelve months space,
For friend nor foe, for danger nor for death;
But live like air, with silent emptiness.
Break thou this vow, I'll hold thee for a villain,
And all the world shall know thy perjury.
Philocles.
Be heaven and earth a witness of my vow,
And mine eternal silence, I am dumb.
Mariana.
Why so, now shall I not be troubled with vain chat
Or idle prate of idle wantonness:
For love I cannot, therefore tis in vain.
Would all my suitors tongues I thus could reign,
Then should I live free from feigned sighs and groans,
With O take pity, tis your servant moans,
And such harsh stuff, that frets me to the heart:
And sonnets made of Cupids burning dart,
Of Venuss lip, and Junos majesty,
Then were I freed from fools and foolery.
In May the cuckoo sings, then shell come hither,
Her voice and yours will rarely tune together.
Exit Mariana. Enter Florio.
Florio.
Prince Philocles, the King would speak with you:
Speaks louder and louder.
Prince Philocles, the King would speak with you,
Prince Philocles, the King would speak with you.
Philocles strikes Florio and fells him [then exits].
Florio.
The pox rot off your fingers for this blow!
It is coronation day, through all my skull,
Theres such a fatal ringing in my brain,
Has won the selt , has laid five fingers on;
But twas a knavish part of him to play so.
Hear me you gods for this my open wrong,
Make short his fingers as you have his tongue!
Exit Florio.
[Scene Five]
Enter Mechant alone.
Mechant.
Tis not mans fortune, envy or neglect,
Which makes him miserable, but tis mean fate,
Even sole predestination, a firm gift,
Fixd to his birth before the world was made.
For were it otherwise, then within our lives,
We should find some distractions, errors change,
And other toys of much uncertainty:
But my mishaps are fixd so to my blood,
They have no sire but my creation:
The Queen, out of suspicion that my love
First set an edge upon the Kings desires,
And made him woo her with a victors sword,
Casts me from favour, seizes all my lands,
And turns my naked fortunes to the cold.
The King, made proud with purchase of his wish,
Neglects my sufferance for him, and oer looks
The low-tide of my fortunes; lest my woes
Should speak my wrongs to his ingratitude.
The whilst those lords whose supple hams have bow'd
To do me formal reverence, now despise
And slight me in their meanest compliments:
O tis a torment more than hell yet knows,
To be an honest flatterer, or to live
A saint in limbo, which that I may prevent,
Ill be nor best nor worst, but all indifferent.
But here comes a noble man, I must turn petitioner.
Enter Florio.
My lord, may I not see the King?
Florio.
You may not.
His majesty is now down pressed with seriousness:
As for your suit it is with Prate the orator.
I heard his highness give him a special charge
For your dispatch with favour.
Mechant.
O but he doth neglect,
And slights me like his weak orations,
And by your lordships leave, I do not think
His wisdom worthy of the conference.
Florio.
Nay, if you will correct the Kings coin you are not for my conference, fare you well.
Exit Florio.
Mechant.
Why, and fare you well, sfoot! This is more than strange!
That being griev'd I may not say Im pained.
Enter Alphonso.
But here comes another: Mine honourable lord,
May I not have some conference with the King?
Alphonso.
You may not, business of greater weight
Imports both him and us: Nay, pray you, cease;
As for your suit tis with the orator.
Mechant.
Yet methinks twere meet
Alphonso.
That you would rather trouble him than me.
Mechant.
Its strange.
Alphonso.
Its strange indeed, to see you wrong your ease.
I am not now for idle conferences, adieu.
Exit Alphonso.
Mechant.
Why, this is court grace to men in misery,
And thus these tail-less lions with their roar
Affright the simple herd: O I could now
Turn rebel gainst their pride.
Enter Epire.
But here comes the Duke:
My gracious lord, vouchsafe to hear my griefs?
Epire.
For Gods love cease your trouble! We are all
Troubled with griefs of stranger qualities.
Mechant.
Words are no heavy burden.
Epire.
No, had I no other weight;
But we are all down pressed with other poise:
As for your suit it is referr'd to Prate:
And he must give you fair dispatch with favour;
Which if he slight for envy or for bribe,
Repair to me, and I will not forget
To give you ease, and chide his negligence.
Mean space I pray you leave me, for we all
Are troubled now with greatest miracles.
Mechant.
Your grace doth do me comfort, and I will
Study with service to deserve your favours,
And so I take my leave.
Exit Mechant. Enter 2 doctors.
Epire.
Your own contentment's follow you.
Now gentlemen what news within? Can this dumb wonder speak?
Have you cut off those lets that tied his speech.
And made your fames to sound through Sicily?
First Doctor.
All hopeful means that man or art can find,
Have we made trial of, but tis in vain:
For still my lord, the cures invincible.
Second Doctor.
Those organs nature gave to move the tongue,
He fully doth possess as well as we.
Which makes us think his sudden apoplexy,
Is either will, vow, or a miracle.
Epire.
I should think strangely, had we strange things on earth;
But wonders now are most familiar:
But here comes his majesty, now we shall see
If this dumb beast can speak before the King.
Cornets, and enter Cyprus, Queen, Philocles, Mariana and attendants.
Cyprus.
My best of friends, my dearest Philocles,
Thy griefs run in my spirit, make me sad,
And dulls my sense with thine affliction.
My soul with thine doth sympathize in woe,
And passion governs him that should rule all.
What say our doctors, is there no hope of help?
First Doctor.
No hope my lord, the cure is desperate.
Cyprus.
Then I am king of grief, for in his words
Found I more music than in choirs of angels:
It was as silver as the chime of spheres,
The breath of lutes, or loves deliciousness:
Next to my queen, he is my joy on earth:
Nor shall the world contain that happy good
Which with my tears I will not woo for him.
My lord of Epire, let it be straight proclaim'd
Through all the cities in our kingdoms verge,
That who so will avow to cure this prince,
And bring his work to wished effectualness,
Shall have ten thousand crowns and our best love.
But if he fail in his great enterprise,
His daring is the loss of present life.
Since no man hitherto could do him good,
The next shall help him or else lose his blood!
Epire.
Your majesty shall have your will performed.
Mariana.
Not all so soon dear brother, what if a woman now
Should turn Asclepius , and restore
This dumb Hippolytus? Nay do not look strange,
I dare avow and undertake the cure.
Epire.
You, sister, are you in your wits?
Mariana.
Faith, of the outside of them brother, yet a womans tongue
Whose burden still is superfluity,
May lend a man an ages complement.
Cyprus.
Madam, I would not have you with the bark
Play yourself into danger . This great cure,
I fear is far beyond your physics help.
Mariana.
My lord, you know not how Apollo loves me,
I have been thought as fair as Oenone was,
And dare be bold to claim this miracle.
Cyprus.
Mariana attend, glory and ruin compass thee about
This hand shall raise thee to a golden throne,
And grace thee with all styles of dignity;
This cast thee down.
Lower than lives misfortune and oerwhelm
Thy beauties with thy grave. Perform, be great,
Fail and be worse than worst calamity.
Queen.
Stay gentle friend, my love doth bid thee stay!
Attempt not, and be safe from misery.
Epire.
Sister you shall not grasp with mischief thus,
My blood doth challenge interest in your ill,
And I conjure you from this desperateness.
Mariana.
Brother content yourself, words but augment our strife,
I will perform or else my pawn's my life.
Cyprus.
Proceed fair virgin.
Mariana.
Vouchsafe me privacy: Now Venus , be my speed,
Speak gentle Philocles, thine oaths bond I untie,
And give thy vows a free enfranchisement.
Thy well kept league hath show'd thy strength of truth,
And doth confirm me in my virtuousness:
Thy martyrdom and sufferance is too long,
And I restore it to new liberty.
Then speak my Philocles, speak gentle prince,
To her whose love respects and honours thee.
Cyprus.
How now, what virtue from thy charms?
Mariana.
No hope is left dear Philocles, regard my miseries!
Untie that wilful let which holds in speech,
And make me happy through thy noble pity.
I see the face of mine ill-shaped contempt,
Where like with like, hath quit most injury:
Then speak my lord, utter one angel breath
To give me joy, and save me from strange death.
What, not a word? Hath this small silence brought
An utter detestation to thy speech?
Wilt thou nor hear, nor speak, nor pity me?
The gentle gods move thee to more remorse!
Cyprus.
What, wilt not be?
Fond maid thou hast drawn affliction on thy head,
And thralld thy self to worst calamity!
Till morrow sun thy incantations use:
But then effectless, all hopes desperate,
Wert thou my bosom love thou diest the death,
Best ease for madness is the loss of breath.
Exeunt all but Philocles and Marianna.
Mariana.
O Philocles, I am no courts disgrace,
No cities prostitution, countrys shame,
Nor one shall bring Troys fire unto thy house.
Turn not away, hard hearted Myrmidon ,
See, on my knees Ill follow thee in court,
And make the world condemn thy cruelty!
Yet, if my tears may mollify thy heart,
Receive them as the floods of strangest tides,
Turn not thy face from her that dotes on thee!
Love now hath made me subject to thy will,
And pale disdain hath take revenge on me.
Behold my nerves Ill wear upon this earth,
And fill this roof with lamentations.
What, dost thou smile? Hath fury so much sway
As even to banish poor civility?
Then be thy self, and break thine itching spleen :
For I disdain thy ransoms victory,
Life thou art weary brought, welcome my death,
Sweet because wishd for, good because my choice:
Yet when I am dead, this of me shall be said,
A cruel prince murdered a loving maid.
And after ages to th'unborn shall tell,
Thy hate, my love, thy envy and my hell.
Nay, do not speak! I charge thee, go! Let nothing move thee,
Death is my glory, since thou wilt not love me.
Exeunt Omnes.
Act Three.
Scene One. Music.
Enter the Duke of Epire and Alphonso.
Epire.
Grief, which controls the motions of our thoughts,
Reigns in my blood and makes me passions slave.
My sister's misery torments my soul,
And breaks my gall when I but think of her:
She was bewitched with spells to her misfortune,
Or else born hapless under a lowering star,
And tis her fate to be thus miserable.
O Philocles hadst thou no other scale
To mount thy heaven but by our miseries?
Must all the noble fame of our great house
Waste down her royal pillars, to make steps
For thee to climb to glory? Well, I see,
Thou plots our shames in thy great dignity.
Alphonso.
Patience great lord, methinks these ill raised storms
Have not more violence than may be borne:
Come we will both go sue unto the King.
We there will kneel and pray eternally,
And never rise till he remit his dome:
It shall be so, I will unto the King,
To beg great favour for a small offence:
But if she die for this, then king take heed,
Thee and thy fortunes by this hand shall bleed!
Exeunt.
[Scene 2]
Enter Chip, Shaving and others with a scaffold.
Chip.
Come my hearts, lets make all things ready for the execution, here's a maiden head must be cut off without a featherbed.
Shaving.
Its a sign she deals with sharp tools and a cruel headsman.
Chip.
If I had been her judge, she should have been tossed to death in a blanket.
Shaving.
No, I would have had her smothered in a featherbed!
Chip.
They say she would not plead at her trial.
Shaving.
No thats true, for she had a great desire to be pressed .
Chip.
And I have known some of her sex, have got that favour to be pressed for speaking.
Shaving.
Then she was unwise to hold her tongue being a woman.
Chip.
What is her crime that she must lose her head?
Shaving.
Because she lived honest, contrary to the statute.
Chip.
There is a great number of my neighbours will never suffer for that fault.
Shaving.
No nor thou neither if the truth were known, for my part I shun that danger.
Chip.
I think we are all out of danger of the law for that crime.
Shaving.
I know I am free, for I am a knave if I have not forgot what wench had my maidenhead.
Enter Florio.
Florio.
Make room there, his majesty is coming to the execution.
Chip.
Come, now all things are ready. Lets away.
Exeunt.
[Scene Three]
Enter Epire and Alphonso.
Epire.
Mercy is banished, courts; the King, like flint,
Hardens his royal temper against our plaints,
And makes our woes most unavoidable.
What inauspicious star reigned at her birth,
That heaven thus frowns upon her misery?
And my good lord, now innocence must die.
As white as un-trod snow, or culver down .
Kings words are laws, and cannot be withstood;
Yet tis false greatness, which delights in blood!
Alphonso.
Patience my lord, I do not think this ill
Is yet so big as unrecoverable.
The King doth hold you in most choice respect,
And whom kings love, they study to oblige.
Then call your reason home, make not this civil war,
To suffer makes woes lesser than they are.
Epire.
How well the sound can salve the sick-mans grief!
But O, how ill he can digest his pills!
O my good lord, you shall not lose a sister,
That is the joy and comfort of your breath!
Tis not your blood shall issue from her wounds,
But mine, that runs in rivers from her tears,
And rounds my face in her calamity!
Well, let her perish, since her soul is clear,
And for her death, Ill make a massacre!
Enter Cyprus, Queen, Philocles, Mariana bound, a guard of halberds and a Executioner.
Cyprus.
Your suits are bootless: For my vows have glued
And closed mine ears that they retain no sound
Of your entreaties, and even now the time
Doth run upon his latest minutes, and
Save but by speech, theres no recovery.
Queen.
Have mercy good my lord, O let my tears intrude
Betwixt your vows and her calamity.
In her you take from me my best of life,
My joy, my comfort and my play-fellow.
Cyprus.
Content you madam, for my vow is past,
And is like fate still unrevocable:
Ascend poor model of calamity!
Mariana.
As lightly burdened with the weight of crimes,
As spotless infants, or poor harmless lambs,
Thus I ascend my heaven, this first step lower,
Mounts to this next, this, thus and thus hath brought
My bodies frame unto its highest throne;
Here doth her office end, and hence my soul
With golden wings of thought shall mount the sky,
And reap a palace of pure sanctity.
Farewell my sovereign, madam within your thoughts
Make me a tomb, and love my memory.
Brother farewell, nay, do not mourn my death,
It is not I that die to spot our house,
Or make you live in after obloquy .
Then weep no more, but take my last adieu,
My virtues not my faults preserve with you.
Lastly, to you that are my last of hope,
Nay do not hide your eyes, I love them still:
To part friends now is greatest charity.
O be thy days as fruitful in delights,
As Eden in choice flowers, thine honours such
As all the world may strive to imitate.
Be master of thy wishes: only this,
When the sad nurse to still the wrangling babe,
Shall sing the careful story of my death,
Give me a sigh, from thy hearts purest breath:
And so farewell.
Executioner.
Madam kneel here; forgive me for your death.
Mariana.
With all my heart, thou art but laws poor hand,
Thus to my death I bow, and yet arise,
Angels, protect my spirits in the skies.
He offers to strike.
Philocles.
Hold, or thine own hand shall be thine own destruction!
Cyprus.
Never did music sound with better voice!
Unbind the lady!
Florio.
The fear of death hath brought her to a swound .
Cyprus.
Endeavour her recovery.
Epire.
Sister, dear sister, call thy spirits back;
Sister, O sister, hearken to my woes,
Recover breath and live with happiness.
Queen.
She stirs, give way to air that she may breathe.
Speak Mariana, thy woes are cancelled!
Mariana.
You are not charitable unto my moans,
Thus to afflict me with a double punishment:
One death for one poor fault might well suffice,
They are most wretched who twice lives and dies.
Philocles.
Madame to save your life I kill my soul:
And speckle that which was immaculate.
Black perjury, that open eyed disease,
Which is the plague-sore of society,
Brands me with mischief, and protests I hold
Nothing within me but unworthiness:
And all these ills are your creation.
Mariana.
Which to wash off; lo! Here I yield myself
An humble sacrifice to love and thee:
All my best hopes, my fortunes, and my love,
My faith, my service, and my loyalty,
Shall as thy slaves attend on thy commands,
And make me famous in my suffrages.
Cyprus.
Receive her Philocles, for it pleases us.
Philocles.
But not me, my thrice royal sovereign.
I'll rather wed a sooty Blackamoor ,
A leper, monster, incubus or hag,
A wretch deformed in nature, loathd of men
Than her that hath be-monster'd my pure soul.
Her scorn and pride had almost lost her life,
A maid so faulted, seldom proves good wife.
Queen.
What is the reason you not love her now,
And were so passionate in love before?
Philocles.
Not that I love her less, but rather more,
Run I this backward course; only my vow,
Sith unperform'd craves satisfaction;
Which thus I reconcile: When this fair maid,
Shall with as strong a love, as firm a zeal,
A faith as constant, and a shame as strong,
Requite my care, and show as ample proof
In mine extremes, as I have in her death,
Then will I love, enjoy and honour her.
Till when, I will not think a loving thought;
Or give the easy temper of my mind
To love-sick passion, or deliciousness,
Only with those which do adore the sun:
I'll give her all respect and reverence .
Mariana.
I am well pleas'd, and with a doubtful foe
You have good reason thus to capitulate.
Then hang your colours forth; extend your thought,
Muster your strongest powers, of strictest wit,
And when your reasons best artillerys bent,
Love not my love, if it be not excellent.
Cyprus.
I have not seen a war breed better wit,
Or passion draw on more delightfulness:
Proceed in your contention, for we boast,
That love is best which is approved most.
But now to revels, since our tragic scene
Is turned to comic mirthful constancy;
Instead of mourning we will dance and banquet,
And fill our empty veins with all delights:
For oft we find that storms and sorrows prove
The best forerunners of a happy love.
Exeunt all but Epire.
Epire.
He will, but he will not. Loves, but cannot like.
Will and affection in this prince are like
Two buckets which do never both ascend :
Or those star twins which shine not in one sphere.
O Philocles, I see thy soul grows fat,
And feeds upon the glories of my same;
But I'll forestall thine epileptic fits ;
And by my plots breed thy destruction.
Revenge now rules as sovereign of my blood,
And others ruins shall advance my good.
Which once attained to, I will prove ambitious,
Great men like gods, are neer thought vicious.
Now Philocles, stand fast, King guard thy crown,
For by this brain, you both shall tumble down!
Exit.
[Scene Four]
Enter Velours and Drap. Precedent sitting at his desk [reading a book].
Velours.
This is his chamber! Lets enter heres his clerk.
Precedent.
Fondling, said he, since I have hemm'd thee here,
Within the circuit of this ivory pale.
Drap.
I pray you sir, help us to the speech of your master.
Precedent.
Ill be a park, and thou shalt be my deer:
He is very busy in his study:
Feed where thou wilt, in mountain or on dale.
Stay a while he will come out anon:
Graze on my lips, and when those mounts are dry,
Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie.
Go thy way, thou best book in the world. [Puts down book]
Velours.
I pray you sir, what book do you read?
Precedent.
A book that never an orators clerk in this kingdom but is beholden unto: It is called maids philosophy, or Venus and Adonis: Look you, gentlemen, I have divers other pretty books.
Drap.
You are very well stored sir, but I hope your master will not stay long?
Precedent.
No he will come presently. [Begins reading again]
Enter Mechant.
Velours.
Who have we here? Another client, sure; crows flock to carcasses! O, tis the Lord Mechant.
Mechant.
Save you, gentlemen. Sir, is your master at any leisure?
Precedent.
Here sit thee down where never serpent hisses,
And being set Ill smother thee with kisses.
His businesses yet are many, you must needs attend a while.
Mechant.
We must attend? Um, even snails keep state
When with slow thrust, their horns peep forth the gate!
We must attend? Tis customs fault not mine,
To make men proud on whom great favours shine.
Its somewhat gainst my nature to attend,
But when we must, we must be patient;
A man may have admittance to the King
As soon as to these long robes, and as cheap.
Come gentlemen, shall we walk?
[They leave the room]
Thus are the pavement stones before the doors
Of these great tongue gilt orators; worn smooth
With clients dancing for them!
Velours.
It's strange to see how the world waits upon them, therein they are the only men now.
Mechant.
O only; they of all men in request.
Your physician is the lawyer for your health;
And moderate unruly humours best.
Others are nobody compared with him,
For all men neglect their health in regard of their profit.
Drap.
True, and thats it makes these men grow so fat,
Swell with rich purchases.
Mechant.
Yea with golden fees
And golden titles too, they can work miracles;
And like creators, even of empty nothing,
Erect a world of goodly livings, fair demeans,
And gallant manors, heapd one on another.
Velours.
They gain indeed excessively, and are not like us citizens,
Expos'd to hazard of the seas and traffic!
Mechant.
Why, heres a fellow now, this orator.
Even Prate, you would little think it, his father was
An honest proiner of our country vines ;
Yet he's shot to his foot-cloth .
Drap.
O he is; he proind him well and brought him up to learning.
Mechant.
Faith! Reasonable learning? A smattering in the Latin tongue,
A little rhetoric with wrangling sophistry ,
Were his preparatives unto his art.
Velours.
After these preparatives (if you call them so),
The physic wrought well for a few years practise,
Brought him in wondrous credit, and preferments
Came tumbling in: O, such a sudden rise
Hath fortune for her minions! Blame him not then,
Though he look high on't.
Mechant.
Nay, for his pride, of weaker souls termd state,
It hurts none but himself.
Drap.
Yet, to my seeming it is very strange,
That from so base beginning, men can breathe
Such soaring fames.
Mechant.
Strange? It's not strange a whit!
Dunghills and marish bogs, dart store of vapours,
And viscous exhalations against heaven;
Which borrowing lustre there,(though basely bred),
Seem yet like glorious planets fairest stars,
To the weak eyes of wondering ignorance,
When wise men know they are but meteors
But here comes the orator!
Enter Prate.
Prate.
What, Precedent I say, come and attend me to the senate house.
Precedent.
I am ready sir, if you have copia verborum , I have copia rerum in a buckram bag here.
Prate.
Your lordships pleasure.
Mechant.
Master orator, tis not unknown my suit.
Prate.
Nay your lordship must be brief! Ill not attend
The shallow sleight of words; your suit, your suit!
Mechant.
The restoration of my lands and honours.
Prate.
They are confiscated.
Mechant.
My lands confiscated, and my body free?
Prate.
My lord, my lord, the Queen's more merciful.
Mechant.
Sir, you forget my place.
Prate.
Sir, you forget your faith!
Twas known unto the Queen, the state and us,
Your mal-contented spirit, your disease in duty,
Your diligent perturbance of the peace;
Your passages, occurrences and
Mechant.
Sir!
Prate.
Sir me no sirs!
Do not I know you were the chief of those
Which raised the wars in Sicily? And long since
Wrought in the Kings loves bloody business?
Did not you hold fair quarter and commerce
With all the spies of Cyprus? Fie! I am asham'd,
Blind impudence should make you be so bold,
To bear your face before authority!
Mechant.
But hear me
Prate.
I will hear no reply! Go home, repent, pray and die.
Come gentlemen, what's your businesses?
Velours.
Your confirmation to his highnesss grant, touching our trade with Spain; in which if it please you to assist us, we have a thousand crowns which shall attend you.
Prate.
O, I have you in my memory! The suit is great:
And I must squeeze forth more than a thousand crowns.
Well, attend me to the senate, you shall have fair dispatches.
Exeunt all but Mechant.
Mechant.
I not attend the shallow sleight of words,
Go home, repent, pray and die
Excellent precepts for an orators chamber!
Where speech must bathe a handful deep in gold,
Till the poor givers conduit being dry,
The wretch goes home, doth curse, repent and die.
It is thy counsel orator, thy tale breath,
Good only but to season infamy.
From this reproach, this incarressing humour
Hath taught my soul a new philosophy:
I will go home, and there repent all good
Done to thy name or thy profession!
I will go home, and there new frame myself
More thirstily pernicious to thy state,
Than war or unabated mutiny.
As for my prayers, orator, they are for thee!
Thou hast a pretty, lovely, witty wife
O! Mayst thou live, both to be known and know
Thyself the greatest cuckold in our land;
And yet not dare to amend or grieve at it!
Mayst thou embrace thy shame with thankful arms,
Hug thy disgrace, make thy black poison wine,
And cap and crouch to thy dishonour!
May thy remembrance live, upon my knees I pray,
All night in bellmens mouths, with Pasquil in the day!
Enter Alphonso, unbraced . [Mechant hides].
Alphonso.
Day be my speed, night shall not cloak my sin,
If I have naught to do, its by the sun,
The light gives leave to all mine idleness.
Quick business and open eyes cease on mine orator,
Whilst I create him horny precedents!
Enter Coloquintida.
But heres my bed broker! Now, my great armful of good intelligence, where is my mistress?
Coloquintida.
Fast lockd in her bed, with a close ward to devour thee my brave paraquito ; but hush, no words, there is a calm before the tempest.
Alphonso.
Tut, tell me of no storms, but direct me to her bedchamber, my noble firelock of a flesh pistol!
Coloquintida.
Follow thy colours, my brave worthy, mount up thy standard, so enter and prosper.
She puts Alphonso into the orators house.
Thou hast a rich room, safe locks, sweet sheets, a choice armful, with O the rare, rare thought of imagination.
Mechant. [Aside]
Whats this, whats this? Doth this Lord Alphonso turn the
orator to an antelope? Tis more than excellent,
And from the juice of this despite I suck
Delight more great than all my miseries!
Observe, dear eyes, observe!
Coloquintida.
Nay, go thy way for a camel or a chameleon; thou mayst compare with all Europe, Africa and Asia, and one that will change tricks, though thou wert worthy to be schoolmaster either to Proteus or Aritine : What an excellent gift did God give unto man when he gave him woman; but how much more when that woman was made fair? But O, the most of all when she had wit to use every member of her creation. Well Ill stand to it, theres nothing but beauty, use, and old age that puts women of my rank out of request; and yet like old bucklers, though few of your gallant cavaliers will wear us, yet many of your stale ruffians will employ us, and thats our comfort still.
Mechant. [Aside]
Was ever heard a bawd more damnable?
A very mountebank of wench flesh , an Empiric !
A dog-leech for the putrefied sores,
Of these lust-cankerd great ones! O! I could
Even mad myself with railing at their vices!
Prate knocks at the door.
But hark! One knocks, O for the orator!
Heavens I beseech thee, O for the orator!
Coloquintida.
How now, who knocks so rudely at the door?
Prate.
Tis I, I say! Open the door, I am in haste!
Mechant. [Aside]
Tis he, just heavens, tis he! Fore God, the orator
Coloquintida.
Soul of my bawdy office, how are we betrayed,
Anon, anon sir, what? Mistress Prate I say!
Arise, for shame, your husbands at the door!
[More knocking].
I come, I come! Lord God, how dull you are
When danger's at your heels! Rise quickly!
Prate.
Open the door, or I will break it open!
Coloquintida.
I come, I come, I think he's mad with haste.
What John, what Thomas, Robert, where's these knaves?
What Julian, Mary, Cicely, neer a maid within?
Lollia.
For Gods love stay, Ill find the key straight way.
Enter Lollia and Alphonso in his shirt.
O mistress Coloquintida, what shall become of us?
Coloquintida.
Nay, I am at my wits end, and am made
Duller then any spur-galld , tired jade .
Alphonso.
Sfoot! If he enter, I will break his neck!
Lollia.
Not for a world, dear love, step into my closet.
Alphonso.
Did ever slave come thus unluckily?
Lollia.
Nay now's no time for passion, good lord, in!
Exit Alphonso, and enter Prate.
Coloquintida.
Fie! I have almost broke my heart with running.
Lollia.
How now dear husband? What hath moved this haste?
Prate.
I think I was not blest this morning when I rose; for through my forgetfulness I have left behind me in my study the breviates of all my causes; and now the senate is fain to dance attendance on my leisure! Fie Fie Fie!
Exit Prate.
Lollia.
Nay if he smell nothing but papers, I care not for his dry-foot hunting , nor shall I need to puff pepper in his nostrils, but see he comes again.
Enter Prate, and stumbling at his wifes bed, sees Alphonsos rich apparel laying thereon.
Prate.
I think the devil have laid his horns in my way.
Mechant. [Aside]
Yes, and if you had wit you might conjure him out of your wives closet!
Prate.
Sancte Benedicite ! What have we here? Hath the golden snake cast his skin upon my bed? Go to, wife! I smell, I smell, methinks your plain rug should not agree with this rich counterpoint!
Lollia.
Husband, either I have fitted you now, or else I shall never fit you whilst I breathe.
You oft have told me, that like those of your rank,
Who both adorn their credits and themselves,
Yea, even their causes with their costly clothes,
Yourself in like sort would strive to imitate;
And now my neighbour here hath brought this suit,
Which if you please to buy, tis better cheap
Then eer t'was made by full five thousand crowns.
Prate.
Sayst thou me so, wench, a kiss for that Ifaith.
Fore God, it is a delicate, fine, suit!
Rich stuff, rare work, and of the newest fashion!
Nay, if the senates business were never so hasty; I will stay to try it on. Come! Help, good wenches, help! So there, there, there.
The orator puts on Alphonsos apparel.
Mechant. [Aside]
Sfoot! Will the ox put on the lions hide?
He will! He will! Tis more than excellent!
So guild the tomb which holds but rottenness,
Laughter I fear will burst me; look how he struts!
O God, that ever any man should look
Upon this maumet and not laugh at him!
Prate.
Fit, fit, excellent fit as though,
The body it was made for wore my mould,
Wife, I will have it! Well dispute no price.
Enter Velours.
Velours.
Master orator, the senate are set, and can dispatch no causes through your absence, therefore they earnestly entreat your presence.
Prate.
I come, I come. Good friend go say I come!
And wife see that you pay for this suit, whatsoere it cost.
Exit Prate, [with Aphonsos clothes on under his gown].
Mechant. [Aside]
Not above making you cuckold, thats the most.
Lollia.
What, is he gone?
Coloquintida.
He is.
Enter Alphonso in his shirt.
Lollia.
Why then come forth, poor naked lord!
Alphonso.
What, is he gone? May the devil and his horns both follow him!
Lollia.
He is gone, but yet he hath discovered your treason.
Alphonso.
How?
Coloquintida.
Yes, and in revenge thereof, hath vow'd that in this naked sort as you are, you shall do penance through the city for your sin of unchastity.
Alphonso.
I pray thee, leave thy womans phrase, and speak like a man, plainly, plainly.
Lollia.
Then plainly thus, he is gone and hath taken away your apparel.
Alphonso.
Upon what accident?
Lollia.
This, when your negligence had left your clothes upon my bed, he espied them, taskd me for the owner; I in excuse told him it was a suit, brought by my gossip to be sold. He, straight like a child proud of a new coat, presently puts it on, presently is sent for to the senate, and at this present hath left you that the world may behold your naked doings.
Alphonso.
I would it were washd in the blood of a centaur , that when he puts it off, his skin might follow it! But how shall I get to my chamber?
Lollia.
Truly I know not, except you will wear a smocks upper-coat.
Alphonso.
What, a petticoat? You mad me with your mirth!
Lollia.
Then seriously thus, as he hath taen your clothes, you must take his, and let the world know you have had more than fiddlers fare , for you have meat, money and cloth.
Alphonso.
Sfoot! How shall I look in this devils suit? Sure I shall grow sick to see my shape.
Lollia.
Well extremity must then be your physic, but come, you shall attire yourself in my chamber.
Exeunt Alphonso, Lollia and Coloquintida.
Mechant.
Are these the winding turns of female shames,
Loose womans gambols , and the tricks of sin?
And are we born to bear these suffrages?
O he thats tied unto a brothel bed,
Feels his worst hell on earth, and may presume
There is no sickness like his pestilence.
Well, what the issue of this jest will prove,
My wit but yet conceives, and, after time,
Shall perfect it and give it liberty.
In such sort, that if it true, fire strike!
A world of apes shall study for the like!
Exit.
[Scene five]
Enter the Duke of Epire alone.
Epire.
My thoughts are troubled, joy forsakes me quite,
And all my meditations are revenge:
Ambition and fell murder join in me,
And aid each other to untwine a state,
And make whole millions prove unfortunate.
Now must I practise court art, flattery,
And wisely temporise with blackest deeds:
Ill smile and stab, now weep, then laugh, then frown,
And with sly tricks of state kill all suspicion.
Devils must seem like angels, saith ambition!
The blackest thoughts Ill study to excel,
Crowns and revenge have made men dive to hell.
My plot is current, and it cannot miss
Whilst wisdom winds me on the clew of bliss.
The King shall kill the Queen, that acted right,
I soon will turn his brightest day to night.
Hes simple, honest, and loves downy rest,
Then he must fall; tis policy in state,
To hurl them down are blest with happy fate.
Thus each shall scourge himself with his own rod,
Who is all policy, avows no God.
Who is within there, ho?
Enter Florio.
Florio.
Did your grace call?
Epire.
I did: Where is the King?
Florio.
He is in his privy chamber playing at chess.
Epire.
Go straight, and tell him I must speak with him,
And say my business doth import great haste.
Florio.
I go my lord.
Epire.
Be a blest Mercury , now mount thee up my spirit,
And show thy self a politician:
Let slander rule thy tongue, envy thy heart,
And let destruction be thy period
Of what thou speakst; For this my maxim is,
But rule no heaven, and but revenge no bliss.
Enter Cyprus, Florio and attendants.
[Epire.]
Here comes the King My lord, we must be private.
Cyprus.
Remove your hearings from our conference.
[Exit Florio and attendants]
Now speak my Lord, speak freely as to heaven.
Epire.
First, with my knee I kiss this prostrate earth,
And humbly beg that which my tongue shall speak.
So it proceed from love and vassalage,
May bear a pardon or forgetfulness.
Cyprus.
You have it: Arise, discharge an open breast.
Epire.
O my dread liege, my speech will make you sad;
(And kings do seldom relish their distastes),
And from that sadness such a storm will rise,
As will even drown up all credulity.
O, that my loyal heart could cover sin,
Or that my tongue inured unto grief,
Might lose his spleen ere it distemper you!
But love and mine allegiance bid me speak.
Cyprus.
Then speak, and do not rack me with delay!
Epire.
Women, why were you made for mans affliction?
The first that ever made us taste of grief,
And last of whom in torments we complain.
You devils shapd like angels, through whose deeds,
Our forked shames are made most visible.
No soul of sense would wrong bright majesty,
Nor stain their blood with such impurity.
Cyprus.
Nay good lord, leave this allegoric speech,
And give me knowledge from a plainer phrase.
Epire.
Then plainly thus: Your bed is pressd with lust.
I know you do not credit! Nay, whats more,
I know you hate me for my virtuousness.
Your Queen behaves her like a courtesan,
I know you hold me for a vile imposter.
O foolish zeal! That makes me be so fond
To leave my faith unto black censuring.
O! She hath sinn'd and done a double wrong,
To you, to her, and sacred chastity.
Cyprus.
Duke thou art valiant, and with a valiant mind:
Slander is worse than theft or sacrilege,
Nay, more than murder, or the height of treason,
A step beyond the utmost plagues in hell!
Then thou which in that nature wrongst a queen,
Deserv'st a scourge beyond their punishments!
Virtue should kill thee now.
Epire.
Nay do, my breast is bare unto thy steel,
Kill me because I love thee and speak true.
Is this the merit of a Roman faith ?
For this have I observ'd, pried in unto,
And searchd each secret shift of vanity?
Nay, pray you kill me, faith Ill patient stand,
Live still a monster, hold shame in your hand!
Cyprus.
Speak a word more, a king shall be thy death!
Epire.
Death is a slave to him that is resolvd,
And my soul loathes this servile flattery;
Nor will I cover such intemperate sin,
But to the world make them and that transparent,
Unless yourself will seek to right yourself?
Cyprus.
Thou hast awakd me, and thy piercing words
Have split my sense in sunder: Yet what ground, ha,
Remains whereon to ground suspicion? A cuckold, cuckold
Epire.
Your absence is the bawd to her desires,
For their masks, dancings, gaming, banqueting,
Strange private meetings and all toils in love;
As wanton speeches to stir appetite,
And all enchantments that inflame desire!
When you return, then all is hushd and still,
And she demurely walks like virtues ghost.
Before your face shes like a puritan,
Behind your back a blushless courtesan.
Cyprus.
O I have drunk in poison at mine ears,
Which makes my blood boil with unquenched flames,
But speak, who is it that dishonours me?
Epire.
He that you prize a line before your life;
I know you will not credit, faith, you will not.
Cyprus.
Nay, if thou cease to speak, thou hatest my life!
Tak'st thou delight to kill me? Then forbear.
Sfoot! I am mortal, man kill me, do, do, do!
Epire.
Your best of friends, your dearest Philocles,
Usurps your bed and makes you a cornute !
A creature uncreate in paradise,
And one thats only of a womans making.
Cyprus.
Ist possible? Can I give faith to this?
Epire.
Nay, be but patient, smooth your brow a little,
And you shall take them as they clip each other
Even in their height of sin; then damn them both;
And let them sink before they ask Gods pardon,
That your revenge may stretch unto their souls.
Cyprus.
To be a cuckold doth exceed all grief!
Epire.
To have a pleasant scoff at majesty.
Cyprus.
To taste the fruit forbidden from my tree!
Epire.
But he shall lose his paradise for that.
Cyprus.
The slave will make base songs in my disgrace!
Epire.
And wound your reputation in strange lands.
Cyprus.
This injury sads all my joys on earth.
Epire.
Horns are not shunnd by wisdom, wealth or birth.
Cyprus.
Watch their close meetings, and then give us notice.
Mean space , my love shall in thy bosom rest,
My grief is like my birth: Great, great and high!
Give close intelligence, till then farewell,
Lust is the broadest path which leads to hell.
Exit Cyprus.
Epire.
He's gone with black suspicion in his heart:
And made his soul a slave to jealousy,
My plots shall drive him to his own destruction;
And I gain both revenge and dignity.
He shall no sooner put his queen to death,
But Ill proclaim her spotless innocence.
All men will hate him for so vile an act,
And mad with rage depose him from his crown.
Then I will be his death, his state doth give,
Kings once deposd, long after must not live;
For like a phoenix, rare in jealousy,
He shall consume himself in scorching flames,
Whilst from his ashes, I a phoenix spring:
Many renounce their god to be a king.
And Ill be one to kill men with a frown,
None dare dispute the actions of a crown!
Exit.
Act Four.
Scene One. Music.
Enter Florio and Mechant.
Florio.
The Queen is all for revels, her light heart,
Unladen from the heaviness of state,
Bestows itself upon delightfulness.
Mechant.
She follows her creation and her sex:
In my conceit it is as vile a thing,
To see the worthy model of a woman,
Who had not been at all but to give life,
And stirring spleen to mans alacrity,
To sit orewhelmd with thought, with dark amuse,
And the sad sullenness of a grieved dislike:
As to behold an old man in his furs,
Whose well spent youth hath given his age full strength
To be his countrys best physician,
To caper to his grave, and with vain gauds
Trick up his coffin, and upon his tomb
To leave no knowledge but his levity!
Florio.
Tis true indeed, and nature in herself,
Doth give us still distaste in contraries.
And in my thoughts it is as base to see a woman man ,
As see a man a long rob'd feminine.
Mechant.
Well, we forget ourselves my lord What? is the music ready? I pray you command the guard to take their halberds in their hands, the ushers should have seen this room perfum'd, in faith they are too negligent: Here comes the Queen!
Enter the Queen, Mariana, and waiting women, Philocles and other lords, the King disguised like one of the guard at the one end of the stage, and the Duke so likewise disguised at the other end of the stage.
Queen.
Loud music there, and let the god of harmony
Ravish our senses with delightful airs,
Tun'd to the music of the higher sphere;
And with that mortal sign rarely show
The joys in Joves high court, to feast the gods,
Making that place abound in happiness!
Come, noble Philocles, I seize you first,
(Mariana, there are choice of other lords)
In gracing you, it is the King I grace.
Mariana.
Come, honest lord, tis you must stand to me,
The Queen in mine doth challenge interest,
And I must fly for shelter to my friends.
Mechant.
And Ill be glad to be your coverture .
Mariana.
O no my lord, not till the weather change.
Mechant.
Well, when you please, mean time you do me grace.
Queen.
Nay my lord, there's a lady worth the handling.
Sound music then, fill earth with heavens pleasure!
Cyprus. [Aside]
My queen is out of time, though she keep measure.
Here they dance the first strain.
Epire. [Aside]
Be lucky villainy, hit now the mark
That mine ambition aims at; methinks I see
That lean Italian devil, jealousy,
Dance in his eyes; possess him, spirit of rage,
Muffle his understanding with black thoughts.
Let passion govern reason, falsehood truth,
Oblivion hide his age, hate kill his youth!
Cyprus. [Aside]
Thou dancest on my heart, lascivious Queen,
Even as upon these rushes which thou treadst.
See how her motions wind about his eyes,
And doth present to him her passions?
Now doth her moistening palm glow in his hand,
And courts him unto dalliance: She dies, tis just,
She's slave to murder, that is slave to lust.
Epire. [Aside]
Thou curse of greatness, waking eye'd suspicion.
Now help thy poor friends, murder and ambition.
The first strain ends.
Queen.
This strain contain'd a pretty change,
Proceed unto the next.!
They dance the second.
Cyprus. [Aside]
Sin follows sin, and change on change doth wait,
Thy change doth change my love to cruel hate.
Here in this strain, Mariana came to Philocles.
Philocles.
Madam, methinks this change is better than the first.
Mariana.
Ay, if the music would not alter it.
Queen.
Methinks tis worse, come, we will have another strain!
They dance again.
Philocles.
Im pleas'd, let us proceed.
Cyprus. [Aside]
Rivals in crowns and beds of kings must bleed.
Can that fair house contain so foul a guest
As lust? Or cloak inordinate and base desires,
Under so fair a coverture? O yes,
Women can blind our sense when we see best,
And set fair landskips on inconstancy,
Making us blind with seeing. The dance ends,
Your sins are blackest, breach of love and friends.
Epire. [Aside]
Now to the King, blow rage till it flame hate,
A politician thrives the best in state.
Exit Epire, and enter to the King again.
Queen.
Come, sweet Prince Philocles,
Devise some new delights to shorten time.
This dullness hath no relish in my sense,
It hath no pith; and sloth in my conceit,
Is but a type of pride in best constructions.
Mariana.
Madam, Ill stand , that a fair woman must be proud or else a fool.
Philocles.
I would fain hear that, I'faith.
Queen.
Thy reason wench, I pray thee come disburse.
Mariana.
A woman fair is like a full blown rose.
Queen.
Which holds the fair no longer then it grows.
Mariana.
A woman fair is like the finest gold.
Philocles.
Which kept from use is good, though nere so old.
Mariana.
Nay good lord, leave a little.
She that is fair is wise, and ought to know it:
For to that end did nature first bestow it.
Now of this knowledge if we be not proud,
We wrong the author, and we are allowd
To rank with senseless beasts; sith careless, we
For want of pride detract our dignity.
Now knowing it, we know truth in the same,
Not to be proud of truth asks follys name.
This lesson still is read in beautys school,
She that is fair and humble is a fool:
For neither know she how to hold her good,
Or to keep safe the treasure of her blood.
Queen.
A notable declamation!
Ma
Nay madam, by your leave:
Pride gives a lustre to a womans fair,
Things that are highest prized, are ever dear.
Why is the diamond the sapphires king,
But for esteem and rareness? Both which spring
From the stones pride, which is so chaste and hard,
Nothing can pierce it, Itself is itselfs guard,
Now what is pride? Self love, our own esteem,
A strength to make us of ourselves well deem:
From whence this maxim I collect mongst other,
Who hates herself, can never love another.
And to conclude, mans appetite grows dull
To what it may have, empty hope is full.
To all our sex on earth, maid, widow, wife and bride,
They happy live, when they live with chaste pride.
Cyprus. [Aside]
My Queen will speak as much for lust as she for pride, if the toy take her.
Mechant.
Your ladyship sows dangerous seed abroad.
Mariana.
But I hope, my lord, all grounds are not fruitful.
Queen.
Well, wench shalt be the proud womans champion.
Mariana.
And Ill defend them against all men, as at single tongue.
Mechant.
I had rather fight with a giant, then you at that weapon.
Cyprus. [Aside, to Epire]
My lord go forth, return in your own shape, say I am coming.
Epire.
I go, my lord.
Exit Epire.
Cyprus. [Aside]
Ill note their countenance when they hear of me.
Kings often see that which they would not see.
Queen.
Dancing hath made me weary, what sport is next?
Philocles.
What your highness will command.
Cyprus. [Aside]
She will command you sir to play with her!
Enter Epire.
Epire.
Madam, his majesty is returned to court.
Queen.
Nay then, away with revels and with sports,
Lie hushd, and still this vainer idleness;
It now hath lost his spleen. Come lords, away!
My sun is risen, brings a brighter day.
Exeunt all but Cyprus and Epire.
Cyprus.
Darkness is thy delight, lascivious Queen,
And thou wouldst have thy sun pent up in clouds,
If I be he. O falseness! Did I for this,
In single opposition hand to hand,
Hazard my royal blood for thee to be
My greatest shame? The scandal of my blood,
Whilst rumour crowns me king of infamy?
But I will be reveng'd! Watch gentle lord,
When next I see them, they shall taste of death!
Such power hath baseness over great defame,
That monarchs cannot cover their own shame.
Exit Cyprus.
Epire.
My plot yet holds a true proportion,
And I do see an even way to rule.
A crown, like a bold champion bids me on,
And fame shall chronicle mine enterprise:
The Queen being dead, I must oppose myself
Against her tyrant husband, thats my claim!
And with strong courage, stand the shock of war.
If of myself I can withstand the King,
Then all the land will flock unto mine aid. If not,
The King is Gods anointed, my head fits the block,
And thats the worst. Yet, future times will tell:
I sunk not slightly, for a crown I fell!
Exit Epire.
[Scene Two]
Enter Mechant, and a guard of watchmen.
Mechant.
Come on my masters, you know the tenor of the Kings command,
And what in this great business you must do,
Which is to keep him safe, and not vouchsafe
That any creature speak or visit him,
Till he be brought to the presence of the King.
You must not start for bounty, nor for threats.
No, though he say he is a nobleman,
As it may be, he may prove mighty born.
Yet what for that? You must perform your office
Or else expect to taste sharp punishment.
First Watch.
Tut, fear not my lord, we that have had Cerberus office so many years under a gate, are not to learn now to play either devils or tyrants. Let us but see him, and then take no care for his safety.
Second Watch.
Nay, he shall be put into safe keeping, for my wife shall take charge of him.
Enter Alphonso in the orators clothes.
Mechant.
Tis well devisd, see where he comes?
He may not see my presence. Think upon't,
Your charge is trusty, and of mighty weight!
Farewell.
Exit Mechant.
First Watch.
Fear not! Come my hearts, compass him about, and seize on him all at once, like so many ravens on a dead horse.
Alphonso.
Now an eternal sleep, an apoplex , a swound,
Seize on their senses, who in this disguise
Shall view or note my vile deformity.
I was bewitchd with spells to my misfortune,
Or else star-crossd with some hags hellishness
Sure, I said my prayers, ris'd on my right side,
Wash'd hands and eyes, put on my girdle last
Sure, I met no splay-footed baker,
No hare did cross me, nor no bearded witch,
Nor other ominous sign. O then why
Should I be thus damn'd in the devils nets?
Ist possible this habit which I wear
Should become any man? Now of my soul,
I loathe to see myself, and willingly
I would even vomit at my countenance.
First Watch.
Stand sir, we arrest you.
Alphonso.
Arrest me? Why I injure no man but myself!
Second Watch.
You are the more unkind! He that wrongs himself, will not stick to wrong the whole world also.
First W
|
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https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/house-of-the-dragon-season-2-premiere-blood-and-cheese-death-jaehaerys-1236035549/
|
en
|
Why ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Premiere Killed Off [SPOILER] in ‘Blood and Cheese’ Scene and How It’s Different From the Book
|
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[
"Jennifer Maas",
"Jordan Moreau"
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2024-06-17T02:00:00+00:00
|
Season 2 of HBO's "House of the Dragon" begins with another tragic death.
|
en
|
Variety
|
https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/house-of-the-dragon-season-2-premiere-blood-and-cheese-death-jaehaerys-1236035549/
|
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains major spoilers from the Season 2 premiere of HBO’s “House of the Dragon.”
After closing Season 1 with the swift and shocking death of a child — Rhaenyra Targaryen’s (Emma D’Arcy) son Lucerys Velaryon — “House of the Dragon” opened its second with a series of grief-driven choices and insidious plans that led to the most gruesome murder of another child: Jaehaerys Targaryen, the grandson of Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke).
The toddler Jaehaerys, the son of King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) and Queen Helaena (Phia Saban), is killed in his bed by two men nicknamed “Blood and Cheese,” one a hulking former member of the City Watch and the other the royal rat catcher. The pair sneak into the palace under commission from Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) to find and kill Aemond Targareyn (Ewan Mitchell) in order to get the revenge Rhaenyra wants for Aemond’s role in Luke’s death.
Jaehaerys is killed instead when Blood and Cheese cannot find Aemond, and happen upon Queen Helaena and her two sleeping twins — a boy and a girl — and demand to know which one is the male, because they believe that will satisfy the “son for a son” portion of the death Daemon requested. Helaena points to her son, and then runs off with her daugther, Jaehaera, to the safety of her mother Alicent’s room. There, she finds Alicent sleeping with Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel).
This entire Blood and Cheese death sequence differs in multiple ways from the heinous act committed in George R.R. Martin’s book “Fire & Blood,” the “Game of Thrones” universe book that tells the fictional history of the Targaryen family and serves as the source material for “House of the Dragon.”
In “Fire & Blood,” Jaehaerys is still killed by Blood and Cheese. But in the book, the “historians” of Westeros say the men were not explicitly commissioned by Daemon Targaryen to kill Aemond like they are on “House of the Dragon,” but rather just given the orders “an eye for an eye, a son for a son.”
Also in the history book: Rhaenyra does not call for Aemond’s death; the murder of Jaehaerys takes place in Alicent’s bedroom, not in Helaena’s, where Blood and Cheese tie Alicent down and use her as bait waiting for Helaena and the children to come in and say goodnight. Additionally, rather than point at Jaehaerys to show he is the boy and effectively select his death, Helaena picks her youngest son, Maelor, to die, hoping Blood and Cheese will spare Jaehaerys. But they kill Jaehaerys anyway.
“One of the things that’s challenging about adapting ‘Fire & Blood’ is that there is this intentionally conflicting narrative in the book where there are often these three different viewpoints on the history that don’t line up with one another,” “House of the Dragon” showrunner Ryan Condal says. “So it’s our job as adapters to try to find the objective line through this to bring the audience into the narrative as we see it having been laid out.”
Starting with the change of having Rhaenyra call for Aemond’s blood, Condal says: “It felt like Rhaenyra, despite being in grief, she’s looking for vengeance, but she would choose a target that would have some kind of strategic or military advantage. Of course, if you did take out Aemond, not only would he be punished directly for his betrayal and murder of Luke, but it would eliminate the rider of the biggest dragon in the world, and immediately create an advantage for their side.”
“Rhaenyra lets her rage take hold of her voice, and I think it’s not something that we saw a huge amount of — certainly with the older Rhaenyra — in Season 1,” D’Arcy says. “She was always trying to mediate that fire. And in this season, after Luc’s death, she finally let’s that thing burn.”
Condal says the elimination of Helaena’s choice between Maelor and Jaehaerys “just doesn’t exist in this version of the story yet,” because time had to be compressed in Season 1 in such a way that Helaena and Aegon’s children, as well as Daemon and Rhaenyra’s youngest children, are “younger in this part of the narrative than they were in the original book.”
For Helaena actor Phia Saban, the elimination of the character in this “Blood and Cheese” equation, and the fact Helaena points directly at Jaehaerys, leading to his death, is “almost more heartbreaking.”
“There’s something about the fact that she can’t escape the fact that she said, ‘Yes, that one,’ and that weighs on her so much,” Saban says. “But I also think she really felt that she had no option because I think that the stakes are that high — it’s the highest stakes in her existence — and so when he says to her, ‘You tell me the right one, or I’m gonna do terrible things to your children,’ she believes him. She’s like, I can’t mess this up, I need to be completely honest. And I think it’s actually more heartbreaking that she’s honest.”
Condal decided the death would play out audibly in the shadows and visually on Helaena’s face, rather than show the act itself on screen. It was, he says, “a subject of some debate” in the writers’ room.
“We knew it would be horrifying and brutal — we didn’t want it to be gratuitous or over the top,” Condal says. “The idea of that sequence was to dramatize a heist gone wrong. So we move off the center narrative of Daemon, Rhaenyra, Alicent and Aegon’s world, and suddenly, we’re following these two characters that we’ve just met in an alley in Flea Bottom. Daemon’s given them an assignment to go in and find Aemond Targaryen, and we’re following them, and we’re following them, and we’re not cutting away and we’re not going back to the other narratives — oh, God, what’s going to happen?”
The idea, Condal says, is: “Now suddenly we’re in Helaena’s subjective point of view — we follow these two guys, and then we come into her world and see how it lands on her, and feeling her experience through it.”
“Yes, it’s a little child, and it’s awful. But because we don’t really know Jaehaerys as a point-of-view character, it made more sense to experience that terrible event through Helaena’s eyes,” Condal adds. “You instinctually know what’s happening off screen, but I think it’s the emotional grip of experiencing that through Helaena’s eyes that really gets me still, and I’ve seen it 100 times.”
Then there is the significant difference about where the murder takes place — with Alicent not witnessing the death of her grandchild, and instead being in bed with Criston Cole when he is slaughtered.
“It adds a level of shame and guilt that is different to anything that Alicent has ever experienced before, by being indisposed with the head of the Kingsguard who should have been on duty to make sure that the castle was on lock,” Cooke says. “That’s a theme that plays throughout the season: If they hadn’t embarked on this affair, would this have happened? They hold themselves accountable completely.”
While the premiere ends in tragedy, and promises of darker days to come, it opens with a bit of fan service: “House of the Dragon’s” first look at the North, the home of Jon Snow and the Stark family, from the original “Game of Thrones.”
“That was a big moment in the book, and who doesn’t want to go see Winterfell again?” Condal asks rhetorically. “I thought it would be a great treat for the fans. We haven’t seen the North since the original series, and that was many, many years away. But we didn’t want to go there without a reason.”
The specific reason in this case was to introduce the character Cregan Stark (played by Tom Taylor) and his friendship with Rhaenyra’s eldest son Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett), just before Jace learns of his brother Luc’s death.
“I try not to do things that are simply because we like to,” Condal says. “But that sequence is really the last place where this awful news has not yet rung out, because the North is so far away. So we start with the raven who’s carrying the news of Luc’s death all the way up to the north. And we see Jace in this last pure moment where, in his mind, at least, his brother’s still alive.”
Condal notes it is additionally meant to show the world of Westeros is bigger than this warring family down south.
“It’s also expanding the scope of the world, and reminding people that there are more places here than Dragonstone and King’s Landing — and that the North has a major stake in what’s to come,” Condal says. “There’s a wall up there, and there’s great power that exists beyond the wall that’s going to maybe not affect the characters in this time period, but will in Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow’s timeline.”
Michaela Zee contributed to this story.
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https://pressbooks.pub/earlybritishlit/chapter/gullivers-travels-by-jonathan-swift/
|
en
|
Jonathan Swift: Gulliver’s Travels – An Open Companion to Early British Literature
|
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https://pressbooks.pub/earlybritishlit/chapter/gullivers-travels-by-jonathan-swift/
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83 Jonathan Swift: Gulliver’s Travels
Introduction
by Jena Jordan, Aalmin Kadiwal and Elisa Escalera
Gulliver’s Travels, written in 1726 by Jonathan Swift, is a satire that explores the theme of human nature framed by a fictional traveler’s account (this being very popular genre at the time). It follows a protagonist, Lemuel Gulliver, who is the narrator; he explains a bit about his life as a preamble and informs readers that he is a married surgeon from Nottinghamshire, England who loves traveling. As it turns out, “He works as a surgeon on ships and ends up becoming a ship captain…Through many unfortunate events during his voyage at sea, Gulliver becomes stranded in foreign lands and absurd situations, whether it’s getting captured by the miniature Lilliputians or becoming friends with talking horses, the Houyhnhnms” (Naik). This work remains popular with adults and children alike who are drawn to the multiple ways it can be read: as an allegorical tale of fantastic creatures or as a deeper political commentary on the darker side of human nature.
Author Biography
Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland on November 30, 1667. His father passed away shortly after he was conceived and, upon his birth, his mother struggled to provide for him financially. For this reason, he was sent to live with an uncle who enrolled him at what was considered the best grammar school in Ireland at the time, the Kilkenny school. At the age of fourteen, in 1682, Swift entered Trinity College in Dublin. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree, and went on to pursue a master ‘s degree as well.
Political upheaval, however, interrupted his graduate education in the form of the Glorious Revolution and the overthrowing of the king. These events led Swift to travel to England where he found an assistant’s position working for Sir William Temple. He worked as his assistant for ten years until Temple died in 1699. During his time with Temple, Swift traveled to Dublin where he was ordained, reluctantly accepting an official position in the church. In the meantime, he also began to follow his true passion: writing. In 1710, he was asked to write for the official paper for the Tories the Examiner, and became consumed by the politics of his era (“Jonathan Swift Biography”). In Gulliver’s Travels, Swift writes about a rivalry between political groups of Lilliputians who argue over the importance of a low or high heeled shoe. Many believe these petty squabbles exemplify the rivalry between the Whigs and Tories (Bauer and Reid). After the Tories lost power, Swift became Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin in 1713 (Bauer and Reid). Though a man of the church, Swift had previously written critically of the institution, which speaks to his ability to see perspectives beyond personal bias (William and O’Connor). As a man with English parents, born and raised in Ireland, employed in England, Swift was able to experience the life of both an “insider” and “outsider’ throughout his career, which may be mirrored in the fictious adventures of Gulliver himself. He went on to write many works under various pseudonyms until he suffered a stroke in 1742. Three years later, in 1745, he passed away and was buried at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin.
Summary
Part I
Gulliver’s Travels, or Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships begins by depicting Lemuel Gulliver’s poor upbringing. Gulliver takes an apprenticeship with a surgeon due to his family’s inability to pay for his education. The surgeon shares his knowledge with Gulliver giving him the information he would need to begin his journey and solidify his career. Gulliver marries a woman named Mary and begins a practice in London. His practice, however, dwindles with the death of his master, Mr. Bates. Gulliver then sets out to sea aboard the Antelope. The Antelope is felled by the sea and Gulliver swims to the nearest shore where he falls asleep in the grass. He awakens to discover he is completely bound, held captive by a group of tiny people called the Lilliputians. They take care of his needs but refuse to grant him freedom. A fire catches in the bedroom of the emperor’s wife causing Gulliver to douse the fire with the only liquid available: his urine. This results in Gulliver being accused of treason which carries a severe punishment. He requests aid from the people of Blefuscu, a neighboring empire currently warring with the little Lilliputians over the proper method for cracking an egg. He seeks their help in hopes of returning home to England. They help him acquire and repair a boat he found while wandering on the coast of their shores. He is able to return home.
Part II
Despite the harrowing journey he just returned from, Gulliver’s stay in London is brief and he sets out again aboard a vessel named Adventure. The ship is thrown off course after an encounter with a monsoon. He lands on an island and is abandoned by his shipmates. He then spots the brutish Brobdingnagians and they, soon after, discover him as well. He is treated as a novelty by the Brobdingnagians whose giant size makes him powerless to their whims. He is taken care of by the nine-year-old daughter of the farmer who discovered him. After becoming ill one day, he is left alone in his box. An eagle picks up his box, with him inside, and flies away with it. The eagle drops the box and Gulliver into the ocean where he is discovered by a ship of people his own size. When Gulliver attempts to explain his circumstances to the ship captain the captain believes him to be in great distress. Fortunately, Gulliver is able to provide support for his explanation by way of items he’s stored in his box. He eventually returns to London where he parts with the captain. On his journey home, he is disoriented by the change in perspective from his time with the Brobdingnagians and overestimates his own size in comparison to the minuscule world around him. His perspective is so altered but what became his norm that he fails to see his daughter when greeted by her. His perspective slowly returns as time passes. His wife is insistent that he should not leave again but the Gulliver leaves no doubt that his journeys are concluded only for the time being.
Part III
In part three, Gulliver sets sail again and is rescued by a floating Island named “Laputa” after his ship was attacked by pirates and he was left stranded. This island is devoted to the arts and sciences including mathematics, astronomy and music though, he quickly learns that they are only theoretical in their pastimes and are unable to realize practical gains from their endeavors. For example, Laputian society despises practical geometry, and wants no right angles in their architecture even as they are obsessed with mathematics; as a result, their homes are poorly built. He then learns that Laputa hovers above a second island called Balnibarbi and, already bored with the Laputians, Gulliver journeys there and then onto its capital, Lagado, to visit the “Grand Academy.” The Grand Academy of Lagado is filled with scientists making projects which are completely useless and serve no purpose to society, such as attempts to extract sunlight from cucumbers or gunpowder from ice. This “Academy” is a not-so-veiled reference to the Age Enlightenment and the Royal Society formed by philosophical leaders and inventors that was quite influential in Swift’s time. He further visits a part of the Academy devoted to “political projectors” in which he finds professors debating the merits of uncovering anti-government conspiracy by “examin[ing] into the diet” through the analysis of excrement for color, odor and taste. Tired of these “wholly out of their senses” professors, Gulliver continues on with a quick stop to Glubbdubdrib, or the island of “sorcerers or magicians”; there he spends a great deal of time talking to the ghosts of Caesar, Descartes, Homer and Aristotle. Determined to visit Japan, Gulliver disguises himself as a Dutchman (the Dutch being the only European nation admitted to Japan), and is caught in the act en route and imprisoned. While in Luggnagg, he learns about the Struldbrug children who are immortal; he imagines that this would be a great thing but, in reality, they have eternal youth but suffer the ailments of the old and so are depressed about their state. He is eventually given passage to Japan where the Empower insists he trample on a crucifix; he manages to sidestep this challenge and returns to England via Amsterdam.
Part IV
In Part four, the narrator has stayed at home for five months but is itching to sail the seas again; he does this, leaving his pregnant wife behind and commanding his own ship. It isn’t long before his men conduct a mutiny and threaten to murder him; these would-be pirates end up dropping him off on an unknown island and continuing on their way . He travels circumspectly through the countryside and comes upon a gathering of creatures that fill him with “contempt and aversion” –these, we come to find out are “Yahoos” and they are human creatures who behave more like cattle. One of the Yahoos confronts Gulliver who bats him back which arouses the rest of the clan to surround him; he is suddenly rescued by a pack of horses who seem to be speaking their own language. These horses, who he learns are called Houyhnhnms, are “so orderly and rational, so acute and judicious.” One of the horses leads Gulliver back to his home; it quickly becomes obvious that the horse has no master and is, in fact, master of his own house. After deliberating with his wife, the horse stands Gulliver next to another Yahoo and finds them the same but for the fact that Gulliver is clothed. Rather than becoming eager to leave this island, Gulliver finds himself happy to stay, and he quickly adapts to the Houyhnhnms’ lifestyle, language, and knowledge. Through this, Gulliver informs the horses about life in England: how horses are controlled by “Yahoos,” how lying works and the systems of government, as well as the ways Yahoos go to war against each other. All of these explanations seem to baffle the Houynhnhnms. Since Gulliver spent a good time with the Houyhnhnms, he realizes that the real humans, the Yahoos, are what he despises. He longs to stay but the Houyhnhnms fear he may lead a Yahoo insurrection so he is compelled to set sail again. Gulliver is resentful of going back, and when he does, he realizes he does not want to be around his own wife and child because they remind him of the Yahoos. Gulliver buys some horses who he talks to in the stables for several hours each day. In this part, Swift mocks human nature and human civilization. His analysis of the “Yahoos” and their selfish, immortal nature is plain to see in contrast to the Houyhnhnms who are far more noble, logical and kind.
Works Cited
Bauer, Patricia and Reid, Cregan Vybarr. “Gulliver’s Travels.” Encyclopedia Britannica. 15 Nov. 2018. Web. 27 June 2019. britannica.com/topic/Gullivers-Travels
“Gulliver’s Travels.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. N.d. Web. 15 June 2019. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulliver%27s_Travels
“Jonathan Swift Biography.” A&E Television Networks. Apr. 2 2014. Web. 27 Jun 2019. biography.com/scholar/jonathan-swift
Naik, Darshana. “Gulliver’s Travels Summary.” Toppr Bytes. 25 Mar. 2018. Web. 15 Jun 2019. toppr.com/bytes/gulliver-travels-summary/
William, Abigail and O’Connor, Kate. “Jonathan Swift and ‘Gulliver’s Travels’.” Writers Inspire. N.d. Web. 27 Jun 2019. writersinspire.org/content/jonathan-swift-gullivers-travels
Reading: Gulliver’s Travels
PART I.
A VOYAGE TO LILLIPUT.
CHAPTER II.
The emperor of Lilliput, attended by several of the nobility, comes to see the author in his confinement. The emperor’s person and habit described. Learned men appointed to teach the author their language. He gains favour by his mild disposition. His pockets are searched, and his sword and pistols taken from him.
When I found myself on my feet, I looked about me, and must confess I never beheld a more entertaining prospect. The country around appeared like a continued garden, and the enclosed fields, which were generally forty feet square, resembled so many beds of flowers. These fields were intermingled with woods of half a stang, and the tallest trees, as I could judge, appeared to be seven feet high. I viewed the town on my left hand, which looked like the painted scene of a city in a theatre.
I had been for some hours extremely pressed by the necessities of nature; which was no wonder, it being almost two days since I had last disburdened myself. I was under great difficulties between urgency and shame. The best expedient I could think of, was to creep into my house, which I accordingly did; and shutting the gate after me, I went as far as the length of my chain would suffer, and discharged my body of that uneasy load. But this was the only time I was ever guilty of so uncleanly an action; for which I cannot but hope the candid reader will give some allowance, after he has maturely and impartially considered my case, and the distress I was in. From this time my constant practice was, as soon as I rose, to perform that business in open air, at the full extent of my chain; and due care was taken every morning before company came, that the offensive matter should be carried off in wheel-barrows, by two servants appointed for that purpose. I would not have dwelt so long upon a circumstance that, perhaps, at first sight, may appear not very momentous, if I had not thought it necessary to justify my character, in point of cleanliness, to the world; which, I am told, some of my maligners have been pleased, upon this and other occasions, to call in question. When this adventure was at an end, I came back out of my house, having occasion for fresh air.
The emperor was already descended from the tower, and advancing on horseback towards me, which had like to have cost him dear; for the beast, though very well trained, yet wholly unused to such a sight, which appeared as if a mountain moved before him, reared up on its hinder feet: but that prince, who is an excellent horseman, kept his seat, till his attendants ran in, and held the bridle, while his majesty had time to dismount.
When he alighted, he surveyed me round with great admiration; but kept beyond the length of my chain. He ordered his cooks and butlers, who were already prepared, to give me victuals and drink, which they pushed forward in a sort of vehicles upon wheels, till I could reach them. I took these vehicles and soon emptied them all; twenty of them were filled with meat, and ten with liquor; each of the former afforded me two or three good mouthfuls; and I emptied the liquor of ten vessels, which was contained in earthen vials, into one vehicle, drinking it off at a draught; and so I did with the rest. The empress, and young princes of the blood of both sexes, attended by many ladies, sat at some distance in their chairs; but upon the accident that happened to the emperor’s horse, they alighted, and came near his person, which I am now going to describe. He is taller by almost the breadth of my nail, than any of his court; which alone is enough to strike an awe into the beholders. His features are strong and masculine, with an Austrian lip and arched nose, his complexion olive, his countenance erect, his body and limbs well proportioned, all his motions graceful, and his deportment majestic. He was then past his prime, being twenty-eight years and three quarters old, of which he had reigned about seven in great felicity, and generally victorious. For the better convenience of beholding him, I lay on my side, so that my face was parallel to his, and he stood but three yards off: however, I have had him since many times in my hand, and therefore cannot be deceived in the description.
His dress was very plain and simple, and the fashion of it between the Asiatic and the European; but he had on his head a light helmet of gold, adorned with jewels, and a plume on the crest. He held his sword drawn in his hand to defend himself, if I should happen to break loose; it was almost three inches long; the hilt and scabbard were gold enriched with diamonds. His voice was shrill, but very clear and articulate; and I could distinctly hear it when I stood up.
The ladies and courtiers were all most magnificently clad; so that the spot they stood upon seemed to resemble a petticoat spread upon the ground, embroidered with figures of gold and silver. His imperial majesty spoke often to me, and I returned answers: but neither of us could understand a syllable. There were several of his priests and lawyers present (as I conjectured by their habits), who were commanded to address themselves to me; and I spoke to them in as many languages as I had the least smattering of, which were High and Low Dutch, Latin, French, Spanish, Italian, and Lingua Franca, but all to no purpose.
After about two hours the court retired, and I was left with a strong guard, to prevent the impertinence, and probably the malice of the rabble, who were very impatient to crowd about me as near as they durst; and some of them had the impudence to shoot their arrows at me, as I sat on the ground by the door of my house, whereof one very narrowly missed my left eye. But the colonel ordered six of the ringleaders to be seized, and thought no punishment so proper as to deliver them bound into my hands; which some of his soldiers accordingly did, pushing them forward with the butt-ends of their pikes into my reach. I took them all in my right hand, put five of them into my coat-pocket; and as to the sixth, I made a countenance as if I would eat him alive. The poor man squalled terribly, and the colonel and his officers were in much pain, especially when they saw me take out my penknife: but I soon put them out of fear; for, looking mildly, and immediately cutting the strings he was bound with, I set him gently on the ground, and away he ran. I treated the rest in the same manner, taking them one by one out of my pocket; and I observed both the soldiers and people were highly delighted at this mark of my clemency, which was represented very much to my advantage at court.
Towards night I got with some difficulty into my house, where I lay on the ground, and continued to do so about a fortnight; during which time, the emperor gave orders to have a bed prepared for me. Six hundred beds of the common measure were brought in carriages, and worked up in my house; a hundred and fifty of their beds, sewn together, made up the breadth and length; and these were four double: which, however, kept me but very indifferently from the hardness of the floor, that was of smooth stone. By the same computation, they provided me with sheets, blankets, and coverlets, tolerable enough for one who had been so long inured to hardships.
As the news of my arrival spread through the kingdom, it brought prodigious numbers of rich, idle, and curious people to see me; so that the villages were almost emptied; and great neglect of tillage and household affairs must have ensued, if his imperial majesty had not provided, by several proclamations and orders of state, against this inconveniency. He directed that those who had already beheld me should return home, and not presume to come within fifty yards of my house, without license from the court; whereby the secretaries of state got considerable fees.
In the meantime the emperor held frequent councils, to debate what course should be taken with me; and I was afterwards assured by a particular friend, a person of great quality, who was as much in the secret as any, that the court was under many difficulties concerning me. They apprehended my breaking loose; that my diet would be very expensive, and might cause a famine. Sometimes they determined to starve me; or at least to shoot me in the face and hands with poisoned arrows, which would soon despatch me; but again they considered, that the stench of so large a carcass might produce a plague in the metropolis, and probably spread through the whole kingdom.
In the midst of these consultations, several officers of the army went to the door of the great council-chamber, and two of them being admitted, gave an account of my behaviour to the six criminals above-mentioned; which made so favourable an impression in the breast of his majesty and the whole board, in my behalf, that an imperial commission was issued out, obliging all the villages, nine hundred yards round the city, to deliver in every morning six beeves, forty sheep, and other victuals for my sustenance; together with a proportionable quantity of bread, and wine, and other liquors; for the due payment of which, his majesty gave assignments upon his treasury:—for this prince lives chiefly upon his own demesnes; seldom, except upon great occasions, raising any subsidies upon his subjects, who are bound to attend him in his wars at their own expense. An establishment was also made of six hundred persons to be my domestics, who had board-wages allowed for their maintenance, and tents built for them very conveniently on each side of my door.
It was likewise ordered, that three hundred tailors should make me a suit of clothes, after the fashion of the country; that six of his majesty’s greatest scholars should be employed to instruct me in their language; and lastly, that the emperor’s horses, and those of the nobility and troops of guards, should be frequently exercised in my sight, to accustom themselves to me.
All these orders were duly put in execution; and in about three weeks I made a great progress in learning their language; during which time the emperor frequently honoured me with his visits, and was pleased to assist my masters in teaching me. We began already to converse together in some sort; and the first words I learnt, were to express my desire “that he would please give me my liberty;” which I every day repeated on my knees. His answer, as I could comprehend it, was, “that this must be a work of time, not to be thought on without the advice of his council, and that first I must lumos kelmin pesso desmar lon emposo;” that is, swear a peace with him and his kingdom. However, that I should be used with all kindness. And he advised me to “acquire, by my patience and discreet behaviour, the good opinion of himself and his subjects.”
He desired “I would not take it ill, if he gave orders to certain proper officers to search me; for probably I might carry about me several weapons, which must needs be dangerous things, if they answered the bulk of so prodigious a person.” I said, “His majesty should be satisfied; for I was ready to strip myself, and turn up my pockets before him.” This I delivered part in words, and part in signs.
He replied, “that, by the laws of the kingdom, I must be searched by two of his officers; that he knew this could not be done without my consent and assistance; and he had so good an opinion of my generosity and justice, as to trust their persons in my hands; that whatever they took from me, should be returned when I left the country, or paid for at the rate which I would set upon them.” I took up the two officers in my hands, put them first into my coat-pockets, and then into every other pocket about me, except my two fobs, and another secret pocket, which I had no mind should be searched, wherein I had some little necessaries that were of no consequence to any but myself. In one of my fobs there was a silver watch, and in the other a small quantity of gold in a purse.
These gentlemen, having pen, ink, and paper, about them, made an exact inventory of every thing they saw; and when they had done, desired I would set them down, that they might deliver it to the emperor. This inventory I afterwards translated into English, and is, word for word, as follows:
“Imprimis: In the right coat-pocket of the great man-mountain” (for so I interpret the words quinbus flestrin,) “after the strictest search, we found only one great piece of coarse-cloth, large enough to be a foot-cloth for your majesty’s chief room of state. In the left pocket we saw a huge silver chest, with a cover of the same metal, which we, the searchers, were not able to lift. We desired it should be opened, and one of us stepping into it, found himself up to the mid leg in a sort of dust, some part whereof flying up to our faces set us both a sneezing for several times together. In his right waistcoat-pocket we found a prodigious bundle of white thin substances, folded one over another, about the bigness of three men, tied with a strong cable, and marked with black figures; which we humbly conceive to be writings, every letter almost half as large as the palm of our hands. In the left there was a sort of engine, from the back of which were extended twenty long poles, resembling the pallisados before your majesty’s court: wherewith we conjecture the man-mountain combs his head; for we did not always trouble him with questions, because we found it a great difficulty to make him understand us. In the large pocket, on the right side of his middle cover” (so I translate the word ranfulo, by which they meant my breeches,) “we saw a hollow pillar of iron, about the length of a man, fastened to a strong piece of timber larger than the pillar; and upon one side of the pillar, were huge pieces of iron sticking out, cut into strange figures, which we know not what to make of. In the left pocket, another engine of the same kind. In the smaller pocket on the right side, were several round flat pieces of white and red metal, of different bulk; some of the white, which seemed to be silver, were so large and heavy, that my comrade and I could hardly lift them. In the left pocket were two black pillars irregularly shaped: we could not, without difficulty, reach the top of them, as we stood at the bottom of his pocket. One of them was covered, and seemed all of a piece: but at the upper end of the other there appeared a white round substance, about twice the bigness of our heads. Within each of these was enclosed a prodigious plate of steel; which, by our orders, we obliged him to show us, because we apprehended they might be dangerous engines. He took them out of their cases, and told us, that in his own country his practice was to shave his beard with one of these, and cut his meat with the other. There were two pockets which we could not enter: these he called his fobs; they were two large slits cut into the top of his middle cover, but squeezed close by the pressure of his belly. Out of the right fob hung a great silver chain, with a wonderful kind of engine at the bottom. We directed him to draw out whatever was at the end of that chain; which appeared to be a globe, half silver, and half of some transparent metal; for, on the transparent side, we saw certain strange figures circularly drawn, and thought we could touch them, till we found our fingers stopped by the lucid substance. He put this engine into our ears, which made an incessant noise, like that of a water-mill: and we conjecture it is either some unknown animal, or the god that he worships; but we are more inclined to the latter opinion, because he assured us, (if we understood him right, for he expressed himself very imperfectly) that he seldom did any thing without consulting it. He called it his oracle, and said, it pointed out the time for every action of his life. From the left fob he took out a net almost large enough for a fisherman, but contrived to open and shut like a purse, and served him for the same use: we found therein several massy pieces of yellow metal, which, if they be real gold, must be of immense value.
“Having thus, in obedience to your majesty’s commands, diligently searched all his pockets, we observed a girdle about his waist made of the hide of some prodigious animal, from which, on the left side, hung a sword of the length of five men; and on the right, a bag or pouch divided into two cells, each cell capable of holding three of your majesty’s subjects. In one of these cells were several globes, or balls, of a most ponderous metal, about the bigness of our heads, and requiring a strong hand to lift them: the other cell contained a heap of certain black grains, but of no great bulk or weight, for we could hold above fifty of them in the palms of our hands.
“This is an exact inventory of what we found about the body of the man-mountain, who used us with great civility, and due respect to your majesty’s commission. Signed and sealed on the fourth day of the eighty-ninth moon of your majesty’s auspicious reign.
Clefrin Frelock, Marsi Frelock.”
When this inventory was read over to the emperor, he directed me, although in very gentle terms, to deliver up the several particulars.
He first called for my scimitar, which I took out, scabbard and all. In the mean time he ordered three thousand of his choicest troops (who then attended him) to surround me at a distance, with their bows and arrows just ready to discharge; but I did not observe it, for my eyes were wholly fixed upon his majesty. He then desired me to draw my scimitar, which, although it had got some rust by the sea water, was, in most parts, exceeding bright. I did so, and immediately all the troops gave a shout between terror and surprise; for the sun shone clear, and the reflection dazzled their eyes, as I waved the scimitar to and fro in my hand. His majesty, who is a most magnanimous prince, was less daunted than I could expect: he ordered me to return it into the scabbard, and cast it on the ground as gently as I could, about six feet from the end of my chain.
The next thing he demanded was one of the hollow iron pillars; by which he meant my pocket pistols. I drew it out, and at his desire, as well as I could, expressed to him the use of it; and charging it only with powder, which, by the closeness of my pouch, happened to escape wetting in the sea (an inconvenience against which all prudent mariners take special care to provide,) I first cautioned the emperor not to be afraid, and then I let it off in the air.
The astonishment here was much greater than at the sight of my scimitar. Hundreds fell down as if they had been struck dead; and even the emperor, although he stood his ground, could not recover himself for some time. I delivered up both my pistols in the same manner as I had done my scimitar, and then my pouch of powder and bullets; begging him that the former might be kept from fire, for it would kindle with the smallest spark, and blow up his imperial palace into the air.
I likewise delivered up my watch, which the emperor was very curious to see, and commanded two of his tallest yeomen of the guards to bear it on a pole upon their shoulders, as draymen in England do a barrel of ale. He was amazed at the continual noise it made, and the motion of the minute-hand, which he could easily discern; for their sight is much more acute than ours: he asked the opinions of his learned men about it, which were various and remote, as the reader may well imagine without my repeating; although indeed I could not very perfectly understand them.
I then gave up my silver and copper money, my purse, with nine large pieces of gold, and some smaller ones; my knife and razor, my comb and silver snuff-box, my handkerchief and journal-book. My scimitar, pistols, and pouch, were conveyed in carriages to his majesty’s stores; but the rest of my goods were returned me.
I had as I before observed, one private pocket, which escaped their search, wherein there was a pair of spectacles (which I sometimes use for the weakness of my eyes,) a pocket perspective, and some other little conveniences; which, being of no consequence to the emperor, I did not think myself bound in honour to discover, and I apprehended they might be lost or spoiled if I ventured them out of my possession.
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"There are so many 'wow' moments"- Dave Marsh, SIRIUS/XM Radio personality / Rolling Stone editor emeritus
"Tough, tender, thoughtful and sassy-- R-E-A-L, as Sam Phillips was wont to say."- Peter Guralnick, Award-Winning Author and Musicologist (Last Train To Memphis, Sweet Soul Music)
"Whatever she touches becomes soulful and passionate. Ohlman always sounds like her born-to-be-bad self, belting out songs like the spitfire she is. It's that swagger combined with tenderness that makes her so compelling...the perfect balance of raw soul and gutsy rock.  Perhaps the most powerful and potent moment is the title track, a gospel-infused swamp ballad that seems autobiographical, especially when she sings that she's 'hard to handle, the excitable kind/take off runnin' when I could've walked.' Ohlman never flinches from the hard stuff and throughout The Deep End, she dives in like the classic soul kings and queens she idolizes." - Hal Horowitz, The All Music Guide
"Ohlman and Rebel Montez concoct a Soul atmosphere as thick and palpable as a humid Southern night. Ohlmanâs voice is a dusky, supple thing of dark Soul beauty, like a genre splice of Dusty Springfield and Delbert McClinton. She sells the albumâs handful of covers with aching authenticity, from her duets with Marshall Crenshaw on the Marvin Gaye/Mary Wells classic âWhatâs the Matter with You Babyâ and with the incomparable Dion on âCry Baby Cry.â But the standouts on The Deep End are Ohlmanâs stunning originals, which blister and soothe in equal measure."- Brian Baker, Cincinnati CityBeat
"The Beehive Queen has never sounded better"- Andrew Loog Oldham, Producer, The Rolling Stones / SIRIUS/XM Radio personality
"The Deep End insists on telling the truth until it alters perceptions of love and loss and how it all works, especially when it falls apart so tragically as that which produced this work of art. Here comes the sun, healing and transcendent." --www.thebluegrassspecial.com
"The husky-voiced singer is a full-package talent, a dynamic rocker who draws on soul and blues in ways that give her music a classic feel even as it pulses with her own personality. Make no mistake: If Ian Hunter, Dion DiMucci, Marshall Crenshaw, Levon Helm, G.E. Smith, Big Al Anderson, and Eric Ambel draw you into The Deep End, it's Ohlman who ends up making the biggest impression. As in: 'Wow'." - Nick Cristiano, Philadelphia Inquirer (syndicated)
"She of the beehive hairdo and the Saturday Night Live Band brings the ringing endorsement of Charlie Musselwhile to her excitedly sung and enjoyable roots-rock songs"- Downbeat
"As a singer, Ohlman makes each song sound like a prime cut on a jukebox in a Memphis barbecue joint. Hit(s) the sweet spot, straight and true." -Vintage Guitar Magazine
"Expect this album to pepper a few best-of lists in December. The songs on The Deep End draw as much upon gospel and urban doo-wop as they do blues and Americana. âI surrender to the rhythm in my bloodâ, Ohlman sings in 'Like Honey'. Me too, Christine, me too.â âBill Holmes, www.popmatters.com
âChristine Ohlman and her band Rebel Montez have just released their sixth studio album, The Deep End, to what will undoubtedly be rave critical acclaim. Let it begin here. Itâs staggering!"  - Reb Landers, www.thealternateroot.com
"Ohlman turns out the best blue-eyed soul of her career...'The Gone of You' fully exhibits how much grief a blues-drenched heart can bear. The whole history of soul music can be heard here, reflected in a passionate life--or two." Â - Dave Marsh, Rock & Rap Confidential
"Donât let the beehive hair or glammed-up persona fool you. Christine Ohlman can deliver the goods. With a delivery that carries all the joy of early rock and roll, Ohlman owns the voice of choice for every style from edgy blues to tender R&B to sweet country to bittersweet singer-songwriter". - Blues Revue - Â June/July 2010
"The record, like any good bit of love, has layers, not so much warning as perhaps honest admission - or perhaps undersanding - of love's varied means and ends. In fact, the blues isn't always about being sad, but simply allowing room for the myriad reaches and complexities of emotion." - Kim Ruehl, NoDepression.com
"On [The Deep End] the theme of love is very heavy. What is really astounding is the depth of love that is discussed."  -  Kyle Palarino, Blueswax
"There's a wondrous familiarity and traditionalism in Christine Ohlman's old-school, rough-hewn, Southern-soul roots rock..(she)Â is loyal and true to her roots while setting herself audacious new challenges: deeply impressive." -Â Chris Arnott, The Advocate, New Haven, CT
"On her latest record, seasoned R&B chanteuse Christine Ohlman writes and sings about human interactions, from irresistible sex to true love and, ultimately, unbelievable loss.  Thereâs never a doubt that Ohlman is singing from an experienced heart." - Kay Cordtz, Elmore Magazine
â[Ohlman] sings in a gutsy rock ânâ roll voice edged in soul and blues, part Bonnie Raitt and part Genya Raven, with an element of Van Morrisonâs early wildness. Her throwback sound combines the romanticism of Brill Building pop and horn-fed Stax muscle (courtesy of the Asbury Jukesâ Chris Anderson and Neal Pawley) into a potent rock ânâ roll stew. Ohlmanâs band is similarly road-tested (the bass of Michael Colbath is particularly notable).â -  www.hyperbolium.com
"If you give "The Deep End" a spin, you'll be an Ohlman fan for life. (4 stars)" - The Daily News, McKeesport, PA (Pittsburgh Metro)
"The âBeehive Queenâ is a hard rocking Memphis soul fueled dynamo, and The Deep End may be her finest album yet...absolutely beautiful." - Michael Buffalo Smith, Gritz Magazine
âIn its original form, rock n' roll was a blend of blues, country and gospel. Christine Ohlman practices rock the old-fashioned way. Like the music she makes, Ohlman seems timeless.â â Eric Danton, The Courant /Hartford, CT  Â
"'Cry Baby Cry' (a duet with Dion) ought to be blasting out of a '55 Chevy radio on a hot summer night"   â Wayne Blesdoe, Knoxville News-Sentinel
âI do have a favorite, however, and itâs another example of the cache that Christine Ohlman carries within the music world⦠enlisting the services of rock legend Dion DiMucci to sing with Ohlman on the gospel-tinged âCry Baby Cryâ is a great touch.â â Reb Landers, www.thealternateroot.com
"A perfect concoction of musicianship and road weary soaked vocals....making the disc a solid listen is the wonderful group of musicians, Rebel Montez, who really add an exceptional backing groove to these 15 tracks and gives it an A-plus sheen. The Deep End is a diamond in the rough." - Carl Cortez, iF MagazineÂ
"Ohlman exudes rock and soul authenticity from her wailing vocals to her beehive hairdo..a confident, cool  and street-savy diva."  â M Music and Musicians (successor to Performing Songwriter)
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100 Greatest Singers of All Time
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] |
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[
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] | null |
[
"Rolling Stone"
] |
2010-12-03T00:21:00+00:00
|
Rolling Stone ranks the 100 Greatest Singers: Aretha, Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Bob Dylan and many more
|
en
|
Rolling Stone
|
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/100-greatest-singers-of-all-time-147019/
|
Born
January 11th, 1971
Key Tracks
"Real Love," "Not Gon' Cry," "No More Drama"
Influenced
Beyoncé, Keyshia Cole
"I can do a record with Elton John, I can do 'One' with Bono, I can work with Method Man, Jay-Z, and no one says, 'Why is she doing that?' " says Mary J. Blige. "And that's because I know exactly who I am and what I want." Blige's 1992 pairing with rookie Sean "Puffy" Combs for What's the 411? defined a new era for R&B, matching new-jack attitude with old-school emotion and songcraft. "She's the true heir to Aretha Franklin," duet partner Sting once said. Sixteen years later, Blige's exposed-nerve vocals keep getting more precise and more powerful. "I'm vocally the strongest I've ever been," says Blige. "I did the work, and now I can do whatever I want to do."
Born
March 26th, 1948
Key Tracks
"Sweet Emotion," "Dream On," "Walk This Way"
Influenced
David Lee Roth, Axl Rose, Scott Weiland
Steven Tyler has a theory about how singing first began. "It had to be with the first primate uttering a moan during sex," he says. "I truly believe that's where the passion of voice comes from." Every line Tyler sings is informed by a leer and a wink, whether overtly ("Love in an Elevator") or with more subtlety ("Walk This Way"). In the course of nearly four decades fronting Aerosmith, Tyler has defined both the sound and style of the lead singer in a hard-rock band. "It's hard to separate the singer from the person," says Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry. "You need personality to be a frontman." Tyler has that in spades, along with — amid all the yelps, groans, growls and squeals — an unerring sense of pitch. "As Tony Bennett said, 'Without heart, this is no art,' " Tyler says. "I wear my heart on my sleeve."
Born
May 20th, 1944
Key Tracks
"With a Little Help From My Friends," "You Are So Beautiful," "Feelin' Alright," "Cry Me a River"
Influenced
Bryan Adams, Brian Johnson
"He brought Ray Charles to the mix as an influence on rock & roll," says Steve Van Zandt. Joe Cocker's voice is an irresistible force that combines a love of American soul music with an undeniable depth of feeling: The Northern English belter supercharged Charles' raw-throated vocals with rock & roll attitude, most famously on his hit cover of the Boxtops' "The Letter" and his monumental Woodstock performance of the Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends." The response to that helped push along a wave of blue-eyed-soul acts, including Leon Russell, and Delaney and Bonnie. Cocker would go on to interpret tunes by Randy Newman and Traffic as if they were R&B classics. And once he was done with them, that's what they were.
Born
September 16th, 1925
Key Tracks
"The Thrill Is Gone," "Every Day I Have the Blues," "Early in the Morning," "Ain't Nobody Home"
Influenced
Eric Clapton, Ben Harper
"The beauty of B.B. is that the guitar playing is an extension of his voice," says the Allman Brothers Band's Derek Trucks, a longtime fan of King. "He's the embodiment of breaking through and keeping your spirit. There's no bitterness. When he sings, it lifts the spirit of the place." The notes that King squeezes from his guitar, Lucille, are so sharp and pointed that it's easy to overlook the sounds that emanate from his mouth. King brought a new level of nuance to blues vocals, beginning with his limber tone in early ballads like "You Know I Love You" and later with the poignant huskiness in "The Thrill Is Gone," from 1969, and the genial roar in his powerhouse version of "Every Day I Have the Blues," cut live in 1965 at the Regal Theater, in Chicago.
Born
May 24th, 1944
Key Tracks
"On My Own," "If Only You Knew" (solo) "Lady Marmalade" (with LaBelle)
Influenced
Alicia Keys, Christina Aguilera, Mary J. Blige
Patti LaBelle pushes everything she sings over the top, from her early-Sixties hits with the Bluebelles through her politically minded Seventies records with her space-funk trio, LaBelle — including the French Quarter funk of "Lady Marmalade," from 1975 — to the past few decades' solo albums. She has inspired generations of soul singers — a pre-fame Luther Vandross was the first president of her fan club. Her love of the spotlight is legendary, but she earns it with her astonishing force and control; when LaBelle's voice simmers in its churchy low register, it's usually a sign that she's about to leap up and howl the roof off. "She makes lyrics come alive," says producer Kenny Gamble. "And after all these years of singing, she's hitting notes that some opera stars can't hit."
Born
March 2nd, 1950 (died February 4th, 1983)
Key Tracks
"Close to You," "Goodbye to Love," "We've Only Just Begun"
Influenced
Sheryl Crow, Kim Gordon
Karen Carpenter's white-bread image and sad fate — she died of anorexia in 1983 — have overshadowed her chocolate-and-cream alto voice. But other performers know the score: Elton John called her "one of the greatest voices of our lifetime," and Madonna has said she is "completely influenced by her harmonic sensibility." Impossibly lush and almost shockingly intimate, Carpenter's performances were a new kind of torch singing, built on understatement and tiny details of inflection that made even the sappiest songs sound like she was staring directly into your eyes. Still, she's a guilty pleasure for many. "Karen Carpenter had a great sound," John Fogerty once told Rolling Stone, "but if you've got three guys out on the ballfield and one of them started humming [a Carpenters song], the other two guys would pants him."
Born
December 25th, 1954
Key Tracks
"Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," "Here Comes the Rain Again" (Eurythmics), "Why" (solo)
Influenced
Beth Gibbons, Sinéad O'Connor, Duffy
"Anybody my age turning on MTV and seeing Annie Lennox sing 'Sweet Dreams' — that was enough right there," says Rob Thomas. "There was something so soulful in the way she sang songs like 'Walking on Broken Glass.' " Lennox combines a childhood love of Motown with an operatically powerful voice — crystalline in tone, yet sultry. She introduced R&B to New Wave with Eurythmics, and in her solo career, she invented a sort of New Age soul, based around shimmering synths, horn blasts and, most important, layer upon layer of that voice. "Annie is amazingly versatile," says Thomas. "She can sound like a beautiful angel — or she can make it sound like she's gargling glass. A great singer is somebody who makes you believe what they're saying, and you always believe Annie."
Born
May 22nd, 1959
Key Tracks
"How Soon Is Now?" "William, It Was Really Nothing," "What Difference Does It Make?" (the Smiths), "Irish Blood, English Heart" (solo)
Influenced
Thom Yorke, Brandon Flowers, Colin Meloy (the Decemberists)
Bono said that when he first heard Morrissey singing the Smiths' acid-tongued "Girlfriend in a Coma," "I nearly crashed my car and ended up in a coma. He has that gift." An icon of New Wave from his days in the Smiths and in his solo career, Morrissey owns a voice that's mannered, ironic, even consciously feminine — his phrasing owes more to tuxedoed crooners than to any rock singers before him. But his rejection of convention is also why he redefined the sound of British rock for the past quarter-century. With his falsetto cries, rolled r's and warbling yodels, he pulled off lyrics few other singers could possibly have gotten away with, and he opened up possibilities for rockers who've followed him, from Oasis to Interpol.
Born
May 26th, 1940
Key Tracks
"The Weight," "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down"
Influenced
Jeff Tweedy, Lucinda Williams, John Hiatt
There is something about Levon Helm's voice that is contained in all of our voices. It is ageless, timeless and has no race. He can sing with such depth and emotion, but he can also convey a good-old fun-time growl.
Since Papa Garth Hudson didn't really sing, I always felt that, vocally, Levon was the father figure in the Band. He always seems strong and confident, like a father calling you home, or sometimes scolding you. The beauty in Richard Manuel's singing was often the sense of pain and darkness he conveyed. Rick Danko had a lot of melancholy to his voice as well, but he could also be a little more goofy. They were all different shades of color in the crayon box, and Levon's voice is the equivalent of a sturdy old farmhouse that has stood for years in the fields, weathering all kinds of change yet remaining unmovable.
The best thing about Levon is that he has so many sides, from the sound his voice gave to the Band's rich harmonies to how he can rip it up on songs like "Yazoo Street Scandal," "Don't Ya Tell Henry," "Up on Cripple Creek" and "Rag Mama Rag." He can pop in for sensitive moments, such as in between Manuel's vocals in "Whispering Pines." And he laid down one of the greatest recorded pop vocal performances of all time: "The Weight." I was fortunate to get to go to one of his Midnight Rambles a few years back when My Morning Jacket were recording up in the Catskills. To see him walk out on that stage and sit down behind the drum kit in person was a thrill. No one else plays the drums or sings like Levon, much less doing it at the same time.
There is a sense of deep country and family in Levon's voice, a spirit that was there even before him, deep in the blood of all singers who have heard him, whether they know it or not.
Born
Don Everly, February 1st, 1937; Phil Everly, January 19th, 1939
Key Tracks
"Bye Bye Love," "When Will I Be Loved," "Crying in the Rain"
Influenced
The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel
Beginning with the Beatles and Simon and Garfunkel, every group for whom harmony singing is important owes a crucial debt to the Everly Brothers. Their hits in the Fifties and early Sixties seemed at once raw and pristine: When he first heard the Everlys, Art Garfunkel says, "I learned that every syllable can shine. They were Kentucky guys with beautiful, perfect-pitch harmonies and great diction. All those vowels and consonants, those s's and t's, every one of them killed me." Phil and Don Everly learned their own lessons from the great country tradition of family harmony singing. "They had a blend that only brothers could have," says Dion. "But then when Don would sing his solos on the bridges of those songs, oh, my God, they would transport you. It was brilliant."
Born
March 21st, 1940
Key Tracks
"Everybody Needs Somebody to Love," "Cry to Me," "Just Out of Reach"
Influenced
Mick Jagger, Van Morrison, Ben Harper
Because Solomon Burke never had a big crossover hit, "the King of Rock and Soul" is not as widely known as others from the golden age of soul music. But his dramatic, sonorous voice — seasoned by his days as a boy preacher — is unrivaled in its ability to move effortlessly between R&B, pop, country and gospel. "My grandmother made sure that we listened to a variety of music, and that always stayed with me," says Burke. Recently, he's picked up a Grammy and long-overdue recognition, and tracks such as "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love" are now part of the soul canon. "He is Solomon the Resonator," Tom Waits has said, "the golden voice of heart, wisdom, soul and experience." King Solomon himself says, "I'm just trying to move as fast as I can, in as many directions as I can, for as long as I can."
Born
November 5th, 1941
Key Tracks
"Bridge Over Troubled Water," "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" (Simon and Garfunkel), "All I Know" (solo)
Influenced
Cat Stevens, James Taylor
"He is a pure and beautiful tenor voice, and there really is no one like him," says James Taylor about Art Garfunkel, whose singing blends lyricism with a remarkable ease of delivery. He brought sweetness and wonder to his classic harmonies with Paul Simon, a delicacy that defined those songs, and some of the hopes of the late Sixties. "I'm looking for controlled beauty," he says, a standard he learned as a child from the likes of Italian opera star Enrico Caruso. "Those arias — I love a song with a high, pole-vault peak." That describes solo hits such as 1973's "All I Know" and 1975's "I Only Have Eyes for You." "I like to sing heartfelt, where you address the mike with your honesty," says Garfunkel. "You try to be authentic as a person, with all the doubt, wonder and mystery of being alive."
Born
July 26th, 1941
Key Tracks
"He's a Rebel," "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," "He's Sure the Boy I Love"
Influenced
Cher, Cyndi Lauper
Darlene Love's name did not appear on her first hit, 1962's "He's a Rebel" (it was credited to the Crystals instead of Love's own group of session singers, the Blossoms), but there was nothing anonymous about her voice. On Phil Spector-produced songs such as "He's Sure the Boy I Love" and "Wait Til' My Bobby Gets Home," her husky, church-trained alto — infused with an unusual mix of strength and abject longing — was a rare instrument sturdy enough to vault over the Wall of Sound. Love, whom Bette Midler has called "one of the greatest voices in all of pop music," says two songs best capture her range: " '(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Gonna Marry' is a ballad where I'm pleading, and you get to hear the softness in my voice," Love says, "whereas 'Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)' — it's just all power."
Born
December 7th, 1949
Key Tracks
"New Coat of Paint," "Downtown Train," "Dirt in the Ground"
Influenced
Nick Cave, James Hetfield, Isaac Brock (Modest Mouse)
Tom Waits' voice "has the smoothness of Barry White, but the raspiness of a mountain lion," says hip-hop producer RZA. The "smoothness" may be hard to believe, but on early solo LPs like 1973's Closing Time and 1974's The Heart of Saturday Night, Waits was more like Hoagy Carmichael than a wild animal, with a jazzy croon lightly covered in gravel. But as Waits' songs got darker and weirder — more dada than doo-be-doo — on albums like 1985's Rain Dogs and 1992's Bone Machine, so did his singing. It is now one of the most dramatic instruments in pop, a deep, pitted bark — part carnival hustler, part crackling furnace. Waits can still sell a ballad, too, like the haunting "House Where Nobody Lives," on 1999's Mule Variations. "He has a little bit of James Brown," says Rickie Lee Jones. "And a whole lot of Louis Armstrong."
Born
August 22nd, 1917 (died June 21st, 2007)
Key Tracks
"Boom Boom," "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer," "Boogie Chillen"
Influenced
Van Morrison, Jim Morrison, Robert Plant
Everything parents don't want you to get into as a teenager — that's what you could hear in John Lee Hooker's voice. Everything you love about the night, about love and desire, sex and retribution, all those sides of us the blues was meant to call up.
His voice encompassed such a deep range of emotions, the widest range of colors of any blues singer. It was as seductive as it was foreboding. Pain, defiance, anger — all those emotions were so acute with John Lee, and that's what draws us to the blues.
My favorite part of his voice was actually his cry. His low, slightly menacing tone made the other side of his singing that much more powerful. There was a gravity to his tone — with his shades, the suit — but there was also this impish, elfin quality, and you could hear it when he laughed, which he did a lot onstage because he enjoyed playing so much. Especially on the boogie tunes, he would go from growl to glee in quicksilver time.
Because we had been friends since 1969, I wasn't prepared for how overwhelming it was singing face to face with him when we did "I'm in the Mood" for his album The Healer. When he turned it on, that was as powerful an erotic pull as I've ever had from a singing partner. I was just swept away by the power of his voice. And, you know, I was a grown woman, but I was literally trembling and had broken out in a sweat by the time we were done. If I were a smoker, I would have needed a cigarette.
My favorite singing of his was when he would call me on the phone and sing to me, sometimes for an hour. It was a little flirty, but he was never actually hitting on me, he was just having fun. It was all the power and none of the guilt! I miss him so much. If they could make a drug that was John Lee, I'd never be sober.
Born
May 3rd, 1934
Key Tracks
"Sherry," "Walk LIke a Man," "Can't Take My Eyes Off You"
Influenced
Billy Joel, the Beach Boys, the Bee Gees
In 1962, a song called "Sherry" blasted from AM radios with a facile falsetto vocal so impossibly precise, many thought it had "one-hit wonder" written all over it. Forty-eight Hot 100 singles later, Frankie Valli (Born Francis Castelluccio) is still a giant of the male vocal pop of his era. He's a complete singer, with a multi-octave range and the ability to handle a variety of styles: "Big Girls Don't Cry," "Walk Like a Man" and "Rag Doll" showed off his doo-wop dexterity, with support from the Four Seasons. Valli's solo hits, like "Can't Take My Eyes Off You," revealed his taste for more mainstream material, with a rich R&B influence. "Frankie Valli has become one of the hallmark voices of our generation," said the Bee Gees' Barry Gibb. "He created a style that we all still strive to emulate."
Born
March 27th, 1970
Key Tracks
"One Sweet Day," "Vision of Love," "Fantasy"
Influenced
Brandy, Christina Aguilera, Leona Lewis
"When I was little," Mariah Carey says, "I used to wake up with a really raspy voice and" — she shifts to her signature squeak — "talk in a really high voice. My mother couldn't understand it, and she's an opera singer. But then I started to try to sing using that voice." Carey is famous for her staggering vocal range — including those ravishing high notes — and power. Her mastery of melisma, the fluttering strings of notes that decorate songs like "Vision of Love," inspired the entire American Idol vocal school, for better or worse, and virtually every other female R&B singer since the Nineties. But technical skill alone doesn't make for hits, and Carey's radiant, sweetly sexy presence has been knocking them out of the park for two decades. She's scored more Number One singles than any solo artist — 18 and counting.
Born
March 15th, 1943
Key Tracks
"Everyday People," "Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Again)," "Family Affair"
Influenced
Prince, George Clinton
"Sly was definitive cool," says Gnarls Barkley vocalist Cee-Lo. Sly Stone's funk was so revolutionary in its conception, its writing, its arranging, it can be easy to overlook his remarkable singing. "Sometimes he sounded like he wasn't trying, and that confidence can be very attractive," Cee-Lo adds. Stone's vocals mutated from the wild exuberance of "Dance to the Music" to hazy isolation on There's a Riot Goin' On, creating moods that were radically different but no less powerful. "He started as that cheerleader," says the Roots' Ahmir "?uestlove" Thompson, "then pulled back the Wizard of Oz curtain and revealed a lonely shell of a man." Family Stone bass player Larry Graham says Stone's singing was always shifting: "We were never surprised when he laid down a great vocal track. We all just expected it."
Born
April 6th, 1937
Key Tracks
"The Fugitive," "The Bottle Let Me Down," "Mama Tried"
Influenced
Gram Parsons, Dwight Yoakam, George Strait
Merle Haggard's tough but smooth baritone epitomized Sixties and Seventies country, from the stubborn attack of "Okie From Muskogee" and "The Fightin' Side of Me" to the delicate crooning on "Silver Wings" and "If We Make It Through December." "The only thing that vies with Haggard's poetic genius," says Dwight Yoakam, "is the gift he has as a singer who delivers those songs with one of the most pure and profoundly powerful voices in music." Haggard owes his biggest debts to country pioneers Jimmie Rodgers and Lefty Frizzell; when he dips down to his signature low notes, he's invoking another key influence: Southern soul man Brook Benton. Check out "I Threw Away the Rose," in which one of those low notes comes from out of nowhere, adding a visceral thrust to the lyrics' desperation.
Born
January 22nd, 1949
Key Tracks
"Oh Sherrie," "Don't Stop Believin'," "Open Arms"
Influenced
Chris Daughtry, Chad Kroeger, Rob Thomas
"Other than Robert Plant, there's no singer in rock that even came close to Steve Perry," says American Idol judge Randy Jackson, who played bass with Perry in Journey. "The power, the range, the tone — he created his own style. He mixed a little Motown, a little Everly Brothers, a little Zeppelin." When he was 10 years old, Perry heard Sam Cooke's "Cupid" on his mom's car radio, and decided he had to be a singer. After singing in a college choir, he joined Journey at the age of 28, quickly revealing a penchant for quavering, reverb-soaked melodrama that appealed to millions of fans — but few rock critics. Yet his technical skills (those high notes!), pure tone and passionate sincerity now seem undeniable. "He lives for it and loves it," says Jackson. "I just saw him not long ago, and he still has the golden voice."
Born
March 12th, 1948
Key Tracks
"Five and Rain," "Sweet Baby James," "You've Got a Friend"
Influenced
Jack Johnson, Garth Brooks
"I want to be in tune," James Taylor told Rolling Stone in 2008. "I want to sing pretty, I want to sing sweet." Taylor boasts a classic American voice — a clear, vibrato-less instrument as reassuring as a warm fireplace. "Don't get fooled by James' understatement," says David Crosby. "As beautiful as his voice is, there's nothing mellow about a performance like 'Fire and Rain' — it's about a man who's experienced highs and lows." Taylor's steadiness as a singer has allowed him to handle coffeehouse folk, rock & roll, country music and R&B with equal ease. "Ultimately, I think James' voice reflects the man," says Crosby. "He's kind, lovely and very much a gentleman. He doesn't walk off the path too far, but what a path he's walked. It also doesn't hurt that, for me, he's up there as a songwriter alongside Lennon and McCartney, Dylan and Joni Mitchell — the best of the best."
Born
January 19th, 1946
Key Tracks
"Jolene," "I Will Always Love You," "9 to 5"
Influenced
Shania Twain, Natalie Maines, Alison Krauss
Dolly Parton describes her voice as "a cross between Tiny Tim and a nanny goat." Such self-deprecation is typical, but others hear her childlike quaver and soulful delivery as effervescent, joyful, heartbreaking — sometimes all in the same song. Her range includes fingerpicked folk songs ("Coat of Many Colors"), soaring ballads ("I Will Always Love You"), classic country ("My Tennessee Mountain Home") and mainstream pop ("9 to 5"). "Each song has its own message and its own dynamics and range," she says. "I don't try to do anything but listen to the words and act them out vocally, as an actor would act out a scene." Parton has impacted stars as far-flung as Whitney Houston and Jessica Simpson. Says LeAnn Rimes, "Dolly made me realize that there are endless possibilities when communicating with your voice."
Born
May 28th, 1945
Key Tracks
"Bad Moon Rising," "Fortunate Son," "Proud Mary"
Influenced
Bob Seger, Ronnie Van Zant, John Mellencamp
The backwoods yowl that put the fire into Creedence Clearwater Revival's gritty late-Sixties hits like "Green River" and "Proud Mary" actually was not, as the man says,
Born on the bayou. John Fogerty's abrasive baritone didn't even come naturally at first. "In '64, I got a job playing in a club, and I had a tape recorder with me," he recalls. "I would record the whole night and then listen to myself back, and every day I would try to force myself to get that sound that was in my head." He was trying to channel the voices of blues singers like Howlin' Wolf and Bo Diddley that he heard on the radio in his hometown of El Cerrito, California. "As a kid, there was that point I realized the stuff I liked was more dangerous than the stuff my parents liked," he says. "It was that threatening sound."
Born
December 8th, 1947
Key Tracks
"Midnight Rider," "Whipping Post"
Influenced
Ronnie Van Zant, Warren Haynes, Darius Rucker
For Gregg Allman, all roads lead back to Ray Charles: "When I heard him, I was like, 'That's my goal in life,' " says Allman, who grew up mimicking the R&B records he heard in his segregated childhood hometown of Daytona Beach, Florida. "Ray Charles is the one who taught me to just relax and let it ooze out. If it's in your soul, it'll come out." Allman's mournful wail comes out on Allman Brothers standards like "It's Not My Cross to Bear" and "Whipping Post." Dwight Yoakam says Allman's white-blues tradition goes back to Hank Williams. "It's not just the African-American influence but the country side of his voice," says Yoakam. "You could take 'Midnight Rider' and do it to 'Lovesick Blues.' " Even in his earliest recordings, says Sheryl Crow, "He sounded like he'd already lived a thousand lifetimes."
Born
August 10th, 1943
Key Tracks
"Be My Baby," "Baby I Love You," "Walking in the Rain"
Influenced
Joey Ramone, Patti Smith, Billy Joel
Backed by future husband Phil Spector's wildly romantic production, Veronica "Ronnie" Bennett's knife-blade belting with the Ronettes became a defining voice of the early Sixties, and it filtered down to everyone from Patti Smith to Joan Jett to the E Street Band. Steve Van Zandt grew up listening to hits such as "Be My Baby," but the true power of Ronnie Spector's singing only reached him later. "It was when Marty Scorsese screened a movie he had just done, called Mean Streets, for me and Bruce," Van Zandt says. "I was, like, 'Whoa!' " Scorsese's use of "Be My Baby" perfectly captures the innocence and erotic promise of Spector's voice. Van Zandt would later produce Spector. "I was a little too reverent," he says, looking back. "I didn't want to put anything around her voice. I just wanted to hear her."
Born
March 18th, 1941 (died January 19th, 2006)
Key Tracks
"In the Midnight Hour," "Land of a 1,000 Dances," "Mustang Sally"
Influenced
Bob Seger, Bruce Springsteen, Joe Cocker
"When Wilson Pickett screamed, he screamed notes," producer Jerry Wexler once said. "His voice was powerful, like a buzz saw, but it wasn't ever out of control. It was always melodic." Pickett's signature shout served as the climax for many of his 38 hit singles. "You can feel it comin'," said Pickett, "and you don't let go until the moment is exactly right." The man known as "the Wicked Pickett" and the "Midnight Mover" was soul's purest badass: Immortal songs like 1965's "In the Midnight Hour" and 1966's "Mustang Sally" brought a new level of ferociousness to R&B belting. But Pickett's good friend Solomon Burke notes that Pickett had another side. "Wilson was able to hold that note until you felt it," says Burke. "He made you listen."
Born
October 7th, 1968
Key Tracks
"Fake Plastic Trees," "Karma Police," "Everything in Its Right Place"
Influenced
Chris Martin, Jim James, Tom Champlin
By the turn of the century, the broad, emotive sweep of Thom Yorke's voice had made him one of the most influential singers of his generation. His high, keening sound, often trembling on the edge of falsetto, was turning up on records by Coldplay, Travis, Muse, Elbow and numerous others. "I tried to sing like Thom Yorke," Coldplay's Chris Martin told Rolling Stone. "The Radiohead influence on us was plain to see." But Yorke himself "couldn't stand the sound of me anymore" — and went on to reinvent his voice beginning with 2000's Kid A. Using electronic trickery and exploiting what he called "the tension between what's human and what's coming from the machines," he changed his voice into a disembodied instrument; songs like "Everything in Its Right Place" sound like fragmented transmissions from some distant galaxy.
Born
January 18th, 1941 (died June 1st, 1991)
Key Tracks
"Ain't Too Proud to Beg," "My Girl," "Walk Away From Love"
Influenced
Hall and Oates, Michael Jackson, Rod Stweart
Motown founder Berry Gordy said that any of the five Temptations could have been a lead singer, but it was David Ruffin who stood out most from the pack. In contrast to his heavenly-voiced partner, Eddie Kendricks, Ruffin sang as if every word was a plea — pain and desperation filled his lead vocals on "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," "(I Know) I'm Losing You" and "I Wish It Would Rain." "His voice had a certain glorious anguish that spoke to people on many emotional levels," says Daryl Hall, who briefly recorded and performed with Ruffin in the Eighties. "I heard in [his voice] a strength my own voice lacked," said Marvin Gaye, who added that Ruffin's work "made me remember that when a lot of women listen to music, they want to feel the power of a real man."
Born
February 6th, 1962
Key Tracks
"Sweet Child o' Mine," "Paradise City," "November Rain"
Influenced
Josh Todd (Buckcherry), Marilyn Manson, Chester Bennington
"Axl sings the most beautiful melodies with the most aggressive tones and the most outrageous, freakish range," says Sebastian Bach. "There's maybe five people in the world that can sing in his range." Slash once described the sound of Rose's voice in slightly different terms: It's like "the sound that a tape player makes when the cassette finally dies and the tape gets ripped out," he said, "but in tune." It's immediately identifiable, with a combination of brute force and subtlety that is easy to overlook amid the sonic assault of Guns n' Roses. Ballads like "Patience" and "November Rain" reveal a startling intimacy, even vulnerability, but it's his fearsome screech on full-throttle metal like "Welcome to the Jungle" that can still peel paint off the walls, more than 20 years later.
Born
March 2nd, 1942
Key Tracks
"Satellite of Love," "I'm Waiting for the Man," "Venus in Furs" (the Velvet Underground)
Influenced
The Strokes, David Bowie, Patti Smith
"I do Lou Reed better than anybody," Reed once boasted onstage. He was only half-kidding. There is no voice in rock like Reed's: a confrontational blend of dry intonation and hard New York-native attitude that suited the dark, frank songs he wrote about sex, drugs and lost souls for the Velvet Underground and on a lifetime of provocative solo albums. "I don't do blues turns, because I can't," Reed told Rolling Stone in 1989. "And I'm not trying to put on a phony accent." But underlying Reed's acidic talking-blues delivery is a deep love of Fifties R&B and doo-wop. As a teenager, he listened to vocal groups such as the Paragons and the Diablos on the radio, influences that can be clearly heard in his most romantic songs, such as "Satellite of Love" and "Perfect Day."
Born March 1st, 1944
Key Tracks "My Generation," "I Can See for Miles," "Pinball Wizard," "Won't Get Fooled Again"
Influenced Ian Gillan (Deep Purple), Robin Zander, Eddie Vedder
"You don't realize how great a singer Roger Daltrey is until you try to do it yourself," says the Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne, whose band did a Tommy medley at VH1's 2008 Rock Honors special for the Who. From the anxious stutter in "My Generation" to the glass-breaking wail that tops off "Won't Get Fooled Again," the voice of the Who is one of the most powerful instruments in hard rock. Daltrey didn't write his own lyrics, but he had an uncanny ability to adapt to whatever character songwriter Pete Townshend came up with (the vulnerable, Christlike Tommy cooing "See Me, Feel Me," the cocky thug of "Slip Kid" spitting out the words). "It's a very strange process," Daltrey says. "That's why I shut my eyes when I sing — I'm in another space, and the characters are living in me."
Born
November 1st, 1965
Key Tracks
"Army of Me," "It's Oh So Quiet," "Human Behavior"
Influenced
Thom Yorke, Jonsi (Sigur Rós)
When you land in Iceland, you feel like you're somewhere a bit magical. Maybe it's the volcanic activity, maybe it's the dried fish, but something's going on: Everyone seems to be extraordinarily beautiful, and everyone appears to be able to sing. Their singers are so far ahead of everyone else — especially Björk. Her voice is so specific and such a new color. Now that she's been around for 20 years, everyone forgets quite how extraordinary she is. She could be singing the theme from Sesame Street, and it would sound completely different to how anyone else would do it, and completely magical.
She first crossed my radar on "Big Time Sensuality," from that video where she's on the back of a flatbed truck. I really got into her on Homogenic, largely because there's so much space left for the singing. On that album, there are strings and beats, but it isn't very full musically, so she has to do all the dynamics and everything. If you really want to hear what she can do, listen to "It's Oh So Quiet," from Post: She can go from zero to 60 faster than any other vehicle in terms of singing. And then to angry.
In the movie Dancer in the Dark, she's singing as a different person and it stills sounds completely genuine. She could be an opera singer or she could be a pop singer. Dulux Paint has a catalog that has all the colors you can buy of paint, right? That is how Björk's voice is. She can do anything. In our studio, there are pictures on the wall of our favorite artists. I can see Mozart, Jay-Z, Gershwin, PJ Harvey … and Björk.
Born
January 10th, 1945
Key Tracks
"Maggie May," "Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)," "Downtown Train"
Influenced
Bryan Adams, Melissa Etheridge
The gravelly crooner who brought so much soul to Seventies rock & roll left school at 15 to go to work as a silk-screener. "I had this little handheld transistor radio that I used to sleep next to," Stewart remembers. "I would listen to all the black singers that came over from America — Sam Cooke, Otis Redding, blues singers like Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters. This was a new world for me. I wanted to be able to sing like these people." His attempts would produce aching ballads like "Maggie May" and "Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)," as well as Stones-like rockers such as "Stay With Me" (with the Faces) and "Hot Legs." Before long, singers such as Paul Westerberg and then Chris Robinson would bring the Stewart rasp into Eighties punk and Nineties mainstream rock.
Born
December 18th, 1980
Key Tracks
"Genie in a Bottle," "Beautiful," "Ain't No Other Man"
Influenced
Danity Kane, Kelly Clarkson
"I knew she could really sing," Herbie Hancock said of his 2005 collaboration with teen pop's most accomplished vocalist. "But I didn't know she could sing like that. She knocked me out." Christina Aguilera has had the finesse and power of a blues queen ever since she was a child star (she appeared on Star Search at age 11). Even in her teen-pop "Genie in a Bottle" days, she was modeling her dramatic, melismatic technique on old-school soul heroines like Etta James; you could hear it first come to fruition on 2002's "Beautiful." Patti Smith, of all people, says Aguilera's rendition of James Brown's "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" at last year's Grammys was "one of the best performances that I've ever seen…I sat and watched it, and at the end, I just involuntarily leapt to my feet. It was amazing."
Born
May 11th, 1941
Key Tracks
"The House of the Rising Sun," "We Gotta Get Out of This Place," "It's My Life" (the Animals), "Spill the Wine" (War)
Influenced
Bruce Springsteen, Iggy Pop, David Johnsen
Of all the British Invasion singers, Eric Burdon had the most physically imposing voice. When he burst onto the scene in 1964, his voice was "big and dark," says Steve Van Zandt. "He invented the genre of the white guy singing low." Nor was the depth of Burdon's pitch lost on Steven Tyler when he first heard Burdon sing "The House of the Rising Sun": "I thought, 'Aha! You start off the song an octave lower so you can flamb? the tail end of it an octave higher.' " After his run of hits with the Animals ("It's My Life," "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood") ended, Burdon showed he could handle Seventies funk during his stint in War, recording the torrid "Spill the Wine" and a souled-out version of "Tobacco Road."
Born
July 10th, 1939
Key Tracks
The Staple Singers' "I'll Take You There," "Respect Yourself," "Let's Do It Again"
Influenced
Prince, the Pointer Sisters, Amy Winehouse
By the time the Staple Singers' string of R&B hits kicked off in the early Seventies, Mavis Staples' liquid contralto had already been tearing the roof off with her family's gospel group for two decades and had become the signature voice of the civil rights movement. She'd had some trepidation about playing to secular audiences, but as her father, Roebuck "Pops" Staples, told her, "The people in the clubs won't come to church. So we take the church to them." It worked: She's got the most undiluted gospel technique of any pop star ever. (Check out the Staples' transcendent take on "The Weight" in The Last Waltz.) In 2001, Bob Dylan described the first time he heard her sing: "That just made my hair stand up, listening to that. I mean, that just seemed like, 'That's the way the world is.'"
Born
December 17th, 1949
Key Tracks
"All Right Now," "Bad Company," "Can't Get Enough"
Influenced
Ronnie Van Zant, Lou Gramm, Brian Johnson
"His voice is so tough and so masculine," says Alison Krauss, who grew up a big fan of Paul Rodgers, "he might as well be standing there with a gun while he's singing." With his throaty, impeccably controlled roar, Rodgers was born to sing over big guitars — which he did again and again, most notably with pioneering rockers Free and the Seventies hitmaking machine Bad Company. From "All Right Now" to "Can't Get Enough," his combination of macho blues power and melodic sensitivity still sets the standard for hard-rock frontmen. Rodgers was idolized by the late Freddie Mercury (whom he is now replacing in Queen) and Lynyrd Skynyrd's Ronnie Van Zant. "The sound of his voice represents a whole kind of man to me," says Krauss. "Incredibly masculine, sexy, hardworking."
Born
April 20th, 1951 (died July 1st, 2005)
Key Tracks
"Never Too Much," "Superstar," "A House Is Not a Home"
Influenced
Alicia Keys, John Legend
No singer made the Top 40 sound so intimate — often painfully so — as Luther Vandross. "Singing allows me to express all the mysteries hidden inside," he once said. Vandross grew up worshiping at the altar of Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick and Diana Ross, then labored throughout the Seventies singing everything from Burger King commercials to sessions with David Bowie (on Young Americans), before emerging as the dominant R&B vocalist of his era. His warm, rich singing on hits like "Never Too Much" defined soul during the years between disco and hip-hop, influencing a generation of vocalists — including Mariah Carey, who was petrified to duet with Vandross on a cover of "Endless Love" in 1994. "It was intimidating to stand next to him," she says. "Luther was incomparable — his voice was velvety, smooth, airy, with an unmistakable tone."
Born
April 4th, 1915 (died April 30th, 1983)
Key Tracks
"Got My Mojo Workin'," "Mannish Boy," "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man"
Influenced
Mick Jagger, Robert Plant
If you really check Muddy Waters out in performances on tape, he's almost not even there. He puts his whole body and his whole energy into his voice. When he's singing, something else enters the room. For a certain sound, if you don't put your body into it, you're not going to get the note.
It takes everything, every faculty you've got. He was absolutely confident and superbrave. I first heard Muddy when I was a kid, around my family's music store. His baritone always stood out — not only above other blues singers but above all voices and styles of music that I heard. His voice really pierced me in a way that wouldn't let go. The specific record that I wore to the bone was Hard Again. That record has been on repeat my entire life. And also Electric Mud — that was my go-to record when I was making my album with the Blind Boys of Alabama.
Recently, I've been playing "Hoochie Coochie Man" in my set. I'll just come out and say it: My approach is to do my best Muddy Waters impersonation, straight out. I'm trying to dig down into that part of my vocal range, and there's no reason to stray too far from where he took it.
A song like "Mannish Boy" is to the blues what "Purple Haze" is to rock. And Muddy's voice carries that whole song — there's no musical changes at all. It's hip-hop in a way — before there was hip-hop. It grabs you by the throat. If it doesn't move you when you hear that, I'm curious as to what does move you.
Born
May 28th, 1944
Key Tracks
"I Heard It Through the Grapevine," "Neither One of Us," "Midnight Train to Georgia"
Influenced
Mariah Carey, Jill Scott
Gladys Knight's advice about great singing: "Just sing the song and say the words." Knight combined precise classic-pop elegance with pure soul power on songs like "Midnight Train to Georgia" and "Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)." She approaches singing with impressive seriousness and does not like to improvise: When it came time to record the rocking coda ("I got to go…") to "Midnight Train," her brother, Bubba, who was one of her famed support group, the Pips, sang the parts live into her headphones, and she delivered them in her own inimitable style. As Mariah Carey said when inducting Knight into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, "She's like a textbook to learn from. You hear her delivery, and you wish you could communicate with as much honesty and emotion as she does."
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Prior Animal Law Cases of the Month
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2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
Cases from 2010 - 2016
2024
June/July 2024
Circuit court affirms judgment that wind turbine project properly analyzed risks to critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. Nantucket Residents Against Turbines v. U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Mgmt., 100 F.4th 1 (1st Cir. 2024). The U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (“BOEM”) approved the construction of Vineyard Wind, a wind power project off the coast of Massachusetts after consulting with the National Marine Fisheries Service (“NMFS”). A group of Nantucket residents, organized as "Nantucket Residents Against Turbines" (“Residents”), allege that the federal agencies violated the Endangered Species Act by concluding that the project's construction likely would not jeopardize the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale. The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted summary judgment for BOEM and NMFS. On appeal of summary judgment, the Residents further allege that BOEM violated the National Environmental Policy Act by relying on NMFS's flawed analysis. The court rejected the Residents' argument, finding that NMFS's biological opinion properly analyzed the current status and environmental baseline of the right whale. Further, the biological opinion properly analyzed the effects of the project (e.g., noise) on the right whale, along with mitigation measures, and did not ignore the project's additive effects on the right whale's long-term recovery prospects. Finally, BOEM's reliance on the biological opinion did not violate NEPA. The judgment of the district court was affirmed.
Single kick to dog sufficient basis for "cruelly beat" component of felony cruelty conviction in North Carolina. State v. Doherty, --- S.E.2d ---- 2024 WL 2002922 (N.C. Ct. App. May 7, 2024). In this North Carolina case, the defendant appeals from his conviction of felony cruelty to animals and suspended sentence of imprisonment. The conviction stems from Defendant's kicking of his neighbor's dog. In November of 2019, the dog's owner was walking her fourteen-year-old dachshund-beagle mix, Davis, in front of Defendant's house when she stepped out of the roadway onto Defendant's lawn to avoid a passing car. The occupants of the car then stopped to talk with the dog's owner briefly, whereupon Defendant emerged from his home and proceeded to kick Davis in the stomach. Defendant was ultimately charged, indicted, and convicted of felonious cruelty to animals. On appeal, Defendant argues that the trial court erred in failing to dismiss the charge of felonious cruelty to animals because a single kick was insufficient to show that Defendant "cruelly beat" the dog. This court first addressed whether a single kick to a dog was sufficient to meet the definition of "cruelly beat." Looking first at the standard dictionary definition of "beat," the court found that the words, “cruelly beat” can apply to any act that causes the unjustifiable pain, suffering, or death to an animal, even if it is just one single act. In fact, the court stated, "[t]o hold otherwise would allow a person to kick a dog so hard they suffer life-threatening injuries—such as the case here—but not be subject to felonious cruelty to animals because it was 'just' one kick." Thus, the trial court did not err in denying Defendant's motion to dismiss. No reversible error occurred and Defendant's conviction was affirmed.
Pennsylvania dogs chasing deer that were enclosed in fence does not allow deer owners to raise defense of legal right to kill dogs pursuing certain domestic animals. Commonwealth v. Stefanowicz, --- A.3d ---- 2024 WL 1918371, 2024 PA Super 90 (May 2, 2024). Appellant Stefanowicz appeals from the judgment entered in the Tioga County Court of Common Pleas in Pennsylvania. Appellant and his wife co-owned a deer farm ("Awesome Whitetails") where they are legally licensed to operate and sell trophy bucks which are kept in a fenced-in enclosure on their property. Appellant's neighbor, Ms. Smith, owned two German Shepherd dogs, which Appellant testified frequently entered his property and had previously harassed the animals he raises there. Appellant and his wife submitted a complaint to the state dog warden who then warned Smith of the statewide requirements on confining dogs. The warden also advised Appellant of the legal right to kill a dog that is “in the act of pursuing or wounding or killing” Appellant's animals. In fall of 2020, Smith's dogs entered Appellant's property and were chasing the deer from outside the fence. This deer began to panic, causing one to get stuck in the fence where one of the dogs then stared biting it. Appellant tried to yell at the dogs to no avail, so he then shot and killed the dogs. Appellant testified that one deer had a bloody gash, two more had bloody faces, and one deer died of a broken neck. Ultimately, Smith was sent a citation for failing to confine the dogs and Appellant was charged with two counts of Aggravated Cruelty to Animals and convicted of one of those counts. On appeal, Appellant raises several issues. The first two issues challenge the sufficiency of the evidence for the Aggravated Cruelty conviction. The court found sufficient evidence for the conviction as Appellant acted in an intentional manner to kill the dogs. Next, Appellant asserts that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence because of his legal defense. In Pennsylvania, it is legal to kill certain dogs in the act of pursuing or wounding "domestic animals" (which includes farm-raised deer). The trial judge here gave an instruction on the defense, but added that "under the laws of this Commonwealth, harassing an animal through a fence without any contact does not constitute pursuing, wounding, or killing an animal." Here, the jury heard that instruction and found the defense inapplicable for one dog. There was testimony from Appellant that he saw one of the two dogs biting a deer caught in the fence, not both dogs. Since the jury was free to evaluate the testimony and infer guilt, the reviewing court will not disturb the lower court's determination. After disposing of the remaining issues related to jury selection and ineffective assistance of counsel, the court affirmed Appellant's sentence.
April/May 2024
Court orders specific performance as remedy in custody dispute over dog. Lyman v. Lanser, --- N.E.3d ----, 2024 WL 970217 (Mass. App. Ct. Mar. 7, 2024). The parties purchased a dog together while they were still a couple, and agreed to share the dog if they broke up. After the relationship eventually ended, the couple shared the dog on a two week alternating basis. Eventually, one party maintained custody of the dog and denied the other party access to the dog, so plaintiff filed this action for conversion and breach of contract, seeking specific performance of the custody agreement for the dog. The court here found that the dog is jointly owned property, the lack of a written contract does not bar the plaintiff from specific performance, and that the judge's order of specific performance was a suitable remedy since monetary damages would not allow plaintiff access to his shared property. Therefore, the court reversed the order vacating the preliminary injunction and denied the defendant's petition for relief from the preliminary injunction.
Appeals court reverses finding of "constructive delay" in case involving keeping of chickens as assistance animals. Lab. Comm'n, Antidiscrimination & Lab. Div. v. FCS Cmty. Mgmt., --- P.3d ----, 2024 WL 1203693, 2024 UT App 39. This is an appeal of a complaint filed by the Utah Anti-discrimination and Labor Division (ULAD) seeking review of the determination that an HOA violated members' request for reasonable accommodation by denying homeowner's the ability to keep chickens on their property. The chickens were intended to be assistance animals for the homeowner's daughter, who has anxiety and PTSD. The district court found that the HOA constructively denied the homeowner's request for reasonable accommodation by delaying their response to the request for three months. This court reversed the decision of the lower court, finding that there was no constructive denial of the request since the HOA allowed the homeowners to keep the chickens during the interim period, did not punish them for keeping the chickens, and ultimately granted the request to keep the chickens.
Plant-based meat alternative producer's motion for summary judgment denied after court finds state law involves no suppression of commercial speech and no discriminatory effect under Dormant Commerce Clause. Turtle Island Foods, SPC v. Thompson, --- F.Supp.3d ----, 2024 WL 1342597 (W.D. Mo. Mar. 26, 2024). Plaintiffs, a nonprofit advocacy organization and a plant-based meat alternative producer, filed this case to challenge the constitutionality of a statute that criminalizes the misrepresentation of a product as meat that is not derived from livestock or poultry. Plaintiffs bring four constitutional claims against the statute. For the First Amendment violation, plaintiffs specifically argue that the statute is an unlawful restriction on truthful commercial speech. However, the court finds that the statute does not restrict truthful commercial speech, since plaintiffs are still able to accurately indicate what sort of products they are selling to consumers. For the Dormant Commerce Clause argument, the court finds that the statute does not discriminate in purpose or effect, and that the statute passes the Pike balancing test. For the Due Process claim, the court finds that the statute provides sufficiently specific guidance to both the public and prosecutors as to what actions are prohibited, so it does not violate Due Process. Accordingly, the court denied plaintiff's claims and motion for summary judgment.
March 2024
Court rules Massachusetts' Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act has discriminatory effect on out-of-state pork processor. Triumph Foods, LLC v. Campbell, --- F.Supp.3d ----, 2024 WL 421994 (D. Mass. Feb. 5, 2024). This case was brought by a group of pork producers and farmers to challenge the Massachusetts' Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act on the grounds that it violates the dormant Commerce Clause by improperly regulating interstate commerce. The Act would require pork producers to phase out certain means of pig confinement in order to sell pork products in Massachusetts. In response, the state filed a motion to dismiss arguing that there is no causally connected harm to the pork producers, which the court denied. The court first evaluated the slaughterhouse exemption, which exempts sales from the requirement that they must take place within Massachusetts if the buyer takes physical possession of the pork while on the premises of an establishment inspected under the Federal Meat Inspection Act. Plaintiff argued that as an out-of-state pork processor, it could not take advantage of this exemption, even though it operates entirely federally inspected facilities, because it ships its product into Massachusetts from out-of-state and, its buyers do not take physical possession of its product while at its facilities. The court found that this exemption has a discriminatory effect, and vacated the order in part to allow the court to consider whether the Act with the slaughterhouse exemption severed is preempted by the Federal Meat Inspection Act.
While 3-month delay was not unreasonable to properly consider accommodation request to keep chickens as ESAs, members were not damaged by delay. Lab. Comm'n v. FCS Cmty. Mgmt., 2024 UT App 14, --- P.3d ----, 2024 WL 370160. This case concerns the Utah Anti-discrimination and Labor Division's (UALD) determination that a homeowner's association's three-month delay in responding to a member's request for reasonable accommodation to keep chickens on their property as assistance animals for a child with anxiety and PTSD violated the Utah Fair Housing Act. The trial court found that this three month delay was a constructive denial of the request, because under the Utah Fair Housing Act a housing provider must participate in an interactive process to evaluate and discuss the request for accommodation, and no such interactive dialogue or interactive process took place. On appeal, the court found that the three month delay in responding to the request was not unreasonably long, especially considering that the HOA had to review the status of chickens as support animals, chicken waste runoff, and possibility of rodent complaints during this time. The court of appeals also found that members were not harmed by the HOA's alleged delay, since they were still allowed to keep the chickens at this time. The court of appeals then reversed the trial court's holding granting the members damages, fees, and other relief.
Animal abuse conviction affirmed where sufficient evidence included neighbor's testimony of observing defendant swinging small dog by leash and slamming dog's head against ground. State v. McIntosh, No. SD 37827, --- S.W.3d ----, 2024 WL 302430 (Mo. Ct. App. Jan. 26, 2024). This case is an appeal following the defendant's conviction of animal abuse and assault in the fourth degree. Defendant claimed that the trial court erred in convicting him of animal abuse due to insufficient evidence showing that he purposely caused suffering to the dog he allegedly abused. The event that led to defendant's conviction was witnessed by a neighbor, who saw the defendant in his backyard swinging a small dog through the air by its leash and collar. The neighbor also saw defendant climb on top of the dog to choke it and slam its head into the ground. The neighbor testified at trial about these events, and the trial court found defendant guilty of animal abuse and assault in the fourth degree. The court of appeals held that there was sufficient evidence, consisting of the neighbor's testimony, and affirmed the judgment of the trial court.
January/February 2024
Court finds that delegation of swine "sorting process" to slaughterhouse employees did not violate Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) and Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA). Farm Sanctuary v. United States Dep't of Agric., --- F.Supp.3d ----, 2023 WL 8602134 (W.D.N.Y. Dec. 12, 2023). This case was brought by plaintiffs, several nonprofit animal rights organizations, to challenge a Final Rule implementing a new swine inspection system at pig farms and slaughterhouses across the United States against defendants, the United States Department of Agriculture and the Food Safety Inspection Service. The new system requires that employees of the slaughterhouses perform ante-mortem and post-mortem sorting activities before the federal inspection is to take place, which plaintiffs challenge under the argument that this shifting of the sorting activities to slaughterhouse employees is in violation of the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) and Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (HMSA). Plaintiffs argue that this delegation is improper, would negatively impact the safety of pork being produced by slaughterhouses, and would lead to inhumane slaughter of pigs. Plaintiffs and defendants filed motions for summary judgment. The court granted defendant's motion for summary judgment, finding that plaintiffs failed to meet the burden of proof to show that the delegation of the sorting process was improper.
Euthanasia of dog by wife without husband's authorization did not violate automatic Family Court order because the animal was not a financial asset for purposes of the order. C.M. v. E.M., --- N.Y.S.3d ----, 2023 WL 8360025 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Nov. 28, 2023). This is a family law case concerning, among other issues, the euthanasia of a family companion animal. Defendant argues that Plaintiff violated an order in place by putting the family dog down without reason, necessity, and justification, and that the dog was an emotional support animal whose custody had not been determined. Defendant also argues that plaintiff did not allow defendant the opportunity to spend time with the dog before it was put down, and that he suffered emotional distress due to the dog's death. The court found that the euthanasia of the family dog did not violate the order in place, because the companion animal was not classified as "property" or an "asset" under the order in place, and that animals are afforded additional protection under the Family Court Act. Whether the animal was put down unnecessarily could be considered animal cruelty, but that inquiry would need to be determined in a criminal proceeding, and criminal charges were not filed. Accordingly, the court held that plaintiff did not violate the order by euthanizing the family dog.
Court denied zoo's motion for preliminary injunction after seizure of 95 sick animals because zoo could not prove irreparable harm from seizure. Mogensen v. Welch, --- F.Supp.3d ----, 2023 WL 8756708 (W.D. Va. Dec. 19, 2023). Plaintiffs owned and operated a zoo containing about 95 animals. Following complaints about suspected abuse and neglect of these animals, defendant executed a search warrant of the zoo. The search led to the seizure of many of these animals, including a tiger in such poor health that it needed to be euthanized. Following the seizure of these animals, plaintiffs filed a motion to argue that their due process rights were violated because a civil forfeiture hearing must be held no more than ten business days after the state seized the animals, and plaintiffs argue that ten days is too little time to prepare for the hearing. To succeed on the claim, plaintiffs must show that they are likely to suffer irreparable harm in the absence of preliminary relief, which they were unable to do because plaintiffs still have the right to appeal if the hearing does not go in their favor. Therefore, the court denied plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction.
2023
December 2023
Court strikes down Wisconsin's hunter harassment statute as unconstitutional viewpoint-based regulation of speech. Brown v. Kemp, 86 F.4th 745 (7th Cir. 2023). This is a case brought by a group of hunting opponents against Wisconsin state employees to challenge Wisconsin’s hunter harassment statute. The challenged statute criminalizes those who photograph or videotape hunting activities with intent to interfere with the hunting. The challengers, who intended to use the footage to spur public debate about hunting and ensure hunters are following state taking limits, allege that the law violates the First Amendment and is unconstitutionally vague. The trial court granted summary judgment to the state employees after finding that the statute did not violate the First Amendment, and the hunting opponents appealed. On appeal, the court found that the statutory provisions on visual/physical proximity and approaching/confronting hunters were unconstitutionally vague, the photographing/recording provision was unconstitutionally overbroad, and the entire statute was an unconstitutional viewpoint-based regulation of speech.
Aggravated cruelty conviction affirmed where court found defendant was aware of his dog's aggressive behavior and refused to intervene to stop attacks on other animals. People v. Restifo, --- N.Y.S.3d ----220 A.D.3d 1113, 2023 WL 7028284, 2023 N.Y. Slip Op. 05425 (N.Y. App. Div. 2023). This is an appeal of a verdict to convict defendant of aggravated cruelty to animals. Defendant was walking his two pit bull dogs and allowed the dogs enough leash space to reach a pet cat resting on the steps of its owner’s porch. The cat’s owners, who were witnesses to this event, watched as the pit bulls mauled their pet cat. When the witnesses asked defendant to stop his dogs, defendant attempted to flee with his dogs still carrying the cat’s body in its mouth. The witnesses pursued and eventually, the dog dropped the deceased cat’s body. Defendant was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals and overdriving, torturing and injuring animals, and failure to provide proper sustenance. Defendant was convicted, and appealed the aggravated animal cruelty charge. Defendant argues that the verdict was not supported by sufficient evidence. The court here found that defendant was well aware that the dogs were aggressive, even keeping them separate from his young son because of their propensity to attack smaller animals. There was also testimony from another neighbor of defendant allowing his dogs to chase feral cats off her porch without stopping them, and testimony regarding defendant’s dog previously mauling a smaller dog without defendant intervening to stop them. Defendant was warned by animal control to muzzle them, but refused to do so. Defendant also bragged to co-workers about how he let his pit bulls go after other dogs and attack wild and old animals. Accordingly, the court found that defendant was aware of the dogs’ aggressive behavior and affirmed the holding of the lower court.
Court grants preliminary injunction to stop use of foothold traps that incidentally ensnare grizzly bears. Flathead-Lolo-Bitterroot Citizen Task Force v. Montana, ---- F.Supp.3d ----, 2023 WL 8064884, No. CV 23-101-M-DWM, 2023 WL 8064884 (D. Mont. Nov. 21, 2023). This case was brought by several environmental organizations against the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission to challenge the approval or regulations that authorize the trapping and snaring of wolves within grizzly bear habitat in Montana. The grizzly bear is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and the Montana trapping regulations allow wolf hunters to use foothold traps large enough to capture grizzly bears. Grizzly bears rely heavily on their front and back paws to hunt for food, so crippling their limbs with these traps will lead to the incidental killing of grizzly bears from starvation. Plaintiffs also showed that there was a likelihood of harm to grizzly bears, with evidence that these traps will lead to the death of grizzly bears. The court granted plaintiff’s motion for preliminary injunction in part and denied in part, and enjoined the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission from authorizing wolf trapping and snaring.
"Dog-friendly" restaurant did not have knowledge of visiting dog's vicious propensities to impugn liability. Cantore v. Costantine, --- N.Y.S.3d ----, 2023 WL 7560690 (N.Y. App. Div. Nov. 15, 2023). This is an appeal of a personal injury case brought by plaintiff, the mother of the injured child, against the owners of a dog that caused the injury and the owners of the restaurant where the injury occurred. The injury took place at a dog-friendly restaurant both parties were dining at, where the dog owned by defendants bit a three-year-old infant. Plaintiff alleges that the restaurant owners knew of the dog’s vicious propensities but allowed it on the premises, and are liable along with the owners of the dog for the injuries sustained by her child. Defendant restaurant owners contend that they did not know of the dog’s vicious propensities, and that their restaurant requires that dogs be leashed, and the dog was leashed at the time of the bite. The lower court denied defendants motion for summary judgment because there were unresolved issues of fact as to the restaurant defendants’ duty to their patrons and the foreseeability of the injury. This appeal followed. On appeal, the court reversed the order of the lower court because defendants established that they did not have any knowledge of the vicious propensities of the dog and that they exercised reasonable care through their signage and policies to protect restaurant patrons from the risk of harm that allowing animals on the premises poses. Defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint insofar as asserted against them is granted.
October/November 2023
Colorado Supreme Court finds legislature intended prior animal cruelty convictions as sentence enhancer rather than element of felony cruelty charge. Caswell v. People, 536 P.3d 323 (Colo., 2023). This case concerns several charges of animal cruelty against petitioner Caswell. A welfare check was conducted in response to a report, resulting in the seizure of petitioner's sixty animals. These animals lacked sufficient food or water, were kept in enclosed spaces filled with feces and urine, and many of the animals were underweight or had untreated medical problems. Respondent charged Caswell with 43 class six counts of cruelty to animals, which were charged as felonies because Caswell had prior convictions of misdemeanor animal cruelty. The jury found Caswell guilty of all 43 counts and sentenced her to eight years of probation, 43 days in jail, and 47 days of in-home detention. After being affirmed on appeal, Petitioner filed for certiorari and the Supreme Court of Colorado granted. Here, petitioner argues that the use of her prior convictions for animal cruelty to enhance her charges to felonies violates the Sixth Amendment and the Colorado Constitution. After reviewing the factors, the court concluded that the legislature intended to designate the fact of prior convictions as a sentence enhancer rather than an element of the current crime. The court also concluded that the sentence did not violate the Sixth Amendment or article II of the Colorado Constitution, and affirmed the holding of the lower court.
Keeping terminally ill dog in state of suffering does not constitute "subjecting" a dog to harm under Massachusetts's anti-cruelty law, court finds. Commonwealth v. Russo, -- N.E.3d ----, 2023 WL 5962931 (Mass. App. Ct. Sept. 14, 2023). The owner of fourteen-year-old dog brought the dog to an animal hospital where veterinarians found a large mass that necessitated surgery. Defendant declined surgery and took the dog home. Three weeks later, defendant brought the dog back, where the staff noticed that his condition had worsened significantly, and the veterinarian recommended humane euthanasia to end the dog’s suffering. The owner then asked for surgery, but the vet indicated that the dog would not survive, so the owner again took the dog home. The veterinarian reported defendant to the Animal Rescue League of Boston, who conducted a welfare check on the dog and found it in very poor health. When the Animal Rescue League asked defendant to euthanize the dog or get him medical attention, defendant declined and insisted the dog would die at home. Defendant was charged with violating the animal cruelty statute, defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint was granted, and this appeal followed. The question on appeal is whether defendant’s conduct in refusing to euthanize the dog constitutes animal cruelty under the statute. After examining case law, the court could not find a case in which a person's failure to euthanize an animal was interpreted as “subjecting” an animal to harm, and did not want to extend the statute that far. The court affirmed the holding of the lower court.
County had a mandatory duty to release dogs scheduled for euthanasia to qualified nonprofit animal rescue or adoption organizations. Santa Paula Animal Rescue Ctr., Inc. v. Cnty. of Los Angeles, 313 Cal. Rptr. 3d 566 (Cal. Ct. App. Sept. 18, 2023), reh'g denied (Oct. 16, 2023). Plaintiffs filed a petition for writ of mandate against defendant county seeking to compel the release of impounded dogs scheduled for euthanasia to plaintiffs. The court sustained defendant’s demurrer without leave to amend, and this appeal followed. Plaintiffs argue on appeal that the Hayden Act imposes a duty on defendant to release the dogs scheduled for euthanasia to plaintiffs. The court examined the relevant code, which stated that “any stray dog that is impounded pursuant to this division shall, before the euthanasia of that animal, be released to a nonprofit” and agreed with plaintiffs’ argument that the use of the word "shall" indicates that the legislature intended to impose a duty on defendant to release these dogs upon request to qualified nonprofit animal rescue or adoption agencies. The court also concluded that the demurrer was improperly granted as defendant lacked discretion to withhold and euthanize a dog based upon its determination that the animal has a behavioral problem or is not adoptable or treatable. The court agreed, however, that defendant had discretion to determine whether and how a non-profit organization qualifies as an animal adoption or rescue organization. The court reversed the judgment of the trial court, vacated the trial court’s order sustaining the demurrer without leave to amend, and remanded to the trial court.
Court finds LSU labs must produce veterinary records related to research animals, but other records like private communications between employees and trapping records were unduly burdensome. People for Ethical Treatment of Animals v. Bd. of Supervisors of Louisiana State Univ., --- So.3d ----, 2023 WL 6119352, 2022-0976 (La. App. 1 Cir. 9/19/23). Plaintiff-appellee PETA began this case by issuing eight public records requests to defendant-appellant Louisiana State University (LSU). PETA made these records seeking veterinary care and disposition records for birds used in LSU’s laboratories. For the first seven of these requests, LSU did not produce the records, so PETA filed a petition for a writ of mandamus, declaratory judgment, and injunctive relief pursuant to the Public Records Law. LSU denied PETA’s allegations and did not produce the records, so PETA made an eighth records request, which LSU responded to with an assertion that the requested records were exempt from disclosure. After a hearing, the trial court issued an oral ruling in favor of PETA and granted some of the records that PETA requested. LSU appealed. On appeal, the court considered whether the records sought by PETA were covered under the Public Records Law. The court first found that LSU qualifies as a research facility under the Animal Welfare Act, and needs to comply with federal law and maintain and produce records relating to research animals, so long as the records being sought would not be unduly burdensome to produce. The court held that the portions of the judgment ordering LSU to produce veterinary daily observation reports, veterinary daily health check records, and other veterinary records were affirmed. However, some of the information sought, including private communications between LSU employees, trapping records, and some videographic records, were considered unduly burdensome to compel LSU to produce.
September 2023
Court upholds conviction for animal cruelty based on failure to groom dog. Commonwealth v. Deible, --- A.3d ----, 2023 WL 4715187 (July 25, 2023). Appellant has owned the 17-year-old terrier dog since the dog was a puppy. At one point, the dog escaped from appellant’s home and was found by a bystander. This bystander testified that the dog’s fur was heavily matted, with objects stuck in its fur. Appellant testified that the dog was aggressive when she attempted to groom him, and that their veterinarian was supposed to groom the dog, but the dog’s veterinary records did not support this. The lower court found that there was sufficient evidence to charge appellant with animal cruelty, and ordered her to pay fines totaling $946.58 and forfeit ownership of the dog. Appellant filed this appeal to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence used to support her conviction of animal cruelty. The court found that there was sufficient evidence to support the cruelty charge, as the statute prohibits “ill-treatment” and the evidence of the condition of the dog supports that it was treated improperly. Appellant also argues that the court’s order for her to forfeit her dog was improper, but the court of appeals disagreed due to the pattern of neglect established by appellant’s history with the dog. Accordingly, the court of appeals affirmed the holding of the lower court.
In challenge to disciplinary action, while Texas veterinarian's use of "telemedicine" was protected speech, the regulation of this speech by Board was content neutral. Hines v. Pardue, --- F.Supp.3d ----, 2023 WL 5254673 (S.D. Tex. Aug. 15, 2023). Plaintiff veterinarian brings this action to challenge a Texas law that mandates a veterinarian conduct a physical examination of an animal before practicing veterinary medicine on the grounds that the law violates his First Amendment right to free speech. Plaintiff, who was unable to maintain a veterinary practice in person due to medical issues, began providing veterinary advice to animal owners via a website without first examining their animals. Plaintiff was disciplined by the Texas State Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners for doing this, and was fined $500 and sentenced to a year of probation. Plaintiff then sued the members of the Board on two separate occasions, with the second appeal being remanded by the Fifth Circuit with instructions to determine whether the requirement for a physical examination before issuing veterinary advice regulates speech incidentally to the regulation of non-expressive professional conduct, or is a regulation of non-expressive conduct. Plaintiff argues that his email exchanges with animal owners constitutes speech, and the court agrees that this is speech and that the Examination Requirement regulates this speech. However, the court finds that this regulation of plaintiff’s speech is content neutral because the requirement for a physical examination of the animals before issuing advice applies neutrally to all forms of veterinary care and veterinary speech regardless of content. Therefore, the court held that defendants may enforce the Examination Requirement without violating plaintiff’s free speech rights.
Washington court denies plaintiff's application of public nuisance by zoo for alleged violations of wildlife and anti-cruelty laws. Animal Legal Def. Fund v. Olympic Game Farm, Inc., --- P.3d ----, 2023 WL 5281830 (Wash. Aug. 17, 2023). This case is brought by the Animal Legal Defense Fund (Plaintiff) against a private zoo based in Washington state, known as Olympic Game Farm, Inc (Defendant). Plaintiff argues that defendant has violated Washington’s wildlife laws, animal cruelty laws, and the Washington and federal Endangered Species Acts. Plaintiff also argues that defendant has created a public nuisance, which is a nuisance that “affects equally the rights of an entire community or neighborhood, although the extent of that damage may be unequal.” Plaintiff argued that they have demonstrated that defendant is in violation of animal cruelty and wildlife laws, and asked the court to name the violation of these laws as a public nuisance per se. The court found that previous cases regarding public nuisance claims limit those claims to instances of property infringement or threats to public health and safety. Accordingly, the court held that defendant’s alleged violation of the wildlife, animal cruelty, and endangered species laws, did not constitute a public nuisance.
July/August 2023
Wyoming declines to extend emotional distress damages for injury to dogs as animate property. Cardenas v. Swanson, --- P.3d ----, 2023 WL 4344196 (Wyo. July 5, 2023). The Cardenas family (Appellants) owned three St. Bernard dogs. Appellants lived on a home adjacent to large tracts of state land. One afternoon, the dogs were let outside to run, and appellants found one dog caught in a snare, where it died from a broken neck. Appellants attempted to free the dog from the snare, which injured the Cardenas children in the process. Additionally, the other two dogs were also caught in snares and died from their injuries. Appellants filed suit against the trapper who set the snares (Appellee), asserting claims of negligence, willful and wanton misconduct, violation of statutes, infliction of emotional distress, and civil rights violations. The trial court granted and denied in part the motion for summary judgment, finding that appellee’s conduct was not willful and wanton and that appellants could not recover emotional damages for the loss of the dogs. On appeal, the court held that emotional injuries for the loss of property are not recoverable since, under this court’s precedent, emotional damages are only recoverable for certain limited situations. Dogs are considered personal property under state law, and damage to personal property is not one of the situations in which emotional damages are recoverable. The court would not create a precedent to allow people to recover emotional distress damages when animate personal property is harmed, as that change would be best suited for the legislature to make. Affirmed.
Child's emotional support animal fits within definition of "counseling" to support transfer of dog from father/owner to child. Matter of S. A. B., --- P.3d ----, 326 Or. App. 192 (2023). In this Ohio juvenile dependency case, a father appeals a juvenile court judgment ordering him to transfer the dog to his child, claiming that the court lacked the authority. He also claims the dog is his personal property and not the child's. The child's therapist testified that the child's mental health symptoms are exacerbated by "missing and worrying about the dog." The therapist testified that, because of the bond that child shares with the dog, the child's emotional support dog should be this particular dog. In contrast, the father claims the dog is legally his and provides a household benefit for him by keeping raccoons away from his chickens and deterring thieves from entering the property. On appeal, the father argues that an emotional support animal does not fall within the statutory definition for "counseling" and, thus, the court's order was tantamount to giving away his property. The court found that the dictionary definition of the term, read with the policy goals of the chapter, allowed the court to conclude that the term "counseling" includes the use of emotional support animals. In fact, ". . . this particular dog is not just a pet, but rather is an emotional support animal for child, as evidenced by child's strong emotional bond with this particular dog and various testimony demonstrating that this particular dog will contribute to child's well-being by providing child with emotional stability and security." As to the property issue, the court observed that courts routinely order parents to provide support for their children and this transfer of property did not abuse the court's discretion. Affirmed.
Despite settlement and embargo against Mexico to curb gillnet fishing of commercially valuable totoaba fish, it is unclear whether enough progress has been made to save critically endangered vaquita. Ctr. for Biological Diversity v. Haaland, --- F.Supp.3d ----, No. 22-00339, 2023 WL 3994447 (Ct. Int'l Trade June 14, 2023). A small porpoise called the vaquita is on the verge of extinction, largely due to gillnet fishing of the totoaba fish that commonly traps and kills vaquitas as well. This fishing takes place in waters in Mexico’s territory, where the last few vaquitas live. In 2020, under the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA), the United States banned the importation from Mexico of seafood products caught with gillnets inside the vaquita’s range. Plaintiffs brought this lawsuit in 2022 against the U.S. Department of the Interior arguing that defendants caused an unlawful delay responding to a 2014 letter requesting that Secretary of the Interior certify the embargo against Mexico in order to curb the fishing of the totoaba, as doing otherwise diminished CITES by furthering the extinction of the vaquita. Plaintiffs also requested an order enjoining defendants from further delay in responding to the petition to certify Mexico, and costs and attorneys’ fees associated with the lawsuit. After settlement negotiations took place, parties reached a conditional settlement. It remains unclear whether Mexico has made progress in implementing the plan to save the vaquita, whether CITES is being implemented effectively by Mexico, and whether the President will act on the Secretary’s certification. To read more about the challenges facing the vaquita population, see the Overview.
June 2023
U.S. Supreme Court holds California Prop 12 on cruel confinement of pigs does not violate dormant Commerce Clause. Nat'l Pork Producers Council v. Ross, 598 U.S. ------- S.Ct. ----, No. 21-468, 2023 WL 3356528 (U.S. May 11, 2023). Following the adoption of California’s Proposition 12, two organizations – the National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation (Petitioners) – filed this lawsuit on behalf of the members of these organizations that are in the business of raising and processing pigs for the sale of pork meat. Petitioners allege that Proposition 12, which forbids the sale of whole pork meat in California that is made from breeding pigs (or their immediate offspring) that are confined in a cruel manner, violates the dormant Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution by placing an impermissible burden on interstate commerce. Under Proposition 12, confinement of pigs is cruel if it prevents a pig from lying down, standing up, fully extending its limbs, or turning around freely. Petitioners allege that the cost of compliance with Proposition 12 will increase production costs, but concede that those costs will fall on both California and out-of-state pork producers. The Supreme Court granted certiorari and affirmed the judgment of the Ninth Circuit, rejecting petitioners’ arguments that Proposition 12 violates the dormant Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Court found no violation of the dormant Commerce Clause because: (1) petitioners concede that Proposition 12 did not implicate the antidiscrimination principle, because it imposes the same burdens on in-state pork producers that it imposes on out-of-state pork producers, and (2) petitioners’ reliance on the Pike line of cases to prevent a state from regulating the sale of a consumer good within its borders on nondiscriminatory terms was rejected, as that line of cases had never yielded such a result.
New York defendant's 10-year ban on possessing animals left in place on appeal. People v. Minutolo, 215 A.D.3d 1260 (N.Y. App. Div. 2023). Defendant appealed from a judgment convicting him of animal cruelty in violation of New York Agriculture and Markets Law § 353. The conviction stemmed from defendant repeatedly striking one of his dogs out of "frustration" after the dog failed to come when called. On appeal, defendant called into question the authentication of surveillance video from a nearby gas station showing him striking the dog. The Supreme Court, Appellate Division found the portion of surveillance video showing defendant repeatedly striking one of his dogs was sufficiently authenticated. Further, other evidence established that he "cruelly beat" the dog by punching the dog with a closed fist three to five times. Finally, defendant's challenge to the penalty imposed under Agriculture and Markets Law § 374 (8)(c) that prohibits defendant from owning or otherwise having custody of any other animals for 10 years was rejected by the court. The judgment was unanimously affirmed.
Dog owner not liable for fall-related injuries suffered by pedestrian after dog chased ball into street. Murga v. Yarusso, 215 A.D.3d 979 (N.Y. App. Div. 2023). This New York case involved action to recover damages for personal injuries sustained after defendant's dog allegedly ran into street and pushed the plaintiff pedestrian to the ground. The plaintiff described the dog as acting like a "big puppy" and the dog did not bite the plaintiff. In contrast, the defendant testified that the dog was chasing a ball in the defendant's front yard and did not actually go in the street. Rather, defendant asserts that plaintiff tripped upon seeing the dog in the yard. The complaint alleged that the defendant was negligent in failing to keep the dog under control and to take protective measures knowing of the aggressive propensity of the dog. The Supreme Court, Suffolk County granted the defendant-owner's motion for summary judgment. On appeal by the plaintiff, the plaintiff also suggested that defendant might be liable for throwing the ball which caused the dog to run in the street and knock the plaintiff down. The Supreme Court, Appellate Division, held that the plaintiff cannot recover under such a theory, as New York does not recognize a common-law negligence cause of action to recover damages for an owner's alleged negligence in the handling of a dog. The summary judgment was affirmed as the court found the owner was not liable to pedestrian for injuries sustained.
April/May 2023
Claims of fraud, conversion/trespass to chattels, and intentional infliction of emotional distress based on inhumane euthanasia of cat by veterinarian allowed to go to trial. Berry v. Frazier, --- Cal.Rptr.3d ----, 2023 WL 3141235 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 28, 2023). Ryan Berry sued veterinarian Jeffery R. Frazier over the euthanasia of her cat. Berry claimed that Frazier performed the procedure (an intracardiac injection) without her informed consent, using an inhumane and unnecessary method that caused pain to the cat and emotional distress to her. The court found that Berry's allegations of fraud were sufficient to support a claim, as Frazier intentionally misled her about the procedure. The court also ruled that the conversion/trespass to chattels claim and intentional infliction of emotional distress claim were valid, as Frazier's actions violated Berry's property rights and caused severe emotional distress. However, the court agreed with the trial court that there was no separate cause of action for a violation of Civil Code section 3340, but Berry could seek exemplary damages under this section in connection with other causes of action (the court also rejected Frazier's argument that Section 3340 does not apply to veterinarians). The court remanded the case to allow Berry to file a second amended complaint to include the request for exemplary damages. The appeals from the previous orders were dismissed, the judgment of dismissal was reversed, and the case was sent back to the trial court for further proceedings, with instructions to modify the demurrer order and allow the filing of a second amended complaint.
District Court finds insufficient standing for animal advocates who sought petition of rulemaking to regulate the handling and slaughter of "downed" pigs by the FSIS. Farm Sanctuary v. United States Dep't of Agric., --- F.Supp.3d ----, 2023 WL 2673141 (W.D.N.Y. Mar. 28, 2023). Several non-profit organizations, including Farm Sanctuary and Animal Legal Defense Fund, filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) related to the slaughtering of pigs. The plaintiffs alleged three causes of action related to the humane treatment, handling, and disposition of downed pigs, violation of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, and arbitrary and capricious denial of a Petition for Rulemaking. The court found that the plaintiffs lacked standing to pursue both causes of action and failed to establish that the defendants violated the HMSA and the APA. The court ruled that the plaintiffs did not establish an injury in fact for standing purposes. The defendants argued that they complied with Congress's mandates and that some obligations are not judicially reviewable, to which the court agreed. The court also concluded that the statute grants discretion to the Secretary to determine whether to promulgate regulations for the humane treatment of non-ambulatory livestock and that agency decisions not to take enforcement action are unreviewable. As a result, the defendants are entitled to summary judgment on the first and second causes of action.
Ohio court finds dog participating in dog program at prison was not "vicious" under Ohio's statutory definition to impute liability to department of corrections. Dillon v. Ohio Dep't of Rehab. & Correction, --- N.E.3d ----, 2023-Ohio-942. Anna Dillon, a certified "senior dog handler," was attacked by a dog named "Roosevelt," owned by an Ohio Reformatory for Woman (ORW) corrections officer. Despite previous interactions without incident, Roosevelt attacked Dillon in March 2018, causing multiple bite wounds. After the incident, Roosevelt was removed from the program. Dillon filed a civil action against the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) in 2020, alleging negligence and spoliation of evidence. The trial court ruled in favor of ODRC in September 2021. Dillon appealed, arguing that the trial court's findings were incorrect. The court evaluated whether Roosevelt was a vicious dog prior to the incident, using Ohio's statutory definition. The court found that Roosevelt's previous behaviors did not meet the definition of serious injury required to classify him as vicious. The court also dismissed Dillon's claim of negligent keeping of Roosevelt since the first issue was resolved. Regarding spoliation of evidence, Dillon claimed that ODRC willfully destroyed the handler folder for Roosevelt. However, the court found no evidence of willful destruction or disruption of Dillon's case. The judgment in favor of ODRC was affirmed.
March 2023
Connecticut court shuts down dog owner's claim for emotional distress under "bystander" theory after witnessing dog run over by delivery driver. Brisson v. These Guys New York Deli Corp., Not Reported in Atl. Rptr., 2023 WL 370990 (Conn. Super. Ct. Jan. 20, 2023). The Superior Court of Connecticut considers defendants' motion to strike plaintiffs' claims for emotional distress arising from the death of their pet dog. Plaintiffs argue that previous Connecticut case law (Myers v. Hartford, 84 Conn. App. 395) left open the question of whether courts could consider a claim for emotional distress damages due to the loss of a pet. The incident giving rise to the litigation occurred in 2021, where a driver for the defendants' company ran over plaintiffs' pet dog while making a delivery. Myers left often the issue of recovery of damages when a "bystander" owner witnesses a "fatal injury." The court then examined the factors articulated by the Connecticut Supreme Court for recovery of emotional damages by a bystander. In doing so, the court here determined that the relationship between a pet and its owner does not meet the "closely related" element articulated by the Supreme Court. The court stated: "Absent appellate clarification that this factor includes other relationships, including the one at issue here between a pet owner and pet, this court cannot conclude that such a relationship is sufficiently like the close human relationships required under Clohessy." The court noted that it agreed with defendants that allowing plaintiffs' claim would amount to creating a new cause of action without legislative or appellate authority. Defendants' motion to strike was granted.
Summary judgment not appropriate where city presented no evidence to support claim of substantial burden where resident keeps chickens as emotional support animals in violation of ordinance. Whiteaker v. City of Southgate, --- F.Supp.3d ----, 2023 WL 317457 (E.D. Mich. Jan. 19, 2023). The plaintiff (“Whiteaker”) contends that the City violated the FHA by denying Whiteaker's request for an exemption from City Ordinance 610.13, which prohibits City residents from maintaining chickens (or other typical farm animals) on their property. Whiteaker was issued a citation by the City for a violation of Ordinance 610.13 and appeared in district court to defend himself, claiming he had a right to keep the chickens under Michigan's Right to Farm Act, and subsequently, under the Fair Housing Act (FHA). In the instant motion for summary judgment by the City, the court examined the "reasonableness" of Whiteaker's request for a reasonable accommodation under the FHA. The court found that the balancing test required under the FHA, to wit, weighing Whiteaker's disability-related need to keep the chickens as a source of comfort and support against the City's claims that the chickens pose a threat to public health, is a triable issue of fact. Indeed, the court observed that the City's citation of documentation from the CDC only lists the "potential dangers" chickens can pose to public health without sufficient evidence to supports its claim that the chickens will burden the City financially and administratively. In contrast, Whiteaker claims a disability and has provided evidence of his disability. The court cited Whiteaker's evidentiary support for his claim of disability and need for the chickens to alleviate those symptoms against the fact the City has not presented any testimony, affidavits, or "evidence of any kind" to support its claim. Thus, the court denied the motion for summary judgment.
Intervening act of Congress corrects FOIA issues for plaintiff seeking animal welfare records from federal agency. Am. Soc'y for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals v. Animal & Plant Health Inspection Serv., 60 F.4th 16, 2023 WL 2026831(2d Cir. 2023). In 2019, Plaintiff-Appellant the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (“ASPCA”) sued Defendants-Appellees the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (“APHIS”) alleging that APHIS followed a "policy or practice" of violating FOIA for failing to comply with requests for records related to the agency response to maintenance of animal welfare standards and licensing of animal dealers/exhibitors. This suit was prompted by APHIS' 2017 decommissioning of two public databases that allow users (including the ASPCA) to access records on commercial breeding facilities including inspection reports and photographs. APHIS contends that there was not a policy or practice that violated FOIA because it was corrected as the result of an intervening act of Congress, specifically, the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020. The district court granted the motion for summary judgment on the pleadings, finding that while the decommissioning of the databases did indeed impair the ability of the ASPCA to receive prompt FOIA requests, ASPCA did not establish that the court must intervene to correct such a policy or practice and Congress already acted to correct the breakdown through the appropriations bill. On ASPCA's timely appeal here, the Second Circuit agreed with the district court that the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 reversed the records access problems.
January/February 2023
Livestock not excluded from neglect portion of WV anti-cruelty law. Beasley v. Sorsaia, 880 S.E.2d 875 (W. Va. 2022). Petitioner was charged with animal cruelty in West Virginia. The incident stemmed from 2020 where humane officers in Putnam County seized several horses and a donkey that were denied “basic animal husbandry and adequate nutrition[.]” After the seizure, petitioner claimed the magistrate lacked jurisdiction to dispose of the case because farm animals are excluded under the Code. That motion was granted by the magistrate and the animals were returned to the petitioner. After a short period of time, petitioner was charged with six counts of criminal animal cruelty and again the magistrate dismissed the complaint. However, the magistrate stayed the dismissal on the State's motion so that the circuit court could determine whether § 61-8-19(f) excludes livestock. The circuit court agreed that the section encompasses livestock from inhumane treatment and the magistrate was prohibited from dismissing the complaint. Petitioner now appeals that decision here. This court first examined the anti-cruelty statute finding that the structure of the exception under subsection (f) refers back to the conditional phrase that ends in "standards" for keeping the listed categories of animals. The court disagreed with the petitioner's claim of a "blanket exclusion" for livestock since the Commissioner of Agriculture has promulgated rules that govern the care of livestock animals that includes equines. The court held that § 61-8-19(f) establishes an exclusion for farm livestock only when they are “kept and maintained according to usual and accepted standards of livestock ... production and management." The circuit court's writ of prohibition was affirmed and the matter was remanded.
CHIMP Act requires NIH to transfer all chimps to Chimp Haven. Humane Soc'y of the United States v. Nat'l Institutes of Health, Slip Copy, No. 21-CV-00121-LKG, 2022 WL 17619232 (D. Md. Dec. 13, 2022). Plaintiff animal welfare advocates sued the National Institute of Health (NIH) for failing to transfer all chimpanzees housed at the Alamogordo Primate Facility to a retirement sanctuary known as “Chimp Haven." In 2015, NIH officially announced that it would cease biomedical research on chimpanzees and establish a working group to transfer all 288 surplus chimpanzees owned by NIH to Chimp Haven. In 2019, the NIH announced that not all chimpanzees would be transferred to Chimp Haven because 44 of those individuals were too frail for transfer due to medical conditions. After cross-motions for summary judgment, this court considers whether transfer is legally required. On appeal, Plaintiffs contend that the plain language of the CHIMP Act requires the transfer of all chimps and the court owes no deference to agency interpretation. In contrast, the Government argues that the decision is consistent with the CHIMP Act because the plain language of the act only requires that surplus chimpanzees offered by NIH be "accepted" into CHIMP Haven. The court found that the plain and unambiguous language, and use of the word "shall," in the CHIMP Act requires the NIH to transfer ALL chimpanzees to the federal sanctuary system. In addition, the legislative history of the CHIMP Act reinforces that reading of the statute. While the court recognized NIH's concern toward the frailest chimpanzees, the proper avenue is within the legislative branch. Plaintiffs' motion for partial summary judgment was granted and the Government's cross motion was denied as was the motion to dismiss. The court directed the parties to file a joint status report with views on the relief Plaintiff seeks and how the matter should proceed in light of the instant opinion.
Board minutes and testimony from village board members in motion to dismiss concerning ordinance violation for keeping excess pets was impermissible. Vill. of Orion v. Hardi, --- N.E.3d ----, 2022 WL 17256761 (Ill. App. Ct. 2022). The plaintiff, the Village of Orion (Village), sued defendants to enjoin them from keeping more than three cats in violation of a Village ordinance. After a dismissal and amended complaint by the Village, the trial court granted defendants' amended motion to dismiss, finding that the Village had previously voted to allow defendants to keep more than three cats. Here, the Village appeals this decision. By way of background, the defendants lived together in the Village since 1998, and one defendant served as the animal control officer for about 15 years. In 2013, the Village enacted an ordinance making it unlawful to keep more than three dogs or cats over the age of six months (except for licensed kennels or veterinarian clinics). The trial court's order found that the Board's language at the 2014 meeting revealed "unambiguous" language that defendants could keep the cats in their possession. After remand, the Village filed its second amended complaint in 2022 and defendants against filed a motion to dismiss. After a hearing with testimony from Board members and others, the trial court found there was a motion to allow the keeping of the excess cats and this negated the ability of the Village to proceed with an ordinance violation. On appeal here, this court finds the 2014 board minutes are insufficient to support a motion to dismiss. The submission of the board minutes together with and a defense witness, followed by the Village's presentation of another board member's testimony to refute that, amounted to the court "improperly allow[ing] the parties to conduct a mini-trial on the veracity of the essential allegations of the complaint." Thus, the trial court's order granting the dismissal was reversed and the matter was remanded.
2022
November/December 2022
Dog left in parked car on "very hot" day created a substantial and unjustifiable risk sufficient to establish criminal negligence. State v. Butler, --- A.3d ----, 2022 WL 4488304 (N.H. Sept. 28, 2022). Defendant Kevin Butler was convicted of criminal negligence after he left his dog inside a parked vehicle for 45 minutes when the temperature was over 90 degrees outside. The charge came after a neighbor noticed a dog in the vehicle that was "scratching at the windows and the door" and appeared to be in distress. After calling the police, an animal control officer removed the animal from the unlocked car and transported the distressed dog to a local veterinary clinic. At trial, the defendant testified that he was out running errands on a "very hot" day, and asked his son to get the dog out of the car as Defendant's hands were full. On appeal here, Defendant contends that the evidence was insufficient to establish the mens rea of criminal negligence for both charges. The State must prove that a defendant “fail[ed] to become aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the material element exists or will result from his conduct" and that this risk constitutes a gross deviation from conduct performed by a reasonable person. Here, the court found that the record supports the trial court's conclusion that the defendant failed to become aware of a substantial and unjustifiable risk that the dog would overheat in the car and that his failure to perceive this risk constituted a gross deviation from reasonable care. The temperature was high that day, the car was parked in direct sunlight with all the windows up, and the dog was left for around an hour. The fact that Defendant relied upon his 8-year-old son to remove the dog under these circumstances constituted a gross deviation from reasonable care. This was not "mere inattention" as Defendant claimed. The conviction was affirmed.
Summary judgment not appropriate in Indiana where evidence presented that Great Dane dogs have a "natural propensity" to be territorial. Daniels v. Drake, 195 N.E.3d 866 (Ind. Ct. App. 2022). Plaintiff Damon Daniels appeals from the trial court's entry of summary judgment in favor of the Drakes. The incident stems from an unprovoked dog bite at defendants' home. The Drakes live on a large, rural property in Indiana with no neighbors. The Drakes' dog "Max," a large Great Dane, would roam the property unrestrained. In September of 2020, Daniels, a FedEx driver, entered the property to deliver a package. After walking toward Lisa with the package, Max barked once and then bit Daniels in the abdomen. Daniels sustained puncture wounds, a one-centimeter laceration, swelling and a hematoma from the bite. After Daniels filed the instant complaint seeking damages related to the dog bite, the Drakes filed a motion for summary judgment claiming that they did not have actual knowledge of Max's vicious propensities prior to the bite. In response, Daniels contended that Great Danes have a "natural propensity" to be territorial, which is exacerbated by isolation. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of defendants. On appeal here, the court explained that Indiana law states that knowledge of a dog's dangerous or vicious tendencies may not be inferred from a first-time, unprovoked bite, but that knowledge may be inferred where evidence shows that the particular breed to which the owner's dog belongs is known to exhibit such tendencies." While the court observed that the Drakes presented evidence of a lack of actual knowledge of Max's vicious propensities, the expert who testified on Great Dane behavior presented evidence that Great Danes might behave with "territorial aggressive tendencies" in a given situation. The Drakes argued on appeal (for the first time) that this evidence by a canine behavioral expert was "immaterial" and cannot be used to show what lay people would know about Great Danes. The court was unpersuaded by the Drakes' novel argument, and this created a genuine issue of material fact. Thus, this court reversed the order granting summary judgment for the Drakes and remanded the case for further proceedings.
Virginia animal cruelty statute does not require that malicious maiming of livestock animals must be against the will of the owner. Haefele v. Commonwealth, 878 S.E.2d 422 (Va. Ct. App. Oct. 18, 2022). Defendant Haefele was convicted of two counts of maliciously maiming the livestock of another, in violation of Code § 18.2-144, and two counts of conspiring to maliciously maim the livestock of another. Defendant's neighbor possessed two goats on her property in Spotsylvania County and received several complaints. Ultimately, the code enforcement officer instructed the neighbor to remove the goats and even offered assistance in relocating them. However, about a month after this order, Defendant and two other men entered the neighbor's goat pen with the neighbor's permission and killed the goats with “what looked like a two-by-four with spikes wrapped around it." After investigation and review of video footage taken of the attack, Defendant and the two others were charged and convicted by bench trial in 2021. Testimony by an expert in veterinary pathology revealed that the animals suffered before they died. On appeal here, Defendant contends that he could not be convicted “because the defendant [Haefele] was acting with the permission of, and in concert with, the owner of the animals in question.” The court disagreed, finding no language in the statute that limits the statute only to acts that were against the will of the owner. Defendant also claims he did not act with requisite malice because the “the owner of the goats had given him permission to act against the goats." Again, the court recounted the brutal and repeated acts against the goats that occurred over a ten-minute span. Thus, the evidence showed that Defendant acted with sufficiently demonstrated malice. While livestock owners can ask others to euthanize or properly slaughter their livestock, the manner in which Defendant caused the goats' deaths clearly demonstrated malicious intent. Affirmed and remanded.
Felonious cruelty to animals conviction in North Carolina affirmed where jury concluded that a defendant maliciously set fire that proximately caused the puppy's death. State v. Charles, 878 S.E.2d 166 (N.C. Ct. App., 2022). Defendant Cheito Charles appealed from judgments entered upon a jury verdict finding him guilty of second-degree arson and felonious cruelty to animals. The incident stemmed from a house fire in the summer of 2020 where the defendant set fire to his sister's boyfriend's house while the boyfriend's puppy was still inside. At trial, the defendant contended that there was no evidence that he knew the existence of the puppy. However, the trial court instructed the jury that, in order to convict Defendant of felonious cruelty to animals, the jury need only conclude that Defendant maliciously and “intentionally start[ed] a house fire which proximately result[ed] in the injury or death to the animal.” There was no need to prove that Defendant was aware of the puppy in the home. Ultimately, Defendant was convicted of second-degree arson and felonious cruelty to animals. On appeal here, Defendant argues that the trial court erred by instructing the jury on the doctrine of transferred intent regarding the animal cruelty charge. This court rebuffed this argument, finding that there was no error with instruction since the jury only needed to conclude that Defendant maliciously set the fire that proximately caused the puppy's death. This same reasoning also supported the sufficiency of the evidence claim. The court dispensed with Defendant's final argument as to the sufficiency of the indictment. As a result, the appellate court found no error with Defendant's trial.
September/October 2022
Oregon court says animals lack capacity to sue on own behalf because of their "distinctive incapacity." Justice by and through Mosiman v. Vercher, --- P.3d ----, 321 Or.App. 439 (2022). The Oregon Court of Appeals, as a matter of first impression, considers whether a horse has the legal capacity to sue in an Oregon court. The Executive Director of Sound Equine Options (SEO), Kim Mosiman, filed a complaint naming a horse (“Justice”)as plaintiff with the Mosiman acting as his guardian, and claiming negligence against his former owner. In the instant appeal, Mosiman challenges the trial court's grant of defendant's motion to dismiss. In 2018, Mosiman filed a complaint on Justice's behalf for a single claim of negligence per se, alleging that defendant violated the Oregon anti-cruelty statute ORS 167.330(1) by failing to provide minimum care. Defendant moved to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that a horse lacks the legal capacity to sue and the court granted dismissal. Here, the appellate court first found no statutory authority for a court to appoint a guardian for an animal because "a horse inherently lacks self-determination and the ability to express its wishes in a manner the legal system would recognize." The animal has a "distinctive incapacity" that sets it apart from humans with legal disabilities that require appointment of a legal guardian. The court reaffirmed the law's treatment of animals as personal property and found no support in the precedent for permitting an animal to vindicate its own legal rights. The court affirmed the trial court's judgment dismissing the complaint with prejudice.
Hearing on forfeiture of animals does not require a jury trial in Oregon. State v. Hershey, 370 Or. 200, 515 P.3d 899 (2022). Defendant's animals (22 dogs, 3 horses, and 7 chickens) were impounded in 2017 after he was charged with second-degree animal neglect. The district attorney asked the court for immediate forfeiture of the animals or for defendant to post a bond for care within 72 hours of a hearing on the matter. In response, defendant filed a motion for jury trial. The lower court denied defendant's motion and the court of appeals affirmed the ruling. Here, the Oregon Supreme court considers whether a special statutory proceeding brought under ORS 167.347 provides a right to a jury trial in accordance with Article I, section 17, of the Oregon Constitution. The Court first looked at the nature of the relief in the statute insofar as whether such relief is equitable or legal. The Court found the purpose of the statute is mainly to provide unjust enrichment of the owner when the owner does not pay for the costs of their animals' care. As such, the court found the relief was equitable in nature. The decision of the Court of Appeals and the order of the circuit court were affirmed.
Wild horses are not estrays for purposes of New Mexico's law regardless of whether they are found on private land. Wild Horse Observers Association, Inc. v. New Mexico Livestock Board, --- P.3d ----, 2022 WL 2901248 (N.M. Ct. App. July 22, 2022). This appeal examines the protection afforded to New Mexico's free-roaming horses under NMSA 1978, Section 77-18-5 (2007). The New Mexico Livestock Board (the Board) appeals from a district court order granting declaratory and injunctive relief sought by Wild Horse Observers Association, Inc. (WHOA). WHOA brought an action for declaratory and injunctive relief against the Board and others regarding the status of horses corralled by a private citizen on private property. The citizen had initially complained to the Board about the free-roaming horses on her property and was told that the Board only takes possession of horses corralled by citizens. The citizen did so, and the Board took possession of the herd, where it then posted on its website that the horses would be sold at auction. WHOA filed the instant emergency action, stating that the Board exceeded its authority and unlawfully treated the subject horses as estray livestock. The group sought a temporary restraining order (TRO) preventing the Board from impounding or selling the subject horses. The district court granted WHOA's request for a TRO, thereby prohibiting the Board from taking any action with the horses. After a bench trial on the merits, the district court determined that the Board's actions to take possession and sell the subject horses were contrary to the Board's statutory authority, enjoined the Board from “further unlawful possession and selling” of the subject horses, and awarded WHOA costs and attorney fees. This court found no error with the lower court concluding that the horses should be protected as “wild horses” because the definition of that term does not depend on whether, at the moment of their capture, the horses were on land that is private, but instead depends on whether the horses generally roam public land. Therefore, the horses were not estrays. Ultimately, this court affirmed the district court's order to the extent that it correctly determined that the subject horses are wild horse rather than estray, but reversed the district court's determination that the Board should have acted according to its statutory duties under Section 77-18-5. The case was remanded for proceedings consistent with this opinion and further consideration of attorney fees.
July/August 2022
Incident involving dog and another resident and whether this was a "direct threat" raised genuine issue of material fact to preclude summary judgment in FHA housing discrimination case. Andrade v. Westlo Mgmt. LLC, --- A.3d ----, 2022 WL 2183604 (R.I. June 17, 2022). The defendants, Westlo Management LLC (Westlo) seek review of a Superior Court order granting partial summary judgment on several counts in favor of the plaintiffs, Curtis W. Andrade and The Rhode Island Commission for Human Rights (the commission). The defendants assert that the existence of genuine issues of material fact precluded partial summary judgment and that the commission did not have standing to intervene in this matter. The matter stems from a denial of plaintiff's request for a reasonable accommodation at Westlo's property. Prior to moving in to Westlo's low-income property, plaintiff was told by a leasing agent that he was not permitted to have his dog, Enzo, because the dog (a pit bull) was on the complex' restricted breed list. After cross-motions for summary judgment by both parties, the hearing justice granted plaintiffs motion for summary judgment finding that Westlo had discriminated against Andrade. However, she found there to be a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the dog had requisite training. The justice also acknowledged that she had misstated that the request for the reasonable accommodation had occurred before an aggressive incident with the other resident. As a result, she declined to make a finding of fact on that issue. On defendants' appeal of summary judgment, defendants argue that the issue of whether an accommodation is reasonable under the FHA is a factual one and thus it was error for the hearing justice to make those determinations. The Supreme Court looked at the similar language of both the federal FHA and the state FHPA. While the court found that plaintiff met the definition for disability under the laws and that defendant was made aware of plaintiff's need for reasonable accommodation, it was troubled by the "direct threat" posed by the dog. Specifically, the court found issue with the date mix-up in the initial hearing for the incident with the dog and another resident. Therefore, due to the highly fact-specific nature of the assessment of an assistance animal as well as the conflicting evidence presented, this court disagreed with the hearing justice and concluded summary judgment was not appropriate. The record was remanded to the Superior Court for further proceedings in accordance with this opinion..
New York holds that animals cannot be the subject of habeas corpus relief. Nonhuman Rts. Project, Inc. v. Breheny, --- N.E.3d ----, 2022 WL 2122141 (N.Y. June 14, 2022). This New York case centers on a petition of habeas corpus for an elephant named "Happy" who is housed at the Bronx Zoo. Petitioner Nonhuman Rights Project is a not-for-profit corporation with a mission of seeking to establish that “at least some nonhuman animals” are “legal persons” entitled to fundamental rights, including “bodily integrity and bodily liberty.” In 2018, petitioner commenced this habeas proceeding in Supreme Court against respondents. Petitioner sought a writ of habeas corpus “on behalf of Happy,” an Asian elephant that petitioner claimed was unlawfully confined at the Zoo in violation of her right to bodily liberty. Happy has resided at the Bronx Zoo for the last 45 years and has been held in captivity since she was approximately one year old. Petitioners request that she be transferred to an “appropriate sanctuary" where she could potentially be integrated with other elephants. Specifically, respondents argued that there was no legal basis for habeas relief and that Happy's living conditions comply with all relevant laws and accepted standards of care. The Supreme Court dismissed the petition on the ground “that animals are not ‘persons’ entitled to rights and protections afforded by the writ of habeas corpus” and that habeas relief is not available for an animal. On petitioner's appeal, the Appellate Division unanimously affirmed, reasoning that “the writ of habeas corpus is limited to human beings.” While the court acknowledged that the law recognizes that animals are not mere "things," and existing animal protection laws underscore this conclusion, the scope of habeas corpus does not include animals. As such, the order of the Appellate Division was affirmed.
May/June 2022
Plaintiffs fail to establish standing to force SeaWorld to release records related to marine mammal deaths at facilities. Marino v. Nat'l Oceanic & Atmospheric Admin., --- F.4th ----, 2022 WL 1548489 (D.C. Cir. May 17, 2022). Plaintiff animal welfare organizations sued the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) and its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, seeking to enforce conditions in permits held by SeaWorld. In 1994, the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) was amended such that it shifted authority to oversee conditions of marine mammals at exhibitors from NMFS to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). After three pre-1994 orcas died at SeaWorld, plaintiffs tried to convince NMFS that it still had the authority to enforce the pre-1994 rules related to release of records, but NMFS contended that its authority was extinguished in 1994. Plaintiffs brought suit, arguing that the NMFS's policy rests upon an arbitrary and capricious interpretation of the MMPA, and that its refusal to enforce the permit conditions was also arbitrary and capricious. The district court dismissed the plaintiffs’ suit for lack of standing. On appeal here, the court examined plaintiffs' standing under the three-part Lujan test. The court found a lack of redressability for the plaintiffs. Plaintiffs fail to allege any facts from which the court could infer the relief they seek would likely cause the NMFS to redress their alleged harms. In fact, because the MMPA language on permits is permissive, NMFS has discretion whether to enforce them. This is coupled with the fact that there is no evidence that third-party SeaWorld will turn over the reports even if NMFS were to direct them. Therefore, this court held that the district court did not err in determining that the plaintiffs lacked standing to pursue this case. Affirmed.
Court upholds California ban on sale of poultry that has been force-fed to produce foie gras. Ass'n des Éleveurs de Canards et d'Oies du Quebec v. Bonta, --- F.4th ----, 2022 WL 1436840 (9th Cir. May 6, 2022). California prohibits the in-state sale of products that are “the result of force feeding a bird for the purpose of enlarging the bird's liver beyond normal size.” Cal. Health & Safety Code § 25982. The law had a 7.5-year grace period before it went into effect. After nine years of litigation and in their third set of appeals before this Court, the parties ask the court here to decide whether California's sales ban is preempted by the Poultry Products Inspection Act (“PPIA”) or violates the dormant Commerce Clause. As to the first issue of preemption, the plaintiff sellers contend that at least one USDA Policy Book defines foie gras as liver from poultry that has been "specially fed and fattened" and other USDA documents suggest this is done via forced-feeding. Thus, contend the sellers, it is impossible to produce and properly label foie gras, as is required by the PPIA, and then also comply with the California law. The court disagreed with the assertion, finding that the sellers can still force feed birds to make their products, but not sell those in California. Further, the sellers raise a new suggestion that the ban constitutes express preemption because force feeding operates as an "ingredient requirement." Essentially, they contend you cannot have foie gras without force-feeding birds. This was also rejected, as the court found nothing new that would reverse the precedent established in the prior decision by the court. The sellers' argument that the ban is "unduly burdensome" also failed since there is not requirement that a state impose the "least burdensome" method for in-state commerce. The court held that the sales ban is neither preempted nor unconstitutional and that the specified transactions are out-of-state sales permitted by California law.
April 2022
Washington Supreme Court holds animal cruelty is a crime of domestic violence. State v. Abdi-Issa, 504 P.3d 223 (Wash. 2022). The incident stems from an evening after defendant insisted on taking his girlfriend's dog, a small Chihuahua and Dachshund mix, for a walk. The girlfriend testified that defendant had a history of disliking the dog and had previously threatened to kill both her and her dog. On that evening, two witnesses heard "a sound of great distress" and saw defendant making "brutal stabbing" motions toward the dog and then saw him kick the dog so hard that she flew into the air. Police officers responded and then transported the dog to a veterinary clinic where the dog subsequently died. One of the two witnesses had a panic attack at the scene and testified later that she continued to have panic attacks thereafter with flashbacks of the experience. Defendant was charged and found guilty of first-degree animal cruelty with a domestic violence designation and also two sentencing aggravators. On appeal, the Court of Appeals vacated the domestic violence designation and the impact on others sentence aggravator. On appeal here, the Supreme Court found that animal cruelty could be designated a crime of domestic violence. The statute defining domestic violence has a non-exhaustive list of what crimes can constitute domestic violence. While animal cruelty is not listed, the court found that testimony of defendant's prior controlling behavior coupled with research showing how abusers use violence toward their victims' pets to manipulate and terrorize victims was sufficient. As to the sentencing aggravator, the court found that defendant's actions had a destructive and foreseeable impact on the witnesses who saw the animal cruelty. Thus, under these facts, the Court ruled that animal cruelty can be designated a crime of domestic violence and that the jury was properly instructed that it could find the impact on others sentencing aggravator. The judgment of Court of Appeals reversed and remanded.
After private complaint filed by organization, Pennsylvania court reverses district attorney decision not to charge local farm for animal cruelty based on undercover investigation. In re Priv. Crim. Complaint Filed by Animal Outlook, 2022 WL 588181, 2022 PA Super 37 (Feb. 28, 2022). The requested charges stem from information obtained from an undercover agent who was employed at Martin Farms, where she captured video of cruel mistreatment of animals on the farm that AO contends constituted criminal animal cruelty. Ultimately, the PSP issued a press release in March 2020 that indicated that the District Attorney had declined prosecution. After this, AO drafted private criminal complaints that were submitted to the Magisterial District Judge who concluded that the DA correctly determined that there was not enough evidence for prosecution. AO then filed a petition of review of the disapproval of its private complaints pursuant to Pa.R.Crim.P. 506(B)(1) before the trial court, which again dismissed AO petition for review. AO filed this appeal to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania. In reviewing the trial court's decision, the Superior Court found that the trial court committed multiple errors of law. This court found that AO provided sufficient evidence to show prima facie cases of neglect, cruelty, and aggravated cruelty with respect to the incidents. The court then analyzed whether the record supported a defense of "normal agricultural operations" defense that would counter the charges. This court found that incidents like the dehorning of cattle that already had horns fused to the skull and extreme tail twisting and shocking were sufficient to overcome the affirmative defense. The trial court's dismissal of AO's petition for review was reversed and the trial court was ordered to direct the DA to accept and transmit charges for prosecution.
Iowa's new "ag-gag" law ruled unconstitutional due to viewpoint discrimination of protected speech. Animal Legal Def. Fund v. Reynolds, --- F.Supp.3d ----, 2022 WL 777231 (S.D. Iowa Mar. 14, 2022). Plaintiffs contend that Iowa's new "ag-gag" law criminalizes their actions in gathering information through undercover investigations at animal production facilities. Both parties have filed Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment. Plaintiffs contend that the new law violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution because it discriminates based on content and viewpoint and cannot survive strict scrutiny. The court first noted that the issue with § 717A.3B, and other laws aimed at prohibiting trespassers at agricultural facilities, is the law seeks to single out specific individuals for punishment based on their viewpoint regarding such facilities. This law operates in a viewpoint discriminatory fashion because it prohibits the deceptive trespasser who gains access or obtain employment at an agricultural facility with the intent to cause “economic harm ... to the agricultural production facility's ... business interest" as opposed to trespassers with an intent to benefit the facility. Thus, Section 717A.3B does not focus solely on the right to exclude, the legally cognizable harm of trespass, but only on the right to exclude those with particular viewpoints. While the court noted that a state legislature may determine whether specific facilities—such as agricultural facilities, nuclear power plants, military bases, or other sensitive buildings—are entitled to special legal protections, the First Amendment does not allow those protections to be based on a violator's viewpoint. Plaintiffs' Motion for Summary Judgment was granted and Defendant's was denied.
January/March 2022
In a matter of first impression, court finds dog suffered "substantial pain" under anti-cruelty law by relying on human cases. State v. Hackett, --- P.3d ----, 315 Or.App. 360, 2021 WL 4987629 (2021). Defendant was convicted of second-degree animal abuse, among other crimes. On appeal, he argues that the trial court erred when it denied his motion for judgment of acquittal (MJOA) and imposed fines (in addition to incarceration) without first determining his ability to pay. A witness was visiting her mother and heard a dog "yike" in pain outside while she was at her mother's house. The dog was whimpering and laying in submission as the defendant hit the dog. Then, after going inside briefly to call police, the witness returned outside to see defendant was "just going to town and beating the dog" and throwing rocks at the dog to the point where the witness was concerned for the dog's life. On appeal, defendant contends that the trial court erred on the second-degree animal abuse charge because the evidence did not permit a rational inference that Bosco experienced "substantial pain" as required by the statute. The court, in a matter of first impression, examined whether the dog experienced substantial pain. Defendant suggests that his dog did not experience a significant duration of pain to permit a finding of substantial pain. The court disagreed, analogizing with cases where a human victim could not testify concerning the pain. Thus, the court concluded that the evidence supported a reasonable inference that Bosco's pain was not "fleeting" or "momentary." Not only did the witnesses see the defendant kick and pelt the dog with rocks, but one witness left to phone police and returned to find the defendant still abusing the dog. The trial court did not err in denying defendant's MJOA, but the matter was remanded for entry of judgment that omitted the "due in 30 days" for the fines.
Court not required to return dogs to defendant whose criminal charges related to dogs were dismissed or compensate for seized dogs. Siegel v. State, 2021 Ark. 228, 635 S.W.3d 313 (Ark., 2021), reh'g denied (Jan. 13, 2022). Defendant Karen Siegel was convicted of 31 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty based on 31 breeding dogs that were seized from her home. At issue here on appeal by defendant is whether the underlying statutes that allows seizure of the animals, Arkansas Code Annotated sections 5-62-106 and 5-62-111, are constitutional. In addition, defendant argues that by not ordering return of the seized dogs to defendant and compensating defendant for her loss of property was error. The first circuit court criminal case was dismissed on speedy-trial grounds and that ruling was upheld in later appeal. The issues on the instant appeal relate to the status of the seized dogs. Siegel argues that the circuit court erred by not ordering the return of her seized property and also not assigning a value for the property that was destroyed or damaged. The court here looked at the language of the seizure statute and found that Siegel failed to post a bond to care for the dog as is contemplated by the statute. The statute provides no award of damages to a defendant and the county that seized the dog is not a party in the criminal action brought by the state. Thus, the lower court was correct in stating that Siegel's remedy was a separate civil action. As to Siegel's challenges to the constitutionality of those statutes, this court found the argument moot since review of the issue would have no practical legal effect upon a then-existing controversy. The case was affirmed in part and dismissed as moot in part.
Evidence of dogfighting including training equipment, weights, scales, and a "pit" were sufficient to sustain conviction. State v. Crew, --- S.E.2d ----, 2022 WL 151341 (N.C.App.,2022). Defendant Daniel Crew appealed his convictions for dogfighting, felony cruelty to animals, misdemeanor cruelty to animals, and restraining dogs in a cruel manner. Crew also challenges the trial court's restitution orders totaling $70,000, which the trial court immediately converted to civil judgments. The arrest and conviction of defendant stemmed from an investigation at defendant's residence, where 30 pit bulls were recovered with injuries "similar to injuries a dog would sustain through dogfighting." In addition, publications and notes on preparing for a fight were found, as well as dogfighting training equipment such as a "jenny," staging area for fights, and weight scales for weighing dogs. The State charged Crew with fifteen counts of engaging in dogfighting, one count of allowing property to be used for dogfighting, five counts of felony cruelty to animals, twenty-five counts of misdemeanor cruelty to animals, and sixteen counts of restraining dogs in a cruel manner. Ultimately, Crew was convicted by the jury of eleven counts of dogfighting, three counts of felony cruelty to animals, fourteen counts of misdemeanor cruelty to animals, and two counts of restraining dogs in a cruel manner. Defendant appealed his criminal judgment and petitioned for a writ of certiorari for the award of restitution entered as civil judgments. On appeal, this court rejected defendant's claim that there was insufficient evidence of dogfighting. The police found training equipment, medication commonly used in dogfighting operations, and a dogfighting "pit" or training area as well as the notes preparing dogs to fight. A reasonable juror could have concluded that Crew intended to engage in dogfighting. The court found no error concerning the criminal convictions, but vacated the conversion of the restitution to civil judgments against defendant.
2021
December 2021
Court was within discretion to award dog to husband where wife claimed dog was an ESA but did not present evidence of disability. Harby v. Harby, --- So.3d ----, 2021 WL 5344799 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. Nov. 17, 2021). This Florida case involves an appeal of a final judgment of dissolution of marriage. With respect to animal law, the wife appealed the trial court's distribution of family dogs, Liberty and Nico, to the former husband. According to testimony, the dogs were bonded to each other. The former wife testified that the family adopted Liberty "to be an emotional support dog" and was her constant companion. Since separation, the dogs have been in the husband's possession and care. The trial court determined that the dogs were marital property and that the wife appeared to be in good health with no physical or mental disabilities. Further, both parties agreed the dogs should not be separated from each other and the court found the dogs had been in the husband's possession since the parties separated. On appeal, the wife argues that the trial court's distribution of the family dogs to Former Husband was arbitrary, capricious, and unsupported by the record. In particular, the wife contends that one of the dogs is her emotional support animal and former husband expressed no desire or claim for the dogs in testimony. The court first observed that Florida is not one of the handful of states with statutes that give pets a special property status in distribution of marital assets. Instead, animals are considered personal property. Here, the court found both parties have cared for the dogs at times and the husband cared for them after the parties separated in 2017. And, while the court found that Liberty was "emotionally comforting," there was no evidence that the former wife had a disability and that Liberty provided emotional support to alleviate an effect of such disability. Thus, the role Liberty played was to provide comfort and companionship like most household pets. The appellate court concluded that the trial court acted within its discretion by awarding the family dogs to the former husband.
Court erred in granting visitation for dogs after marriage dissolution. Matter of Marriage of Niemi, 496 P.3d 305 (Wash. Ct. App. 2021). Douglas Niemi appealed the trial court's order granting Mariah Niemi visits with their two dogs, which were awarded to Douglas as his separate property in a dissolution proceeding. Douglas and Mariah were married for 27 years and had two large dogs who were each about two years old. During the petition for legal separation, Mariah asked for 10 hours a week of visitation with the dogs because they were "family members." Following the trial, Mariah continued to emphasize her desire to have access to the dogs and the court ultimately awarded the dogs to Douglas as separate property, but allowed Mariah visits with the dogs three times a week. Douglas appealed that award, contending that the trial court abused its discretion by awarding visitation of his separate property. Mariah countered with the fact a court has discretion to grant her access to this "special classification" of property. Here, the Court of Appeals agreed with Douglas, finding that the lower court had no authority under Washington law to compel a party to produce separate property after a marital dissolution. The court also held that is not the province of the court to recognize a special category of personal property when the statute has not done so. Finally, the court observed that such agreements about visitation with animals would lead to continuing supervision and enforcement problems in the court system. Because the trial court exceeded its authority in awarding visitation rights, this court reversed and remanded the issue for the trial court to strike the provision related to visitation and maintenance costs for the dogs..
Dog fighting expert witness was qualified due to extensive experience and training in investigating dog fighting operations, regardless of college degree. Queen v. State, --- So.3d ----, 2021 WL 4471099 (Miss. Sept. 30, 2021). Defendant Tommie Queen was convicted of three counts of dog fighting contrary to Mississippi law. The resulting conviction began with in 2017 after a sheriff's officer received a call about dogs barking and possibly fighting. After being dispatched to defendant's property, the officer encountered multiple dogs on chains and dogs that were actively fighting each other. The officer obtained a search warrant and seized numerous items including heavy logging chains, bite sticks, intravenous (IV) bags containing saline, medicine bottles, vials of vitamins, muscle milk and other muscle-building items, several scales, and a treadmill. Approximately five or six badly injured dogs were taken to a veterinarian and humanely euthanized. Defendant was convicted on three of the nine indicted counts of animal fighting and sentenced to three years on each count to run consecutively. On appeal here, defendant raised three issues: (1) whether the trial court erred by tendering Kyle Held as an expert in the field of animal cruelty and dog fighting; (2) whether the State presented sufficient evidence to convict Queen of dog fighting; and (3) whether the trial court erred by denying Queen's motion to recuse. As to the first issue on qualification of the expert witness, the proffered expert, Kyle Held, had been employed by the ASPCA for approximately ten years as the director of investigations. Not only was Held certified by the National Animal Control Association, but he had investigated dog fighting operations "probably a few hundred" times according to his testimony. This included the largest organized dog fighting seizure in history. Moreover, Held indicated he testified in approximately 100 animal cruelty or animal fighting cases and has been qualified as an expert six times in previous dog fighting cases. While defendant argued that Held should not be qualified as an expert because he did not hold any college degrees, this court found that argument without merit. After dispatching the other two claims, Defendant's convictions and sentences were affirmed.
Excess transfer of dogs under PA Dog Law was single violation rather than continuing violation. Burkholder v. Department
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The Dumb Knight
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by Gervase Markham and Lewis Machin
Edited by Kris Towse (2009)
The Dumb Knight.
A historical comedy, acted sundry times by the Children of his Majesties Revels.
London.
Printed by Nicholas Okes, for John Bache, and are to be sold at his shop in Popes-head Palace, near to the Royal Exchange. 1608.
Introduction to the play
The Dumb Knight, first published in 1608 (and it is from this quarto the play is edited), is a troubled but entertaining play. The play has two authors, Gervase Markham and Lewis Machin, although evidence the two collaborated is minimal, leading to an incoherent play that nevertheless is highly entertaining.
The Authors:
Gervase Markham (1568? -1637) is by far the more famous of the two authors, if only by virtue of the:
Astonishing variety of literary publicationspoetry, drama, and prose combined with an equally astonishing variety of non-literary works on topics such as horsemanship, veterinary medicine, husbandry, domestic economy, and even military training
However, as F.N.L Poynter rather cruelly points out, Markham's brief interest in theatre during his previously successful literary career "is no substitute for dramatic talent" . An attack that is somewhat justified by reading any plot summary of The Dumb Knight, as this reveals Markham's unfortunate affliction of "not knowing when to stop" as the play easily covers "enough material for two plays" . Outside of theatre however Markham is an accomplished poet, and as Joseph Quincy Adams Jr. states, Markham is an "excellent classical scholar" .
Lewis Machin, by contrast, is at best a "shadowy figure" and knowledge of his career is almost entirely based on the plays we are relatively certain he was at least partly responsible for writing: The Insatiable Countess and Every woman in her Humour. These, alongside The Dumb Knight were performed by an acting company associated with Machin known as the 'Children of the King's Revels', a "controversial theatrical company" with a penchant for performing a "generally bawdy repertoire" of plays at the Whitefriars theatre, which "had a rather shadowy existence before 1613" .
The Main and Sub-plots
Given their history of literary productions, the task of distinguishing the work of the two authors becomes quite simple: "The serious main plot, written in smooth blank verse that is sometimes illuminated with beautiful passages" is almost certainly the work of Gervase Markham, whilst: "the comic sub-plot, written for the most part in prose, full of coarse humour and abounding in the most indelicate allusions" is probably the work of Lewis Machin.
The main plot is concerned not with wit and base comedy, but with exploring issues of "Love and honour, of the limits of oaths, and of the relationship between gender and power, wrapped up in a pleasingly violent storyline" . This contrasts starkly with the sub-plot, and lends support to the almost certainly correct theory that the main plot was a play in its own right, before Machin was allowed to modify it for the early modern stage.
The many classical allusions from the characters of the main plot solidify Markham's individual claim to it, as "Gervase's elder brother Francis was educated at Winchester and Cambridge, and it is probable that something similar was true of Gervase" . Indeed Poynter goes on to doubt "whether it was a play [intended] to appeal to a Jacobean audience" at all, a theory the above certainly supports.
However dating when exactly the main plot was written has proven difficult: Lines such as "Heaven, in thy palm, this day the balance hinges!" can do little more than date it as pre-1606, the date when the 'Act to restrain the Abuses of Players' came into force. That said:
We are on firmer ground in saying that The Dumb Knight was being performed, at some point after 1601, in Nuremberg by a group of touring English actors, the Englische Kömedianten. There, Jakob Ayrer, a notary and amateur playwright, adapted it into a German version, which survives. Ayrer died in 1605, so the adaptation was completed before then.
Both these deductions, it is worth pointing out, lend a little credence to the theory that "Heywood took the idea from Markham" for the extremely similar card-scene in A Woman Killed with Kindness and not "Markham from Heywood" . Although this is far from conclusive evidence as neither of these factors do not manage to date the main plots creation precisely.
Whilst the main plot is influenced by the classics, and notably the "Bandello novels, which provided plots for so many English writers of the time" , the sub-plot, as Adams Jr. elaborates in his essay "Every Woman in her Humor" and "The Dumb Knight" clearly borrows heavily from Every Woman in her Humour: The two characters, "Lollia and Coloquintida, are identical with the Hostess and Citty Wife" from Every Woman in her Humour. The first comic sub-plot scene beginning with Lollia's speech "Now fie upon't, who would be an orators wife and not a gentlewoman" for example, is copied almost verbatim from Every woman in her Humour, and as The Dumb Knight is very likely the later of the two plays to reach Machin, it becomes highly improbable that Machin is copying these from another playwright. Indeed, Machin's signed address to the reader is evidence against this theory, even though Every Woman in her Humour is technically an anonymous play; the sheer improbability that Machin would write and sign a preface to a play where he had "been guilty of an extensive and impudent plagiarism of another playwright" and then send it that play to print makes it near certain the plays share an author in Machin.
Issues and inconstancies of the play
Here I shall be brief, as the play has a veritable myriad of inconsistencies: Initially, the play is described as a "historical comedy" on the title-page, however:
Evidently, Markham
was not pleased by the printing of The Dumb Knight without his name on, since a new title-page attributing the play solely to "Gervase Markham" was hastily printed and inserted into the unsold copies.
And on this new title-page a new description is inserted, describing the play as a "pleasant comedy". In this disparity of description we have in microcosm the central problem that haunts The Dumb Knight : Markham's hand in this correction from "historical" (it's only claim for being historical is it's occasional borrowing from one of Shakespeare's history plays) to "pleasant" is by no means certain, however it still show's Markham clearly was not in collaboration with Machin at all during the plays revisions, as describing the base-comedy and frequently obscene puns of the sub-plot "pleasant" is possibly the cleanest source of humour to be found in the play.
The failure of both descriptions to accurately summarise the play's content highlights both the scope of the play, and the lack of understanding between the authors (mainly, it has to be said, on the part of Machin). The inconsistency therefore provides an explanation for the play's lack of coherent message: The main plot's "pleasant" moral message of chastity and honesty rewarded is subverted by a separate author adding a subplot that celebrates flamboyant dress, and rejoices in the cuckoldry and deception of the unpopular. The most noticeable issue however, as Poynter explains, is the "fact that the main plot occupies a time span of several weeks, while the sub-plot cannot last more than thirty-six hours" . The two plots are at best described as "inartistically joined" and at worst as blindly forced upon each other by Machin.
The play's contemporary reception and popularity
There are two main sources available to give insight into the plays reception: The first being Machin's signed address to the reader, which refers to "sharp critical censures", which if nothing else "implies that its production was sufficiently successful to raise some publicity and some controversy."
The other clue as to the play's popularity is the 1633 folio, which would imply at least a resurgence of interest in the play, if not a continued popularity (although probably not with the same company, as the "Children of the Kings Revels" ran into financial difficulties and had to close in 1609), despite the plays length and jarring inconsistency's.
In Conclusion
The play's frighteningly obvious lack of collaborations between the authors and the play's length may make it difficult for a modern reader to view The Dumb Knight as anything other than two plays who just so happen to share a title and a few characters. However it cannot be ignored, that despite this, the two plays combined "clearly touched a raw nerve in early modern culture" and "enjoyed success over thirty years or more, and in a range of forms and venues" .
The solution as to why this is the case, one suspects, comes from viewing the play the perspective of what it would deliver to a contemporary audience: Everything they could want in a comedy, bar complexity.
Where Shakespeare is brilliant in creating complex characters and plots to hook an audience, The Dumb Knight goes for the far simpler approach of simply providing everything it's audience could want, and unsubtly cramming it into a single play. The Dumb Knight possesses larger than life characters, fanfare (each act is started with "music"), intrigue, poetic verse and suspense in the main plot and simple comic relief in the sub-plot. The key to the plays success appears to be that each scene does it's "job" well: The play is constantly providing entertainment and spectacle either via humour, drama, suspense or a fight whilst adhering to a single, simple (if not entirely coherent) plot.
Even if the jigsaw does not fit together to form a complete enough picture for the critic's purposes, the pieces of the puzzle are entertaining and well executed enough to maintain even the modern reader's interest.
To the understanding reader,
Rumour, that hydra-headed monster, with more tongues than eyes, by help of his intelligencer Envy, hath made strange misconstructions on this dumb knight, which then could not answer for himself: But now this publication doth untie his tongue, to answer the objections of all sharp critical censures which heretofore have undeservedly past upon him. And for my part, I protest the wrongs I have received by some, whose worths I will not traduce. With a mild neglect I have laughed at their follies; for I think my self happy, because I have been envied, since the best now in grace have been subject to some slanderous tongues that want worth themselves, and think it great praise to them to detract praise from others that deserve it; yet having a partner in the wrong, whose worth hath been often approved, I count the wrong but half a wrong, because he knows best how to answer for himself: But I now in his absence, make this apology, both for him and me. Thus leaving you and the book together, I ever rest yours,
Lewis Machin.
Dramatis Personae
·King of Cyprus.
·Philocles, The Dumb Knight, and second in command to the King.
·Alphonso, A wealthy and extravagantly dressed lord.
·Duke of Epire, Brother to Mariana.
·Lord Alphonso, A lord of the Queens.
·Florio, A servant under Epire.
·Caelio, High marshal for the Queen.
·Prate, An orator.
·Precedent, Prates Clerk.
·Mechant
·VeloursClients of Prate the orator.
·Drap
·Queen of Sicily.
·Mariana, Friend of the Queen, and sister to Epire.
·Lollia, Prates wife.
·Coloquintida, Lollias friend.
Attendants, Chip, Doctors, Executioner, Gentleman-Usher, Heralds, Shaving, Watchmen and Jailor.
Scene: Sicily.
Act One.
Scene One. Music.
Enter the King of Cyprus, Philocles, Florio, and attendants in arms.
Cyprus.
Enough! These loud sounds deafes my passions:
How long shall love make me a slave to hope,
And mix my calm desires with tyranny?
O Philocles, tis heresy I hold,
Thought and affection cannot be controlled.
Philocles.
Yet may it be bent and suppled with extremes,
Sith few dare see the end of violence.
What makes the skilful leech to use the fire ,
Or war her engines, or states policy,
But to recover things most desperate?
Revolt is recreant when pursuit is brave,
Never to faint doth purchase what we crave.
Cyprus.
True, my Philocles, yet my recreant soul,
Slaved to her beauty, would renounce all war
And yield her right to love. Did not thy spirit,
Mixed with my longing, fortify these arms?
But I am now resolved, and this sad hour
Shall give an end to my distemperature.
Summon a parley.
Enter aloft the Queen of Sicily, the Duke of Epire, Alphonso, [Mariana] and attendants.
Queen.
What says our tyrant suitor, our disease in love,
That makes our thoughts a slave unto his sword;
What says my lord?
Cyprus.
Madam attend me, this is my latest summons:
The many suns my sorrows have beheld,
And my sad nights of longings, all through hope
T'enjoy the eye of earth (your own dear self),
Are grown so infinite in length and weight,
That like to wearied Atlas , I enforce
These wars as Hercules to bear my load :
Briefly I must enjoy you, or else lose
The breath of life. Which to prevent, behold!
My sword must be my Cupid, and with feathered steel,
Force pity from your breast. Your citys walls,
Chidden with my cannons, have set open a path
And boldly bids me enter. All your men of war,
Feebled with famine and a weary siege,
Take danger from mine actions. Only yourself,
Strong in your will, oppose even destiny:
And like the giants war offend the heavens.
Which to prevent, do but descend and give
Peace to my love-suit, and as oercome thereby
I'll yield myself your prisoner, and be drawn
A thrall in your triumphant victory.
If otherwise, behold! These fatal swords
Shall never be sheathed til we be conquerors:
And not respecting innocence nor sex,
The cries of infants, nor the prayers of age,
All things shall perish, til within my arms
I fold yourself, my thrall and conqueror.
Queen.
Thou may be master of my bodys tomb,
But for my soul and mind, they are as free
As their creation; and with angels wings
Can soar beyond thy reach. Trust me, King of Cyprus,
Those coals the Roman Porcia did devour
Are not burnt out, nor have th' Egyptian worms
Yet lost their stings ; steel holds his temper still:
And these are ransoms from captivity.
But art thou noble? Hast thou one royal thought?
Cyprus.
Approve me by your question.
Queen.
Then briefly thus:
To shun the great effusion of their bloods,
Who feel no touch in mine affections,
Dare you to single combat, two to two,
Refer your right in love?
Cyprus.
Who are your combatants? We love equality.
Queen.
This is the first, the Epire duke, a man
Sprung from the line of famous Skanderbeg .
The next Alphonso, sprung from noble blood:
Who laden with rich Lusitanian prize,
Hath rode through Syracuse twice in pomp.
Cyprus.
Their likings to the motion?
Epire.
They are like wrath,
Never unarmed to bear weak injury.
Alphonso.
Nay, more! We are the sons of destiny,
Virtue's our guide, our aim is dignity.
Philocles.
Sfoot, king shalt not forsake them, this I see:
Love, fight, and death are ruled by destiny.
Cyprus.
My spirit speaks thy motion.
Madam, although advantage might evade
And give my love more hope, yet my bent will,
Bowed to your pleasure, doth embrace your law.
We do accept the combat, and our self
Will with that duke try fortunes; this my friend,
The more part of my self, my dearest Philocles,
One of an angels temper, shall with that, that lord ,
Try best and worst. The place? The time? The sword?
Epire.
They are your rights; we claim as challengers.
Cyprus.
And we would lose that vantage , but since fame
Makes virtue dulat , we embrace our rights :
The place before these walls, the hour next sun,
The poleaxe and the hand axe for the fight.
Queen.
It is enough.
My hostage is my person and my love.
Cyprus.
And mine my hope, my faith and royalty.
Epire.
They are of poise sufficient, and one light
Shall at one instant, give us day and night.
Exeunt Queen, Mariana, Alphonso [and Epire.]
Cyprus.
She's gone, my Philocles: And as she goes, even so
The sun forsakes the heavens to kiss the sea;
Day in her beauty leaves us, and methinks,
Her absence doth exile all happiness
Tell me my Philocles; nay pray thee tell me true,
Even from that love,
Which to us both should bend one sympathy,
Discharge an open breast: Dost thou not think,
She is the mirror of her beauteous sex?
Unparalleled, and uncompanioned?
Philocles.
Envy will say she's rare; then truth must vow
She is beyond compare, sith in her looks,
Each motion hath a speaking majesty,
She is herself, compared with herself:
For but herself, she hath no companion.
But when I think of beauty, wit and grace,
The elements of active delicacy:
Those all eye pleasing harmonies of sight
Which do enchant mens fancies, and stir up
The life blood of dull earth; O then methinks
Fair Mariana hath an equal place,
And if not outshine, it shows more beautiful.
Cyprus.
More than my queen?
Philocles.
More in the gloss of beauty, less in worth
Of wisdom and great thoughts. The one I find
As made for wonder, th' other for admire.
Cyprus.
Thine equal praises makes my fancies rich,
And I am pleasd with thy comparisons.
Things of like nature live in best consent:
Beauty with subjects, majesty with kings.
Then let those two ideas lively move,
Spirit beyond all spirit, in our breasts;
That in the end of our great victory,
We may attain both love and majesty.
Philocles.
Although my first creation and my birth,
My thoughts, and other tempers of my souls,
Took all their noble beings from the sword,
And made me only for the use of wars:
Yet in this combat, something methinks appears
Greater than greatest glory; and doth raise
My mind beyond herself.
Sfoot! Methinks Caesars Pharsalia ,
Nor Scipios Carthage, nor Emilias acts,
Were worthy chairs of triumph: They oer mens
Poor mangled bodies, and fire wasted climes
Made their triumphant passage, but we two
Must conquer thoughts and love; more than the gods can do!
[Enter Florio]
Cyprus.
True, and therein
Consists the glorious garland of our praise:
But we neglect th' affairs of preparation. Florio, be it your charge
To see th' erection of the squared lists ,
Fit ground for either army, and what else
Belongs unto such royal eminence.
Florio.
How near will your majestys hand the lists extend
Unto the citys walls?
Cyprus.
So as the dullest eye,
May see the most heedful passage in the fight.
Florio.
What square or circuit?
Cyprus.
Threescore pace each way.
Florio.
Your majesty shall have your will performed.
Philocles.
Do, and you do us grace. And now, thou sun!
That art the eye of heaven, whose pure sight
Shall be our guide, and Joves great chronicler;
Look from thy sphere.
No guilt of pride, of malice, or of blood
Puts on our armour; only pure naked love
Tutors our hopes, and doth our actions move!
Cyprus.
Enough my Philocles, thine orisons are heard.
Come lets away.
Exeunt.
[Scene Two]
Enter Lollia , the wife of Prate the orator.
Lollia.
Now fie upon't, who would be an orators wife and not a gentlewoman if she could choose? A Lady is the most sweet lascivious life, conveys and kisses, the tire, O the tire, made castle upon castle, jewel upon jewel, knot upon knot, crowns, garlands, gardens, and what not? The hood, the rebato , the French fall, the loose bodied gown, the pin in the hair; now clawing the pate, then picking the teeth, and every day change; when we poor souls must come and go for every mans pleasure, and what's a lady more than another body? We have legs and hands, and rolling eyes, hanging lips, sleek brows, cherry cheeks and other things as ladies have; but the fashion carries it away.
Enter Mistress Coloquintida .
Coloquintida.
Why how now mistress Prate? I'the old disease still, will it never be better, cannot a woman find one kind man amongst twenty? O, the days that I have seen! When the law of a womans wit could have put her husbands purse to execution.
Lollia.
O mistress Coloquintida, mine is even the most unnatural man to his wife.
Coloquintida.
Faith, for the most part, all scholars are so, for they take so upon them to know all things, that indeed they know nothing. And besides they are with study and ease grown so unwieldy, that a woman shall neer want a sore stomach that's troubled with them.
Lollia.
And yet they must have the government of all!
Coloquintida.
True, and great reason they have for it, but a wise man will put it in a womans hand. What! Shell save what he spends.
Lollia.
You have a pretty ruff, how deep is it?
Coloquintida.
Nay this is but shallow! Marry I have a ruff is a quarter deep, measured by the yard .
Lollia.
Indeed, by the yard?
Coloquintida.
By the standard I assure you! You have a pretty set too, how big is the steele you set with?
Lollia.
As big as a reasonable sufficient. Pity of my life! I have forgot myself! If my husband should rise from his study and miss me, we should have such a coil !
Coloquintida.
A coil? Why, what coil? If he were my husband and did but thwart me, I would ring him so many alarms, sound him so many brass trumpets, beat him so many drums to his confusion, and thunder him such a peal of great shot, that I would turn his brain in the pan, and make him mad with an eternal silence.
Lollia.
O mistress Coloquintida, but my husbands anger is the worst favourdest without all conscience of any mans in all Sicily. He is even as peevish as a sick monkey, and as waspish as an ill pleased bride the second morning!
Coloquintida.
Let your wrath be reciprocal, and pay him at his own weapon. But to the purpose for which I came: The party you wrote of commends him to you in this diamond, he that met the party you know, and said the partys party was a party of a partly pretty understanding.
Lollia.
O, the Lord Alphonso?
Coloquintida.
The very same, believe it! He loves you, and swears he so loves you, that if you do not credit him you are worse then an infidel.
Lollia.
Indeed mistress Coloquintida, he hath the right garb for apparel, the true touch with the tongue in the kiss, and he dances well but falls heavily: But my husband, woman, my husband! If we could put out his cats eyes, there were something to be said, but they are ever peeping and prying, that they are able to pierce through a millstone. Besides, I may say to you, he is a little jealous too and see where he comes? We shall have a coil now.
Enter Prate the orator.
Coloquintida.
Begin you to pout first, for thats a womans prevention.
Prate.
What, Lollia I say, where are you? My house looks you, my men lack you, I seek you, and a whole quest of inquiry cannot find you! Fie, fie, fie, fie, idleness is the whip of thrift! A good housewife should ever be occupied.
Lollia.
Indeed I have much joy to be occupied in anybodys company.
Prate.
Why, whats the matter?
Lollia.
Why, orators wives shortly will be known like images on water stairs; ever in one weather-beaten suit, as if none wore hoods but monks and ladies; nor feathers but fore-horses and waiting gentlewomen; nor chains but prisoners and lords officers; nor periwigs but players and hot brains: But the weakest must to the walls still .
Prate.
Go to, you shall have what you will.
Lollia.
Nay, nay, 'twas my hard fortune to be your wife Time was I might have done otherwise, but it matters not; you esteem me as you do yourself and think all things costly enough that covers shame, and that a pair of silken fore-sleeves to a satin breastplate, is a garment good enough for a capitol: But is master Wrangle, master Tangle, or master Trolbeare of that opinion? In faith sir, no.
Theres never a gallant in our state,
That goes more rich in gaudy bravery:
And yet I hope for quality of speech,
Audacious words or quirks or quiddities ,
You are not held their much inferior.
Fie, fie, I am ashamed to see your baseness.
Coloquintida.
Indeed master Prate, she tells you truly; I wonder that you, being a proper man and an orator, will not go brave according to the custom of the country!
Prate.
Go to, neighbour: He that will rise to the top of a high ladder must go up, not leap up. But be patient wench, and thou shalt shortly see me gallant it with the best, and for thyself, my Lollia,
Not Lollia Paulina, nor those blazing stars,
Which makes the world the apes of Italy:
Shall match thyself in sun-bright splendour!
Lollia.
Nay, verily for myself I care not, tis you that are my pride, if you would go like yourself I were appeased.
Prate.
Believe it, wench, so I will, but to the purpose for which I came, the end of this great war is now brought to a combat, two to two, the duke of Epire and Alphonso for our Queen, against the King and Prince Philocles: Now wench if thou wilt go see the fight, I will send and provide thee of a good standing.
Lollia.
Indeed, for you have never a good one of your own.
Prate.
What, Precedent I say?
Precedent. [From within]
Anon, anon sir.
Prate.
Why, when I say! The villains belly is like a bottomless pit, ever filling and yet empty! At your leisure, sir!
Enter Precedent , Prates man eating.
Precedent.
I can make no more haste than my teeth will give me leave.
Prate.
Well sir, get you without the town to the place for the combat, and provide me for my wife some good standing to see the conflict.
Precedent.
How master? How must I provide a good standing for you for my mistress? Truly master I think a marrow-bone pie, candi'd erringoes, preserv'd dates, or marmalade of cantharides were much better harbingers; cock sparrows stew'd, doves brains or swans pizzles are very provocative; roasted potatoes or boiled skirrets are your only lofty dishes, methinks these should fit you better than I can do.
Prate.
Whats this? Whats this I say? Provide me a standing for my wife upon a scaffold!
Precedent.
And truly master, I think a private chamber were better!
Prate.
I grant you, if there were a chamber convenient.
Precedent.
Willing minds will make shift in a simple hole: Close windows, strong locks, hard bed and sure posts are your only ornaments.
Prate.
I think the knave be mad, sirrah! You chop logic, blockhead, you that have your brain-pan made of dry leather, and your wit ever wetshod: Pack about your business, or Ill pack your pen and inkhorn about your ears!
Precedent.
Well sir, I may go or so, but would my mistress take a standing of my preferment, I would so mount her, she should love strange things the better all her life after.
Prate.
Why, when sir?
Exit Precedent.
[From offstage]
And come, sweet wife. Nay, neighbour! Let us have your company too.
Exeunt.
[Scene Three]
Enter at one door a herald and Florio, marshal for the King, with officers bearing the lists, at the other door a herald and Caelio, marshal for the Queen.
Caelio.
Holla, what are you?
Florio.
High marshal for the King, your character?
Caelio.
I likewise for the Queen, where lies your equal ground?
Florio.
Here underneath these walls, and there and there ground for the battles.
Caelio.
Place there the Queens seat,
And there and there chairs for the combatants.
Florio.
Place here the lists, fix every joint as strong
As twere a wall, for on this foot of earth
This day shall stand two famous monuments:
The one a throne of glory bright as gold,
Burnishd with angels lustre, and with stars
Plucked from the crown of conquest, in which shall sit
Men made half gods through famous victory;
The other a rich tomb of memorable fame,
Built by the curious thoughts of noble minds,
In which shall sleep these valiant souls in peace,
Whom fortunes hand shall only overthrow.
Heaven , in thy palm, this day the balance hinges!
Which makes kings gods, or men more great than kings.
Caelio.
So now let the heralds give the champions sign
Of ready preparations.
Exeunt Heralds.
The cornets sound, and enter at one end of the stage a herald, two pages, one with pollaxes, the other with hand axes, the Duke of Epire, and Alphonso like combatants, the Queen, Mariana, Prate, Lollia, Coloquintida and Precedent aloft.
Florio.
What are you that appear, and what desire
Draws you within these lists?
Epire.
I am the Duke of Epire, and the desire
Which doth attract my spirit to run this marshal course,
Is the fair guard of a distressed queen;
Would wed to hate and inequality and brutish force,
Which to withstand I boldly enter thus,
And will defail , or else prove recreant .
Florio.
And what are you or your intendiments ?
Alphonso.
I am Alphonso, marshal of this realm,
Who of like tempered thoughts and like desires,
Have grounded this, my sanctimonious zeal,
And will approve the Dukes assertions,
Or in this field lie slain and recreant.
Florio.
Enter and prosper as your cause deserves.
The cornets sound, and enter at the other end of the stage a herald, two pages with axes and pollaxes, then the King of Cyprus and Philocles, like combatants and their army.
Caelio.
What are you that appear, and what desire
Draws you within these lists?
Cyprus.
I am the King of Cyprus, who led on
By the divine instinct of heavenly love,
Come with my sword to beg that royal maid,
And to approve by gift of heaven and fate,
She is a one to me appropriate:
Which to maintain I challenge entrance here,
Where I will live a king or recreant.
Caelio.
And what are you or your intendiments?
Philocles.
I am less than my thoughts, more than myself,
Yet nothing but the creature of my fate.
By name my nature only is obscur'd,
And yet the world baptis'd me Philocles.
My entrance here is proof of holy zeal,
And to maintain that no severe disdain,
False shape of chastity, nor womans will,
Neglective petulance, or uncertain hope,
Foul wizard coyness, nor seducing fame
Should rob the royal temper of true love
From the desired aim of his desires,
Which my best blood shall witness, or this field
Entomb my body made a recreant.
Caelio.
Enter and prosper as your cause deserves.
Draws 2 swords.
Florio.
Princes, lay your hands on these swords points:
Here you shall swear by hope, by heaven, by Jove ;
And by the right you challenge in true fame,
That here you stand not arm'd with any guile,
Malignant hate, or usurpation
Of philtres charms, of night-spells characters,
Or other black infernal vantages;
But even with thoughts as pure
As your pure valours, or the suns pure beams,
T' approve the right of pure affection;
And howsoe're your fortunes rise or fall,
To break no faith in your conditions,
So help you Jove.
All.
We swear.
Queen.
How often doth my maiden thoughts correct
And chide my forward will, for this extreme
Pursuit of blood! Believe me, fain I would
Recall mine oaths vow, did not my shame
Hold fast my cruelty, by which is taught
Those gems are prized best, are dearest bought.
Sleep, my loves softness then, waken my flame,
Which guards a vestal sanctity. Princes behold,
Upon those weapons sits my god of love,
And in their powers my loves severity.
If them you conquer, we are all your slaves,
If they triumph, well mourn upon your graves.
Mariana.
Now by my maiden modesty I wish
Good fortune to that Philocles. My mind
Presages virtue in his eaglets eyes.
Sfoot! He looks like a sparrow-hawk, or a wanton fire,
A flash of lightning, or a glimpse of day;
His eye steals to my heart, and lets it see
More than it would peace! Blab no secrecy,
He must have blows.
Florio.
Sound cornets, princes, respect your guards.
Here they fight, and Philocles overthrows Alphonso, and Epire overthrows Cyprus.
Philocles.
I crave the Queens conditions, or this blow
Sends this afflicted soul to heaven or hell.
Speak madam, will you yield or shall he die?
Epire.
Neither bold prince, if thou but touch a hair,
The Kings breath shall redeem it: Madam your love
Is safe in angels guarding, let no fear
Shake hands with doubtfulness, you are as safe
As in a tower of diamonds!
Philocles.
O tis but glass,
And cannot bear this axes massiness!
Duke, thy brave words that second thy brave deeds,
Fills me with emulation: Only we two
Stand equal victors; then if thou hast that tie
And bond of well knit valour, which unites
Virtue and same together; let us restore
Our captives unto freedom, and we two,
In single combat try out the mastery.
Where whoso falls each other, shall subscribe
To every clause in each condition.
Epire.
Thou art the index of mine ample thought,
And I am pleas'd with thine election.
Speak madam, if eer I deserved grace,
Grace me with your consent.
Queen.
Tis all my will,
Thy noble hand erect and perfect me.
Philocles.
What says his majesty?
My stars are writ in heaven, nor death nor fate
Are slaves to fear, to hope, or human state.
Cyprus.
I neither fear thy fortune nor my ruin,
But hold them all beyond all prophesy.
Thou hast my free consent, and on thy power
Lies my lifes date or my deaths hour.
Epire.
Then rise and live with safety.
Philocles.
Alphonso, here my hand,
Thy fortune lends thy peace no infamy.
And now, thou glorious issue of Joves brain,
That burnt the Telamonian ravisher ,
Look from thy sphere, and if my heart contain
An impure thought of lust, send thy monsters forth
And make me more than earthly miserable.
Here the cornets sound, they fight, and Philocles overcomes the Duke, the Queen descends.
Philocles.
Yield, recant or die.
Epire.
Thine axe hath not the power to wound my thought,
And yields a word my tongue could never sound.
I say th'art worthy valiant, for my death,
Let the Queen speak it, tis an easy breath.
Queen.
Not for the worlds large circuit. Hold, gentle prince,
Thus I do pay his ransom, low as the ground,
I tender mine unspotted virgin love,
To thy great wills commandment: Let not my care,
My woman tyranny, or too strict guard,
In bloody purchase take away those sweets
Till now have governed your amazed desires;
For trust me, King, I will redeem my blame,
With as much love as Philocles hath fame.
Cyprus.
Thus comes a calm unto a sea-wrecked soul,
Ease to the pained, food unto the starv'd,
As you to me, my best creation.
Trust me my queen, my loves large chronicle
Thou never shalt over read, because each day
It shall beget new matter of amaze:
And live to do thee grace eternally.
Next, whom my Philocles, my bounteous friend,
Author of life, and sovereign of my love,
My heart shall be thy throne, thy breast the shrine,
Where I will sit to study gratefulness.
To you and you my lords, my best of thoughts,
Whose loves have showed a duteous carefulness.
To all, free thanks and graces; this unity
Of love and kingdoms is a glorious sight.
Mount up the royal champion, music and cornets sound,
Let shouts and cries make heaven and earth rebound!
Exeunt [Everyone except Epire.]
Epire.
How like the suns great bastard oer the world,
Rides this man mounted engine, this proud prince
And with his breath singes our continents!
Sit fast proud Phaeton , for by heaven Ill kick
And plunge thee in the sea: If thou'lt needs ride,
Thou shouldst have made thy seat upon a slave,
And not upon mine honours firmament!
Thou hast not heard the god of wisdoms tale,
Nor can thine youth curb greatness, till my hate,
Confound thy life with villain policy.
I am resolv'd since virtue hath disdained
To clothe me in her riches; henceforth to prove
A villain fatal, black and ominous.
Thy virtue is the ground of my dislike
And my disgrace. The edge of envys sword,
Which like a razor shall unplume thy crest;
And rob thee of thy native excellence.
When great thoughts give their homage to disgrace,
Theres no respect of deeds, time, thoughts or place.
[Exit].
Act Two.
Scene One. Music.
Enter Prate, Lollia, Coloquintida, and Precedent.
Prate.
Come wife, methought our party stood stiffly to it.
Precedent.
Indeed they were stiff whilst they stood, but when they were down, they were like men of a low world; a man might have wound their worst anger about his finger.
Lollia.
Go to sirrah, you must have your fools bolt in everybodys quiver!
Precedent.
Indeed mistress, if my master should break his arrow with foul shooting or so, I would be glad if mine might supply the whole.
Prate.
I find you kind, sir.
Precedent.
True sir, according to my kind, and to pleasure my kind mistress.
Prate.
Go to sirrah! I will not have your kindness to intermeddle with her kind; she is meat for your master.
Precedent.
And your man sir, may lick your foul trencher .
Coloquintida.
Aye, but not eat of his mutton.
Precedent.
Yet I may dip my bread in the wool, mistress Coloquintida!
Prate.
Go to sirrah! You will be obscene, and then I shall knock you. But to the combat, methought our side were the more proper men.
Lollia.
True, and therefore they had the worse fortune: But see here is the Lord Florio.
Enter Florio.
Florio.
Master orator, it is the King and Queens majestys pleasure that you presently repair unto the court, touching the drawing out of certain articles for the benefit of both the kingdoms.
Prate.
My lord, I will instantly attend their majesties.
Florio.
Do, for they expect you seriously.
Exit Florio.
Prate.
Wife, you can have my service no longer. Sirrah, Precedent, attend you upon your mistress home: And wife, I would have you to hold your journey directly homeward, and not to imitate princes in their progress, step not out of your way to visit a new gossip, to see a new garden-house, to smell the perfumes of court jerkins, or to handle other tools than may fit for your modesty. I would not have you to step into the suburbs, and acquaint yourself either with monsters or motions, but holding your way directly homeward, show yourself still to be a rare housewife.
Lollia.
I'faith, I'faith, your black out-side will have a yellow lining .
Prate.
Content thee wife, it is but my love that gives thee good council. But here comes one of my clients.
Enter Drap, a country gentleman.
Drap.
Sir, master orator, I am bold to trouble you about my suit.
Prate.
Sir, master country gentleman, I am now for present business of the Kings.
Drap.
You may the better remember me.
Prate.
Hey day, I shall mix your business with the Kings!
Drap.
No but you may let his majesty know my necessity.
Prate.
Sir, sir, you must not confine me to your seasons, I tell you I will collect mine own leisures.
Enter Velours a citizen.
Velours.
Master orator, is it your pleasure I attend you about my dispatches?
Prate.
Sir, it is my pleasure you dispatch yourself from mine encumbrance, I tell you I am for instant business of the Kings.
Velours.
Sir, I have borne mine attendance long.
Prate.
Bear it till your bones ache! I tell you, I cannot bear it now; I am for new business!
Drap. Velours.
Yet the old would be dispatched, it was first paid for.
Prate.
If you be gentlemen do not make me mad!
Drap. Velours.
Sir, our suits are of great weight!
Prate.
If you be Christians, do not make me an atheist! I shall profane if you vex me thus!
Enter the lord Mechant .
What, more vexation? My lord, my lord, save your breath for your broth; I am not now at leisure to attend you.
Mechant.
A word good Mr. Orator.
Prate.
Not a word, I beseech your lordship; I am for the Kings business, you must attend me at my chamber.
Exit Prate.
Mechant. Drap. Velours.
And every where else, we will not leave you!
Exeunt.
[Scene Two]
Enter Precedent, Lollia and Coloquintida.
Precedent.
Now methinks my master is like a horse-leech, and these suitors so many sick of the gout, that come to have him suck their blood: O, tis a mad world.
Lollia.
Go to, sirrah! You will never leave your crab-tree similes . But pity of me, who have we here?
Enter Alphonso.
O tis the Lord Alphonso.
Alphonso.
Mistress, God save: Nay your lip, I am a stranger. And how doth mistress Coloquintida? O you are an excellent seasoner of city stomachs.
Coloquintida.
Faith my lord, I have done my best to make somebody relish your sweet meats; but hark you my lord! I have struck the stroke, I have done the deed, there wants nothing but time, place and her consent
Alphonso.
Call you that nothing?
Coloquintida.
A trifle, a trifle, upon her, upon her my lord, she may seem a little rough at the first; but if you stand stiffly to her, shell fall: A word with you, Mr. Precedent!
They whisper.
Alphonso.
Mistress Prate, I am a soldier, and can better act my love than speak it. My suit you know by your neighbour, my love you shall prove by my merit, to both which my tokens have been petty witnesses, and my body shall seal and deliver upon thee such a brave confirmation, that not all the orators in Sicily shall be able to cancel the deed.
Lollia.
Truly my lord, methinks you being witty should be honest.
Alphonso.
Nay wench, if I were a fool, there's no question but I would be honest. But to the purpose; say wench, shall I enjoy, shall I possess?
Lollia.
To enjoy my love, is not to possess my body.
Alphonso.
Tut, wench, they be words of one signification, and cannot be separated.
Lollia.
Nay then I should wrong my husband.
Alphonso.
Sfoot! Thou shouldst but do for him as he does for the whole world; why an orator were a needle name, if it were not to defend wrong: Then wench, do as he doth, write by a precedent.
Lollia.
O my lord, I have a husband,
A man who's waking jealousy survives,
And like a lion, sleeps with open eyes ;
That not a minute of mine hours are free
From the intelligence of his secret spies.
I am a very toward Danae :
Sorrow whose roof, suspicion will not let
Gold showers have passage, nor can I deceive
His Argus eyes with any policy:
And yet I swear I love you.
Alphonso.
Death of affection! If thou lov'st me as thou says thou dost,
Thou canst invent some means for our delight.
The rather sith it ever hath been said:
That walls of brass withstand not willing minds?
And women when th'are prone make love admir'd
For quaint endeavours. Come, instruct thy wit,
And find some scale to our high height of bliss.
Lollia.
Then briefly thus, my lord:
Tomorrow doth the senate sit to judge,
Causes both criminal and of the state;
Where of necessity my husbands place
Must be filled by himself, because his tongue
Must gild his clients causes. Now if you please,
All that self hour, when he is turmoil'd
About those serious trifles, to vouchsafe
To visit me, his absence and my care
Shall give us liberty of more delight.
You know my meaning, and I am asham'd
My love should thus betray my modesty;
But make the use according to your fancy.
Alphonso.
What hour assures his absence?
Lollia.
Eight is the latest time.
Alphonso.
This kiss leave my faith with thee, farewell.
Th'ast given me double glory from thy breath,
Nothing shall lose me time but certain death.
[They kiss] Exit Alphonso.
Precedent.
Truly mistress Coloquintida, you are an excellent piece of sweet gall .
Lollia.
Well sir, will you lead the way homeward?
Precedent.
To your bed chamber mistress, or your privy lodging!
Exeunt.
[Scene Four]
Enter Philocles alone.
Philocles.
Night, clad in black, mourns for the loss of day;
And hides the silver spangles of the air,
That not a spark is left to light the world.
Whilst quiet sleep, the nourisher of life
Takes full possession on mortality.
All creatures take their rest in soft repose
Save malcontents, and we accursed lovers,
Whose thoughts perturbed, makes us passions slave:
And robs us of the juice of happiness.
Dear Mariana, shaped in an angels mould,
Thou thrall'st my senses, and inflam'st my blood,
Love, power, by wisdom cannot be withstood.
But see, the morning star breaks from the east,
To tell the world her great eye is awak'd,
To take his journey to the western vales:
And now the court begins to rise with him.
Here passes over the stage a physician, a gentleman usher, and a waiting maid.
There goes the physician, the waiting maid,
And a fine straight legg'd gentleman usher,
The preface to a kirtle all puff paste .
One that writes sonnets in his ladys praise,
And hides her crimes with flattering poesy.
Enter Mariana.
But peace, amazement! See the day of life,
Natures best work, the worlds chief paragon!
Madam, one word!
Mariana.
Aye; so now farewell!
Philocles.
You do mistake me.
Mariana.
That yourself can tell,
You ask'd me one word, which I gave; said aye,
A word of least use in a virgins breath!
Urge not my patience then with fond reply.
Philocles.
Dear lady, lend an ear unto my voice,
Sith each were made for others happiness:
My tongues not oiled with courtly flatterings,
Nor can I paint my passions to the life:
But by that power which shaped this heavenly form,
I am your bond-slave, forc'd by loves command:
Then let soft pity with such beauty dwell
Madam I love you.
Mariana.
As I am a virgin so do I.
Philocles.
But madam whom?
Mariana.
Myself, no lady better!
Philocles.
But will you love me?
Mariana.
No, by my chastity.
Philocles.
I hope you do but jest.
Mariana.
Nay, Ill keep mine oath.
Men shall abandon pride and jealousy
Ere Ill be bound to their captivity.
They shall live continent , and leave to range,
But men like to the moon, each month must change.
Yet we must seek that naught their sight displeases,
And mix our wedlock sweets with loathed diseases:
When we consume ourselves and our best beauty,
All our reward is why, twas but our duty!
Philocles.
Judge not so hard of all for some offenders,
For you are subject to the self same crimes;
Of men and women always have been had
Some good of each.
Mariana.
But for the most part bad:
Therefore Ill have none at all but die a perfect maid.
Philocles.
That humour, like a flower soon will fade,
Once did mine own thoughts sing to that delight,
Till love and you reformed my barbarousness:
Therefore dear lady, pity my wounded heart.
Mariana.
A surgeon here for this love-wounded man!
How deep's your ulcer'd orifice, I pray you tell?
Philocles.
Quite through my heart.
Mariana.
Tis strange and look so well;
Yet ladies eyes have power to murder men,
And with one smile to make them whole again;
Achilles lance to a hare . But do you love me, Prince?
Philocles.
Dearer than my soul.
Mariana.
Would I could love you.
Philocles.
Madam so you may.
Mariana.
As yet I cannot, therefore let me go.
Philocles.
O do not leave me; grant me but one request,
And here I vow by that divinest power,
The salt-seas glorious issue , who's bright sphere
Rules my sick heart, and knows my chaste intent,
That if you please t'impose on me that task
Which neither men nor monster can achieve,
Which even angels have a dread to touch,
Deeds which outstretch all possibility,
Sfoot! More than can be thought, and I'll effect,
Or else Ill perish in th'accomplishment.
Mariana.
Let your request fit virgin modesty,
And you obey your vow, I am content
To give your thoughts contented happiness.
Philocles.
Tis but a kiss I ask, a minutes joy.
Mariana.
Now, Cupid help thee! Is thy grief for this?
Keep thy strong vow, and freely take a kiss.
He kisses her.
Philocles.
I have obtained my heaven, and in this touch
I feel the breath of all deliciousness:
Then freely give the sentence of my work,
Muster up all the engines of your wit,
Teach Juno rules beyond maliciousness;
Whateer it be, I'll die but Ill perform it.
Mariana.
Thou shalt not kill thyself, nor fight with monsters,
Nor bring the Great Turks beard to show thy zeal:
Thy life thou shalt not hazard for my love,
Nor will I tie thee to an endless task:
But even with ease, and gentle wrangled knots,
Thou shalt unwind thy clew of miseries.
Philocles.
Let it have passage, madam, give me my doom.
Mariana.
Then Philocles, knit silence to my words,
And mark thy doom: For thus my stricter will
Loads grief upon thy vainer levity.
Hence, for the space and compass of one year,
Thou shalt abjure the liberty of speech.
Thou shalt not speak for fully twelve months space,
For friend nor foe, for danger nor for death;
But live like air, with silent emptiness.
Break thou this vow, I'll hold thee for a villain,
And all the world shall know thy perjury.
Philocles.
Be heaven and earth a witness of my vow,
And mine eternal silence, I am dumb.
Mariana.
Why so, now shall I not be troubled with vain chat
Or idle prate of idle wantonness:
For love I cannot, therefore tis in vain.
Would all my suitors tongues I thus could reign,
Then should I live free from feigned sighs and groans,
With O take pity, tis your servant moans,
And such harsh stuff, that frets me to the heart:
And sonnets made of Cupids burning dart,
Of Venuss lip, and Junos majesty,
Then were I freed from fools and foolery.
In May the cuckoo sings, then shell come hither,
Her voice and yours will rarely tune together.
Exit Mariana. Enter Florio.
Florio.
Prince Philocles, the King would speak with you:
Speaks louder and louder.
Prince Philocles, the King would speak with you,
Prince Philocles, the King would speak with you.
Philocles strikes Florio and fells him [then exits].
Florio.
The pox rot off your fingers for this blow!
It is coronation day, through all my skull,
Theres such a fatal ringing in my brain,
Has won the selt , has laid five fingers on;
But twas a knavish part of him to play so.
Hear me you gods for this my open wrong,
Make short his fingers as you have his tongue!
Exit Florio.
[Scene Five]
Enter Mechant alone.
Mechant.
Tis not mans fortune, envy or neglect,
Which makes him miserable, but tis mean fate,
Even sole predestination, a firm gift,
Fixd to his birth before the world was made.
For were it otherwise, then within our lives,
We should find some distractions, errors change,
And other toys of much uncertainty:
But my mishaps are fixd so to my blood,
They have no sire but my creation:
The Queen, out of suspicion that my love
First set an edge upon the Kings desires,
And made him woo her with a victors sword,
Casts me from favour, seizes all my lands,
And turns my naked fortunes to the cold.
The King, made proud with purchase of his wish,
Neglects my sufferance for him, and oer looks
The low-tide of my fortunes; lest my woes
Should speak my wrongs to his ingratitude.
The whilst those lords whose supple hams have bow'd
To do me formal reverence, now despise
And slight me in their meanest compliments:
O tis a torment more than hell yet knows,
To be an honest flatterer, or to live
A saint in limbo, which that I may prevent,
Ill be nor best nor worst, but all indifferent.
But here comes a noble man, I must turn petitioner.
Enter Florio.
My lord, may I not see the King?
Florio.
You may not.
His majesty is now down pressed with seriousness:
As for your suit it is with Prate the orator.
I heard his highness give him a special charge
For your dispatch with favour.
Mechant.
O but he doth neglect,
And slights me like his weak orations,
And by your lordships leave, I do not think
His wisdom worthy of the conference.
Florio.
Nay, if you will correct the Kings coin you are not for my conference, fare you well.
Exit Florio.
Mechant.
Why, and fare you well, sfoot! This is more than strange!
That being griev'd I may not say Im pained.
Enter Alphonso.
But here comes another: Mine honourable lord,
May I not have some conference with the King?
Alphonso.
You may not, business of greater weight
Imports both him and us: Nay, pray you, cease;
As for your suit tis with the orator.
Mechant.
Yet methinks twere meet
Alphonso.
That you would rather trouble him than me.
Mechant.
Its strange.
Alphonso.
Its strange indeed, to see you wrong your ease.
I am not now for idle conferences, adieu.
Exit Alphonso.
Mechant.
Why, this is court grace to men in misery,
And thus these tail-less lions with their roar
Affright the simple herd: O I could now
Turn rebel gainst their pride.
Enter Epire.
But here comes the Duke:
My gracious lord, vouchsafe to hear my griefs?
Epire.
For Gods love cease your trouble! We are all
Troubled with griefs of stranger qualities.
Mechant.
Words are no heavy burden.
Epire.
No, had I no other weight;
But we are all down pressed with other poise:
As for your suit it is referr'd to Prate:
And he must give you fair dispatch with favour;
Which if he slight for envy or for bribe,
Repair to me, and I will not forget
To give you ease, and chide his negligence.
Mean space I pray you leave me, for we all
Are troubled now with greatest miracles.
Mechant.
Your grace doth do me comfort, and I will
Study with service to deserve your favours,
And so I take my leave.
Exit Mechant. Enter 2 doctors.
Epire.
Your own contentment's follow you.
Now gentlemen what news within? Can this dumb wonder speak?
Have you cut off those lets that tied his speech.
And made your fames to sound through Sicily?
First Doctor.
All hopeful means that man or art can find,
Have we made trial of, but tis in vain:
For still my lord, the cures invincible.
Second Doctor.
Those organs nature gave to move the tongue,
He fully doth possess as well as we.
Which makes us think his sudden apoplexy,
Is either will, vow, or a miracle.
Epire.
I should think strangely, had we strange things on earth;
But wonders now are most familiar:
But here comes his majesty, now we shall see
If this dumb beast can speak before the King.
Cornets, and enter Cyprus, Queen, Philocles, Mariana and attendants.
Cyprus.
My best of friends, my dearest Philocles,
Thy griefs run in my spirit, make me sad,
And dulls my sense with thine affliction.
My soul with thine doth sympathize in woe,
And passion governs him that should rule all.
What say our doctors, is there no hope of help?
First Doctor.
No hope my lord, the cure is desperate.
Cyprus.
Then I am king of grief, for in his words
Found I more music than in choirs of angels:
It was as silver as the chime of spheres,
The breath of lutes, or loves deliciousness:
Next to my queen, he is my joy on earth:
Nor shall the world contain that happy good
Which with my tears I will not woo for him.
My lord of Epire, let it be straight proclaim'd
Through all the cities in our kingdoms verge,
That who so will avow to cure this prince,
And bring his work to wished effectualness,
Shall have ten thousand crowns and our best love.
But if he fail in his great enterprise,
His daring is the loss of present life.
Since no man hitherto could do him good,
The next shall help him or else lose his blood!
Epire.
Your majesty shall have your will performed.
Mariana.
Not all so soon dear brother, what if a woman now
Should turn Asclepius , and restore
This dumb Hippolytus? Nay do not look strange,
I dare avow and undertake the cure.
Epire.
You, sister, are you in your wits?
Mariana.
Faith, of the outside of them brother, yet a womans tongue
Whose burden still is superfluity,
May lend a man an ages complement.
Cyprus.
Madam, I would not have you with the bark
Play yourself into danger . This great cure,
I fear is far beyond your physics help.
Mariana.
My lord, you know not how Apollo loves me,
I have been thought as fair as Oenone was,
And dare be bold to claim this miracle.
Cyprus.
Mariana attend, glory and ruin compass thee about
This hand shall raise thee to a golden throne,
And grace thee with all styles of dignity;
This cast thee down.
Lower than lives misfortune and oerwhelm
Thy beauties with thy grave. Perform, be great,
Fail and be worse than worst calamity.
Queen.
Stay gentle friend, my love doth bid thee stay!
Attempt not, and be safe from misery.
Epire.
Sister you shall not grasp with mischief thus,
My blood doth challenge interest in your ill,
And I conjure you from this desperateness.
Mariana.
Brother content yourself, words but augment our strife,
I will perform or else my pawn's my life.
Cyprus.
Proceed fair virgin.
Mariana.
Vouchsafe me privacy: Now Venus , be my speed,
Speak gentle Philocles, thine oaths bond I untie,
And give thy vows a free enfranchisement.
Thy well kept league hath show'd thy strength of truth,
And doth confirm me in my virtuousness:
Thy martyrdom and sufferance is too long,
And I restore it to new liberty.
Then speak my Philocles, speak gentle prince,
To her whose love respects and honours thee.
Cyprus.
How now, what virtue from thy charms?
Mariana.
No hope is left dear Philocles, regard my miseries!
Untie that wilful let which holds in speech,
And make me happy through thy noble pity.
I see the face of mine ill-shaped contempt,
Where like with like, hath quit most injury:
Then speak my lord, utter one angel breath
To give me joy, and save me from strange death.
What, not a word? Hath this small silence brought
An utter detestation to thy speech?
Wilt thou nor hear, nor speak, nor pity me?
The gentle gods move thee to more remorse!
Cyprus.
What, wilt not be?
Fond maid thou hast drawn affliction on thy head,
And thralld thy self to worst calamity!
Till morrow sun thy incantations use:
But then effectless, all hopes desperate,
Wert thou my bosom love thou diest the death,
Best ease for madness is the loss of breath.
Exeunt all but Philocles and Marianna.
Mariana.
O Philocles, I am no courts disgrace,
No cities prostitution, countrys shame,
Nor one shall bring Troys fire unto thy house.
Turn not away, hard hearted Myrmidon ,
See, on my knees Ill follow thee in court,
And make the world condemn thy cruelty!
Yet, if my tears may mollify thy heart,
Receive them as the floods of strangest tides,
Turn not thy face from her that dotes on thee!
Love now hath made me subject to thy will,
And pale disdain hath take revenge on me.
Behold my nerves Ill wear upon this earth,
And fill this roof with lamentations.
What, dost thou smile? Hath fury so much sway
As even to banish poor civility?
Then be thy self, and break thine itching spleen :
For I disdain thy ransoms victory,
Life thou art weary brought, welcome my death,
Sweet because wishd for, good because my choice:
Yet when I am dead, this of me shall be said,
A cruel prince murdered a loving maid.
And after ages to th'unborn shall tell,
Thy hate, my love, thy envy and my hell.
Nay, do not speak! I charge thee, go! Let nothing move thee,
Death is my glory, since thou wilt not love me.
Exeunt Omnes.
Act Three.
Scene One. Music.
Enter the Duke of Epire and Alphonso.
Epire.
Grief, which controls the motions of our thoughts,
Reigns in my blood and makes me passions slave.
My sister's misery torments my soul,
And breaks my gall when I but think of her:
She was bewitched with spells to her misfortune,
Or else born hapless under a lowering star,
And tis her fate to be thus miserable.
O Philocles hadst thou no other scale
To mount thy heaven but by our miseries?
Must all the noble fame of our great house
Waste down her royal pillars, to make steps
For thee to climb to glory? Well, I see,
Thou plots our shames in thy great dignity.
Alphonso.
Patience great lord, methinks these ill raised storms
Have not more violence than may be borne:
Come we will both go sue unto the King.
We there will kneel and pray eternally,
And never rise till he remit his dome:
It shall be so, I will unto the King,
To beg great favour for a small offence:
But if she die for this, then king take heed,
Thee and thy fortunes by this hand shall bleed!
Exeunt.
[Scene 2]
Enter Chip, Shaving and others with a scaffold.
Chip.
Come my hearts, lets make all things ready for the execution, here's a maiden head must be cut off without a featherbed.
Shaving.
Its a sign she deals with sharp tools and a cruel headsman.
Chip.
If I had been her judge, she should have been tossed to death in a blanket.
Shaving.
No, I would have had her smothered in a featherbed!
Chip.
They say she would not plead at her trial.
Shaving.
No thats true, for she had a great desire to be pressed .
Chip.
And I have known some of her sex, have got that favour to be pressed for speaking.
Shaving.
Then she was unwise to hold her tongue being a woman.
Chip.
What is her crime that she must lose her head?
Shaving.
Because she lived honest, contrary to the statute.
Chip.
There is a great number of my neighbours will never suffer for that fault.
Shaving.
No nor thou neither if the truth were known, for my part I shun that danger.
Chip.
I think we are all out of danger of the law for that crime.
Shaving.
I know I am free, for I am a knave if I have not forgot what wench had my maidenhead.
Enter Florio.
Florio.
Make room there, his majesty is coming to the execution.
Chip.
Come, now all things are ready. Lets away.
Exeunt.
[Scene Three]
Enter Epire and Alphonso.
Epire.
Mercy is banished, courts; the King, like flint,
Hardens his royal temper against our plaints,
And makes our woes most unavoidable.
What inauspicious star reigned at her birth,
That heaven thus frowns upon her misery?
And my good lord, now innocence must die.
As white as un-trod snow, or culver down .
Kings words are laws, and cannot be withstood;
Yet tis false greatness, which delights in blood!
Alphonso.
Patience my lord, I do not think this ill
Is yet so big as unrecoverable.
The King doth hold you in most choice respect,
And whom kings love, they study to oblige.
Then call your reason home, make not this civil war,
To suffer makes woes lesser than they are.
Epire.
How well the sound can salve the sick-mans grief!
But O, how ill he can digest his pills!
O my good lord, you shall not lose a sister,
That is the joy and comfort of your breath!
Tis not your blood shall issue from her wounds,
But mine, that runs in rivers from her tears,
And rounds my face in her calamity!
Well, let her perish, since her soul is clear,
And for her death, Ill make a massacre!
Enter Cyprus, Queen, Philocles, Mariana bound, a guard of halberds and a Executioner.
Cyprus.
Your suits are bootless: For my vows have glued
And closed mine ears that they retain no sound
Of your entreaties, and even now the time
Doth run upon his latest minutes, and
Save but by speech, theres no recovery.
Queen.
Have mercy good my lord, O let my tears intrude
Betwixt your vows and her calamity.
In her you take from me my best of life,
My joy, my comfort and my play-fellow.
Cyprus.
Content you madam, for my vow is past,
And is like fate still unrevocable:
Ascend poor model of calamity!
Mariana.
As lightly burdened with the weight of crimes,
As spotless infants, or poor harmless lambs,
Thus I ascend my heaven, this first step lower,
Mounts to this next, this, thus and thus hath brought
My bodies frame unto its highest throne;
Here doth her office end, and hence my soul
With golden wings of thought shall mount the sky,
And reap a palace of pure sanctity.
Farewell my sovereign, madam within your thoughts
Make me a tomb, and love my memory.
Brother farewell, nay, do not mourn my death,
It is not I that die to spot our house,
Or make you live in after obloquy .
Then weep no more, but take my last adieu,
My virtues not my faults preserve with you.
Lastly, to you that are my last of hope,
Nay do not hide your eyes, I love them still:
To part friends now is greatest charity.
O be thy days as fruitful in delights,
As Eden in choice flowers, thine honours such
As all the world may strive to imitate.
Be master of thy wishes: only this,
When the sad nurse to still the wrangling babe,
Shall sing the careful story of my death,
Give me a sigh, from thy hearts purest breath:
And so farewell.
Executioner.
Madam kneel here; forgive me for your death.
Mariana.
With all my heart, thou art but laws poor hand,
Thus to my death I bow, and yet arise,
Angels, protect my spirits in the skies.
He offers to strike.
Philocles.
Hold, or thine own hand shall be thine own destruction!
Cyprus.
Never did music sound with better voice!
Unbind the lady!
Florio.
The fear of death hath brought her to a swound .
Cyprus.
Endeavour her recovery.
Epire.
Sister, dear sister, call thy spirits back;
Sister, O sister, hearken to my woes,
Recover breath and live with happiness.
Queen.
She stirs, give way to air that she may breathe.
Speak Mariana, thy woes are cancelled!
Mariana.
You are not charitable unto my moans,
Thus to afflict me with a double punishment:
One death for one poor fault might well suffice,
They are most wretched who twice lives and dies.
Philocles.
Madame to save your life I kill my soul:
And speckle that which was immaculate.
Black perjury, that open eyed disease,
Which is the plague-sore of society,
Brands me with mischief, and protests I hold
Nothing within me but unworthiness:
And all these ills are your creation.
Mariana.
Which to wash off; lo! Here I yield myself
An humble sacrifice to love and thee:
All my best hopes, my fortunes, and my love,
My faith, my service, and my loyalty,
Shall as thy slaves attend on thy commands,
And make me famous in my suffrages.
Cyprus.
Receive her Philocles, for it pleases us.
Philocles.
But not me, my thrice royal sovereign.
I'll rather wed a sooty Blackamoor ,
A leper, monster, incubus or hag,
A wretch deformed in nature, loathd of men
Than her that hath be-monster'd my pure soul.
Her scorn and pride had almost lost her life,
A maid so faulted, seldom proves good wife.
Queen.
What is the reason you not love her now,
And were so passionate in love before?
Philocles.
Not that I love her less, but rather more,
Run I this backward course; only my vow,
Sith unperform'd craves satisfaction;
Which thus I reconcile: When this fair maid,
Shall with as strong a love, as firm a zeal,
A faith as constant, and a shame as strong,
Requite my care, and show as ample proof
In mine extremes, as I have in her death,
Then will I love, enjoy and honour her.
Till when, I will not think a loving thought;
Or give the easy temper of my mind
To love-sick passion, or deliciousness,
Only with those which do adore the sun:
I'll give her all respect and reverence .
Mariana.
I am well pleas'd, and with a doubtful foe
You have good reason thus to capitulate.
Then hang your colours forth; extend your thought,
Muster your strongest powers, of strictest wit,
And when your reasons best artillerys bent,
Love not my love, if it be not excellent.
Cyprus.
I have not seen a war breed better wit,
Or passion draw on more delightfulness:
Proceed in your contention, for we boast,
That love is best which is approved most.
But now to revels, since our tragic scene
Is turned to comic mirthful constancy;
Instead of mourning we will dance and banquet,
And fill our empty veins with all delights:
For oft we find that storms and sorrows prove
The best forerunners of a happy love.
Exeunt all but Epire.
Epire.
He will, but he will not. Loves, but cannot like.
Will and affection in this prince are like
Two buckets which do never both ascend :
Or those star twins which shine not in one sphere.
O Philocles, I see thy soul grows fat,
And feeds upon the glories of my same;
But I'll forestall thine epileptic fits ;
And by my plots breed thy destruction.
Revenge now rules as sovereign of my blood,
And others ruins shall advance my good.
Which once attained to, I will prove ambitious,
Great men like gods, are neer thought vicious.
Now Philocles, stand fast, King guard thy crown,
For by this brain, you both shall tumble down!
Exit.
[Scene Four]
Enter Velours and Drap. Precedent sitting at his desk [reading a book].
Velours.
This is his chamber! Lets enter heres his clerk.
Precedent.
Fondling, said he, since I have hemm'd thee here,
Within the circuit of this ivory pale.
Drap.
I pray you sir, help us to the speech of your master.
Precedent.
Ill be a park, and thou shalt be my deer:
He is very busy in his study:
Feed where thou wilt, in mountain or on dale.
Stay a while he will come out anon:
Graze on my lips, and when those mounts are dry,
Stray lower, where the pleasant fountains lie.
Go thy way, thou best book in the world. [Puts down book]
Velours.
I pray you sir, what book do you read?
Precedent.
A book that never an orators clerk in this kingdom but is beholden unto: It is called maids philosophy, or Venus and Adonis: Look you, gentlemen, I have divers other pretty books.
Drap.
You are very well stored sir, but I hope your master will not stay long?
Precedent.
No he will come presently. [Begins reading again]
Enter Mechant.
Velours.
Who have we here? Another client, sure; crows flock to carcasses! O, tis the Lord Mechant.
Mechant.
Save you, gentlemen. Sir, is your master at any leisure?
Precedent.
Here sit thee down where never serpent hisses,
And being set Ill smother thee with kisses.
His businesses yet are many, you must needs attend a while.
Mechant.
We must attend? Um, even snails keep state
When with slow thrust, their horns peep forth the gate!
We must attend? Tis customs fault not mine,
To make men proud on whom great favours shine.
Its somewhat gainst my nature to attend,
But when we must, we must be patient;
A man may have admittance to the King
As soon as to these long robes, and as cheap.
Come gentlemen, shall we walk?
[They leave the room]
Thus are the pavement stones before the doors
Of these great tongue gilt orators; worn smooth
With clients dancing for them!
Velours.
It's strange to see how the world waits upon them, therein they are the only men now.
Mechant.
O only; they of all men in request.
Your physician is the lawyer for your health;
And moderate unruly humours best.
Others are nobody compared with him,
For all men neglect their health in regard of their profit.
Drap.
True, and thats it makes these men grow so fat,
Swell with rich purchases.
Mechant.
Yea with golden fees
And golden titles too, they can work miracles;
And like creators, even of empty nothing,
Erect a world of goodly livings, fair demeans,
And gallant manors, heapd one on another.
Velours.
They gain indeed excessively, and are not like us citizens,
Expos'd to hazard of the seas and traffic!
Mechant.
Why, heres a fellow now, this orator.
Even Prate, you would little think it, his father was
An honest proiner of our country vines ;
Yet he's shot to his foot-cloth .
Drap.
O he is; he proind him well and brought him up to learning.
Mechant.
Faith! Reasonable learning? A smattering in the Latin tongue,
A little rhetoric with wrangling sophistry ,
Were his preparatives unto his art.
Velours.
After these preparatives (if you call them so),
The physic wrought well for a few years practise,
Brought him in wondrous credit, and preferments
Came tumbling in: O, such a sudden rise
Hath fortune for her minions! Blame him not then,
Though he look high on't.
Mechant.
Nay, for his pride, of weaker souls termd state,
It hurts none but himself.
Drap.
Yet, to my seeming it is very strange,
That from so base beginning, men can breathe
Such soaring fames.
Mechant.
Strange? It's not strange a whit!
Dunghills and marish bogs, dart store of vapours,
And viscous exhalations against heaven;
Which borrowing lustre there,(though basely bred),
Seem yet like glorious planets fairest stars,
To the weak eyes of wondering ignorance,
When wise men know they are but meteors
But here comes the orator!
Enter Prate.
Prate.
What, Precedent I say, come and attend me to the senate house.
Precedent.
I am ready sir, if you have copia verborum , I have copia rerum in a buckram bag here.
Prate.
Your lordships pleasure.
Mechant.
Master orator, tis not unknown my suit.
Prate.
Nay your lordship must be brief! Ill not attend
The shallow sleight of words; your suit, your suit!
Mechant.
The restoration of my lands and honours.
Prate.
They are confiscated.
Mechant.
My lands confiscated, and my body free?
Prate.
My lord, my lord, the Queen's more merciful.
Mechant.
Sir, you forget my place.
Prate.
Sir, you forget your faith!
Twas known unto the Queen, the state and us,
Your mal-contented spirit, your disease in duty,
Your diligent perturbance of the peace;
Your passages, occurrences and
Mechant.
Sir!
Prate.
Sir me no sirs!
Do not I know you were the chief of those
Which raised the wars in Sicily? And long since
Wrought in the Kings loves bloody business?
Did not you hold fair quarter and commerce
With all the spies of Cyprus? Fie! I am asham'd,
Blind impudence should make you be so bold,
To bear your face before authority!
Mechant.
But hear me
Prate.
I will hear no reply! Go home, repent, pray and die.
Come gentlemen, what's your businesses?
Velours.
Your confirmation to his highnesss grant, touching our trade with Spain; in which if it please you to assist us, we have a thousand crowns which shall attend you.
Prate.
O, I have you in my memory! The suit is great:
And I must squeeze forth more than a thousand crowns.
Well, attend me to the senate, you shall have fair dispatches.
Exeunt all but Mechant.
Mechant.
I not attend the shallow sleight of words,
Go home, repent, pray and die
Excellent precepts for an orators chamber!
Where speech must bathe a handful deep in gold,
Till the poor givers conduit being dry,
The wretch goes home, doth curse, repent and die.
It is thy counsel orator, thy tale breath,
Good only but to season infamy.
From this reproach, this incarressing humour
Hath taught my soul a new philosophy:
I will go home, and there repent all good
Done to thy name or thy profession!
I will go home, and there new frame myself
More thirstily pernicious to thy state,
Than war or unabated mutiny.
As for my prayers, orator, they are for thee!
Thou hast a pretty, lovely, witty wife
O! Mayst thou live, both to be known and know
Thyself the greatest cuckold in our land;
And yet not dare to amend or grieve at it!
Mayst thou embrace thy shame with thankful arms,
Hug thy disgrace, make thy black poison wine,
And cap and crouch to thy dishonour!
May thy remembrance live, upon my knees I pray,
All night in bellmens mouths, with Pasquil in the day!
Enter Alphonso, unbraced . [Mechant hides].
Alphonso.
Day be my speed, night shall not cloak my sin,
If I have naught to do, its by the sun,
The light gives leave to all mine idleness.
Quick business and open eyes cease on mine orator,
Whilst I create him horny precedents!
Enter Coloquintida.
But heres my bed broker! Now, my great armful of good intelligence, where is my mistress?
Coloquintida.
Fast lockd in her bed, with a close ward to devour thee my brave paraquito ; but hush, no words, there is a calm before the tempest.
Alphonso.
Tut, tell me of no storms, but direct me to her bedchamber, my noble firelock of a flesh pistol!
Coloquintida.
Follow thy colours, my brave worthy, mount up thy standard, so enter and prosper.
She puts Alphonso into the orators house.
Thou hast a rich room, safe locks, sweet sheets, a choice armful, with O the rare, rare thought of imagination.
Mechant. [Aside]
Whats this, whats this? Doth this Lord Alphonso turn the
orator to an antelope? Tis more than excellent,
And from the juice of this despite I suck
Delight more great than all my miseries!
Observe, dear eyes, observe!
Coloquintida.
Nay, go thy way for a camel or a chameleon; thou mayst compare with all Europe, Africa and Asia, and one that will change tricks, though thou wert worthy to be schoolmaster either to Proteus or Aritine : What an excellent gift did God give unto man when he gave him woman; but how much more when that woman was made fair? But O, the most of all when she had wit to use every member of her creation. Well Ill stand to it, theres nothing but beauty, use, and old age that puts women of my rank out of request; and yet like old bucklers, though few of your gallant cavaliers will wear us, yet many of your stale ruffians will employ us, and thats our comfort still.
Mechant. [Aside]
Was ever heard a bawd more damnable?
A very mountebank of wench flesh , an Empiric !
A dog-leech for the putrefied sores,
Of these lust-cankerd great ones! O! I could
Even mad myself with railing at their vices!
Prate knocks at the door.
But hark! One knocks, O for the orator!
Heavens I beseech thee, O for the orator!
Coloquintida.
How now, who knocks so rudely at the door?
Prate.
Tis I, I say! Open the door, I am in haste!
Mechant. [Aside]
Tis he, just heavens, tis he! Fore God, the orator
Coloquintida.
Soul of my bawdy office, how are we betrayed,
Anon, anon sir, what? Mistress Prate I say!
Arise, for shame, your husbands at the door!
[More knocking].
I come, I come! Lord God, how dull you are
When danger's at your heels! Rise quickly!
Prate.
Open the door, or I will break it open!
Coloquintida.
I come, I come, I think he's mad with haste.
What John, what Thomas, Robert, where's these knaves?
What Julian, Mary, Cicely, neer a maid within?
Lollia.
For Gods love stay, Ill find the key straight way.
Enter Lollia and Alphonso in his shirt.
O mistress Coloquintida, what shall become of us?
Coloquintida.
Nay, I am at my wits end, and am made
Duller then any spur-galld , tired jade .
Alphonso.
Sfoot! If he enter, I will break his neck!
Lollia.
Not for a world, dear love, step into my closet.
Alphonso.
Did ever slave come thus unluckily?
Lollia.
Nay now's no time for passion, good lord, in!
Exit Alphonso, and enter Prate.
Coloquintida.
Fie! I have almost broke my heart with running.
Lollia.
How now dear husband? What hath moved this haste?
Prate.
I think I was not blest this morning when I rose; for through my forgetfulness I have left behind me in my study the breviates of all my causes; and now the senate is fain to dance attendance on my leisure! Fie Fie Fie!
Exit Prate.
Lollia.
Nay if he smell nothing but papers, I care not for his dry-foot hunting , nor shall I need to puff pepper in his nostrils, but see he comes again.
Enter Prate, and stumbling at his wifes bed, sees Alphonsos rich apparel laying thereon.
Prate.
I think the devil have laid his horns in my way.
Mechant. [Aside]
Yes, and if you had wit you might conjure him out of your wives closet!
Prate.
Sancte Benedicite ! What have we here? Hath the golden snake cast his skin upon my bed? Go to, wife! I smell, I smell, methinks your plain rug should not agree with this rich counterpoint!
Lollia.
Husband, either I have fitted you now, or else I shall never fit you whilst I breathe.
You oft have told me, that like those of your rank,
Who both adorn their credits and themselves,
Yea, even their causes with their costly clothes,
Yourself in like sort would strive to imitate;
And now my neighbour here hath brought this suit,
Which if you please to buy, tis better cheap
Then eer t'was made by full five thousand crowns.
Prate.
Sayst thou me so, wench, a kiss for that Ifaith.
Fore God, it is a delicate, fine, suit!
Rich stuff, rare work, and of the newest fashion!
Nay, if the senates business were never so hasty; I will stay to try it on. Come! Help, good wenches, help! So there, there, there.
The orator puts on Alphonsos apparel.
Mechant. [Aside]
Sfoot! Will the ox put on the lions hide?
He will! He will! Tis more than excellent!
So guild the tomb which holds but rottenness,
Laughter I fear will burst me; look how he struts!
O God, that ever any man should look
Upon this maumet and not laugh at him!
Prate.
Fit, fit, excellent fit as though,
The body it was made for wore my mould,
Wife, I will have it! Well dispute no price.
Enter Velours.
Velours.
Master orator, the senate are set, and can dispatch no causes through your absence, therefore they earnestly entreat your presence.
Prate.
I come, I come. Good friend go say I come!
And wife see that you pay for this suit, whatsoere it cost.
Exit Prate, [with Aphonsos clothes on under his gown].
Mechant. [Aside]
Not above making you cuckold, thats the most.
Lollia.
What, is he gone?
Coloquintida.
He is.
Enter Alphonso in his shirt.
Lollia.
Why then come forth, poor naked lord!
Alphonso.
What, is he gone? May the devil and his horns both follow him!
Lollia.
He is gone, but yet he hath discovered your treason.
Alphonso.
How?
Coloquintida.
Yes, and in revenge thereof, hath vow'd that in this naked sort as you are, you shall do penance through the city for your sin of unchastity.
Alphonso.
I pray thee, leave thy womans phrase, and speak like a man, plainly, plainly.
Lollia.
Then plainly thus, he is gone and hath taken away your apparel.
Alphonso.
Upon what accident?
Lollia.
This, when your negligence had left your clothes upon my bed, he espied them, taskd me for the owner; I in excuse told him it was a suit, brought by my gossip to be sold. He, straight like a child proud of a new coat, presently puts it on, presently is sent for to the senate, and at this present hath left you that the world may behold your naked doings.
Alphonso.
I would it were washd in the blood of a centaur , that when he puts it off, his skin might follow it! But how shall I get to my chamber?
Lollia.
Truly I know not, except you will wear a smocks upper-coat.
Alphonso.
What, a petticoat? You mad me with your mirth!
Lollia.
Then seriously thus, as he hath taen your clothes, you must take his, and let the world know you have had more than fiddlers fare , for you have meat, money and cloth.
Alphonso.
Sfoot! How shall I look in this devils suit? Sure I shall grow sick to see my shape.
Lollia.
Well extremity must then be your physic, but come, you shall attire yourself in my chamber.
Exeunt Alphonso, Lollia and Coloquintida.
Mechant.
Are these the winding turns of female shames,
Loose womans gambols , and the tricks of sin?
And are we born to bear these suffrages?
O he thats tied unto a brothel bed,
Feels his worst hell on earth, and may presume
There is no sickness like his pestilence.
Well, what the issue of this jest will prove,
My wit but yet conceives, and, after time,
Shall perfect it and give it liberty.
In such sort, that if it true, fire strike!
A world of apes shall study for the like!
Exit.
[Scene five]
Enter the Duke of Epire alone.
Epire.
My thoughts are troubled, joy forsakes me quite,
And all my meditations are revenge:
Ambition and fell murder join in me,
And aid each other to untwine a state,
And make whole millions prove unfortunate.
Now must I practise court art, flattery,
And wisely temporise with blackest deeds:
Ill smile and stab, now weep, then laugh, then frown,
And with sly tricks of state kill all suspicion.
Devils must seem like angels, saith ambition!
The blackest thoughts Ill study to excel,
Crowns and revenge have made men dive to hell.
My plot is current, and it cannot miss
Whilst wisdom winds me on the clew of bliss.
The King shall kill the Queen, that acted right,
I soon will turn his brightest day to night.
Hes simple, honest, and loves downy rest,
Then he must fall; tis policy in state,
To hurl them down are blest with happy fate.
Thus each shall scourge himself with his own rod,
Who is all policy, avows no God.
Who is within there, ho?
Enter Florio.
Florio.
Did your grace call?
Epire.
I did: Where is the King?
Florio.
He is in his privy chamber playing at chess.
Epire.
Go straight, and tell him I must speak with him,
And say my business doth import great haste.
Florio.
I go my lord.
Epire.
Be a blest Mercury , now mount thee up my spirit,
And show thy self a politician:
Let slander rule thy tongue, envy thy heart,
And let destruction be thy period
Of what thou speakst; For this my maxim is,
But rule no heaven, and but revenge no bliss.
Enter Cyprus, Florio and attendants.
[Epire.]
Here comes the King My lord, we must be private.
Cyprus.
Remove your hearings from our conference.
[Exit Florio and attendants]
Now speak my Lord, speak freely as to heaven.
Epire.
First, with my knee I kiss this prostrate earth,
And humbly beg that which my tongue shall speak.
So it proceed from love and vassalage,
May bear a pardon or forgetfulness.
Cyprus.
You have it: Arise, discharge an open breast.
Epire.
O my dread liege, my speech will make you sad;
(And kings do seldom relish their distastes),
And from that sadness such a storm will rise,
As will even drown up all credulity.
O, that my loyal heart could cover sin,
Or that my tongue inured unto grief,
Might lose his spleen ere it distemper you!
But love and mine allegiance bid me speak.
Cyprus.
Then speak, and do not rack me with delay!
Epire.
Women, why were you made for mans affliction?
The first that ever made us taste of grief,
And last of whom in torments we complain.
You devils shapd like angels, through whose deeds,
Our forked shames are made most visible.
No soul of sense would wrong bright majesty,
Nor stain their blood with such impurity.
Cyprus.
Nay good lord, leave this allegoric speech,
And give me knowledge from a plainer phrase.
Epire.
Then plainly thus: Your bed is pressd with lust.
I know you do not credit! Nay, whats more,
I know you hate me for my virtuousness.
Your Queen behaves her like a courtesan,
I know you hold me for a vile imposter.
O foolish zeal! That makes me be so fond
To leave my faith unto black censuring.
O! She hath sinn'd and done a double wrong,
To you, to her, and sacred chastity.
Cyprus.
Duke thou art valiant, and with a valiant mind:
Slander is worse than theft or sacrilege,
Nay, more than murder, or the height of treason,
A step beyond the utmost plagues in hell!
Then thou which in that nature wrongst a queen,
Deserv'st a scourge beyond their punishments!
Virtue should kill thee now.
Epire.
Nay do, my breast is bare unto thy steel,
Kill me because I love thee and speak true.
Is this the merit of a Roman faith ?
For this have I observ'd, pried in unto,
And searchd each secret shift of vanity?
Nay, pray you kill me, faith Ill patient stand,
Live still a monster, hold shame in your hand!
Cyprus.
Speak a word more, a king shall be thy death!
Epire.
Death is a slave to him that is resolvd,
And my soul loathes this servile flattery;
Nor will I cover such intemperate sin,
But to the world make them and that transparent,
Unless yourself will seek to right yourself?
Cyprus.
Thou hast awakd me, and thy piercing words
Have split my sense in sunder: Yet what ground, ha,
Remains whereon to ground suspicion? A cuckold, cuckold
Epire.
Your absence is the bawd to her desires,
For their masks, dancings, gaming, banqueting,
Strange private meetings and all toils in love;
As wanton speeches to stir appetite,
And all enchantments that inflame desire!
When you return, then all is hushd and still,
And she demurely walks like virtues ghost.
Before your face shes like a puritan,
Behind your back a blushless courtesan.
Cyprus.
O I have drunk in poison at mine ears,
Which makes my blood boil with unquenched flames,
But speak, who is it that dishonours me?
Epire.
He that you prize a line before your life;
I know you will not credit, faith, you will not.
Cyprus.
Nay, if thou cease to speak, thou hatest my life!
Tak'st thou delight to kill me? Then forbear.
Sfoot! I am mortal, man kill me, do, do, do!
Epire.
Your best of friends, your dearest Philocles,
Usurps your bed and makes you a cornute !
A creature uncreate in paradise,
And one thats only of a womans making.
Cyprus.
Ist possible? Can I give faith to this?
Epire.
Nay, be but patient, smooth your brow a little,
And you shall take them as they clip each other
Even in their height of sin; then damn them both;
And let them sink before they ask Gods pardon,
That your revenge may stretch unto their souls.
Cyprus.
To be a cuckold doth exceed all grief!
Epire.
To have a pleasant scoff at majesty.
Cyprus.
To taste the fruit forbidden from my tree!
Epire.
But he shall lose his paradise for that.
Cyprus.
The slave will make base songs in my disgrace!
Epire.
And wound your reputation in strange lands.
Cyprus.
This injury sads all my joys on earth.
Epire.
Horns are not shunnd by wisdom, wealth or birth.
Cyprus.
Watch their close meetings, and then give us notice.
Mean space , my love shall in thy bosom rest,
My grief is like my birth: Great, great and high!
Give close intelligence, till then farewell,
Lust is the broadest path which leads to hell.
Exit Cyprus.
Epire.
He's gone with black suspicion in his heart:
And made his soul a slave to jealousy,
My plots shall drive him to his own destruction;
And I gain both revenge and dignity.
He shall no sooner put his queen to death,
But Ill proclaim her spotless innocence.
All men will hate him for so vile an act,
And mad with rage depose him from his crown.
Then I will be his death, his state doth give,
Kings once deposd, long after must not live;
For like a phoenix, rare in jealousy,
He shall consume himself in scorching flames,
Whilst from his ashes, I a phoenix spring:
Many renounce their god to be a king.
And Ill be one to kill men with a frown,
None dare dispute the actions of a crown!
Exit.
Act Four.
Scene One. Music.
Enter Florio and Mechant.
Florio.
The Queen is all for revels, her light heart,
Unladen from the heaviness of state,
Bestows itself upon delightfulness.
Mechant.
She follows her creation and her sex:
In my conceit it is as vile a thing,
To see the worthy model of a woman,
Who had not been at all but to give life,
And stirring spleen to mans alacrity,
To sit orewhelmd with thought, with dark amuse,
And the sad sullenness of a grieved dislike:
As to behold an old man in his furs,
Whose well spent youth hath given his age full strength
To be his countrys best physician,
To caper to his grave, and with vain gauds
Trick up his coffin, and upon his tomb
To leave no knowledge but his levity!
Florio.
Tis true indeed, and nature in herself,
Doth give us still distaste in contraries.
And in my thoughts it is as base to see a woman man ,
As see a man a long rob'd feminine.
Mechant.
Well, we forget ourselves my lord What? is the music ready? I pray you command the guard to take their halberds in their hands, the ushers should have seen this room perfum'd, in faith they are too negligent: Here comes the Queen!
Enter the Queen, Mariana, and waiting women, Philocles and other lords, the King disguised like one of the guard at the one end of the stage, and the Duke so likewise disguised at the other end of the stage.
Queen.
Loud music there, and let the god of harmony
Ravish our senses with delightful airs,
Tun'd to the music of the higher sphere;
And with that mortal sign rarely show
The joys in Joves high court, to feast the gods,
Making that place abound in happiness!
Come, noble Philocles, I seize you first,
(Mariana, there are choice of other lords)
In gracing you, it is the King I grace.
Mariana.
Come, honest lord, tis you must stand to me,
The Queen in mine doth challenge interest,
And I must fly for shelter to my friends.
Mechant.
And Ill be glad to be your coverture .
Mariana.
O no my lord, not till the weather change.
Mechant.
Well, when you please, mean time you do me grace.
Queen.
Nay my lord, there's a lady worth the handling.
Sound music then, fill earth with heavens pleasure!
Cyprus. [Aside]
My queen is out of time, though she keep measure.
Here they dance the first strain.
Epire. [Aside]
Be lucky villainy, hit now the mark
That mine ambition aims at; methinks I see
That lean Italian devil, jealousy,
Dance in his eyes; possess him, spirit of rage,
Muffle his understanding with black thoughts.
Let passion govern reason, falsehood truth,
Oblivion hide his age, hate kill his youth!
Cyprus. [Aside]
Thou dancest on my heart, lascivious Queen,
Even as upon these rushes which thou treadst.
See how her motions wind about his eyes,
And doth present to him her passions?
Now doth her moistening palm glow in his hand,
And courts him unto dalliance: She dies, tis just,
She's slave to murder, that is slave to lust.
Epire. [Aside]
Thou curse of greatness, waking eye'd suspicion.
Now help thy poor friends, murder and ambition.
The first strain ends.
Queen.
This strain contain'd a pretty change,
Proceed unto the next.!
They dance the second.
Cyprus. [Aside]
Sin follows sin, and change on change doth wait,
Thy change doth change my love to cruel hate.
Here in this strain, Mariana came to Philocles.
Philocles.
Madam, methinks this change is better than the first.
Mariana.
Ay, if the music would not alter it.
Queen.
Methinks tis worse, come, we will have another strain!
They dance again.
Philocles.
Im pleas'd, let us proceed.
Cyprus. [Aside]
Rivals in crowns and beds of kings must bleed.
Can that fair house contain so foul a guest
As lust? Or cloak inordinate and base desires,
Under so fair a coverture? O yes,
Women can blind our sense when we see best,
And set fair landskips on inconstancy,
Making us blind with seeing. The dance ends,
Your sins are blackest, breach of love and friends.
Epire. [Aside]
Now to the King, blow rage till it flame hate,
A politician thrives the best in state.
Exit Epire, and enter to the King again.
Queen.
Come, sweet Prince Philocles,
Devise some new delights to shorten time.
This dullness hath no relish in my sense,
It hath no pith; and sloth in my conceit,
Is but a type of pride in best constructions.
Mariana.
Madam, Ill stand , that a fair woman must be proud or else a fool.
Philocles.
I would fain hear that, I'faith.
Queen.
Thy reason wench, I pray thee come disburse.
Mariana.
A woman fair is like a full blown rose.
Queen.
Which holds the fair no longer then it grows.
Mariana.
A woman fair is like the finest gold.
Philocles.
Which kept from use is good, though nere so old.
Mariana.
Nay good lord, leave a little.
She that is fair is wise, and ought to know it:
For to that end did nature first bestow it.
Now of this knowledge if we be not proud,
We wrong the author, and we are allowd
To rank with senseless beasts; sith careless, we
For want of pride detract our dignity.
Now knowing it, we know truth in the same,
Not to be proud of truth asks follys name.
This lesson still is read in beautys school,
She that is fair and humble is a fool:
For neither know she how to hold her good,
Or to keep safe the treasure of her blood.
Queen.
A notable declamation!
Ma
Nay madam, by your leave:
Pride gives a lustre to a womans fair,
Things that are highest prized, are ever dear.
Why is the diamond the sapphires king,
But for esteem and rareness? Both which spring
From the stones pride, which is so chaste and hard,
Nothing can pierce it, Itself is itselfs guard,
Now what is pride? Self love, our own esteem,
A strength to make us of ourselves well deem:
From whence this maxim I collect mongst other,
Who hates herself, can never love another.
And to conclude, mans appetite grows dull
To what it may have, empty hope is full.
To all our sex on earth, maid, widow, wife and bride,
They happy live, when they live with chaste pride.
Cyprus. [Aside]
My Queen will speak as much for lust as she for pride, if the toy take her.
Mechant.
Your ladyship sows dangerous seed abroad.
Mariana.
But I hope, my lord, all grounds are not fruitful.
Queen.
Well, wench shalt be the proud womans champion.
Mariana.
And Ill defend them against all men, as at single tongue.
Mechant.
I had rather fight with a giant, then you at that weapon.
Cyprus. [Aside, to Epire]
My lord go forth, return in your own shape, say I am coming.
Epire.
I go, my lord.
Exit Epire.
Cyprus. [Aside]
Ill note their countenance when they hear of me.
Kings often see that which they would not see.
Queen.
Dancing hath made me weary, what sport is next?
Philocles.
What your highness will command.
Cyprus. [Aside]
She will command you sir to play with her!
Enter Epire.
Epire.
Madam, his majesty is returned to court.
Queen.
Nay then, away with revels and with sports,
Lie hushd, and still this vainer idleness;
It now hath lost his spleen. Come lords, away!
My sun is risen, brings a brighter day.
Exeunt all but Cyprus and Epire.
Cyprus.
Darkness is thy delight, lascivious Queen,
And thou wouldst have thy sun pent up in clouds,
If I be he. O falseness! Did I for this,
In single opposition hand to hand,
Hazard my royal blood for thee to be
My greatest shame? The scandal of my blood,
Whilst rumour crowns me king of infamy?
But I will be reveng'd! Watch gentle lord,
When next I see them, they shall taste of death!
Such power hath baseness over great defame,
That monarchs cannot cover their own shame.
Exit Cyprus.
Epire.
My plot yet holds a true proportion,
And I do see an even way to rule.
A crown, like a bold champion bids me on,
And fame shall chronicle mine enterprise:
The Queen being dead, I must oppose myself
Against her tyrant husband, thats my claim!
And with strong courage, stand the shock of war.
If of myself I can withstand the King,
Then all the land will flock unto mine aid. If not,
The King is Gods anointed, my head fits the block,
And thats the worst. Yet, future times will tell:
I sunk not slightly, for a crown I fell!
Exit Epire.
[Scene Two]
Enter Mechant, and a guard of watchmen.
Mechant.
Come on my masters, you know the tenor of the Kings command,
And what in this great business you must do,
Which is to keep him safe, and not vouchsafe
That any creature speak or visit him,
Till he be brought to the presence of the King.
You must not start for bounty, nor for threats.
No, though he say he is a nobleman,
As it may be, he may prove mighty born.
Yet what for that? You must perform your office
Or else expect to taste sharp punishment.
First Watch.
Tut, fear not my lord, we that have had Cerberus office so many years under a gate, are not to learn now to play either devils or tyrants. Let us but see him, and then take no care for his safety.
Second Watch.
Nay, he shall be put into safe keeping, for my wife shall take charge of him.
Enter Alphonso in the orators clothes.
Mechant.
Tis well devisd, see where he comes?
He may not see my presence. Think upon't,
Your charge is trusty, and of mighty weight!
Farewell.
Exit Mechant.
First Watch.
Fear not! Come my hearts, compass him about, and seize on him all at once, like so many ravens on a dead horse.
Alphonso.
Now an eternal sleep, an apoplex , a swound,
Seize on their senses, who in this disguise
Shall view or note my vile deformity.
I was bewitchd with spells to my misfortune,
Or else star-crossd with some hags hellishness
Sure, I said my prayers, ris'd on my right side,
Wash'd hands and eyes, put on my girdle last
Sure, I met no splay-footed baker,
No hare did cross me, nor no bearded witch,
Nor other ominous sign. O then why
Should I be thus damn'd in the devils nets?
Ist possible this habit which I wear
Should become any man? Now of my soul,
I loathe to see myself, and willingly
I would even vomit at my countenance.
First Watch.
Stand sir, we arrest you.
Alphonso.
Arrest me? Why I injure no man but myself!
Second Watch.
You are the more unkind! He that wrongs himself, will not stick to wrong the whole world also.
First W
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[] |
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[
""
] | null |
[
"Emerging Civil War"
] |
2022-07-26T00:00:00
|
ECW is pleased to welcome back Patrick Young, author of The Reconstruction Era blog. Whenever an academic historian ventures onto popular Civil War media to discuss the Lost Cause interpretation of the war and its aftermath, anyone reading the comments will note the routine denunciation of the historian for employing a modern term, “Lost Cause,” to describe […]
|
en
|
Emerging Civil War
|
https://emergingcivilwar.com/2022/07/26/echoes-of-reconstruction-jubal-early-stonewall-jackson-and-the-enduring-lost-cause/
| ||||||
3704
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dbpedia
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1
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http://www.7smgmt.com/
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en
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7S Management
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en
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7S Management
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http://www.7smgmt.com
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Contact: jessemalin@7smgmt.com
“Sad and Beautiful World is for the survivors, the dreamers, the leavers and the believers,” said Jesse Malin. “My music has always been about rebirth and redemption. This record is for those who pick up the pieces and find beauty in the madness.”
The first double album of Malin’s career hits like a collection of heartfelt and eloquent short stories that never lose their dirt and swagger. The phoenix bird could be the spiritual mascot of Sad and Beautiful World, out September 24 on Wicked Cool Records. Forged in the wild flames of the lost pandemic year, the album follows Sunset Kids (2019), Malin’s acclaimed album produced by Lucinda Williams and Tom Overby.
Described by Uncut magazine as a “fearless storyteller,” followers have always appreciated the many sides of Malin, from his pioneer days in the hardcore band Heart Attack to D Generation and his solo career. Sad and Beautiful World, which takes its title from a line of dialogue in Jim Jarmusch's 1986 cult-classic film Down By Law, divides itself down the middle.
A lyric in the song “Almost Criminal” gives the split record its theme: Roots Rock Radicals, Malin’s take on a phrase from the intersection of punk and reggae back in the day. The "Roots Rock” side leans to the sad-eyed ballads, while its companion, the "Radicals" side, roughs things up a bit. But not everything is as black and white as the movies. All of Sad and Beautiful World is both tough and tender, laced through with vividly drawn characters striving against circumstance and a raw emotional tenor. The 17 songs served up here will break your heart, move your hips, and keep the lights shining.
Right before lockdown, Malin was moving fast on the heels of 2019's Sunset Kids with sold out dates in the US and UK. The album earned a four-star review from Rolling Stone and won three Independent Music Awards. “I took all my anxiety, fear and loneliness and began writing,” described Malin, who made the record in the fall of 2020 at Flux Studios in New York. “The sirens, the protests, riots and the darkness outside my doorstep definitely made its way in these songs. Everything rose to a boiling point, and we found a way to get through it.”
At the heart of Sad and Beautiful World lies empathetic character sketches like "Todd Youth," which features Bad Brains' frontman H.R., a lifelong mentor to Jesse with his message of PMA (positive mental attitude), and brings a wistful voice from beyond the grave speaking to loved ones that remain – and "A Little Death," a scathing but ultimately compassionate read on a millennial brat. Hearts are broken and hearts are full – sometimes both at once – as on the stark opener "Greener Pastures” or the rebel soul of "Dance With The System," as cool and slick as a black leather jacket.
Billie Joe Armstrong once said “New York City is the center of the universe, and there is no New York City without Jesse Malin.” Jesse masterfully sets the scene of his beloved hometown with the autobiographical "Backstabbers," a coming-of-age tune about navigating through the city lights, blood suckers and the arcade-prowling chicken hawks. Written in 2019, the slinky strut of "The Way We Used To Roll” now has an extra layer of meaning. Both songs were produced by fellow roots-rock-radical Lucinda Williams, who also sings backup on “Backstabbers,” and her partner, Tom Overby. The majority of Sad and Beautiful World was produced by Malin’s longtime guitarist Derek Cruz and Geoff Sanoff.
Throughout 2020, Malin created and produced the celebrated weekly livestream series The Fine Art of Self Distancing to keep people connected worldwide and dancing on their couches. The show raised money for independent national venues, his band, crew and the Joe Strummer Foundation, and was named one of the best of the year by Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone.
“When I was kid in Queens, my mother had a sign over the kitchen sink with a flower or something, that said ‘today is the first day of the rest of your life.’ I still feel that way. Growing up here, you find a way to carry your dreams up from the street and out to the stars. I try hard to keep my sense of humor, community and always find a way to dance through the flames.”
Contact: bhtm@7Smgmt.com
Big Head Todd and The Monsters have quietly become an American institution following three and a half decades of writing, recording, and touring (totaling over 3,500 performances). After countless sold out shows in amphitheaters and on the high seas, beaming their tunes to outer space (literally), earning the endorsement of everyone from Robert Plant to The Denver Broncos, and tallying tens of millions of streams, Big Head Todd and The Monsters cite the friendships formed in the crowd among their proudest accomplishments. Fast forward to 2021 and the Colorado quartet—Todd Park Mohr [vocals, guitar, keys, sax, harmonica], Brian Nevin [drums, percussion], Rob Squires [bass, vocals], and Jeremy Lawton [guitar, keys, vocals, steel guitar]—continue to unite audiences.
“Friendships have spawned because of our band,” smiles Todd. “Maybe a bit like the Grateful Dead, the line between audience and stage has over time become a bit blurred and many lifelong friendships have been made in every direction. I’m very proud of that. Bringing people together and sharing a joy for a couple of hours is an important function of music. Music can cultivate community, even harmony. We need that!”
Fittingly, the guys in the band began as friends as well. Todd and Brian first crossed paths in high school jazz band circa 1982. Soon, the guys started to jam in Brian’s basement also joined by Rob. Sweat-soaked house party gigs and talent shows followed until they became a fixture on the bar circuit “before I was even old enough to drink,” laughs Todd. As perennial outliers, the musicians performed original material at these formative gigs, standing out from a bevy of cover bands in the scene at the time.
Adopting the moniker Big Head Todd & The Monsters, they served up their independent debut Another Mayberry in 1989 and Midnight Radio in 1990 to critical acclaim, setting the stage for their seminal 1993 breakout Sister Sweetly. Powered by staples “Broken Hearted Savior,” “It’s Alright,” and “Bittersweet,” it eventually went platinum, and they supported Plant on tour. At the time, Variety hailed Todd as “a soulful singer and nimble lead guitarist,” while The Los Angeles Times claimed, “Mohr, who has a voice like smoke, writes great songs that incorporates blues, folk, rock and country, which sounds sort of like, well, Big Head Todd and the Monsters.”
Throughout the next decade, the group presented fan favorites such as Strategem [1994] and Beautiful World [1997]. The latter yielded the cover of “Boom Boom” [feat. John Lee Hooker], which famously served as the theme to NCIS: New Orleans. In 2005, they exceeded our atmosphere altogether. Friends with connections to NASA encouraged Todd to write a song for NASA, so they ignited 2005’s “Blue Sky.” In 2011, Big Head Todd and The Monsters played “Blue Sky” live from the middle of Mission Control to awaken the astronauts aboard the shuttle. 2017 saw them release New World Arisin’ to fan adoration and critical acclaim. Glide Magazine claimed, “such tracks, like most of this music, radiate a sense of optimism and purpose ever so welcome in these fragmented times.”
Along the way, the band joined the Denver Broncos on their Super Bowl victory parade, delivering a triumphant performance to boot. Not to mention, they’ve headlined their own cruise multiple times and introduced Rockin’ the Reef as a five-night musical extravaganza in Jewel Paradise Cove in Runaway Bay Jamaica for 2022.
Big Head Todd and The Monsters took the stage at hallowed hometown haunt Red Rocks Amphitheatre a staggering 32 times. In June 2021, they made a rapturous homecoming to Red Rocks for their first full capacity gig at the venue post-COVID. Chronicling the gig, 303 Magazine described the group as “a longtime pal that has defined Colorado’s blues-rock scene for multiple decades.”
“The Red Rocks performances have all been special to me,” Todd goes on. “Growing up in Colorado, I always loved going to shows there as a teenager. I’m super proud of that. The COVID year was really unique, because we played there four times before finally getting back in front of a packed house. It meant a lot to all of us.”
In 2019, the band instituted another fan favorite tradition, by launching Monsters Music Monthly. They revealed a free song and video on a monthly basis, including “Hoochie Coochie Man” [feat. Buddy Guy], “Rosalita” [feat. John Popper of Blues Traveler], “Remedy” [feat. Ronnie Baker Brooks], “Sunshine of Your Love” [feat. David Hidalgo], and more. Todd and Co. have notably managed to collaborate or perform with a myriad of their heroes over the years, namely Neil Young, B.B. King, Allman Brothers, John Prine, Albert Collins, James Cotton, John Lee Hooker, Hubert Sumlin, and dozens more.
“For a half-Asian kid growing up in Littleton, Colorado, it’s not likely I would’ve ever ended up being as involved in blues music as I have been,” he observes. “It’s unbelievable we’ve gotten to play and even record with some of my idols.”
In the end, Big Head Todd and The Monsters will never stop bringing crowds together. In fact, they’ll hit the road yet again for a full-scale US tour in winter 2022 with more on the horizon.
“If I had any message for our listeners, it would just be, ‘Thank you’,” he leaves off. “We’re so fortunate to have lives making music. We’re grateful to be in the situation we’re in, and we’re going to continue as long as we can.”
Contact: dawes@7smgmt.com
From the first downbeat, Good Luck With Whatever, the seventh studio Album by the Los Angeles based rock band Dawes, sets a tone all its own. The album unfurls with the crunchy chordal cadence of what could only be Goldsmith’s guitar. As the band quickly hop their way aboard this rhythmic rail car, we find ourselves thinking “Hey, these guys are pretty good. I’m so glad you dragged me to see some live music!” — “Still Feel Like A Kid” serves as a reminder that we all love a good filet, but there’s no shame in still ordering off the kids menu from time to time. You can hear the eye contact in the room, you can see the lyrics as they fly from Goldsmith’s mouth straight into your ears, you’ll find yourself singing along to a song you’re hearing for the first time. It’s fresh, it’s raw, it’s a four tiered seafood tower of all American ear candy. Think “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up, I’m A Toys R Us Kid” meets “I Wanna Be Sedated”.
Recorded at the historic RCA studios in Nashville Tennessee, the boys teamed up with six time Grammy award winning producer Dave “Corn On The” Cobb (Brandi, Jasi, Chrisi, Stergi, etc) and just decided to LET IT RIP. “We were out in Nashville for just under 730 hours, or 1 human month” says bass player and resident ‘problem child’ Wylie Gelber. “We wanted that sloth like urgency, that cold heat, that all knowing curiosity. And me thinks that’s what we got.” The arrangements are as lively as they are lovely, from the rapidly ruckus “Who Do You Think You’re Talking To” to the robustly restrained “St. Augustine at Night”. A culmination of their entire catalogue and career all wrapped up in nine tracks. If you don’t know Dawes by now, you will never never never know them...
Far from apathetic, Good Luck With Whatever is Dawes at their most unapologetic. It’s sympathetic and magnetic, 50% genetic and highly kinetic. Songs like “Didn’t Fix Me” and “Me Especially” showcase Goldsmith’s poetic prowess perfectly; a historian of the human condition, transforming turmoil into motor oil. Drop the tone arm down, turn the volume up, unplug the phone and if you still feel nothing… call a doctor.
Having self-released their music for the last 1/20 of a century, Dawes has now joined forces with their former legal counsel now president of Rounder Records, John P. Strohm. Attorney client privilege has been lifted. Finally without the constraints of the fat cats up on Capitol Hill and their ever flowing spools of bureaucratic red tape, Dawes and their beloved ex-ambulance chaser are together again. Court is in session and they’re prepared to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
“We’ve learned so much over the years about what it means to be A BAND” says drummer/free range dog farmer Griffin Goldsmith, “I used to want all our records to be ONLY drums, but I’m finally starting to realize, maybe a lil’ bass, keys, guitars and vocals ain’t so bad after all.” How right he is, the ballet of interplay between these four is nothing short of breathtaking. Where Griffin dives, Wylie ducks. Where Taylor weaves, Lee is sure to bob.
Dawes began their journey in the San Fernando Valley back in 2009, it was the year of the Ox, but don’t be fooled, these guys are No Bulls#$t. Having played with, for, and against some of rock’n roll’s most illustrious icons, the merry men have picked up more than a few things when it comes to sticking around and what it means to be a true BAND. “Sometimes I wish I did hate my brother”, explains frontman/stuntman Taylor Goldsmith, “might sell us a few more books… but the reality is, I can’t get enough of the guy! Scariest part bout’ it all is, knowing we’re gonna be playing music together for a long, long time.”
“We’re a living breathing organism,” says keyboardist/San Jose’s 15th most famous man, Lee Pardini. “People love to say, ‘this record sounds so THIS’ and ‘that record sounds so THAT,’ but to us, it just sounds like Dawes. We make records to document where we are at that time, but every time I check, it just sounds like Griff, Taylor, Wylie and me.”
Good Luck With Whatever is an unfiltered photograph of a band doing what they do best. A moment in the timeline of 10 year old band who still possess the wonderment and fearlessness of a 10 year old man. These guys learned to rock before they could crawl and now it’s time to let em’ run. Ask any scientist and they’ll tell you one thing… you can’t fake chemistry.
Contact: DenverEstate@7smgmt.com
One of the world’s best-known and best-loved performers, John Denver earned international acclaim as a songwriter, performer, actor, environmentalist and humanitarian. Denver’s career spanned four decades and his music has outlasted countless musical trends and garnered numerous awards and honors.
The son of a U.S. Air Force officer, Denver’s artistic journey began at age eleven when he was given his grandmother’s guitar. Denver eventually took guitar lessons and joined a boys’ choir, which led him at age twenty to pursue his dream of a career in music.
In 1963 he struck out on his own, moving to Los Angeles to be in the heart of the burgeoning music scene. It was during this time that Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. was urged by friends to change his name if a recording career was to be in his future. He took his stage name from the beautiful capital city of his favorite state, Colorado. Later in life, Denver and his family settled in Aspen, Colorado and his love for the Rocky Mountains inspired many of his songs.
John Denver experienced his first major break in the music industry when he was chosen from 250 other hopefuls as lead singer for the popular Mitchell Trio. Two years and three albums later, Denver had honed his considerable vocal talent and developed his own songwriting style. He gained recognition when his song “Leaving On A Jet Plane” was recorded by Peter, Paul and Mary, becoming their first and only number one hit. As the Mitchell Trio disbanded, Denver was climbing up the pop charts as a solo act with songs like “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” “Rocky Mountain High,” “Sunshine On My Shoulders,” “Annie’s Song,” “Back Home Again,” “Thank God I’m A Country Boy,” and “Calypso,” solidifying his position as one of the top stars of the 1970s.
By his third album in 1970, Denver’s social and political leanings were defined more clearly. Denver was one of the first artists to share an environmental message through his music, beginning with the song “Whose Garden Was This?” This was the first in a long line of songs that he wrote about the environment.
Denver contributed his talents to the benefit of many charitable and environmental causes and received numerous civic and humanitarian awards over the years. Fans responded to his heartfelt urgings about ecology, peace, and compassion that were consistently delivered in a gentle manner on his records and at live performances.
His passion to help create a global community paved the way for ventures into new musical and geographic territories. In 1985 he was invited by the Soviet Union of Composers to perform in the USSR, inspiring the internationally acclaimed song “Let Us Begin (What Are We Making Weapons For?).” The powerful video for “Let Us Begin” moved viewers around the world.
“I thought that I might be able to do something to further the cause of East/West understanding… The Russians say that the first swallow of spring won’t make the weather for the whole season, but it can mark the turn toward a warmer climate. I tried to be that swallow.”
The success of his visit lead to a concert tour of the USSR in 1986. These were the first performances by an American artist since the Cold War began – an unprecedented cultural exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union. He returned to the USSR in 1987 to do a benefit concert for the victims of Chernobyl.
Denver was also the first artist from the West to do a multi-city tour of mainland China, in October 1992. He was somewhat astonished to discover how popular and well known his songs were in China. “‘Country Roads,’” he was told, “is the most famous song written in the West.”
Denver was a true adventurer, exploring all that the world had to offer. Throughout his life’s journey he challenged himself on every level, which is an integral part of what made him an extraordinary man, an uncommon friend and a rare human being.
While the frontiers of the American West satisfied his spirit, less-traveled frontiers appealed to his imagination. Denver was an experienced airplane pilot and collected vintage biplanes. His interest in outer space was so great that he took and passed NASA’s examination to determine mental and physical fitness needed for space travel. He then became a leading candidate to be the “first civilian in space” on the Space Shuttle Challenger. Denver planned to write a song in space, but circumstances kept him from joining the ill-fated expedition, which saddened the world when it exploded during take-off in 1986.
Among his many gifts, Denver was also a talented photographer. He photographed images of the people and places he experienced in his travels and showed his work professionally, often in connection with speeches made at colleges and universities as well as government and business facilities across the country.
Many of Denver’s songs reflected his relationship with nature and indeed, one of his greatest pleasures was spending time outdoors. He spent as much time as possible backpacking, hiking, climbing and fishing. He was an avid golfer and skier, regularly participating in celebrity charity events for both sports.
John Denver died tragically in a plane crash on October 12, 1997. He was survived by his brother Ron, mother Erma and three children, Zak, Anna Kate and Jesse Belle.
On March 12, 2007, Colorado’s Senate passed a resolution to make Denver’s trademark 1972 hit “Rocky Mountain High” one of the state’s two official state songs, sharing duties with its predecessor, “Where the Columbines Grow.”
Today, millions of fans old and new enjoy the work of this extraordinary performer. Thirty albums and four decades after he began, John Denver’s music is as relevant as ever. His humanitarian work continues to strengthen our global village, and his dynamic celebration of life, spirit and nature is a powerful inspiration to us all.
Contact: americanauthors@7smgmt.com
Since releasing their debut album Oh, What a Life in 2014, New York-based pop-rock outfit American Authors have experienced milestones most bands only dream about. They’ve watched their music climb to the top of the charts, and seen singles go multi-platinum. They’ve played awards shows, hit the stages of legendary venues all over the world, and toured the world with bands such as Andy Grammar, OAR, OneRepublic, The Revivalists, and The Fray. Their anthemic hit single “Best Day of My Life” has been featured in over 600 movie trailers, TV shows, commercials, and as a theme song for the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Despite these accolades, however, lead singer Zac Barnett vows that the best day of their lives is still yet to come. “We just want to keep going,” he says. “We can’t wait to continue this adventure.”
Originally formed in 2006 at Berklee College of Music in Boston, American Authors - Zac Barnett [vocals/guitar], Dave Rublin [bass], and Matt Sanchez [drums] - eventually dropped out of college and moved to Brooklyn to continue refining their airtight songcraft.
“My whole reason for attending Berklee College of Music was to find other like-minded musicians to start a band with. I knew I had found those people after the first night we jammed,” claims Barnett.
Shortly after moving to Brooklyn, American Authors crossed paths with Shep Goodman while playing a gig in the city. Eventually signing with Goodman’s production company Dirty Canvas, the band wrote and recorded “Believer” and quickly saw the track thrown into rotation on Sirius XM’s Alt Nation radio. Their next song “Best Day of My Life” was featured in a commercial campaign for Lowes. Shortly after, American Authors inked a deal with Island Records.
“Boston was a great city to get our feet wet in but moving to Brooklyn completely changed our lives,” drummer Matt Sanchez explains. “Constantly surrounded by so many new creatives and artists fueled our music to a whole new level.”
By 2018, the guys had impressively generated over 1 billion global streams on a string of alternately striking and soaring smashes. Their inescapable and instantly recognizable breakthrough “Best Day of My Life” earned a triple-platinum certification from the RIAA and vaulted to #11 on the Billboard Hot 100 in addition to receiving countless film, television, video game, and sports syncs. Their 2014 full-length debut, Oh, What A Life, achieved gold status, while the follow-up What We Live For, spawned another Top 20 hit, “Go Big or Go Home,” in 2016. Along the way, they sold out shows around the globe and ignited stages at festivals, including Lollapalooza, Firefly Music Festival, BottleRock Napa Valley, Reading Festival, and Leeds Festival, to name a few.
“I don’t think anyone knew how special Best Day of My Life really was when we first wrote it,” bassist Dave Rublin reflects. “It just kept snowballing from TV to commercials then one day into a number one record.”
Hot off of their critically acclaimed third album Seasons (2019), the band wasted no time getting back in the studio to record the Counting Down EP, released during the 2020 pandemic. The condensed album is at once a sonic adventure, an introspective on overcoming self-doubt, and a surging contemplation of hope and opportunity.
2021 and 2022 brought forth notable single collaborations with Santana & Rob Thomas (“Move”), Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray (“Nice & Easy”), CVBZ (“This Time is Right”), Chad Tepper (“Timeless”), and Fedde le Grand (“One Way Up”), followed by unique cover renditions of songs by Olivia Rodrigo (“good 4 u”) and Post Malone (“Circles”). The band is putting the finishing touches on a new album due in early 2023.
“We’ve never been afraid to explore new musical genres but we always try to maintain a message of hope in our music,” states Zac.
It all comes together to present a vision of the band that’s at once recognizable and unfamiliar. For while Barnett does think some of the new songs “are even more in the genre of classic American Authors than a lot of other stuff we’ve done in recent history”, he also sees this next chapter as opening a new door and leaving the past behind.
“Nothing ever came easy for us,” Dave reveals. “We had this crazy dream and we had to do everything ourselves and keep working harder and harder every day to make those dreams a reality.”
Contact: bobbydarin@7smgmt.com
Bobby Darin’s voracious desire for show business fame was fueled by a sense that the sword of Damocles was always hanging over him. Darin was born Walden Robert Cassotto on May 14th, 1936 in the Bronx to a family of very modest means. At an early age Darin developed rheumatic fever which damaged the valves of his heart. He was a frail and sickly boy, and normal stickball in the streets or roughhousing with other kids his age was just not possible for him. He was however a very bright and gifted boy and his “mother” Polly realized this early on. Polly was a Vaudeville performer in her youth and she encouraged Bobby to explore music and to read constantly. Around the house Bobby was regularly exposed to music of the great big bands and singers such as Al Jolson, Frank Sinatra, and Ella Fitzgerald. Music played a big part in the Cassotto household in Bobby’s youth. By the time he was in his early teens he could play the piano and drums. With Polly’s love and encouragement and with a deep desire to make Polly proud, Bobby began to plan and work towards his dreams. Sometimes important events in one’s life happen randomly. One day he overheard the family Doctor say to Polly that “even with the best medical treatment and luck the boy probably won’t live to see age 20.” Friends and family later theorized that this medical revelation was what fueled the brash, arrogant and intensely driven Darin to never suffer fools gladly or to waste a single moment. He was on borrowed time and he knew it.
Bobby attended the prestigious Bronx High School of Science which only very gifted students could attend. After graduation he attended Hunter College but dropped out after one semester. He concluded that college was not the path for him and he would “fight the fight in the streets to achieve his show business dreams.” He began to write songs and sing demos and hung around the famous Brill Building, which was the epicenter of music and creativity in New York City at that time. He was signed to Decca Records but was later dropped when none of the songs made an impact. He got a second chance at Atco Records, founded by the legendary Ahmet Ertegun. After a few sessions there again with no success, the executives at Atco were about to drop him from the label. Ahmet personally intervened and decided to produce some sessions with Darin. The musical gods shined on them as a session on April 10, 1958 produced a song that would go to number 3 on the charts. ”Splish Splash” was written by Darin in 15 minutes after a half-joking dare from disc jockey Murray the K Kaufman’s mother. The sickly boy from the Bronx was on his way. Other hits soon followed such as “Queen of the Hop,” and the beautiful Latin-flavored tune he wrote “Dream Lover,” which sold over a million copies and went to number 2 on the charts. With regular appearances on the Dick Clark and Ed Sullivan Shows and regular touring gigs, Darin was beginning to fulfill the dream he and Polly had mapped out.
With Darin established as a solid rock and roll star, Ahmet and the brain trust at Atco were stunned when he came to them wanting to do an album of standards in the Sinatra, Ella and Dean Martin genre. Quite simply they thought he was crazy and strongly opposed the idea. Bobby however always wanted to be an all around entertainer and he believed that rock and roll was fickle and that rock and roll singers would come and go without longevity. Darin had the courage of his convictions and made a deal with Ahmet that he would pay for the album out of the royalties that he had earned from the rock hits. The 1959 album “That’ s All” launched Bobby Darin into another level of artistry, global fame and critical acclaim. “Mack the Knife” reached number one and stayed there for 10 weeks and sold over two million copies. “Beyond the Sea” reached number 6 and may be the most well known Darin song ever due to its constant usage in movies, ads, documentaries and TV shows. Darin won a 1959 Record of the Year Grammy Award for “Mack the Knife” and a Grammy for best new artist. The album also put Darin into the adult/swing genre audience that helped elevate him from just a rock and roll singer. To see Darin on a nightclub floor was to witness a consummate performer. Liz Taylor once said “he's so comfortable on stage it’s like he's in his own living room." Ahmet sent a young Diana Ross to see Darin live to learn about how to control a room. The early 60’s saw Darin perform to sellout crowds at the most prestigious nightclubs in the country, from the Copa in New York to the Flamingo in Las Vegas. He also began to do movies. He met his future wife Sandra Dee on the film “Come September” filmed in Italy in 1960. A seven-picture deal with Paramount showcased what a fine actor he was. His gritty performance with Sidney Poitier in the film “ Pressure Point" brought critical acclaim. His role in the 1963 film “ Captain Newman M.D.” with Gregory Peck garnered him a best supporting Oscar nomination. Musically he ventured into folk/country music with songs he wrote such as “Things,” “ You're the Reason I’m Living,” and “18 Yellow Roses.” By 1964 Bobby Darin was at the pinnacle of the entertainment industry and had achieved many of the goals he had set out for himself.
When the Beatles arrived in the US in 1964 music and pop culture changed drastically. He and his peers such as Sammy, Dean, and Frank all had to adapt to the new zeitgeist. In 1964 Darin began to focus more on the business side of music with his publishing company TM music. He took a break from touring and spent more time with his family. In truth, he was also a bit afraid of the “empty seats” syndrome, which all entertainers confront at one time or another. In 1967 Darin got divorced from Sandra Dee. This was a difficult and painful period for him but it would only get worse a year later. In 1968 Bobby had become close with Senator Robert F. Kennedy and he campaigned for him actively. He was with the Senator the day before he was killed in Los Angeles on June 5, 1968. This stunned Bobby to the core but an even more painful chapter was about to be revealed. RFK had spoken at length with Darin about his running for political office. Darin was serious about it and when his sister Nina and “father” Charlie heard about it they had to unearth a very dark secret. Nina and Charlie feared that if Darin got into politics the press would uncover a hidden bombshell. His beloved Polly, whom he so revered, was not his biological mother but actually his grandmother. Nina, who he had known as his sister his entire life, was actually his biological mother. This revelation emotionally scarred Darin for the rest of his life. He was angry with Nina and he felt that his whole life had been a lie. In the wake of a totally changed musical landscape, the death of RFK, and the revelation about his family, Bobby Darin sold all his possessions and moved into a trailer in Big Sur in northern California to reevaluate his life. He read voraciously, spent time with his son, and debated politics with friends who lived on the property with him. In 1968-69 he wrote and recorded two albums that covered issues such as civil rights, poverty, the Vietnam War and the death of RFK. Gone were the super polished Vegas act and the hipster swagger of a consummate showman. What replaced it was a man who was writing and singing about the issues the country was facing and what he personally was facing; turmoil. He told Dick Clark at the time that he was “lost” and that back in the day he “chose plastic when he should have chosen ethnic.” One of the songs from this period is one of Darin’s finest compositions, “Simple Song of Freedom." The tune’s lyrics insightfully spoke of a country at war with itself. Singer Tim Hardin recorded it as well and had a nice hit with it.
By 1971 Darin was facing serious health problems. Throughout the 60’s he would battle heart arrhythmias and extreme fatigue. In February 1971 he underwent open-heart surgery to put in a pacemaker. The surgery was a success and he began to reemerge into the show business world again. In addition to Vegas gigs, he appeared as a guest on many TV shows of the era including the Flip Wilson Show, The Dean Martin Show and Sonny and Cher. He began to integrate into his shows contemporary music from writers such as Laura Nyro, James Taylor and The Beatles. Audiences in the 1972-73 period saw an evolving artist who still would do the golden hits but would weave in songs about social consciousness that were relevant to the times. It also showed a more compassionate man who realized there were more important things in life than superficial show biz success. Around this time he spent a day with his son Dodd throwing away various awards and accolades from a lifetime in show business. He explained to his son that those things were meaningless to him. What a difference from the brash young singer who years earlier told Life Magazine that he “wanted to be a legend by the time he was 25.” Darin was determined to not to be an old rocker or Vegas hipster simply to be trotted out for retirement conventions. In 1972 he got his own weekly variety show on NBC, which ran through 1973. He also had a regular gig at the prestige venue of the time, The Las Vegas Hilton which was home to Elvis and Barbra Streisand. He had signed a deal to open the new MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas in January of 1974. The 27-week 3-year deal was his "insurance policy” financially so if he were too ill to work later he would be solvent. Things were on the upswing for Bobby Darin after the tumultuous and deeply troubling times of 1967-68.
In early 1973 Darin was again having severe heart arrhythmias and exhaustion. The finest Doctors of the day could not find the cause. After wrapping his NBC TV show in May 1973 and then closing for the final time at the Las Vegas Hilton in August 1973, Bobby Darin went to LA to rest and try and get better. On December 20th, 1973 he underwent exploratory open-heart surgery. The Doctors found a massive infection in his heart and he died hours after the surgery. He left his body to medical research in the hope he could help other people. He was 37 years old.
Bobby Darin left an indelible mark on the music industry and world of entertainment in his brief 37 years. From his early rock and roll hits, to his swinging interpretations of the great American Songbook, to his later forays into folk and country; he did it all and did it with conviction and passion. He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 1999, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. His life was portrayed in the 2004 feature film “Beyond the Sea” for Lions Gate entertainment. The 1998 PBS documentary “Beyond the Song” told his story in a poignant way with interviews from his peers, friends and family woven with footage of him performing. There have been five books written about his life. Because Darin ventured into so many different genres, critics and sometimes the public had a hard time defining him or fully appreciating his talent. However, his work may best be understood in this quote from Neil Young given to LA Times journalist Robert Hilburn in 1990 “I used to get so mad and frustrated with Darin because he kept changing his musical style. Only later did I realize what a genius he was.”
In 2018 “Dream Lover” The Bobby Darin musical broke box office records in Melbourne, Australia and won a Helpmann award, the equivalent to a Tony Award in the US. Plans are underway for a Darin musical on Broadway.
The length of a man’s life is not what is important but rather what he leaves behind. Bobby Darin left us an amazing body of work that has stood the test of time and will be enjoyed forever.
Contact: railroadearth@7smgmt.com
There’s a great scene in The Last Waltz – the documentary about The Band’s final concert – where director Martin Scorsese is discussing music with drummer/singer/mandolin player Levon Helm. Helm says, “If it mixes with rhythm, and if it dances, then you’ve got a great combination of all those different kinds of music: country, bluegrass, blues music, show music…”
To which Scorsese, the inquisitive interviewer, asks, “What’s it called, then?”
“Rock & roll!”
Clearly looking for a more specific answer, but realizing that he isn’t going to get one, Marty laughs. “Rock & roll…”
Well, that’s the way it is sometimes: musicians play music, and don’t necessarily worry about where it gets filed. It’s the writers, record labels, managers, etc., who tend to fret about what “kind” of music it is.
And like The Band, the members of Railroad Earth aren’t losing sleep about what “kind” of music they play – they just play it. When they started out in 2001, they were a bunch of guys interested in playing acoustic instruments together. As Railroad Earth violin/vocalist Tim Carbone recalls, “All of us had been playing in various projects for years, and many of us had played together in different projects. But this time, we found ourselves all available at the same time.”
Songwriter/lead vocalist Todd Sheaffer continues, “When we started, we only loosely had the idea of getting together and playing some music. It started that informally; just getting together and doing some picking and playing. Over a couple of month period, we started working on some original songs, as well as playing some covers that we thought would be fun to play.”
Shortly thereafter, they took five songs from their budding repertoire into a studio and knocked out a demo in just two days. Their soon-to-be manager sent that demo to a few festivals, and – to the band’s surprise – they were booked at the prestigious Telluride Bluegrass Festival before they’d even played their first gig. This prompted them to quickly go in and record five more songs; the ten combined tracks of which made up their debut album, “The Black Bear Sessions.”
That was the beginning of Railroad Earth’s journey: since those early days, they’ve gone on to release five more critically acclaimed studio albums and one hugely popular live one called, “Elko.” They’ve also amassed a huge and loyal fanbase who turn up to support them in every corner of the country, and often take advantage of the band’s liberal taping and photo policy. But Railroad Earth bristle at the notion of being lumped into any one “scene.” Not out of animosity for any other artists: it’s just that they don’t find the labels very useful. As Carbone points out, “We use unique acoustic instrumentation, but we’re definitely not a bluegrass or country band, which sometimes leaves music writers confused as to how to categorize us. We’re essentially playing rock on acoustic instruments.”
Ultimately, Railroad Earth’s music is driven by the remarkable songs of front-man, Todd Sheaffer, and is delivered with seamless arrangements and superb musicianship courtesy of all six band members. As mandolin/bouzouki player John Skehan points out, “Our M.O. has always been that we can improvise all day long, but we only do it in service to the song. There are a lot of songs that, when we play them live, we adhere to the arrangement from the record. And other songs, in the nature and the spirit of the song, everyone knows we can kind of take flight on them.” Sheaffer continues: “The songs are our focus, our focal point; it all starts right there. Anything else just comments on the songs and gives them color. Some songs are more open than others. They ‘want’ to be approached that way – where we can explore and trade musical ideas and open them up to different territories. But sometimes it is what the song is about.”
So: they can jam with the best of them and they have some bluegrass influences, but they use drums and amplifiers (somewhat taboo in the bluegrass world). What kind of music is it then? Mandolin/vocalist John Skehan offers this semi-descriptive term: “I always describe it as a string band, but an amplified string band with drums.” Tim Carbone takes a swing: “We’re a Country & Eastern band! ” Todd Sheaffer offers “A souped-up string band? I don’t know. I’m not good at this.” Or, as a great drummer/singer/mandolin player with an appreciation for Americana once said: “Rock & roll!”
Contact: ettajames@7smgmt.com
Few female R&B stars enjoyed the kind of consistent acclaim Etta James received throughout a career that spanned six decades; the celebrated producer Jerry Wexler once called her "the greatest of all modern blues singers," and she recorded a number of enduring hits, including "At Last," "Tell Mama," "I'd Rather Go Blind," and "All I Could Do Was Cry." At the same time, despite possessing one of the most powerful voices in music, James only belatedly gained the attention of the mainstream audience, appearing rarely on the pop charts despite scoring 30 R&B hits, and she lived a rough-and-tumble life that could have inspired a dozen soap operas, battling drug addiction and bad relationships while outrunning a variety of health and legal problems.
Etta James was born Jamesetta Hawkins in Los Angeles, California on January 25, 1938; her mother was just 14 years old at the time, and she never knew her father, though she would later say she had reason to believe he was the well-known pool hustler Minnesota Fats. James was raised by friends and relatives instead of her mother through most of her childhood, and it was while she was living with her grandparents that she began regularly attending a Baptist church. James' voice made her a natural for the choir, and despite her young age she became a soloist with the group, and appeared with them on local radio broadcasts. At the age of 12, after the death of her foster mother, James found herself living with her mother in San Francisco, and with little adult supervision, she began to slide into juvenile delinquency. But James' love of music was also growing stronger, and with a pair of friends she formed a singing group called the Creolettes. The girls attracted the attention of famed bandleader Johnny Otis, and when he heard their song "Roll with Me Henry" -- a racy answer song to Hank Ballard's infamous "Work with Me Annie" -- he arranged for them to sign with Modern Records, and the Creolettes cut the tune under the name The Peaches (the new handle coming from Etta's longtime nickname). "Roll with Me Henry," renamed "The Wallflower," became a hit in 1955, though Georgia Gibbs would score a bigger success with her cover version, much to Etta's dismay. After charting with a second R&B hit, "Good Rockin' Daddy," the Peaches broke up and James stepped out on her own.
James' solo career was a slow starter, and she spent several years cutting low-selling singles for Modern and touring small clubs until 1960, when Leonard Chess signed her to a new record deal. James would record for Chess Records and its subsidiary labels Argo and Checker into the late '70s and, working with producers Ralph Bass and Harvey Fuqua, she embraced a style that fused the passion of R&B with the polish of jazz, and scored a number of hits for the label, including "All I Could Do Was Cry," "My Dearest Darling," and "Trust in Me." While James was enjoying a career resurgence, her personal life was not faring as well; she began experimenting with drugs as a teenager, and by the time she was 21 she was a heroin addict, and as the '60s wore on she found it increasingly difficult to balance her habit with her career, especially as she clashed with her producers at Chess, fought to be paid her royalties, and dealt with a number of abusive romantic relationships. James' career went into a slump in the mid-'60s, but in 1967 she began recording with producer Rick Hall at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and, adopting a tougher, grittier style, she bounced back onto the R&B charts with the tunes "Tell Mama" and "I'd Rather Go Blind."
In the early '70s, James had fallen off the charts again, her addiction was raging, and she turned to petty crime to support her habit. She entered rehab on a court order in 1973, the same year she recorded a rock-oriented album,Only a Fool, with producerGabriel Mekler. Through most of the '70s, a sober James got by touring small clubs and playing occasional blues festivals, and she recorded for Chess with limited success, despite the high quality of her work. In 1978, longtime fans the Rolling Stones paid homage to James by inviting her to open some shows for them on tour, and she signed with Warner Bros., cutting the album Deep in the Night with producer Jerry Wexler. While the album didn't sell well, it received enthusiastic reviews and reminded serious blues and R&B fans that James was still a force to be reckoned with. By her own account, James fell back into drug addiction after becoming involved with a man with a habit, and she went back to playing club dates when and where she could until she kicked again thanks to a stay at the Betty Ford Center in 1988. That same year, James signed with Island Records and cut a powerful comeback album, Seven Year Itch, produced by Barry Beckett of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section. The album sold respectably andJames was determined to keep her career on track, playing frequent live shows and recording regularly, issuing Stickin' to My Guns in 1990 and The Right Time in 1992.
In 1994, a year after she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, James signed to the Private Music label, and recorded Mystery Lady: Songs of Billie Holiday, a tribute to the great vocalist she had long cited as a key influence; the album earned Etta her first Grammy Award. The relationship with Private Music proved simpatico, and between 1995 and 2003 James cut eight albums for the label, while also maintaining a busy touring schedule. In 2003, James published an autobiography, Rage to Survive: The Etta James Story, and in 2008 she was played onscreen by modern R&B diva Beyoncé Knowles in Cadillac Records, a film loosely based on the history of Chess Records. Knowles recorded a faithful cover of "At Last" for the film's soundtrack, and later performed the song at Barack Obama's 2009 inaugural ball; several days later, James made headlines when during a concert she said "I can't stand Beyoncé, she had no business up there singing my song that I've been singing forever." (Later the same week, James told The New York Times that the statement was meant to be a joke -- "I didn't really mean anything...even as a little child, I've always had that comedian kind of attitude" -- but she was saddened that she hadn't been invited to perform the song.)
In 2010, James was hospitalized with MRSA-related infections, and it was revealed that she had received treatment for dependence on painkillers and was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, which her son claimed was the likely cause of her outbursts regarding Knowles. James released The Dreamer, for Verve Forecast in 2011. She claimed it was her final album of new material. Etta James was diagnosed with terminal leukemia later that year, and died on January 20, 2012 in Riverside, California at the age of 73.
written by Mark Deming for AllMusicGuide.com
Contact: galactic@7Smgmt.com
Galactic’s first new studio album in more than three years, ALREADY READY ALREADY – released on their own Tchuop-Zilla Records – sees the renowned New Orleans based instrumental outfit taking a distinctly contemporary approach towards their own progressive sound, interpolating modern rhythms and electronic instrumentation within the house-shaking framework of the Crescent City’s funk pop ‘n’ roll. Produced by the band’s Robert Mercurio and Ben Ellman, the new LP finds Galactic once again enlisting a diverse array of vocal collaborators to assist in their musical exploration, each of whom lend lyrical flavor and individualistic personality to the band’s multi-faceted sonic grooves. Bookended by a high powered pair of trademark Galactic instrumentals that give the album its title, ALREADY READY ALREADY. The album is a short, sharp blast of undeniable creative muscle, from the stripped down kick/snap verses of “Going Straight Crazy,” featuring New Orleans singer (and YouTube sensation) Princess Shaw, to punk cabaret artist Boyfriend’s quirky speed-rap on the breakneck “Dance At My Funeral.” As ever, Galactic’s omnivorous musical interests make easy classification utterly impossible – ALREADY READY ALREADY is as all encompassing and universal as the band’s moniker established long ago.
“I’ve never been able to put a label on what we do,” Ellman says. “I could say it’s funk or I could say it’s R&B or jazz or whatever else, but really, it’s all of that.”
“It’s not that we’re always trying to push boundaries,” says Mercurio, “but we definitely take influence from our hometown and try to do something new with it. We tour all around the world and we’re exposed to tons of elements that filter their way into our consciousness and come out through our music.”
Though their hearts are always in New Orleans, Galactic spends virtually all its life on the road, leaving limited timeframes in which to record. Whenever time allowed, the group holed up at their studio headquarters, Number C, where they were free to experiment and develop new ideas.
“Having our own studio allows to not be on some schedule,” Ellman says, “where we have to have material, save up some money, book the studio, and that’s the time we have to make a record. It’s a completely different process, where we can always be working on music.”
Over time, the tracks revealed themselves as either instrumentals (like the slippery, dub-inflected “Goose Grease”) or vocal songs. The band, so well woven into their city’s ever-changing music scene, began to thumb through their little black book in search of collaborators.
“Our community is so rich with talent,” Ellman says. “We’re just lucky to be in a situation where we can make phone calls, then someone comes to the studio, we kick it, start working on things. It’s all really organic.”
Galactic brought in a diverse array of predominantly young female singers, each of whom brings their own disparate musical tastes and cultural flavor. Working with artists lesser known on the national stage but beloved in their own community enables Galactic to evince a kind of sonic truth about their hometown, putting its multi-faceted underground to the fore.
“Trust me, I loved having Macy Gray and Mavis Staples on our last record,” Mercurio says. “It was an honor to work with them. But there’s something fun about making music with someone not everybody has heard of and end up getting a great reaction to it. There are no preconceived thoughts as to what the song should be like because the listener doesn’t know the artist as well.”
That being said, a number of the voices heard on ALREADY READY ALREADY are Galactic veterans: “Touch Get Cut” features the band’s touring vocalist, Erica Falls, while “Clap Your Hands” is sung by Ms. Charm Taylor, previously featured on 2015’s acclaimed INTO THE DEEP. The lilting “Everlasting Light” teams Galactic with frequent collaborator, The Revivalists’ David Shaw, alongside Nahko of Nahko & Medicine For The People – the only non-New Orleans resident among the features.
As for working with Nahko, Ellman says, “We just liked his vocal.” “Being from New Orleans isn’t a prerequisite for working with us. You never want to be restricted, it’s whatever serves the song best.”
Galactic is, likely even at this very moment, on the road as usual, with Erica Falls putting her own stamp on ALREADY READY ALREADY’s songs as they manifest new shapes through live performance. As if their perpetual tour schedule weren’t enough, Galactic announce the band’s purchase and future stewardship of New Orleans’ legendary Tipitina’s nightclub.
“We’re so incredibly honored to be tasked as the current caretakers of such a historic venue,” says Ellman. “My connection with the club started way before I was lucky enough to take the stage. My first job in New Orleans was at Tipitina’s as a cook in the (now defunct) kitchen. The importance of respecting what Tip’s means for musicians and the city of New Orleans is not lost on us. We're excited for the future of the club and look forward to all the amazing music and good times ahead.”
With that in mind, it turns out that, despite the lack of released work, the past three years have in fact been remarkably prolific for Galactic. The sessions that yielded ALREADY READY ALREADY will generate still another LP due later in 2019, one which Ellman describes as “possibly more of a throwback thing” but will almost certainly morph into something altogether new and wonderful via Galactic’s evolutionary musical vision.
“There’s no telling what those songs will sound like when we’re through,” Mercurio says. “Once we get in there and start twisting them, see what perks up our ears, stuff can definitely take a left turn. That’s kind of the story of Galactic right there – we’re constantly taking left turns. I wonder what it would be like if we took a right…?”
Contact: Luceromusic@7smgmt.com
The search for one’s identity is a lifelong process that every individual must go through. Who someone is today, is not the person they were yesterday nor who they may be tomorrow. Despite those changes, there is a general idea of a defined sense of self. No matter what happens, it is that small yet solid and grounding definition of self that continues to drive us forward in our search for identity and whatever may come with it.
It would be difficult to find any artist who understands that better than the band Lucero.
Since forming in Memphis in the late 90’s, Lucero’s base musical hallmarks have remained similar to the band’s initial sound established with their first record The Attic Tapes. In the history of their expansive discography, Lucero has evolved and embraced everything from southern rock to Stax-inspired Memphis soul, whilst simultaneously maintaining their distinctive sonic foundations. Over 20 years later, dedicated fans of the group still flock to hear the band’s punchy driving rhythms, punk-rooted guitar licks, and lyrics that evoke the whiskey drenched sentimentality of Americana singer-songwriters. As expected of any band built to survive, Lucero has welcomed change over the course of their career, but it has always been on their terms.
The band’s twelfth album, Should’ve Learned by Now, began its life as hardly more than some rough demos and lingering guitar parts. These pieces that were left behind from the band’s previous albums, Among the Ghosts (2018) and When You Found Me (2021) were deemed too uptempo and capering for the prior records’ darker themes.
“I had a particular sound I was looking for on each record and there was no room for any goofy rock & roll or cute witticisms or even simply upbeat songs,” said primary lyricist and frontman, Ben Nichols. “But now finally, it was time to revisit all of that stuff and get it out in the world. That’s how we got to the appropriately-for-us-titled album Should’ve Learned by Now. The album is basically about how we know we are fuckups and I guess we are ok with that.”
The band, comprised of all its original members (which in addition to Ben Nichols, includes Brian Venable on guitar, Roy Berry on drums, John C. Stubblefield on bass, and Rick Steff on keys) teamed up for a third time with producer and Grammy Award-winning engineer and mixer, Matt Ross-Spang. Lucero began the recording process in Sam Phillips Recording Service before transitioning and finishing the record in Ross-Spang’s newly opened Southern Grooves Productions in Memphis, TN. Ross-Spang appears to have settled in with the band’s more trademark sound whilst very much making his touch known to listeners.
“He knows how to take the sounds we’re making on our own and just kind of polish them up in the right way. Or dirty it up in the right way. Whatever it takes, he just kind of does it,” says Nichols.
The first track from the album “One Last F.U.” is a punchy and somewhat combative song which was one of the original remnants of Among the Ghosts. Despite its title, “One Last F.U.” is less about standoffishness and more a self-reflection on the kind of people we are capable of being in difficult situations. According to Nichols “The rest of the song was simply about wanting to be left alone while I drank at the bar. That could be taken in a kind of grumpy/antagonistic way, but I feel ok singing the song because I’ve been both characters in the song at different times. Sometimes I’m the one wanting to be left alone and sometimes I’m the drunk one blabbing all night to someone that just wants to be left alone.” Right off the bat, Nichols’ vocals are awash in rock and roll slap-back reverb. The effect pushes Nichols' naturally upfront vocals wider, so they fill the space in a manner more akin to a live performance. It’s one of a few new production effects that extend throughout the record and add a new level of presence and attitude to the band’s sound.
The second track, “Macon if We Make It”, was inspired by the band having to traverse through Georgia during a hurricane. When asked where the next stop on the tour was, the band responded with, “Macon, if we make it.” Continuing to be reminiscent of older works, “Macon if We Make It” has echoes of the band’s 2009 album 1372 Overton Park. The song is really driven by guitarist Brian Venable’s formidable electric guitar. The lyrics seem at first to be mostly preoccupied with a literal storm situation at hand but turn out to be more about a troubled relationship back home. The proverbial dam breaks when the narrator sings “I don’t know if we were in love. I just know it wasn’t enough. Got caught in the storm and the water it’s rising…” The song gives way to a powerful drum lead up by Roy Berry and the listener is carried out, like a raft, on a ripping guitar solo.
The pushes and pulls, builds and breakdowns are all over the album’s subsequent tracks, but it isn’t all hard-edged rock and roll all the time. “She Leads Me”, is inspired somewhat by the classic tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, and delves into a softer and more nostalgic sound. With backing vocals supplied by Jesse Davis and Cory Branan, it’s a song that lyrically rests on the concept that we sometimes need to recognize and acknowledge our past for a gentle enough reassurance to move forward.
The rest of the album dives right back into its more rock and roll songs with “At the Show” and “Nothing’s Alright”, both of which examine the highs and lows of remembering old loves, reminiscing on the old days, and contented introspection. Aspects which finally come to a head in the album’s title track “Should’ve Learned by Now”, a rough and edgy song that tackles the fact that all the lessons, though clearly recognized, have yet to sink in. Quite poetically, the song is set to a tune that may be the greatest call back to Lucero’s punk upbringing.
From its original Ben Nichols-designed cover art to its credits, the album is a reflection of a band that knows itself. Should’ve Learned by Now bridges the gap musically between “old Lucero” and “new Lucero” in a manner which affixes the band’s position as the perfect intersection of punk initiative with hard-earned artistry. It’s an album that recognizes the past in its sound and content, but leaves the door wide open to the future and for the lessons still in store.
Contact: milow@7smgmt.com
Milow is the alias of Belgium-born singer/songwriter Jonathan Vandenbroeck, a mysterious moniker chosen at random to be the auteur of a body of music that sees the release of his seventh and latest studio album, Nice to Meet You. All of them, from his 2006 debut The Bigger Picture, which produced one of his biggest hits in “You Don’t Know,” have been self-released on his own Homerun Records as a truly independent DIY artist who follows his own muse.
“As someone used to responding to crisis situations, I was prepared when the pandemic arrived,” says Milow, who was surrounded by musical instruments as a child, picking up the accordion, guitar and piano in short order, writing his first song in English at 15. “This was something I recognized. Though it might seem like the worst time to make music, it turned out to be the best time for me. When things are at their most difficult, that’s when it gets easier and I’m at my most creative.”
Nice to Meet You was recorded with live musicians – including his longtime guitarist/ touring partner Tom Vanstiphout – at Brussels’ famed ICP Studios, with members of the band camping out in a bubble, eating meals together and sleeping on the premises. A greeting to the outside world – the title track is a paean to being a father to his two kids, 7 and 4 years old – the album is the perfect antidote for a world slowly emerging from the last two years of pandemic.
“After the last two years, I didn’t want to make a solitary album by myself,” confesses Milow. “I needed that energy to feed off, that interaction, camaraderie, feedback. Not just from producers, but the musicians, too. We were all happy to see each other and catch up.”
From the very first track, “Whatever It Takes,” a glorious homage to the thump of Motown bassist James Jamerson’s beat and the glorious ‘80s harmonies of Daryl Hall and John Oates, the album offers a vibrant, upbeat return to normalcy. The hook-laden, melodic pop includes the first single, “How Love Works,” about the trials and tribulations of relationships (with a stunning video directed by fellow Belgian Cecilia Verheyden), along with the Flamenco guitars and Moorish flavor of “ASAP,” a world music track about the responsibilities of friendship that channels the classic James Taylor/Carole King song, “You’ve Got a Friend.”
Other numbers, like the self-deprecating “Guinness Book of Records,” where the lovelorn narrator brags of setting the world mark for someone who “fucked it up a thousand times,” or the twin tributes to pop culture phenomena both created in 1981 -- the same year Milow, now 40, was born -- the ode to the Japanese video game “Donkey Kong,” and the breezy Motown rhythms of “DeLorean,” the homage to the ultimate underdog car featured in Back to the Future.
“I thought it was the right time for some lighthearted songs rather than any heavy introspection,” explains Milow. “I’m proud that I was able to get these 12 songs out of the last two years, making something positive out of difficult times. And that’s the way I look at life. In a crisis, I get a certain focus and see more clearly what I must do.”
But not all is pop hooks and sing-along choruses. The death of Milow’s longtime drummer Oscar Kraal during Covid from a battle with pancreatic cancer led to the title track, a rare contemplation on Milow’s relationship with his two children, in the wake of the two teenage kids left behind by the 50-year-old musician’s death, with the album’s closer, “Oscar,” serving as Milow’s musical eulogy to his friend.
“It was all about tearing these walls I had built around me,” says Milow, who referenced his own father as a rather distant presence in his childhood, along with his own vow to be a better parent. “Every album I’ve made is about leaving my comfort zone. The bravest thing I could do was write about something I didn’t have the courage to face before. I wanted to break the cycle I experienced with my own father, while acknowledging I have as much to learn from my kids as they do from me. I never wanted people to see that vulnerability before.”
Milow’s seven previous albums represent an ongoing dialogue with his audience, one that he may begin, but is soon picked up by his many followers around the world.
“My albums are like journals, diaries of that particular time in my life,” says Milow. “More people may discover me in the U.S., but I don’t want to attach my own happiness to making it there. One country won’t affect my career. I still get inspired to write songs that everyday people can relate to, rather than the life of a touring musician or rock star. That’s my role.”
Like his nod to the “DeLorean,” Milow appreciates maintaining the peculiarities of being an artist from Belgium.
“I can identify with that mentality of creating something independently and against all odds,” he says about maintaining his continental European focus. “The music scene is much more eclectic over here, from the festival lineups to radio. I love the freedom I have as a singer/songwriter to play many different genres.”
On Nice to Meet You, Milow does just that, renewing that relationship and inviting anyone and everyone who wants to join him. With a brave new world of streaming breaking down barriers of country and genre, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Milow add more fans – and territories -- to his ever-expanding reach.
Contact: betaradio@7smgmt.com
Home represents more than just a physical place.
It encompasses a state of being and an ideal. When you feel home, you feel whole. Humanity intrinsically seeks that feeling. This eternal search inspires Beta Radio’s third full-length and first for NETTWERK, Ancient Transition. The Wilmington, NC duo—Benjamin “Ben” Mabry and Brent Holloman—transform a tumultuous two years of corporeal and existential wandering into 10 songs cast in folk-style literary lyricism, Americana spirit, and orchestral experimentation.
On the journey, they creatively cover new ground.
“Throughout the whole process, there was an undercurrent of being displaced, because I moved four times,” says Ben. “Simultaneously, I was trying to understand how to reconcile who I was years ago with and who I am now. I was essentially searching for a home in a physical place as well as in an ideology and other people. My head was in this space for two years, so my reaction was to write songs that articulated these emotions. On the record, certain musical moments will prove sonically disruptive and reflect how I felt. The theme threads through everything.”
“While we were on the search, we let go of what we thought Beta Radio should sound like, experimented, and started simply pursuing what we like,” adds Brent. “For the first time, we utilized samples, an Unacorda, and old Juno 60 synthesizers from the eighties. We really expanded our sound.”
These lifelong friends carefully developed the sound over the course of two independent LPs. After quietly stirring a local buzz, 2014’s Colony of Bees marked a major breakthrough. Huffington Post touted the record among its “40 Best Albums of 2014,” while the single “On The Frame” generated 31 million cumulative Spotify streams between the original and acoustic versions. “Sitting Room” surpassed 11 million, and “I Am Mine” crossed the 4-million-mark. Meanwhile, they frequently occupied coveted real estate on high traffic playlists such as Soft Focus, Afternoon Acoustic, Happy Folk, The Most Beautiful Songs in the World, Calm Vibes, and more. As their profile organically grew, they released the holiday compilation, The Songs the Season Brings, Vol. 1-4.
By 2016, the musicians could focus on their next offering as they moved into a proper studio in downtown Wilmington.
“We both wanted to be doing Beta Radio full-time and, thankfully, we were finally able to,” continues Brent. “We’d recorded the past two records at home studios. With a proper studio and this newfound time, it was a seamless transition.”
Inspired by everything from The Arrival soundtrack to a re-reading of Slaughterhouse Five, the guys carefully crafted the music comprising Ancient Transition. The first single “Our Remains” illuminated a spark of inspiration. Off-time beats and ukulele bristle against strings as Ben’s delicate delivery captivates. It culminates on the thought-provoking refrain, “I’m wearing your remains.”
“The time signature forced us to think differently,” Ben admits. “In terms of the meaning, I had a very brief relationship with someone, but it didn’t go the way I thought it was going to go. I looked for home in this person and wasn’t finding it there.”
The opener “Tongue Tied” tempers electric guitar and broken Wurlitzer mixed with vibraphone. In order to achieve the warm echo, Ben sang into the guitar pickups, conjuring an airy vibe.
“In broad strokes, it touches on the idea that something’s missing,” he goes on. “You know there’s more you’re not seeing, yet you can’t find it. I don’t know what’s missing, but I’ve got to figure it out.”
Violin and banjo underscore a heavenly and hypnotic melody on the entrancing “Realistic City Living.”
“We like to add different instruments in unexpected ways,” says Brent. “The sonic palette is really rich. It makes for a record you can listen to from beginning to end. That was important to us.”
As they keep searching, Beta Radio ultimately offer a powerful reassurance on Ancient Transition.
“When people listen to this, I’d love for them to walk away feeling known,” Ben leaves off. “Art should reflect our humanity back to us. That’s definitely a big ambition for us. On the other end of the spectrum, we just hope listeners enjoy it.”
Contact: cayucas@7smgmt.com
A return to musical roots is a time-honored tradition for many established artists who have endured for the better part of a decade. Forming and shaping an identity can take an album or two, and perpetuating forward motion while perfecting a sound can take another. Sometimes a swerve gets thrown in, an unseen obstacle sets itself in the middle of a path, or an experiment or two get eked out for one reason or another. But oftentimes by this point in a career an itch pops up to circle back to where it all began in order to do what the artist does best. And so, for their fourth album as Cayucas, brothers Zach and Ben Yudin are heading back to the beach—in other words, to the sunny, vibrant, melodic rock from which they first paddled out.
A year or so on from their third album Real Life and nearly a decade since their debut, Bigfoot, in the summer of 2019 Cayucas sat down to take stock of their lot. With Real Life they had achieved a bigger, poppier, more bombastic sound; before that, with 2015’s Dancing at the Blue Lagoon, they had explored a moodier and more artsy terrain. Bigfoot had put them on the indie pop map with its catchy songwriting, buoyant rhythms, and singalong choruses, with lyrics celebrating the bright, coastal Californian life and all it has to offer. And so, dipping back into the creative juices still firmly flowing following the Real Life recording process and tour, the Yudins got started on a new album with a familiar tinge.
“We were on tour and I had the idea to write a song called ‘Blue Schwinn’ to get back to our roots,” Zach says. “We had this mantra: Back to the beach. That kickstarted the creative process. We were listening to a ton of Beach Boys music, fantasizing about living coastal again, and writing songs reminiscent of the original demos I wrote for Cayucas back in 2011—that’s kind of our base. For the first time in a while that idea felt really fresh and exciting; let’s go back to what really worked for us as songwriters and felt special, and what was most authentic for who we are as artists. To write songs that hearken back to where it all started now feels really good again.”
Inspired by that directive, the classic Pet Sounds and Smile Beach Boys sessions, the rhythmic groove of Jan & Dean, and an actual baby blue Schwinn bicycle Zach had owned when the band was going by the name Oregon Bike Trails ten years ago, the brothers began writing new material last fall. Digging up old drum loops, bass lines, and other samples from the personal Cayucas sound archive to pair with newly composed guitar riffs, vintage reverb effects, and other sonic elements, they quickly pieced together a few dozen short song ideas. “Blue Schwinn” was soon retitled “Summer Moon” and would be the first complete tune recorded for a new album, but despite the change its nostalgic Santa Monica/beach cruiser vibe remains. “I love a strong sense of nostalgia in a song, and a vintage baby blue Schwinn just creates the mood for me,” Zach says.
Working completely on their own in their home studio in Highland Park, Los Angeles, over the final weeks of 2019 and the first few months of 2020, they recorded three more similarly themed and toned songs. “From the Rafters” was rebuilt from a 2015-era demo unearthed by Ben that he says was originally a take on “Surfin’ USA.”“Yeah Yeah Yeah,” with its Brian Wilson meets
Beck textures, is about the contradiction of the West LA fantasy rock and roll life—“I’m on a Peugeot in the Palisades”—juxtaposed with their regular guy roots. And the creation of “Malibu 79” perfectly illustrates the brothers’ working dynamic: Zach began by throwing everything he could at the wall, including a theremin track, then stepped aside for Ben to determine what had stuck. At that point an album with a clear identity was beginning to take shape, fueled by their rediscovered sound as well as a consistent work ethic.
“Very rarely do we have major differences,” Ben says. “The songs can be very different but they have to feel cohesive in order to work together conceptually on an album.”
“We work on music every day, slowly chipping away,” Zach adds. “That’s how we feel productive. Plus we’ve gotten a lot better at songwriting over the last five years, so now we feel like we can turn those old demos into better songs. We use what we call our blink reaction while listening to music we write; your ‘blink’ works even better if you’re not as connected to the song. It’s about being honest and asking which section could be better. It can be a hard question to ask because it means it’s not finished.”
The band continued writing, revisiting, and recording at home throughout the spring of 2020— performing essentially every discernible task for the album short of mastering. The gem “California Girl” jangles and sparkles like the sun glinting on the sheet glass of the Pacific, with its veritable checklist of Golden State highlights woven through a classic “boy spots girl” narrative, while “Red-Yellow Bonfire” is a nostalgic, impossibly catchy acoustic groover ready- made for beachside campfire singalongs. And while at first listen the tracks may seem to simplify the glory of a sunny SoCal day, there is typically a slight pang or sense of longing present in the lyrics, such as with the line “it used to be easy—back when it was easy” from “Bonfire.”
The eight tracks also mark the first time Zach will earn a producer credit for a Cayucas album. The Yudins’ studio, dubbed Corner Pocket, is filled with many vintage pieces of equipment, but a vintage reverb tank found in Japan and a DanElectro with space echo may appear on the album more than any other sound.
When it came time to title the record, only one phrase seemed to capture the mood correctly. “The album is called Blue Summer, which is a lyric in the song ‘Malibu ’79 Long,’” Zach says. “It just felt right as a title. It was simple, classic and evokes the mood.
No matter your feelings about the warmest season, be sure that Cayucas will always be there to provide its perfect soundtrack.
Contact: eddie9v@7smgmt.com
As far back as he can remember, Capricorn Studios was calling Eddie 9V. As a kid scanning the sleeves of his favorite vinyl records, this fabled facility in Macon, Georgia, was always the secret ingredient, adding a little grit and honey to every song born on its floor. Capricorn and the bands who blew through it urged the Atlanta guitarist to ditch school at 15, play his fingers bloody throughout the south, and turn apathy into acclaim for early albums Left My Soul in Memphis (2019) and Little Black Flies (2021).
Eddie spent his first quarter-century admiring Capricorn from afar. But in December 2021, the 26-year-old finally put his thumbprint on the studio's mythology, corralling an eleven-strong group of the American South's best roots musicians to track his third album. "There was overwhelming excitement at being in such a legendary studio," he says. "But we hugged and got right to work. Everyone was joyous, loving, and flat-out playing their asses off."
You don't come to Capricorn Studios for polish. Frozen in time since its opening day in 1969, the mojo from sessions by giants like the Allman Brothers and Otis Redding still hangs in the air, while the recording philosophy remains gloriously raw. That suited Eddie, whose output has been celebrated for its warts-and-all snapshot of what went down. "In a world where everyone is trying to sound the best, I'm trying to sound like me," he reasons. "I always want the listener to feel like they're in the room with us. So I'd leave it in if a drum pedal squeaked or someone laughed during a take on the Capricorn album. It's our way of putting a stamp on the song."
Eddie's old-school ethos goes way back. Born Brooks Mason in June 1996, he acquired his first guitar aged six, "One of those with the speaker in it – the most bang for your buck, y'know?", ignored the prevailing pop scene at Oak Grove High School in favor of local heroes like Sean Costello and studied "older cats" like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Freddie King, and Rory Gallagher "to see what made them groove and tick." His shoot-from-the-lip lyrics adds Eddie came from family fish fries, where his Uncle Brian "taught me to make people laugh, how to hold an audience's attention."
When Eddie infiltrated his home state's live circuit – first with covers band The Smokin' Frogs, then its more adept blues-rock offshoot, The Georgia Flood – he quickly pricked up ears everywhere he played. His artistic vision became full realized when he killed Brooks Mason and adopted the solo moniker that promises an electrifying night out, “Eddie 9 Volt”.
"There are too many Joe Schmo r&b bands," he reasons. "I was on the road with another band, and we were talking like mobsters. So we gave each other names – mine was Eddie."
Already, there has been massive acclaim for his early output, with Left My Soul in Memphis dubbed "fresh and life-affirming" by Rock & Blues Muse and Little Black Flies praised by Classic Rock as "the most instinctive blues you'll hear all year." But as the Capricorn sessions ticked closer, Eddie fused the nervous energy into his best songs yet. "Coming off a straight blues record, I wanted to show people we're more than that," he reflects. "I was listening to Muscle Shoals and soul, a lot of music recorded at Capricorn in the late-'60s too. So we spent way more time crafting the new tunes. Each song took a week to write, instead of five in one night like Little Black Flies."
“Beg, Steal and Borrow” is ballsy soul with Eddie's spit flecking the mic. “Yella Alligator” is as swampy-sounding as the title, with slide guitars lapping around cardboard-box beats. Bout To “Make Me Leave Home” is a propulsive shuffle, Eddie's vocal seemingly made up in the moment. The gospel-touched “Are We Through” catches a breath before How Long drapes mellow organ over bone-dry riffs. “It's Goin' Down” fuses porch blues with psychedelic woodwind, while “Tryin' To Get By” brings brassy strut while concealing lyrics from the perspective of a man on a downward spiral, surviving on the crumbs of a love affair. "The lyrics and meanings of these new songs are way deeper," says Eddie. "Take the song “It's Goin' Down". It’s really about my struggle with alcohol, the dangerous nightlife of bars, and the drugs offered to you in the music industry. But then, one of my favorite tunes, “Yella Alligator,” is about a fictional psychedelic party in the bayou…"
Likewise, Capricorn is an album of thrilling musical contrasts. Bob Dylan’s “Down Along the Cove” is a pugnacious blues-rocker, followed by Khristie French's gossamer lead vocal on the spiritual Mary Don't You Weep. Mellow Missouri is dusty as a great lost soul session, while brass punches through the glassy chords of “I'm Lonely”. Finally, the album ends with Eddie's laughter as he realizes he has no more to give: "I gotta come out of this room…!"
Never meet your heroes, they say, and many young artists have been overwhelmed by walking the holy ground of their dream studios. At Capricorn, Eddie 9V breathed in the history – but the album he spat out is worthy of sharing the name, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the studio's greatest hits and taking music back to the golden age. "We made this record," he considers, "the way they would have done in 1969…"
Contact: schwartz@7smgmt.com, brody@7smgmt.com
Three years after the release of her critically acclaimed debut, Putting On Airs, Nashville-raised singer-songwriter Erin Rae shares an intimate, honest, and playful version of herself through her sophomore album Lighten Up. Produced by Jonathan Wilson, and recorded in the musically hallowed grounds of California’s Topanga Canyon, the album represents a sonic and inner shift for Rae. In it, she embraces more of her influences, like baroque-pop, cosmic country, and indie-folk songs while mirroring a more compassionate self-view she calls “accepting my humanness”.
Although she grew up in a musically oriented family, Rae’s pursuit of music happened by accident. After being gifted a Martin acoustic guitar on her 18th birthday, Rae decided to drop out of college after just one semester. Her goal at the time had little to do with making music into a career, and everything to do with spending more time and energy with the community of musicians and writers she knew back home. Looking back on those days, she recalls the initial high of playing live at an open mic during winter break and realizing, “this is how I connect with people. I have to pursue this.”
Rae has continued to connect with people through her music ever since, performing at mainstays like Newport Folk Festival, Red Rocks Amphitheater, and sharing stages with Father John Misty, Hiss Golden Messenger, Jenny Lewis, Jason Isbell, and Iron & Wine. The success of Putting On Airs also earned her a nomination for Emerging Act of The Year at the 2019 Americana Music Awards alongside other trailblazing artists like Yola, Jade Bird, and J.S. Ondara. When the Covid-19 pandemic called a halt to touring, Rae took advantage of the opportunity to revel in a wide range of musical influences she had absorbed since the making of Putting On Airs, sitting in an un-rushed space while deciding which direction she wanted to take her music next.
Though Rae says the core of her work will always stem from the songwriting she was raised on, the making of Putting On Airs with collaborators Jerry Bernhardt, Dan Knobler, and Dominic Billett inspired her to deepen her music exploration outside the traditional Americana box and listen to records in a broader way. “It opened up a sonic world to me that I had always enjoyed, but that felt mysterious. The process of making my last record allowed me to visualize how recorded sounds come to be, so returning to recordings of beloved artists like Feist, Judee Sill, Wilco, became exciting all over again. I could suddenly imagine what was happening in the room to create what I was hearing on the recording.” This newfound excitement led Rae down many rabbit holes, particularly a deep-dive into English psych-folk artists like Kevin Ayers and Pete Dello And Friends, as well as songwriters like Gene Clark, Scott Walker, and Jesse Winchester.
That expansive discovery of musicality led her to connect with Wilson, known for his work with artists like Father John Misty, Jenny O., and Roger Waters. Their shared love for the cinematic pop of the Walker Brothers, Bobbie Gentry, and the folk stylings of Margo Guryan created a solid foundation to create together, so Rae flew to Wilson's Five Star Studios in February 2021. Wilson called on musicians Jake Blanton (Bedouine, The Killers) and Drew Erickson (Weyesblood, Father John Misty) to contribute bass, keys, and string arrangements, and played drums and lead guitars himself. Erin invited friends Kevin Morby and Meg Duffy of Hand Habits to contribute, and Wilson's longtime friend Ny Oh to sing some of the background vocals. The result is a fresh, authentic, and singular collection of recordings that are clearly rooted in a classic "canyon" sound.
Lighten Up also showcases a new level of personal growth for Rae, and invites listeners to share in the results of her work towards self-acceptance. “My last record was a lot of self-assessment and criticism, and trying to kick old habits and ways of relating to people,” Rae acknowledges. “This one is about blossoming, opening up, and living a little more in the present moment. Accepting what it is to be human.”
In the lead single, “Modern Woman” Rae celebrates womanhood and femininity in all of its forms, countering outdated beliefs over driving drums and rocking guitars and inviting an inclusive perspective through her cheeky lyrics “come see a modern woman.” With “Lighten Up and Try” a song that embodies the album’s title, as well as its ethos, Rae dwells on the process of opening up to love and to life, and the vulnerability that comes with that process. Expounding on the song’s meaning, Rae shares, “This song for me just feels like celebrating the vulnerability of living. Saying yeah, ‘No one really knows what they’re doing. You just have to try.’”
In the measured track, “Mind - Heart” Rae outlines the dangers of codependency, and through the straightforward lyrics, “the mind is fucked but the heart is pure,” she meditates on the unreliability of thoughts. “Both of my parents have practiced meditation throughout my life following different traditions. This song for me is essentially using mindfulness to detach from habitual patterns of thought and behavior, and reconnecting to the heart, the intuition.” In “True Love’s Face” she opens to the potential of love and the choice to not flee from it over retro melodies, affirming through her bell-like vocals, “I will know it when I see it / I will not turn it away.” And in the psychedelic “Candy + Curry” Rae balances awakening and being centered in the present moment, with a soundscape that invites the listener to relax and enjoy the ride.
With Lighten Up, Rae hopes to give listeners the opportunity to borrow what she’s learned, that there can be a lightness when things feel heavy and that even our darkest corners can allow us to shine. “I hope this record encourages people to be a little softer towards themselves.” Rae shares. “If [Lighten Up] gives people listening the space to feel more tender towards themselves and move in the world from that place, that would be the dream for me.”
Contact: heavyhours@7smgmt.com
Having made an acclaimed debut in the midst of worldwide crisis, The Heavy Hours now return with WILDFIRE, a five-song collection that further exemplifies their distinctive strain of warm-hearted, open-armed alternative rock. Working with renowned producer Simone Felice (The Lumineers, Matt Maeson, The Avett Brothers), the Cincinnati, OH-based band infuse well-crafted powerful songs like “Desperate Days” and “Wildfire” with uncommon honesty and a radiant energy that converts subtle strokes into an altogether different kind of volume. WILDFIRE packs an emotional punch from the very first chord, fusing larger-than-life melodies and epic choruses with soulful, sophisticated songcraft and remarkably universal lyrical spirit.
“From the moment that we finished tracking ‘Wildfire, we all had such a connection to it,” says lead singer Michael Marcagi. “I remember being in the studio listening back to it for the first time and thinking, if someone were to ask me, ‘What do you guys sound like?,’ I would play them this song.”
The musicians at the heart of The Heavy Hours have been united for close to a decade, first coming together in high school over a mutual love of diverse sounds spanning contemplative folk to wildly experimental post-rock. In 2018, they rechristened themselves as The Heavy Hours – inspired from a line in William Butler Yeats’ Autobiographies – and began fusing their questing spirit and relentless work ethic with an emphasis on more traditional songwriting and production.
Fueled by support from such Ohio heroes as The Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach, The Heavy Hours made their way to Sun Mountain Studios in bucolic Boiceville, NY to record with producer Simone Felice and his longtime studio collaborator David Baron (Vance Joy, Matt Maeson). There the band pushed themselves towards new creative heights, resulting in a plethora of material including last year’s widescreen debut single, “Don’t Walk Away,” co-written by Marcagi and Yorio with Auerbach and award-winning songwriter Ronnie Bowman. “A purely American blend of folk, rock and good feelings,” declared American Songwriter, hailing the song for “its unbelievably catchy lines and effortlessly organic arrangement… a perfect pairing with a late-summer sunset or an evening with friends.”
Summer 2021 saw The Heavy Hours reveal yet another aspect of their multi-faceted nature with a surprisingly tender take on Dua Lipa’s glitterball smash, “Don’t Start Now,” once again bridging aesthetic differences to fashion their own imaginative take on contemporary songcraft.
“We love playing covers,” says guitarist AJ Yorio. “That's how the band started; we played pop covers at youth group weekend camps. So, learning hit tunes and reimagining them is a familiar challenge.”
“Doing something in that realm was definitely a new challenge for us,” says bassist Jonathan Moon. “Something that was at first a little bit out of our comfort zone but in the end turned out really fun.”
Refreshingly authentic and impossible to ignore, the WILDFIRE EP further spotlights the spirited versatility and simple elegance that The Heavy Hours have cultivated since day one. Songs like “Desparate Days” and remarkable title track – the latter co-written with Felice – masterfully defines The Heavy Hours’ overall approach, melding heart-wrenching, impressionistic lyrics with cinematic scope and joyous musicality.
“‘Wildfire’ was just an unfinished demo – a song that Simone used to show us where he thought The Heavy Hours could find a sound,” says Yorio. “I remember hearing the tune from Simone and having two light bulbs go off. My first thought was, we would never record something like this, but then realizing we have a chance to make this song our own, to finish writing and arranging it. It was a weird process of taking the song into our basement back home and adding our signature to it before taking it back to Woodstock for Simone and Dave to produce. In the end, I think we created something epic.”
A recent series of sold out live dates across the Midwest and East Coast alongside New Orleans’ legendary Galactic only served to cement the band’s commitment and sense of purpose. With the world open once again – and their long awaited debut album on the way – The Heavy Hours are fully focused on the now, keen to fully hit the road and see just how their music touches people.
“It was amazing,” says Marcagi. “You could tell that people had been starved for live music for a very long time. The first show we played in Cincinnati was packed to the gills. It just felt like the most amazing night of our lives. It kind of solidified in all of our minds, Oh yeah, this is what we want to be doing with our lives.”
“Things are really starting to open up and people are booking shows like crazy,” Moon says. “We’re like, Alright, this is what we signed up for. Essentially it’s like a rocket launch. We're on the ground right now, in our uniforms and our helmets, getting ready for to be sent into space, getting ready for lift-off.”
Contact: schwartz@7smgmt.com
“I went looking for peace,” says songwriter M.C. Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger about his new album Quietly Blowing It, out June 25, 2021, on Merge Records. “It’s not exactly a record about the state of the world—or my world—in 2020, but more a retrospective of the past five years of my life, painted in sort of impressionistic hues. Maybe I had the presence of mind when I was writing Quietly Blowing It to know that this was the time to go as deep as I needed to in order to make a record like this. And I got the time required in order to do that.” He pauses and laughs ruefully. “I got way more time than I needed, actually.”
Quietly Blowing It was written and arranged by Taylor in his home studio—his 8’ × 10’ sanctuary packed floor to ceiling with books, records, and old guitars—as he watched the chaotic world spin outside his window. “Writing became a daily routine,” he explains, “and that was a ballast for me. Having spent so much time on the road over the past ten years, where writing consistently with any kind of flow can be tricky, it felt refreshing. And being in my studio, which is both isolated from and totally connected to the life of my family, felt appropriate for these songs.” Between March and June, Taylor wrote and recorded upwards of two dozen songs—in most cases playing all of the instruments himself— before winnowing the collection down and bringing them to the Hiss band. In July, the group of musicians, with Taylor in the production seat, went into Overdub Lane in Durham,NC, for a week, where they recorded Quietly Blowing It as an organic unit honed to a fine edge from their years together on the road. “We all needed to be making that music together,” he recalls. “We’ve all spent so many years traveling all over the world, but in that moment, it felt cathartic to be recording those particular songs with each other in our own small hometown.”
Throughout Quietly Blowing It, Taylor brings his keen eye to our “broken American moment”—as he first sang on Hiss Golden Messenger’s critically acclaimed, GRAMMY ® - nominated Terms of Surrender—in ways that feel devastatingly intimate and human. Beginning with the wanderer’s lament of “Way Back in the Way Back,” with its rallying cry of “Up with the mountains, down with the system,” Taylor carries the listener on a musical journey that continually returns to themes of growing up, loss, obligation, and labor with piercing clarity, and his musical influences—including classic Southern soul and gospel, renegade country, and spiritual jazz—have never felt more genuine. Indeed, Quietly Blowing It is a distillation of the rolling Hiss Golden Messenger groove, from the rollicking, Allman-esque “The Great Mystifier” to the chiming falsetto soul of “It Will If We Let It,” to the smoky, shuffling title track with its bittersweet guitar assist from Nashville legend Buddy Miller. The album ends with soulful lead single “Sanctuary,” a song about trying to reconcile tragedy and joy, with references to John Prine (“Handsome Johnny had to go, child...”), economic disparity, and the redemptive quality of hope. Indeed, when he sings, “Feeling bad, feeling blue, can’t get out of my own mind; but I know how to sing about it,” it feels like the album’s spiritual thesis. Throughout Quietly Blowing It, Taylor reckons with the tumultuous present in wholly personal terms, encouraging listeners to do the same. “These songs always circle back to the things that I feel like I have a handle on and the things that I’m not proud of about myself. When I think of the phrase ‘quietly blowing it,’ I think of all the ways that I’ve misstepped, misused my gifts, miscommunicated. ‘Born on the level, quietly blowing it.’ That’s what’s on my mind there. Always fuckin’ up in little ways.”
Surrounding himself with a trusted cast of collaborators that includes Miller, songwriter Gregory Alan Isakov, songwriter and Tony Award–winning playwright Anaïs Mitchell, multi- instrumentalist Josh Kaufman, Dawes’ brothers Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith, and his oldest musical confidant Scott Hirsch, Taylor has made his most audacious and hopeful work yet with Quietly Blowing It; it’s an album that speaks personal truth to this moment in which the old models of being feel broken and everything feels at stake. “I don’t know that the peace that I crave when I’m far from home exists, actually,” says Taylor. “It’s more complicated. I still don’t know what peace means for me, because I can be sitting on the couch watching a movie with my family and be completely tangled up in my head. But if I keep on doing my own personal work on myself—writing records like Quietly Blowing It—I have to think that I’m getting closer.”
Contact: johncraigie@7smgmt.com
Much like community, music nourishes us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. It also invites us to come together under the same roof and in a shared moment. In similar fashion, John Craigie rallies a closeness around music anchored by his expressive and stirring songcraft, emotionally charged vocals, lively soundscapes, and uncontainable spirit. The Portland, OR-based singer, songwriter, and producer invites everyone into this space on his 2024 full-length album, Pagan Church. Following tens of millions of streams, sold out shows everywhere, and praise from Rolling Stone and more, he continues to captivate.
“The music is always evolving and devolving with each new record,” he observes. “With my last album Mermaid Salt, I really wanted to explore the sound of isolation and solitude as everyone was heading inside. With this record, I wanted to record the sound of everyone coming back out.”
In order to capture that, he didn’t go about it alone…
Instead, he joined forces with some local friends. At the time, TK & The Holy Know-Nothings booked a slew of outdoor gigs in Portland and they invited Craigie to sit in for a handful of shows. The musicians instinctively identified an unspoken, yet seamless chemistry with each other. Joined by three of the five members, Craigie cut “Laurie Rolled Me a J” and kickstarted the process. With the full band in tow, they hunkered down in an old schoolhouse TK & The Holy Know-Nothings had converted into a de facto headquarters and studio, and recorded the eleven tracks on Pagan Church.
“At first, I knew ‘Laurie Rolled Me a J’ would sound great with a band, but we realized there was this chemistry between us,” Craigie recalls.
During this season, Craigie listened to everyone from JJ Cale, Michael Hurley, and The Band to Donny Hathaway and Nina Simone. He also consumed music biographies and documentaries on the likes of Ani DiFranco, John Coltrane, The Velvet Underground, and Neil Young. Now, he introduces the album with “Where It’s From.” Dusty acoustic guitar underlines his warm delivery as he warns, “Be careful with this feeling. You don’t know where it’s from.” Meanwhile, he plugs in the electric guitar on the Southern-style boogie of “While I’m Down.” Bright organ wails over a palm-muted distorted riff as he urges, “Come on and love me up while I’m down.”
Then, there’s “Good To Ya.” Setting the scene, glowing keys give way to a head-nodding beat. He laments, “Oh babe, I was good to you,” before a bluesy guitar solo practically leaves the fretboard in flames. The album concludes with the pensive and poetic title track “Pagan Church.” In between echoes of slide guitar, he repeats, “I sing a pagan song out in a pagan church.”
“Taylor Kingman suggested the title Pagan Church to me,” he reveals. “I liked the multiple meanings. The album cover shows all of us in front of Laurelthirst
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https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/house-of-the-dragon-twins-deaths-fight-funeral-1236035742/
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‘House of the Dragon’ Cast on That Heartbreaking Child Funeral, Double Deaths and Missing Book Characters
|
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2024-06-24T02:00:00+00:00
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'House of the Dragon' showrunner Ryan Condal explains that funeral scene and the twins showdown.
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en
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Variety
|
https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/house-of-the-dragon-twins-deaths-fight-funeral-1236035742/
|
SPOILER ALERT: This story contains major spoilers from Season 2, Episode 2 of HBO’s “House of the Dragon.”
The fallout from “Blood and Cheese” continues in “House of the Dragon.”
Episode 2 begins with heartbreak in King’s Landing when King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) discovers the grisly murder of his young son Jaehaerys. He blames Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) for not protecting the prince — and as we saw at the end of the premiere, Criston was too busy sleeping with Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) instead of guarding the castle grounds. Everyone in King’s Landing gathers for a somber funeral procession to pay their respects to Jaehaerys, whose head was reattached for the occasion.
“I remember them being like, ‘Do you want to see the dummy?’ Oh goodness, it was really beautifully done,” Phia Saban, who plays Queen Helaena Targaryen, told Variety. “They wove gold thread and you could see how the head was sewn back on the body. He had all flowers and everything.”
“It was an amazing prosthetic,” Cooke added. “It was really intense. Then you become a bit numb to the fact and we’re just singing on the back of the carriage between takes.”
Blood, Jaehaerys’ killer, is apprehended, and to take care of his partner-in-crime Cheese, Aegon orders every rat catcher in the city to be hanged. Criston replaces Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) as Aegon’s hand, they begin strategizing for war and blame Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) for the infanticide.
In Dragonstone, the news surprises Rhaenyra, since she only wanted Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) dead for killing her son Lucerys. She denies having anything to do with Jaehaerys’ death, then realizes her husband Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) must’ve ordered it. The two have a tense argument and Daemon storms away on his dragon.
Once again, it’s time for revenge. Criston plots a “Parent Trap”-style twin switcheroo to kill Rhaenyra using the identical knights Arryk and Erryk Cargyll (Luke and Elliot Tittensor). Arryk pledged his service to Alicent’s greens, while Erryk joined Rhaenyra’s blacks. Arryk disguises himself as his brother and sneaks over to Dragonstone to murder Rhaenyra without anyone realizing his true identity. Of course, though, things go wrong when he’s met by the only person who would recognize him: Erryk. The two brothers stay loyal to their queens and fight a tearful duel to the death. It’s hard to tell who has the upper hand in the sibling scuffle, but Erryk deals a mortal wound to his brother, then apologizes to Rhaenyra and kills himself out of sorrow for what he’s done.
With Variety, showrunner Ryan Condal discusses the funeral scene, the Cargyll fight, some absent book characters and if they’ll appear in the future.
Was I supposed to be afraid that Jaehaerys’ head was going to fall off during the funeral wagon ride? Because I was!
No, that was not a specific thing we were looking for. Just the danger of moving a body through a public square like that. It’s a very moving sequence. Sara Hess pitched that in the room, making a funeral procession a public show and marching Jaehaerys’ body — and showing the fact that they had cut his head off and then stitched it back onto his body — through the public square as a way of diminishing Rhaenyra and her claim, to try to create a monster out of her. A great Otto Hightower plot that obviously does have some effect to win points for the greens’ side.
In “Fire & Blood,” there are multiple accounts of the Cargyll fight and how the twins died. How did you choose specifically to stage it for the show?
We obviously spent a lot of time debating how that fight would play out. It’s very different the way all the disagreeing narrators lay out that particular historical event in the book. So we’re just trying to find one that felt true to the two characters. These are two guys that have sworn an oath and their lives over to protect the royal family. And as Erryk says to Daemon in the first episode of the season, “We don’t know what to do with this oath, because we swore to protect the royal family, and now they’ve turned against each other, and what were we to do?” It’s this tragic story of two brothers finding themselves on different sides of a conflict, in a way, a great archetype that goes back to the American Civil War and Westerns and Arthurian tales. To try to see out his oath, Arryk sails to Dragonstone to try to masquerade as his brother and infiltrates the castle and gets very close to the queen, but thankfully, Erryk intervenes. We wanted this really emotional conflict between these two brothers that deeply love each other but have found themselves as mortal enemies because of the nature of the political system they’ve committed themselves to. It was shot over multiple days, wonderfully choreographed, and Luke and Elliott Tittensor performed that and were in every shot of that sequence. They learned the fight and they executed the hell out of it.
Can you break down the difference between the violent fight between Daemon and Rhaenyra at the end of Season 1 and this fight that leads him to leave?
I think the end of Season 1 is a much more sudden and visceral outbreak of emotion, whereas that great scene in Episode 2 is a full exploration of the core nature of their relationship. It’s this fact that their relationship has been built on deceit and mistrust through all history and time. It’s just the nature of who Daemon is. Rhaenyra desperately wants to have this intimate connection where she is very close to him and can trust him. But then she finds again and again that he doesn’t open himself enough or make himself accessible enough to be trusted. She really struggles with that. It’s the same frustration that Viserys always had about Daemon, that you can let him in only so far and then he lets people down because of the impulsiveness of his decision-making. The big lingering questions coming out of that scene is, where does Daemon go? Where do his allegiances lie and what’s going to happen to this marriage? The remainder of the season is very much a study of Daemon and Rhaenyra’s marriage.
Alicent and Viserys’s other son Daeron is mentioned for the first time in this episode. What choices have you made in terms of casting him and other key characters from “Fire & Blood” who haven’t appeared or been mentioned yet, like Nettles?
Daeron has not been cast yet. I’ve said he’s a character in the show, but at this point in the story, he’s in Oldtown where he was warded off as a young child. So we don’t have a point-of-view character in that world yet and there is no dramatic reason to go there. This happened all the time in medieval times, particularly in the high nobility. You would take your youngest children and ward them off to other places, so they grow up away from court and learn things and have their own place and station in the world. We know he’s not yet a dragon rider, but he’s had a dragon born to him. So he will come to the narrative and have a role to play, just as he does in the book — we’re just not there yet in the storytelling.
And Nettles?
With that character, I’m not ready to comment yet on anything that hasn’t been established in the show just yet.
Will the season feature the Battles of Rook’s Rest and The Gullet?
Well, that remains to be seen. We’re not there yet. We are following the narrative of the book. I think there are big exciting action sequences to come that involve dragons and fire and blood.
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Táin Bó Cúalnge Recension 1
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Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition
Táin Bó Cúalnge Recension 1 (Author: [unknown])
p.125
Táin Bó Cúailnge
A great army was mustered by the Connachtmen, that is, by Ailill and Medb, and word went from them to the three other provinces. And Ailill sent messengers to the seven sons of Mágu: Ailill, Anlúan, Moccorb, Cet, Én, Bascall and Dóche, each with his fighting force of three thousand, and also to Cormac Conn Longas the son of Conchobor, who was billeted with his three hundred men in Connacht. They all came on then until they reached Crúachain Aí
Now Cormac's men were in three companies as they marched to Crúachain. The first band wore vari-coloured cloaks wrapped around them. Their hair was shorn. They had tunics falling to the knee. They carried long shields, and each man bore in his hand a broad, bright spear on a slender shaft. The second band wore dark-grey cloaks and red-embroidered tunics reaching down to their calves. Their long hair hung down behind. They carried white shields, and in their hands they bore five-pronged spears. It is not Cormac as yet, said Medb.
Then came the third band. They wore purple cloaks and hooded red-embroidered tunics reaching to their feet. Their trimmed hair fell down to their shoulders. They bore curved shields with scalloped rims, and each man carried a spear as great as the pillar of a palace in his hand. This is Cormac now, said Medb.
So then the four provinces of Ireland were gathered together in Crúachain Aí. Their prophets and druids did not permit them to go thence, but kept them for a fortnight awaiting an auspicious omen. Then, on the day that they set forth, Medb said to her charioteer:
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{translation of lines 25-62} All those who part here today from comrade and friend will curse me for it is I who have mustered this hosting. Wait then, said the charioteer, until the chariot has turned right- handwise to strengthen the good omen so that we may come back again.
When the charioteer turned back the chariot and they were about to descend, they saw in front of them a grown maiden. She had yellow hair. She wore a vari- coloured cloak with a golden pin in it and a hooded tunic with red embroidery. She had shoes with golden fastenings. Her face was oval, narrow below, broad above. Her eyebrows were dark and black. Her beautiful black eyelashes cast a shadow on to the middle of her cheeks. Her lips seemed to be made of partaing. Her teeth were like a shower of pearls between her lips. She had three plaits of hair: two plaits wound around her head, the third hanging down her back, touching her calves behind. In her hand she carried a weaver's beam of white bronze, with golden inlay. There were three pupils in each of her eyes. The maiden was armed and her chariot was drawn by two black horses.
What is your name, asked Medb of the maiden. I am Feidelm, the poetess of Connacht, said the maiden. Whence do you come? asked Medb. From Albion after learning the art of divination, answered the maiden. Have you the power of prophecy called imbas forosna? I have indeed, said the maiden. Look for me then and tell me how it will fare with my hosting. Then the maiden looked and Medb said: O Feidelm Prophetess, how do you see the fate of the army? Feidelm answered and said: I see it bloody, I see it red. That is not so, said Medb, for Conchobor lies in his debility in Emain together with the Ulstermen and all the mightiest of their warriors, and my messengers have come and brought me tidings of them. O Feidelm Prophetess, how do you see our host? asked Medb again. I see it blood-stained, I see it red, said the maiden. That is not so, said Medb, for Celtchar mac Uthidir is in Dún Lethglaise together with a third of the men of Ulster, and Fergus mac Roeich meic Echdach is here in exile with us with three thousand men. O Feidelm Prophetess, how do you see our host? I see it blood-stained, I see it red, answered the maiden. That matters not indeed, said Medb, for in every muster and in every army assembled in a great encampment there are quarrels and
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{translation of lines 63-106} strife and bloody woundings. So look once more for us, and tell us the truth. O Feidelm Prophetess, how do you see our host?
I see it blood-stained, I see it red, said Feidelm and she spoke as follows:
I see a fair man who will perform weapon-feats, with many a wound in his flesh. A hero's light is on his brow. His forehead is the meeting-place of many virtues.
In each of his eyes are the seven jewel-bright pupils of a hero. His spearpoints(?) are unsheathed. He wears a red mantle with clasps.
His face is beautiful. He amazes women-folk.This lad of handsome countenance looks in the battle like a dragon.
Like is his prowess to that of Cú Chulainn of Murthemne.I know not who is this Cú Chulainn of fairest fame, but this I do know, that by him the army will be bloodily wounded.
I see a tall man in the plain who gives battle to the host. In each hand he holds four small swords with which to perform great deeds.
He attacks with his gáe bolga and also with his ivory-hilted sword and his spear. He can ply them on the host. Each weapon as he casts it has its own special use.
This man wrapped in a red mantle sets his foot on every battle-field. Across the left wheel-rim of his chariot he attacks them. The distorted one kills them. I see that he has changed from the form in which hitherto he has appeared to me.
He has moved forward to the battle. Unless heed be taken, there will be destruction. I think that it is Cú Chulainn mac Súaldaim who now comes to you.
He will lay low your entire army. He will slaughter you in dense crowds. Ye will leave with him a thousand severed heads. The prophetess Feidelm does not conceal your fate.
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{translation of lines 107-138}
Blood will flow from heroes' bodies. Much harm will be wrought by the hand of this hero. He will kill warriors; the men of Clanna Dedad meic Sin will flee. Men's bodies will be hacked and women will weep because of the Hound of the Smith whom I now see.
a.
On the Monday after the autumn festival of Samain they set out. They travelled south-east from Crúachain Aí, past Mucc Cruinb, past Terloch Teóra Crích, past Túaim Móna, past Cúil Silinne
i.e. Loch Carrcín", and got its name from Silend daughter of Madchar
, past Fid, past Bolga, past Coltain, past Glune Gabair, past Mag Trego, past northern Tethbab
i.e. Cairpre
, past southern Tethba, past Tíarthechta, past Ord, southwards past Slais, past Indeóind, past Carn, past Ochtrach, past Mide, past Findglassa Assail, past Delt, past Delind, past Sailig, past Slaibre, past Slechta (where they hewed down the trees), past Cúil Sibrinne, southwards past Ochuinn, northwards past Úata, past Dub, southwards past Comur, past Tromma and eastwards past Fothromma, past Sláne and Gort Sláni, southwards past Druim Licce, past Áth Gabla, past Ardachad, northwards past Féraind, past Findabair, southwards past Aisse, past Druim Sálfind, past Druim Caín, past Druim mac nDega, past Eódond Mór and Eódond Bec, past Méthe Tog[maill] and Méthe Eóin; past Druim Cáemtechta, past Scúap and Imscúap, past Cend Ferna, past Baile, past Aile, past Báil Scena and Dáil Scena, past Ferste, past Ross Lochad, past Sále, past Lochmach, past Ánmag, past Deind, past Delt, past Dubglais, past Fid Mór
i.e. Trúalli"
, past Colptha, past Crond in Cúailnge. From Findabair in Cúailnge the armies of Ireland spread out over the province in quest of the Bull. For they had gone past all these places before reaching Findabair.
Here ends the introductory part. The story in due order now begins.
The Story in Due Order
When they had come on the first stage of their journey from Crúachain to Cúil Silinne, the site of Loch Cairrcín today, Medb told her charioteer to harness her nine chariots
She was always accompanied by nine chariots, so that the dust raised by the great army should not soil her
for her that she might
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{translation of lines 139-173} drive around the encampment and see who among them was reluctant and who was glad to go on the hosting. Now his tent was pitched for Ailill and his equipment was placed therein, both beds and blankets. Fergus mac Róich was next to Ailill in his tent. Cormac Conn Longas, son of Conchobor, was next to him. Then came Conall Cernach, with Fíacha mac Fir Fhebe, the son of Conchobor's daughter, beside him. Medb, the daughter of Eochu Feidlech was on the other side of Ailill, with Finnabair, the daughter of Ailill and Medb, beside her and Flidais next to Finnabair. This was not counting the servants and attendants.
After she had surveyed the host, Medb came back and said that it would be vain for the rest to go on that expedition if the division of the Gailióin went also. Why do you belittle the men? asked Ailill. I am not belittling them, said Medb. They are splendid warriors. When the others were making their shelters, the Gailióin had already finished thatching their shelters and cooking their food. When the rest were eating, they had already finished their meal and their harpers were playing to them. So it is useless for them to go on this expedition, said Medb, for it is they who will take credit for the victory of the army. Yet it is for us they fight, said Ailill. They shall not go with us, said Medb. Let them stay here then, said Ailill. Indeed they shall not, said Medb. They will overpower us when we have come back and seize our land. Well then, what shall be done with them, asked Ailill, since neither their staying nor their going pleases you? Kill them! said Medb.
I shall not deny that is a woman's counsel, said Ailill. You speak foolishly, said Fergus in a low voice. It shall not happen unless we are all killed, for they are allies of us Ulstermen. Nevertheless, said Medb, we could do it. For I have here with me my own household retinue numbering two divisions, and the seven Maines are here, my seven sons, with seven divisions. Their luck can protect them, said she. Their names are Maine Máthramail, Maine Aithremail, Maine Mórgor, Maine Mingor, Maine Mo Epirt, who is also called Maine Milscothach, Maine Andóe and Maine Cotageib Uilehe it is who has inherited the appearance of his mother and his father and the dignity of them both
That will not be, said Fergus, There are here seven kings from Munster, allies of us Ulstermen, and a division with each king.
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{translation of lines 174-209} I shall give you battle in the middle of the encampment where we now are, supported by those seven divisions, by my own division and by the division of the Gailióin. But I shall not argue the point, said Fergus. We shall arrange the warriors of the Gailióin so that they shall not prevail over the rest of the army. Seventeen divisions, said Fergus, is the number here in our encampment, not counting the camp-followers and our boys and our women- folkfor each chief here in Medb's company has brought his wife. The eighteenth division is that of the Gailióin. Let them be distributed throughout all the host. I care not, said Medb, provided that they do not remain in the close battle array in which they now are. This then was done; the Gailióin were distributed among the host. Next morning they set out for Móin Choltna. There they met with eight score deer in a single herd. They encircled them and killed them. Wherever there was a man of the Gailióin, it was he who got a deer, for the rest of the host got only five of the deer. They came on then to Mag Trego and there they encamped and prepared food for themselves.
According to one version it was then that Dubthach chanted this lay:
Admit that hitherto ye have not heard nor listened to the trance-speech of Dubthach. A fierce hosting lies before you, contending for Findbenn, the bull of Ailill's wife.
There will come a leader of armies who will try to recover the cattle of Murthemne. Because of the companionship of the two swineherds, ravens on the battle-field will drink men's blood.
The watchful river Crann will offer them resistance and will not let them cross into Murthemne until the work of warriors is finished in the mountain north of Ochaíne.
Quickly, said Ailill to Cormac, come and hold back your son. None comes from the plains where the cattle graze but is affrighted(?) by the din of the army.
In due course a battle will be fought here with Medb and a third of the army. Men's corpses will then lie here if the distorted one come to you.
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{lines 210-251} Thereupon the Némain, that is, the war-goddess, attacked them. That was not the quietest of nights for them with the trance-speech of the boorish Dubthach as he slept. The hosts rose up at once and the army was thrown into confusion until Medb came and quelled them.
Then, after the army had been led astray across bogs and streams, they went and spent the night in Granard in northern Tethba. For the sake of kinship Fergus sent a warning to the Ulstermen who were still suffering from their debility, all except Cú Chulainn and his father Súaltaim. When the warning message had come from Fergus, Cú Chulainn and his father went as far as Irard Cuillenn, that is, Crossa Cail, there to watch for the enemy host. I have a premonition that the host will arrive tonight, said Cú Chulainn to his father. Take a warning from us to the men of Ulster. I must go to Feidelm Noíchridehe meant to tryst with her handmaiden who was secretly Cú Chulainn's concubineto fulfil my own pledge which I gave her. Then before he went, he twisted a withe into a ring and wrote an ogam inscription on its peg, and cast it over the top of a pillar-stone. Then Fergus was given the task of leading the army along the path. He went far astray to the south to give the Ulstermen time to complete the mustering of their army. This he did out of affection for his own kin.
Ailill and Medb noticed this, and Medb said:
O Fergus, this is strange. What manner of path do we travel? We go astray to south and to north, past every strange district.
Ailill of Mag Aí with his army fears that you will betray him. Until now he heeded not where the path led.
If you feel the pull of kinship, do not lead horses any longer. Perhaps someone else may be found to guide us on our way.
Fergus answered:
O Medb, what perturbs you? This is not anything resembling treachery. O woman, the land across which I shall lead you belongs to the men of Ulster.
Not with intent to harm the hosting do I go in turn along each devious road, but that I may avoid the great one who guards Mag Murthemne.
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{translation of lines 252-292}
It is not to save my mind from weariness that I go thus aside from the path, but I am trying to avoid meeting Cú Chulainn mac Súaltaim even at a later time.
They went on then to Irard Cuilenn, today called Crossa Caíl. The four sons of Irard mac Anchinnel
or the four sons of Nera mac Núada meic Taccain, as is found in other versions
, Eirr and Indell with Foich and Fochlam their two charioteers, were those who always preceded the hosts to protect their brooches and their rugs and their mantles that the dust raised by the army might not soil them. These men found the withe Cú Chulainn had cast and they noticed the grazing made by the horses. For Súaltaim's two horses had cropped the grass to its roots in the earth while Cú Chulainn's horses had licked the soil down to the bedrock beneath the grass. Then these four men sat still till the host came up, and their musicians played to them. They handed the withe to Fergus mac Róich; he read out the ogam inscription that was on it.
When Medb arrived she asked: Why are you waiting here? We are waiting, said Fergus, because of yonder withe. There is on its peg an ogam inscription which reads: Let none go past till there be found a man to throw a withe made of one branch as it is in the same way with one hand. But I except my friend Fergus. In truth, said Fergus, it is Cú Chulainn who has cast it and it is his horses which grazed this plain. And he put the withe in the druid's hand and chanted this song:
Here is a withe. What is its message for us? What is its secret meaning? And how many put it there? Was it few or many?
Will it bring ruin on the army if they go past it? Find out, O ye druids, why the withe was left there.
A druid answered:
A hero cast it there, the swift cutting(?) of a hero, a source of perplexity to warriors, containment of chiefs with their followers. One man cast it there with one hand.
Does not the king's army obey him unless they have broken faith? I know no reason why the withe was cast there save that one of you should cast a withe even as one man did.
Id inso.c.s.
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{translation of lines 293-326}
Then said Fergus to them If ye flout this withe or if ye go past it, though it be in a man's possession or in a locked house, it will go after the man who wrote the ogam inscription, and he will kill one of you before morning unless one of you cast a withe in like manner. We do not wish, however, that any one of us should be killed straight away, said Ailill. Let us go to the end of yon great wood to the south of us, Fid Dúin. We shall go no farther than that. The army then hewed down the wood to make a path for the chariots. That place is called Slechta. It is there that the Partraige (now) live.
According to others, however, it was here that the dialogue between Medb and Feidelm Banfháith as we have related above took place, and it was after the answer Feidelm made to Medb that the wood was cut down. Thus: Look for me, said Medb, (to see) how will my expedition fare. It is hard for me, said the maiden. The wood prevents me from seeing them properly. That can be arranged, said Medb. We shall cut down the wood. it was done, and Slechta is the name of that place.
They spent the night then in Cúil Sibrille, that is, Cennannas. Heavy snow fell on them, reaching to the girdles of the men and the wheels of the chariots. They rose early on the morrow. That had not been a restful night for them because of the snow, nor had they prepared food for themselves that night. But Cú Chulainn did not come early from his tryst; he remained until he had washed and bathed. Then he came on to the track of the army. Would that we had not gone thither nor betrayed the men of Ulster! cried Cú Chulainn. We have let the enemy host come upon them unawares. Make an estimate of the host for us, said Cú Chulainn to Lóeg, that we may know their number. Lóeg did so and said to Cú Chulainn I am confused. I cannot estimate exactly. If only I come, I shall not see them confusedly, said Cú Chulainn. Get out of the chariot, said Lóeg. Cú Chulainn got out of the chariot and for a long time he estimated the number of the host. Even you, said Lóeg, do not find it easy. It is easier for me, however, than for you. For I have three gifts, namely, the gift of sight, the gift of understanding, the gift
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{translation of lines 327-355} of reckoning. I have reckoned up the numbers here.
This is one of the three cleverest yet most difficult reckonings ever made in Ireland, the three being this reckoning of the men of Ireland made by Cú Chulainn in the Táin, the reckoning made by Lug of the Fomorians in the battle of Mag Tuired and the reckoning of the army in Bruiden Da Derga made by Ingcél, [marginal note]
There are here in number eighteen divisions, but the eighteenth division, that is, the division of the Gailióin, has been distributed among the whole host so that it is confusing to count them.
Then Cú Chulainn went round the host until he was at Áth nGrencha. There he cut down a forked branch with one blow of his sword and fixed it in the middle of the stream so that a chariot could not pass it on this side or on that. While he was thus engaged Eirr and Indell with their two charioteers, Fóich and Fochlam, came up with him. He cut off their four heads and impaled them on the four prongs of the forked branch. Hence the name Áth nGabla.
that is, at the place called Beloch Caille Móire to the north of Cnogba, [marginal note]
.
Then the horses of the four men went towards the host, with their bloodstained trappings. The host thought that there had been a battle in the ford before them. A band went from them to survey the ford; they saw only the track of one chariot and the forked branch with the four heads and an ogam inscription on its side. At that point the whole army arrived.
Are yonder heads those of some of our people? asked Medb. They are of our people and of our choice men, said Ailill. One of them read aloud the ogam inscription that was on the side of the forked branch: One man has cast this forked branch with one hand, and ye shall not go past it unless one of you, but not Fergus, has cast it with one hand. It is marvellous, said Ailill, how quickly the four were slain. Do not think that marvellous, said Fergus, but rather the cutting of the forked branch from its root with one blow, and if its end shows one cutting, it is all the greater achievement, and (it is marvellous) that it should have been driven in in this manner, for no hole was dug for it but it was cast from the back of a chariot with one hand. Deliver us in this difficulty, Fergus, said Medb. Give me a chariot then, said Fergus, that I may pull the branch out so that it may be seen if its end shows one cutting. Then Fergus smashed fourteen of their chariots but from his own chariot he drew the forked branch out of the ground and he saw that its end was one cutting.
p.
{translation of lines 356-387} We must take heed of the nature of the people to whom we are going, said Ailill. Let all of you prepare food. Last night was not restful for you with the snow. And let some of the adventures and stories of the people to whom we go be related to us. So then they were told the adventures of Cú Chulainn.
Ailill asked Is it Conchobar who has done this? It is not indeed, said Fergus. He would not have come to the marches unless he was accompanied by a number sufficient to give battle. Was it Celtchar mac Uthidir? It was not indeed, said Fergus. He would not have come to the marches without a number sufficient to give battle around him. Was it Eógan mac Durthacht? It was not indeed, said Fergus. He would not have come past the marches without thirty scythed chariots. The man who would have done the deed is Cú Chulainn, said Fergus. It is he who would have cut down the tree with one blow from its root, and he who would have killed the four men as quickly as they were killed, and he who would have come to the border accompanied (only) by his charioteer.
The Eulogy of Cú Chulainn
What manner of man, asked Ailill, is this Hound whom we have heard of among the Ulstermen? What age is that famous youth? I can tell you that, said Fergus. In his fifth year he went to the boys in Emain Macha to play. In his sixth year he went to learn feats of arms to Scáthach and went to woo Emer. In his seventh year he took up arms. At the present time he is seventeen years old.
Is he the most formidable among the Ulstermen? asked Medb. More so than any one of them, answered Fergus. You will not encounter a warrior harder to deal with, nor a spear-point sharper or keener or quicker, nor a hero fiercer, nor a raven more voracious, nor one of his age to equal a third of his valour, nor a lion more savage, nor a shelter in battle nor a sledge-hammer for smiting, nor a protector in fighting, nor doom of hosts, nor one better able to check a great army. You will not find there any man his equal in age like unto Cú Chulainn in growth, in dress, in fearsomeness, in
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{translation of lines 388-424} speech, in splendour, in voice and appearance, in power and harshness, in feats, in valour, in striking power, in rage and in anger, in victory and in doom- dealing and in violence, in stalking, in sureness of aim and in game-killing, in swiftness and boldness and rage, with the feat of nine men on every spear- point.
I reek little of that, said Medb. He has but one body; he suffers wounding; he is not beyond capture. Moreover he is only the age of a grown girl and as yet his manly deeds have not developed. Nay, said Fergus. It were no wonder that he should perform a goodly exploit today, for even when he was younger, his deeds were those of a man.
The Boyhood Deeds
He was reared, said Fergus, by his father and mother at the Airgthech in Mag Muirthemne. He was told the famous tales of the youths in Emain. For, said Fergus, thrice fifty youths are usually there engaged in play. This is how Conchobor spends his time of sovereignty: one third of the day spent watching the youths, another third playing fidchell, another third drinking ale till he falls asleep therefrom. Though we have been exiled by him, (I still maintain that) there is not in Ireland a warrior more wonderful, said Fergus.
Cú Chulainn asked his mother to let him go to join the boys. You shall not go, said his mother, till you be escorted by some of the Ulster warriors. I think it too long to wait for that, said Cú Chulainn. Point out to me in what direction is Emain. To the north there, said his mother, and the journey is hard. Slíab Fúait lies between you and Emain. I shall make an attempt at it at all events, said Cú Chulainn. He went off then with his wooden shield and his toy javelin, his hurley and his ball. He kept throwing the javelin in front of him and catching it by the point before its end touched the ground.
Then he went to the boys without binding them over to protect him. For no one used to come to them in their playing-field till his protection was guaranteed, but Cú Chulainn was not aware of the fact that this was tabu for them. The boy insults us, said Follomon mac Conchobair. Yet we know he is of the Ulstermen. Attack him. They threw their thrice fifty javelins at him, and they all stuck in his toy shield. Then they threw all their balls at him and he
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{translation of lines 425-459} caught them, every single ball, against his breast. Then they threw their thrice fifty hurling-clubs at him. He warded them off so that they did not touch him, and he took a load of them on his back.
Thereupon he became distorted. His hair stood on end so that it seemed as if each separate hair on his head had been hammered into it. You would have thought that there was a spark of fire on each single hair. He closed one eye so that it was no wider than the eye of a needle; he opened the other until it was as large as the mouth of a mead-goblet. He laid bare from his jaw to his ear and opened his mouth rib-wide(?) so that his internal organs were visible. The champion's light rose above his head.
Then he attacked the boys. He knocked down fifty of them before they reached the gate of Emain. Nine of them came past me and Conchobar where we were playing chess. Cú Chulainn leapt over the chess-board in pursuit of the nine. Conchobar seized him by the forearm. The boys are not well treated. said Conchobar. It was right for me (to treat them so), master Conchobar, said he. I came to play with them from my home, from my father and mother, and they were not kind to me. What is your name? said Conchobar. I am Sétanta the son of Súaltaim and of Deichtire, your sister. It was not to be expected that I should be tormented there. Why were the boys not bound over to protect you? asked Conchobar. I did not know of (the need of) that, said Cú Chulainn. Undertake to protect me against them. I agree, said Conchobar. But then he turned again and attacked the boys throughout the house. What have you got against them now? asked Conchobar. Let me be bound over to protect them, said Cú Chulainn. Undertake it then, said Conchobar. I agree, said Cú Chulainn. So they all went into the playing field. And those boys who had been knocked down there rose to their feet, helped by their fostermothers and their foster- fathers.
At one time, said Fergus, when Cú Chulainn was a boy, he never slept in Emain. Tell me, said Conchobar to him, Why do you not sleep?
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{translation of lines 460-491} I do not sleep unless my head and my feet are equally high. So a pillar-stone was placed by Conchobar at his head and another at his feet, and a special couch was made for him between them. On another occasion a certain man went to wake him and with his fist Cú Chulainn struck him on the forehead, driving the front of his forehead on to his brain, while with his arm he knocked down the pillar-stone. Surely, said Ailill, that was the fist of a warrior and the arm of a strong man! From that time on, said Fergus, they never dared to wake him (but left him) till he woke of his own accord.
The Death of the Boys
Another time he was playing ball in the playing-field east of Emain, he alone on one side against the thrice fifty boys. He kept defeating them in every game in that way all the time. Eventually the boy began to belabour them with his fists and fifty of them died. Whereupon he fled and hid under the pillow of Conchobar's couch. The Ulstermen rose up around him but I and Conchobar stood up to defend him. The boy rose to his feet under the couch and on to the floor of the house he threw from him the couch together with the thirty warriors who were in it.
Then the Ulstermen sat around him in the house and we arranged matters and made peace between the boys and him, said Fergus.
The Fight between Eógan mac Durthacht and Conchobar
There was strife between the Ulstermen and Eógan mac Durthacht. The Ulstermen went to battle while Cú Chulainn was left behind asleep. The Ulstermen were defeated. Conchobar and Cúscraid Menn Macha and many others besides were left on the field. Their groans awoke Cú Chulainn. Then he stretched himself so that the two flag-stones which were about him were smashed. Bricriu yonder witnessed this happening, said Fergus. Then he arose. I met him in front of the fort as I came in severely wounded. Hey! Welcome! master Fergus, said he. Where is Conchobar? I do not know, said I.
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{translation of lines 492-527} He went on his way then. The night was dark. He made for the battlefield. He saw in front of him a man with half a head carrying the half of another man on his back.
Help me, Cú Chulainn! said he. I have been wounded and I have brought half of my brother on my back. Take a turn with me in carrying him. I will not, said he. Whereupon the other threw the burden he was carrying to him, but Cú Chulainn cast it off. They wrestled then and Cú Chulainn was thrown. He heard the war- goddess crying from among the corpses. Poor stuff to make a warrior is he who is overthrown by phantoms! Whereupon Cú Chulainn rose to his feet, and, striking off his opponent's head with his hurley, he began to drive the head like a ball before him across the plain.
Is my master Conchobar on this battle-field? Conchobar answered him. Cú Chulainn went towards him and saw him in the ditch with the earth around him on all sides hiding him. Why have you come to the battle-field said Conchobar, where you may die of fright? He lifted Conchobar out of the ditch then. Six of our strong men in Ulster could not have lifted him out more courageously. Go before us to yonder house, said Conchobar, and make a fire for me there. He kindled a big fire for him.
Well, said Conchobar, if I now had a roast pig, I should live. I will go and fetch one, said Cú Chulainn. He went off then and saw a man at a cooking-pit in the middle of the wood, with one hand holding his weapons, the other cooking a pig. Great was the fearsomeness of the man. Nevertheless he attacked him and carried off his head and his pig. Afterwards Conchobar ate the pig. Let us go to our house, said Conchobar. They met Cúscraid mac Conchobair. He too bore severe wounds, Cú Chulainn carried him on his back. The three of them went on to Emain Macha.
The fate of the twenty-seven men and the reason why none dared to wound the Ulstermen when they were in their debility.
On another occasion the Ulstermen were in their debility. Among us, said Fergus, women and boys do not suffer from the debility nor does anyone outside the territory of Ulster, nor yet
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{translation of lines 528-563} Cú Chulainn and his father, and so none dares to shed their blood for whosoever wounds them at once suffers himself from the debility or he wastes away or his life-span is shortened.
Twenty-seven men came to us from the Isles of Faiche. While we were suffering the debility they climbed over into our backcourt. The women in the fort cried out in warning. The boys who were in the playing-field came on hearing the cries, but when they saw the dark gloomy men, they all fled except Cú Chulainn alone. He cast hand-stones at them and belaboured them with his hurley. He killed nine of them but they dealt him fifty wounds, and then they went off.
If a man did those deeds when he was five years old, it were no wonder that he should have come to the marches, and cut off the heads of yon four men.
The killing of the Smith's Hound by Cú Chulainn and the reason why he is called Cú Chulainn
Indeed we know that boy, said Conall Cernach, and we know him all the better in that he is a fosterling of ours. Not long after the deed which Fergus has just related, he performed another exploit.
When Culann the smith prepared a feast for Conchobar, he asked Conchobar not to bring a great crowd with him for the feast he had made was not provided by his possession of land or estate but was gained by the work of his hands and his tongs. Then Conchobar set off together with fifty chariot-warriors, the noblest and most illustrious of the heroes.
Conchobar visited the playing-field then. It was always his custom to pay the boys a fleeting visit to ask a greeting of them. There he saw Cú Chulainn playing ball against thrice fifty boys, and defeating them. When they were engaged in driving the ball into the hole, he would fill the hole with his balls and the boys would not be able to ward him off. When it was they who were throwing at the hole, he by himself would ward them off so that not even a single ball would go into it. When they were wrestling, he alone would throw the thrice fifty boys, yet not all of them together could surround him to throw him. When they were engaged in the game of stripping one another, he would strip them all stark-naked but they could not even take his brooch from his mantle. Conchobor marvelled at this. He asked if the boy's deeds would correspond (to his present ones) when he attained the age of manhood. They all said that they would. Conchobor said to Cú Chulainn
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{lines 564-595} Come with me to the feast to which we are going since you are a guest. I have not yet had my fill of play, master Conchobor, said the boy. I shall follow you. When they had all come to the feast, Culann asked Conchobar: Do you expect anyone to follow you? No, said Conchobor. He did not remember the arrangement with his fosterling to come after him. I have a blood hound,
[i.e. a hound brought from overseas, i.e. the whelp of a mastiff.] said Culann. There are three chains on him and three men holding each chain. He was brought from Spain. Let him be loosed to guard our cattle and our stock and let the fort be shut. At that point the boy arrived. The dog made for him. He still kept on with the play; he would throw his ball and then throw his hurley after it so that it struck the ball, neither stroke being greater than the other. And he threw his toy spear after them and caught it before it fell. And though the dog was approaching him, it interfered not with his play. Conchobor and his household were so dismayed by this that they could not move. They thought they would not reach him alive though the fort was open. Now when the hound came towards the boy, he cast aside his ball and his hurley, and he tackled the dog with both hands, that is, he put one hand on the apple of the hound's throat and the other at the back of his head, and dashed him against the pillar-stone that was beside him so that all the hound's limbs sprang apart. According to another version, however, he threw his ball into the hound's mouth and it drove his entrails out through him.
The Ulstermen rose up to fetch the boy, some leaping over the wall of the court, others going out by the gate. They placed him in Conchobar's arms. A great alarm was raised by them at the thought that the son of the king's sister had almost been killed. At that point Culann entered the house.
Welcome, little lad, for your mother's sake. But as for myself, would that I had not prepared a feast! My livelihood is now a livelihood wasted, my husbandry a husbandry lost without my hound. That hound was not one of the three hounds that were in the brain of Conganchness, as some hold, for it was to take vengeance for Cú Roí's death on the men of Ulster that Conganchness had gone and that happened long after the Cattle-Raid, but Cú Chulainn was only seven years old when he killed the smith's hound. Thus the theory held by those people is false; the smith's hound had been brought from Spain, as is asserted in the text of the tale. The servant who has been taken from me, that is, my
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{translation of lines 596-629} hound, maintained life and honour for me. He was defence and protection for my goods and my cattle. He guarded all my beasts for me in field and in house.
That is no great matter, said the boy. A whelp of the same litter will be reared by me for you, and until such time as that hound grows and is fit for action, I myself shall be a hound to protect your cattle and to protect yourself. And I shall protect all Mag Murthemne; neither flock nor herd shall be taken thence from me without my knowing it. Your name shall be Cú Chulainn (the Hound of Culann) then, said Catbhad. I am glad that it should be my name, said Cú Chulainn. It were no cause of wonder that one who had done this when he was seven, should have performed a valiant deed now that he is seventeen years old, said Conall Cernach.
The Death of Nechta Scéne's Three Sons
He did still another exploit, said Fiachu mac Fir Fhebe. Cathbad the druid was with his son Conchobar mac Nessa. There were with him a hundred active men learning the druid's artthat was the number that Cathbad used to instruct. One of his pupils asked him for what that day would be of good omen. Cathbad said that if a warrior took up arms on that day, his name for deeds of valour would be known throughout Ireland and his fame would last for ever. Cú Chulainn heard this. He went to Conchobar to ask for arms. Conchobar asked: Who prophesied good fortune for you? Master Cathbad, said Cú Chulainn. We know him indeed, said Conchobar. He gave him a spear and a shield. Cú Chulainn brandished them in the middle of the hall so that not one was left unbroken of the fifteen spare sets of weapons which were kept in Conchobar's household to replace broken weapons or to provide for the taking up of arms by someone. Finally Conchobar's own arms were given to him. They withstood him, and he brandished them and blessed the king whose arms they were, saying: Happy the people and race over whom reigns the owner of these arms
Then Cathbad came to them and asked: Is the boy taking up arms? Yes, said Conchobar.
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{translation of lines 630-668} That is not lucky for the son of his mother, said he. Why, was it not you who instructed him? It was not I indeed, said Cathbad. What use is it for you to deceive me so, you sprite? said Conchobar to Cú Chulainn. O king of the Fían, it is no deceit, said Cú Chulainn. He prophesied good fortune for his pupils this morning and I heard him from where I was on the south side of Emain, and then I came to you. It is indeed a day of good omen, said Cathbad. It is certain that he who takes up arms today will be famous and renowned, but he will, however, be short-lived. A mighty thing! said Cú Chulainn. Provided I be famous, I am content to be only one day on earth.
On another day a certain man asked the druids for what that day was a good omen. The name of one who goes (for the first time) into a chariot on this day, said Cathbad, will be famed throughout Ireland for ever. Then Cú Chulainn heard this, and he came to Conchobar and said to him: Master Conchobar, give me a chariot. Conchobar gave him a chariot. Cú Chulainn put his hand between the two shafts and the chariot broke. In the same way he smashed twelve chariots. So finally Conchobar's chariot was given to him and it withstood the test. Thereafter he went into the chariot with Conchobar's charioteer. The charioteer, whose name was Ibor, turned the chariot under him. Come out of the chariot now, said the charioteer. These are fine horses. I am fine too, lad, said Cú Clulainn. Just go on around Emain and you shall be rewarded for it.
The charioteer drove off and Cú Chulainn made him go along the road that he might greet the boys, and so that the boys may wish me well. Then he besought him to go back over the road again. When they had come there Cú Chulainn said to the charioteer: Ply the goad on the horses. In what direction? asked the charioteer. As far as the road will lead, said Cú Chulainn.
Thence they came to Slíab Fúait where they found Conall Cernach. It had fallen to Conall to guard the province that day. For each warrior of the Ulstermen spent a day in turn in Slíab
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{translation of lines 669-703} Fúait, to protect anyone who came that way with poetry or with challenge to battle, so that there he might be encountered and so that no one should go unnoticed into Emain. I wish you prosperity, victory and triumph! said Conall. Go to the fort, Conall, and leave me here to watch now, said Cú Chulainn. That will do, said Conall, if it is (merely) to undertake the protection of one coming with poetry. However, if it be to fight some one, it is still too soon for you to do that. Perhaps it will not be necessary at all, said Cú Chulainn. Meanwhile let us go to take a look at the sand-bank of Loch Echtra. There are usually warriors staying there. I am willing, said Conall. So they set out.
Cú Chulainn threw a stone from his sling and the shaft of Conall Cernach's chariot broke. Why have you thrown the stone, lad? asked Conall. To test my shooting and the accuracy of my shot, said Cú Chulainn, And it is the custom with you Ulstermen that you do not drive on in a chariot which is unsafe. Go back to Emain master Conall, and leave me here to keep watch. I am willing, said Conall. Conall Cernach did not go past that spot afterwards.
Cú Chulainn went on to Loch Echtra but they found no one there. The charioteer told Cú Chulainn that they should go to Emain to be in time for the feasting there. No, said Cú Chulainn. What mountain is that over there? Slíab Monduirnd, said the charioteer. Let us go to it, said Cú Chulainn.
Then they went to it, and when they had reached the mountain, Cú Chulainn asked What white cairn is that over there on the mountain-top? Finncharn, said the charioteer. What plain is that yonder? asked Cú Chulainn. Mag mBreg, said the charioteer.
So he told him the name of every chief fort between Temair and Cennannas. He named, moreover, their meadowlands and their fords, their renowned places and their dwellings, their forts and their fortified heights. He showed him too the fort of the three sons of Nechta Scéne, from Inber Scene. Fer Ulli mac Lugdach was their father and Nechtan Scéne their mother. The Ulstermen had killed their father which is the reason they were at war with the Ulstermen to wit, Fóill, Fannall and Túachell.
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{translation of lines 704-738} Is it they who say, asked Cú Chulainn, that there are not more Ulstermen alive than they have killed of them? It is they indeed, said the charioteer. Let us go to meet them, said Cú Chulainn. It is dangerous for us, said the charioteer.
Indeed it is not to avoid danger that we go, said Cú Chulainn. Then they set off, and they unyoked their horses at the confluence of a bog and a river, on the south above the fort of the sons of Nechta Scéne. And Cú Chulainn cast the withe that was on the pillar-stone as far as his arm could throw it out into the river and let it float downstream. This violated a tabu which bound the sons of Nechta Scéne who noticed what had been done and came towards them. But Cú Chulainn, after letting the withe drift with the current, fell asleep at the pillar-stone, having said to the charioteer: Do not wake me for a few, but wake me for several.
However the charioteer was now sore afraid, and he harnessed the chariot and he tugged at the rugs and skin-coverings that were under Cú Chulainn, though he did not dare to waken him because Cú Chulainn had previously told him not to waken him for a few.
Then came the sons of Nechta Scéne. Who is here? said one of them. A little lad who has come on an expedition in a chariot today, answered the charioteer. May his first taking up of arms not bring him prosperity or success. He must not stay in our land and the horses must not graze here any longer, said the warrior. Their reins are ready in my hand. said the charioteer. You had no reason to show yourself unfriendly to him, and anyway, said Ibor to the warrior, the lad is asleep. I am no lad indeed, said Cú Chulainn, but the lad who is here has come to seek battle with a man. That pleases me well, said the warrior. It will please you well now in yonder ford, said Cú Chulainn. This is fitting for you, said the charioteer. Beware of the man who comes against you. Fóill (Sly) is his name. If you reach him not with the first thrust, you will never reach him. I swear by the god by whom my people swear, he shall not play that trick again on Ulstermen if once the broad spear of my master Conchobar reach him from my hand. It will mean an outlaw's hand, that is, death, for him.
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{translation of lines 739-776} Then Cú Chulainn cast the spear at Fóill so that his back broke therefrom and he carried off his spoils and his severed head then.
Beware of the next man, said the charioteer. Fannall (Swallow) is his name. He skims over water as lightly as a swan or a swallow. I swear that he will not play that stick on Ulstermen again, said Cú Chulainn. You have seen how I travel across the pool in Emain. Then they met in the ford. Cú Chulainn killed that man and carried off his spoils and his head.
Beware of the next man who comes to you, said the charioteer. Túachell (Cunning) is his name, and it is no misnomer for no weapons wound him. Here is the deil chlis for him to confound him so that it may riddle him like a sieve, said Cú Chulainn. Then he cast the spear at him and knocked him down. He went towards him and cut off his head. He carried off his head and his spoils to his own charioteer. Then he heard the cry of their mother, Nechta Scéne, bewailing them. He carried off the spoils and brought the three heads with him in his chariot and said I will not part from these tokens of my triumph until I reach Emain. Thereupon they set forth with their trophies. Cú Chulainn said to the charioteer: You promised us a good drive, and we need it now because of the fight and because of the pursuit behind us.
They drove on then to Slíab Fúait. So swift was the run they made across Brega after his urging of the charioteer that the chariot-horses used to outstrip the wind and birds in flight, and Cú Chulainn used to catch the stone he had thrown from his sling before it reached the ground.
On reaching Slíab Fuait they found a herd of deer before them. What are those nimble cattle over there? asked Cú Chulainn. Wild deer, said the charioteer. Which would the Ulstermen deem best, that I should take them to them alive or dead? It is more wonderful (to take them) alive said the charioteer. Not every one can do so, but there is not one of them who cannot take them dead. But you cannot carry off any one of them alive, added the charioteer. Indeed I can, said Cú Chulainn. Ply the goad on the horses and drive them to the bog.
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{translation of lines 777-812} The charioteer did so, and the horses stuck fast in the bog. Cú Chulainn sprang out of the chariot and caught the deer that was nearest to him and the finest of the herd. He lashed the horses through the bog and subdued the deer immediately and tied it up between the two poles of the chariot.
Again they saw before them a flock of swans. Which would the Ulstermen deem best, asked Cú Chulainn, that I should carry them alive to them or carry them dead? The bravest and most active carry them off alive, said the charioteer. Cú Chulainn then threw a small stone at the birds and brought down eight of them. Again he threw a big stone and struck twelve of them. All this was done by his return-stroke. Collect the birds for me, said Cú Chulainn to his charioteer. If I go to get them, the wild deer will spring on you.
It is not easy for me to go there, said the charioteer. The horses have become wild so that I cannot go past them. Nor can I go past the iron wheels of the chariot because of their sharpness, and I cannot go past the deer for his antlers have filled all the space between the two poles of the chariot. Step from his antlers then, said Cú Chulainn. I swear by the god by whom the Ulstermen swear, that I shall so nod at him and so glare at him that he will not move his head towards you and will not dare to stir. That was done then. Cú Chulainn fastened the reins and the charioteer collected the birds. Then Cú Chulainn tied the birds to the strings and cords of the chariot. In this wise he went to Emain Macha with a wild deer behind his chariot, a flock of swans fluttering over it and three severed heads in his chariot.
They reached Emain then. A chariot-warrior is driving towards you! cried the watchman in Emain Macha. He will shed the blood of every man in the fort unless heed be taken and naked women go out to meet him.
Then he turned the left side of his chariot towards Emain which was tabu for it. And Cú Chulainn said. I swear by the god by whom Ulstermen swear that, unless some man is found to fight with me, I shall shed the blood of everyone in the fort. Send forth naked women to meet him ! ordered Conchobor. Then the women-folk of Emain came forth to meet him led by Mugain,
or by Férach, according to other versions [gloss]
the wife of Conchobor mac Nessa, and they bared their breasts to him.
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{translation of lines 813-843} These are the warriors who will encounter you today, said Mugain.
or Férach [gloss]"
.
He hid his face. Then the warriors of Emain seized him and cast him into a tub of cold water. That tub burst about him. The second tub into which he was plunged boiled hands high therefrom. The third tub into which he went after that he warmed so that its heat and its cold were properly adjusted for him. Then he came out and the queen, Mugain, put on him a blue mantle with a silver brooch therein, and a hooded tunic, and he sat at Conchobor's knee which was his resting-place always after that.
One who did that in his seventh year, said Fiachu mac Fir Pebe, it were no wonder that he should triumph over odds and overcome in fair fight now that his seventeen years are complete today.
A different Version up to the Death of Órlám
Let us go forward now, said Ailill. Then they reached Mag Mucceda. There Cú Chulainn cut down an oaktree in their path and on its side he wrote an ogam inscription which said that none should go past it until a warrior should leap across it in a chariot. They pitched their tents at that spot and they came to leap across it in their chariots. Thirty horses fell in the attempt and thirty chariots were broken there. Bélach nÁne is the name of that place ever since.
The Death of Fráech
They remained there till the morrow. Fráech was summoned to them. Help us, Fráech, said Medb. Deliver us in this strait. Go for us to meet Cú Chulainn to see if perhaps you may encounter him in battle. Fráech set forth, a company of nine men, early in the morning and reached Áth Fúait. He saw a warrior bathing in the river. Wait here, said Fráech to his followers, till I fight with yonder man. He is not good in water. He took off his clothes and went into the water to Cú Chulainn. Do not come against me, said Cú Chulainn. You will die if you do and I should be sorry to kill you.
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{translation of lines 844-879} Indeed I shall go, said Fráech, so that we may meet in the water, and give me fair play. Arrange that as you please, said Cú Chulainn. Let each of us clasp the other (and wrestle), said Fráech. For a long time they kept wrestling in the water, and Fráech was submerged. Cú Chulainn lifted him up again. Now this time will you yield and accept your life? said Cú Chulainn. I will not, said Fráech.
Cú Chulainn thrust him down again and Fráech died. He came to land. His people carried his body to the encampment. Ever after that ford was called Áth Fraích. The whole encampment mourned for Fráech. They saw a band of women dressed in green tunics bending over the corpse of Fráech mac Idaid. They carried him off into the fairy mound which was called Síd Fraích ever afterwards.
Fergus leapt across the oak-tree in his own chariot.
They went on as far as Áth Taiten. There Cú Chulainn overthrew six of them, namely, the six Dungail Irruis. Thence they went on to Fornocht. Medb had a young hound named Baiscne. Cú Chulainn threw a stone at it and took its head off. Druim Baiscne was the name of that place henceforth. It is a disgrace for you, said Medb, that you do not hunt down that wicked hind who is killing you. So they went in pursuit of him then and the shafts of their chariots broke in the hunting.
The Death of Órlám
On the morrow they went over Iraird Culenn. Cú Chulainn went forward and came upon the charioteer of Órlám, son of Ailill and Medb, at a place called Tamlachta Órláim a little to the north of Dísert Lochait where he was cutting wood.
According to another version, however, it was the shaft of Cú Chulainn's chariot that had broken and he had gone to cut a new shaft when he met the charioteer of &Óacute;rlám. But according to this version it was the charioteer who cut the shafts.
It is a bold action on the part of the Ulstermen if it is they who are yonder, said Cú Chulainn, while the army is on their track. He went to the charioteer to reprimand him, thinking he was one of the Ulstermen. He saw the man cutting wood, that is, chariot-shafts.
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{translation of lines 880-915}
What are you doing here? said Cú Chulainn. Cutting chariot-shafts, said the charioteer. We have broken our chariots hunting yon wild deer, Cú Chulainn. Help me, said the charioteer. Decide whether you will collect the shafts or strip them. I will strip them, said Cú Chulainn. Then Cú Chulainn stripped the shafts between his fingers in the presence of the other, and he cleaned them both of bark and of knots. It was not your proper work that I set you, said the charioteer who was sore afraid. Who are you? asked Cú Chulainn. I am the charioteer of &Óacute;rlám, son of Ailill and Medb, said he. And who are you? My name is Cú Chulainn, said he. Woe is me !said the charioteer. Fear nothing, said Cú Chulainn. Where is your master? He is on the mound yonder, said the charioteer. Come on then with me, said Cú Chulainn, for I do not kill charioteers.
Cú Chulainn went to &Óacute;rlám, killed him and cut off his head and brandished it before the host. He put the head then on the charioteer's back and said: Take that with you and go thus to the camp. If you do not go thus, I shall cast a stone at you from my sling. When the charioteer drew near the camp, he took the head from his back, and related his adventures to Ailill and Medb. It is not like catching a fledgling, said she. And he said that if I did not bring the head to the camp on my back, he would break my head for me with a stone.
The Death of the three Sons of Gárach
Then the three Meic Gárach remained at their ford. Their names were Lon, Úalu and Diliu, and Mes Lir, Mes Lóech and Mes Lethan were their three charioteers. They thought Cú Chulainn had gone too far in doing what he had done, namely, killing the king's two foster-sons and his son and brandishing his son's head before the host. (They came then) that they might kill Cú Chulainn in revenge for &Óacute;rlám and so that they might themselves alone remove this cause of anxiety from the host. They cut three wooden rods for their charioteers so that the six of them together might do battle with Cú Chulainn. But then he killed all of them for they had broken the terms of fair play.
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{translation of lines 916-948}
At that time &Óacute;rlám's charioteer was standing between Ailill and Medb. Cú Chulainn threw a stone at him and his head broke and his brains gushed out over his ears. His name was Fer Teidil. So it is not true that Cú Chulainn never slew charioteers; but he did not kill them unless they were at fault.
The Death of the Marten and of the Pet Bird
Cú Chulainn threatened in Méithe that, wherever afterwards he should see Ailill or Medb, he would cast a stone from his sling at them. He did so indeed; he threw a stone from his sling and killed the marten on Medb's shoulder south of the ford. Hence is the name Méithe Togmaill. And north of the ford he killed the bird that was on Ailill's shoulder. Hence the name Méithe nEoin. Or, according to another version, both marten and bird were on Medb's shoulder and their heads were struck off by the stones cast. Then Reúin was drowned in his lake; hence the name Loch Reóin.
Your opponent is not far from you, said Ailill to the Maines. They rose to their feet and gazed around. When they sat down again Cú Chulainn struck one of them and smashed his head. That was no successful expedition! It ill befitted you to boast, said Maenén the jester. I should have cut his head off. Then Cú Chulainn cast a stone at him and smashed his head.
In this manner then these men were killed: first of all &Óacute;rlám on his height, then the three Meic Gárach at their ford, Fer Teidil at his dedil and Maenén on his hill.
I swear by the god by whom my people swear, said Ailill, that I shall cut in twain whatever man shall make a mock of Cú Chulainn here. Come on now, I beg you, travelling by day and by night until we reach Cúailnge. That man will kill two thirds of your army (if he continue) in this way.
Then the harpers of Caín Bile came to them from Ess Ruaid to entertain them with music. But they thought that the harpers had come from the Ulstermen to spy on them. So they hunted them until they went before them into the pillar-stones at Lía Mór in the north, transformed into deer, for (in reality) they were druids possessed of great occult knowledge.
The Death of Lethan
Lethan came on to his ford over the Níth in Conaille, and he indeed waited to encounter Cú Chulainn. He was grieved by what Cú
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{translation of lines 949-987} Chulainn had already done. Cú Chulainn cut off his head and left it there beside the body. Hence is the name Áth Lethan on the Níth. And their chariots broke when they met on the ford beside it. Hence is the name Áth Carpat. Mulcha, Lethan's charioteer, fell on the shoulder of the hill that lies between Áth Lethan and Áth Carpat. Hence comes the place-name Gúala Mulcha.
While the army was going over Mag mBreg Allecto came for a while, that is, the Mórrígan, in the form of a bird which perched on the pillar-stone in Temair Cúailnge and said to the bull: Does the restless Black Bull know (it) without destructive falsehood? ... I have a secret that the Black Bull will know if he graze(?) ... on the green grass ... Fierce is the raven, men are dead, a sorrowful saying ... every day the death of a great tribe ... Then the bull went with fifty heifers to Slíab Cuillinn, and his herdsman, Forgaimen, followed him. The bull threw off the thrice fifty boys who used to play on his back and killed two thirds of them. And before he went he pawed the earth in Tir Margéni in Cúailnge.
Cú Chulainn did not kill anyone between the Saili Imdoirchi in the district of Conaille until they reached Cúailnge. Cú Chulainn was then on the mountain Cuinche. He threatened that wherever he saw Medb he would cast a stone at her head. This was not easy for him, for Medb travelled surrounded by half the army and with a screen of shields over her head.
The Death of Lócha
A handmaid of Medb's called Lócha went with a great company of women to fetch water. Cú Chulainn thought that she was Medb. He threw a stone at her from Cuinche and killed her on her plain. Hence comes the place-name Réid Lócha in Cúailnge.
From Findabair Cúailnge the army scattered and set the country on fire. They gathered together all the women, boys, girls and cows that were in Cúailnge and brought them all to Findabair. Your expedition was not successful, said Medb. I do not see that you have the bull. He is not in the province at all, said they all. Lóthar. Medb's cowherd was summoned to them. Where do you think the bull is? she asked. I am afraid to tell, said the cowherd. The night that the Ulstermen fell into their debility the bull went away with sixty heifers and he is now in Dubchaire in Glenn Gat.
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{translation of lines 988-1018} Go, said Medb, and take a withe between each pair of you. They did so then, and hence the glen is called Glenn Gat. Then they brought the bull to Findabair. When the bull caught sight of Lóthar the cowherd, he rushed at him and disembowelled him with his horns. Then together with his thrice fifty heifers the bull made for the encampment and fifty warriors were killed by him.That is the Death of Lóthar on the Foray.
Then the bull went away from them out of the camp, but they knew not where he had gone and they were grieved. Medb asked the cowherd if he knew where the bull was. I fancy that he might be in the recesses of Slíab Cuillinn. So they turned back after ravaging Cúailnge but they did not find the bull there. The river Cronn rose up against them as high as the tops of the trees. They spent the night by the river-bank. And Medb ordered some of her people to go across.
The Death of Úalu
On the morrow a valiant hero called Úalu went and took a great flagstone on his back to go across the water. But the river turned him over and he lay with his stone on his belly. His grave and his headstone are on the road beside the stream. Lia Úalann is its name.
Afterwards they went round the river Cronn as far as its source, and they would have gone between its source and the mountain only that Medb would not allow it. She preferred that they should go across the mountain so that the track they made might remain there for ever as an insult to the men of Ulster. So they remained there three days and three nights until they had dug up the earth in front of them (to make a pass through the mountain) which was called Bernas Bó Cúailnge.
Then Cú Chulainn killed Cronn and Cóemdele and fought a furious(?) combat. A hundred warriors died by his hand ... together with Roán and Roae, the two historians of the Táin. A hundred and forty-four kings were slain by him beside that same stream.
After that they came through the pass Bernas Bó Cúailnge with the stock and cattle of Cúailnge, and they spent the night in Glenn Dáil Imda in Cúailnge. Botha is the name of that place because they made huts (botha) to shelter them there. On the morrow they went on to the river Colptha. They heedlessly tried to cross it but it
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{translation of lines 1019-1052} rose in flood against them and carried off to sea a hundred of their chariot- warriors. Cluain Carpat is the name of the district where they were drowned. They went round the river Colptha then to its source at Belat Alióin and spent the night at Liasa Liac. It is so called because they made sheds (liasa) for their calves there between Cúailnge and Conaille. They came through Glenn Gatlaig and the river Glais Gatlaig rose in flood against them. Before that its name was Sechaire, but from that time it was called Glais Gatlaig because they had taken their calves across bound together with wither. They spent the night in Druim Féne in Conaille.
Those then were their journeyings from Cúailnge to Machaire according to this version. But other authors and books give a different account of their wanderings from Findabair to Conaille, which is as follows
The Harrying of Cúailnge
When they had all arrived with their booty and assembled at Findabair Cúailnge, Medb said Let the army be divided here. All the cattle cannot be taken by one route. Let Ailill go with half of them by Slige Midlúachra. Fergus and I will go by Bernas Bó nUlad. The half of the drove that has fallen to our share is not lucky for us, said Fergus. The cattle cannot be taken across the mountain unless they are divided. So it was done. Whence comes the name Bernas Bó nUlad.
Then Ailill said to Cuillius, his charioteer: Spy for me today on Medb and Fergus. I do not know what has brought them thus together. I shall be glad if you can bring me a proof. Cuillius arrived when they were in Cluichri. The lovers remained behind while the warriors went on ahead. Cuillius came to where they were, but they did not hear the spy. Fergus's sword happened to be beside him and Cuillius drew it out of its scabbard, leaving the scabbard empty.
Then he came back to Ailill. Well? said Ailill. Well indeed, said Cuillius. Here is a proof for you. That is well, said Ailill. They exchanged smiles. As you thought, said Cuillius, I found them both lying together.
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{translation of lines 1053-10901} She is right (to behave thus), said Ailill. She did it to help in the cattle-driving. Make sure that the sword remain in good condition. Put it under your seat in the chariot, wrapped in a linen cloth.
Then Fergus rose up to look for his sword. Alas! he cried. What ails you?asked Medb. I have wronged Ailill, said he. Wait here until I come out of the wood, and do not wonder if it is a long time until I return. Now in fact Medb did not know of the loss of the sword. Fergus went off, taking his charioteer's sword in his hand. In the wood he cut a wooden sword. Hence the Ulstermen have the place-name Fid Mórdrúalle.
Let us go on after the others, said Fergus. All their hosts met in the plain. They pitched their tents. Fergus was summoned to Ailill to play chess. When he came into the tent Ailill began to laugh at him.
Fergus said: Well for the man who is being laughed at if he be not deluded by the foolish violence of his fateful deed. By the point of my sword, halidom of Macha, swiftly shall we wreak vengeance on swords following on a cry (for help) from the Gaileóin had not a woman's triumph misdirected (me); following on a tryst bloody and gravestrewn and with blunt-edged spears between a great host with [their] commanders, there shall be fought a battle [extending] to the mountain of Nessa's grandson (Cú Chulainn) by a stout host, and the battle shall scatter the headless trunks of men.
Then Ailill spoke: Do not wage battle after the loss of your sword ... It defends Medb against many tribes ... Sit down then, said Ailill, so that we may play a game of chess. Your arrival is welcome. Then Ailill said Play chess and draughts before a king and a queen. They have prepared a game for great eager armies. It matters not(?) what stake you lay ... I am well- skilled. Perhaps in truth the first guilt will lie on the women ... Findabair loves the bold Fergus, Fergus mac Rossa Róich with lowing cattle and great armies surrounded(?) by tribes with great possessions, Fergus with the beauty of a king, the fierceness of a dragon, the venemous breath of a viper, the powerful blow of a lion. Then they began to play chess. They moved the gold and silver chessmen across the bronze chessboard.
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{translation of lines 1091-1136}
Ailill was heard speaking: It is not the due of a king ... Medb was heard to say: Cease those uncouth speeches. A noble lady is not the secret love of a stranger ... I am not given to destruction and unjust judgments ... Then Fergus was heard saying: Alas! With many words they wage war facing many tribes, and with secret counsels they will be nourished(?) and with treasure they will be bewitched(?), and with spears they will be cleared away ... that is, you will be obeyed. They remained there that night and on the following morning they heard Ailill say A great champion comes to face the mighty army by Cronn, the river of Nessa's grandson. The men of Connacht will fight against an opponent. There will flow streams of blood from headless necks in a bloody and grave-strewn meeting of heroes. Many waters rise up against the beardless champion who will come from Ulster to the fray.
Then Medb spoke: Do not contend, O arrogant son of Máta ... men are herded together, women are carried off ... great armies propose to come from the battle-field of Cúailnge and the hosts sleep on. Fergus was heard: Let a great prince(?) be seized ... Let them swear by their people, let them make promises to their queens, let them fight against their enemies. Medb was heard saying: Let what he says be done, let it be done. Medb spoke: He judges in submission to you for many armies. Let them advance while Ailill is in your power... They set forth on their way to the river Cronn, and Mane mac Ailella was heard to say: If I am quickly sent forth against a fair opponent of many feats, he will ward off father and mother on horned cattle ...
Then Fergus was heard saying: Do not go, O valorous boy. They will give no other counsel until a beardless lad shall strike your head from your neck ... Let me go in front with the banished Ulstermen, said Fergus, to make sure that the lad gets fair play, with the cattle before us and the army in our rear, and the women folk behind the army.
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{translation of lines 1137-1176}
Then Medb was heard saying: Hark, O Fergus! for the sake of your honour ... ward off (the enemy) with your fine army. Do not drive away the Ulstermen ... In Mag nAí you prevail over a meeting of companies.
Fergus spoke: Alas! O foolish Medb whose voice I do not hear ... I am not the son of a weakling ... I shall not strike a great blow upon the tribes. Cease to cast stones at me ...
Cú Chulainn came to Áth Cruinn to meet them. My friend Láeg, said he to his charioteer, the armies are coming towards us.
Láeg spoke: I swear by the gods that I shall perform a great deed in front of chariot- warriors in the small remnant of the battle. They are carried on slender steeds with silver yokes and golden wheels (on their chariots) ... You will march against kings. They will conquer with their power of leaping.
Cú Chulainn spoke: Take heed, O Láeg, that you grasp the reins with the great victory of Macha ... I beseech the rivers to come to my help. I call upon heaven and earth and especially the river Cronn to aid me.
The plaintive river Cronn offers them resistance and will not let them cross into Muirthemne until the work of warriors is finished in the mountain north of Ochaíne.
Thereupon the river rose in flood as high as the tree-tops.
Maine, the son of Ailill and Medb came forward before the others. Cú Chulainn slaughtered him on the ford and thirty horsemen of his household were submerged in the water. Cú Chulainn overthrew thirty-two of their brave warriors again at the river. They pitched their tents at that ford. Lugaid mac Nóis uí Lomairc Allchomaig accompanied by thirty horsemen came on a fleeting visit to parley with Cú Chulainn.
Welcome, Lugaid, said Cú Chulainn. If birds fly over Mag Murthemne you shall have a barnacle goose and a half. Or else if fish swim into the estuaries you shall have a salmon and a half. Or else you shall have three sprigs, a sprig of cress, a sprig of laver, a sprig of seaweed. A man shall take your place (to fight) at the ford. That is welcome, said Lugaid. I wish all goodness of the tribe for the lad. Your army is fine, said Cú Chulainn.
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{translation of lines 1177-1214} You will not suffer even though the company you bring against them is few, said Lugaid. Grant me fair play and goodly combat, said Cú Chulainn. O friend Lugaid, do the army hold me in fear? I swear by the god of my people, said Lugaid, that not one man or two dare go outside the camp to make water unless they go in companies of twenty or of thirty. It will be a fine thing for them, said Cú Chulainn, if I begin to pelt them with stones from my sling. If every man's strength is put forth against me, it will be right for you, Lugaid, (to remember) your alliance with the men of Ulster. Tell me now what it is that you want. I want a truce from you for my company.
You shall have that provided that they bear a special sign (that I may recognize them.) And tell my friend Fergus that his company too should bear a special sign. Tell the physicians to make their company also bear a sign and let them swear to preserve my life and send me food every night. Lugaid left him then. Now it chanced that Fergus was in his tent with Ailill. Lugaid called him out and gave him the message.
Ailill was heard speaking: Cair iss i sanassaib ... Let us go with a small army, to a choice tent and an encampment ... I swear by the god of my people that it is not so, said Fergus, unless I ask the lad. Come, Lugaid, go and ask him if Ailill and his division of three thousand may join together with my company. Take him an ox and a flitch of bacon and a barrel of wine. Then Lugaid goes to him and gives him that message. I do not mind if he go, said Cú Chulainn. So the two companies joined them. They remained there until night. Cú Chulainn wounded thirty of their warriors with stones from his sling. Or, as some books tell it, they remained there for twenty nights. Your journeyings will be unpleasant, said Fergus. The Ulstermen will recover from their debility and they will crush us into the dust and gravel. We are ill-placed for battle. Come on to Cúil Airthir. It happened that Cú Chulainn went that night to speak with the men of Ulster.
What tidings have you? asked Conchobar. Women are taken captive, said he, cattle are driven away, men are slain.
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{translation of lines 1215-1251} Who takes them captive? Who drives them away? Who kills them? ... The man foremost in slaughter and killing, Ailill mac Máta, carries them off and Fergus mac Róich, the brave one, who wields a sword ... That is not of much benefit to you, said Conchobar. Today we have been smitten (by the cess) as before.
Thereafter Cú Chulainn left them. He saw the army going forth.
Ailill spoke: Alas! I see a chariot with bright points ... he will slay men in fords and capture cows, and the thirty will act when the army has come from Laigin. Blood will flow from headless necks. They will fall fighting for the cattle of the Ulstermen in the ford. Cú Chulainn killed thirty of their warriors at Áth Durn. They made no stop then until at nightfall they reached Cúil Airthir. He killed thirty of them at that spot and they pitched their tents there.
Ailill's charioteer, Cuillius, was at the ford early in the morning washing the wheels of the chariot. Cú Chulainn hit him with a stone and killed him. Hence the place-name Áth Cuillne in Cúil Airthir.
They travelled on then and spent the night in Druim Féine in Conaille, as we have related above. Cú Chulainn attacked them there. On each of the three nights that they were there he killed a hundred of them. He let fly at them with his sling from Ochaíne near them.
Our army will not long survive with Cú Chulainn attacking us in this fashion, said Ailill. Let an offer of terms from us be made to him, namely, that he shall have an extent of Mag nAí equal to Mag Muirthemne, the best chariot in Mag nAí and the equipment of twelve men. Or, if he prefer, this plain in which he was reared and thrice seven cumala. And all that has been destroyed in his household or among his cattle shall be made good, and he shall be compensated for it. And let him take service with me, it is better for him than to be in the service of a princeling. Who will go on that mission? they asked. Mac Roth yonder.
Mac Roth, the messenger of Ailill and Medbhe it is who could go all round Ireland in one daywent to Delga on that mission, for Fergus believed that Cú Chulainn was in Delga.
I see a man coming towards us, said Láeg to Cú Chulainn. He has yellow hair. He wears the linen garments of his office. In his hand a great club and at his waist an ivory-hilted sword. He wears a hooded tunic with red insertion.
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{translation of lines 1262-1286} That is one of the king's warriors, said Cú Chulainn.
Mac Roth asked Láeg whose vassal he was. Vassal to yonder man below, said Láeg. Cú Chulainn was sitting stark-naked in the snow which reached up to his thighs, examining his shirt for lice. So Mac Roth asked Cú Chulainn whose vassal he was. Vassal of Conchobor mac Nessa, said Cú Chulainn. Have you no more definite description? That is sufficient, said Cú Chulainn. Where is Cú Chulainn then? asked Mac Roth. What would you say to him? said Cú Chulainn. So Mac Roth told him the whole message as we have (already) related. Even if Cú Chulainn were here near at hand, he would not agree to that. He will not exchange his mother's brother for another king.
Once again Cú Chulainn was visited (by Mac Roth) and he was told that he would be given the noblest of the (captured) women and the dry kine on condition that he should not ply his sling on them by night even if he killed them by day. I will not agree, said Cú Chulainn. If our base-born women are carried off, then our noble women will work at querns, and if our milch cows are taken away we shall be left without milk. A third time Cú Chulainn was visited by Mac Roth and he was told that he would get the base-born women and the milch cows. I will not agree, said Cú Chulainn. The Ulstermen will take their base born women to bed and base offspring will be born to them, and they will use their milch cows for meat in the winter. Is there anything else then? asked the messenger. There is, said Cú Chulainn, but I shall not tell you. It will be agreed to if some one (else) tell you. I know what it is, said Fergus. The man has arranged that I should make it known. But indeed it is of no advantage to you. These then are the terms: that for a day and a night the cattle shall not be taken away from the ford on which he shall fight in single combat, in the hope that help may come from the Ulstermen to him. And I find it strange, said Fergus, that they are so long in recovering from their debility. It is better for us indeed, said Ailill, to lose one man every day than a hundred men every night.
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{translation of lines 1287-1322}
The death of Etarcomol and the terms offered by the men of Ireland as told to Cú Chulainn by Fergus:
Then Fergus went on that mission. Etarcomol, the son of Ed and Leithrinn, fosterson of Ailill and Medb, followed Fergus. I do not wish you to go, said Fergus, and it is not out of hatred of you that I say so, but I dislike the thought of a fight between you and Cú Chulainn because of your pride and insolence and because of the fierceness and violence, the boldness and fury of your opponent, Cú Chulainn. No good will come of your encounter. Can you not protect me from him? said Etarcomol. I can, said Fergus, provided that you do not provoke a quarrel.
They set off then for Delga in two chariots. At that time Cú Chulainn was playing draughts with Láeg: the back of his head was towards them and Láeg was facing them. I see two chariots coming towards us, said Láeg. There is a tall dark man in the first chariot. He has dark bushy hair. He wears a purple cloak in which is a golden brooch, and a hooded tunic with red insertion. He carries a curved shield with a scalloped rim of white gold. In his hand he holds a broad spear with perforations from point to upper shaft (?). Across his thighs a sword as long as a boat's rudder. That great rudder carried by my master Fergus is empty, said Cú Chulainn, for there is no sword in the scabard, only a sword of wood. I have been told, said Cú Chulainn, that Ailill came unawares upon Fergus and Medb as they slept, and he took away Fergus's sword and gave it into the keeping of his charioteer, and a wooden sword was put into its scabbard. At that point Fergus arrived.
Welcome, master Fergus, said Cú Chulainn. If fish swim into the estuaries you shall have a salmon and a half; or else if a flock of birds fly over the plain you shall have a barnacle goose and the half of another; or you shall have a handful of cress or seaweed, a handful of laver, a drink from the sand. I shall to go the ford to encounter an opponent if he challenge (you) and you shall be guarded until you shall have slept. I trust your welcome, said Fergus, but it is not for food that I have come. I know what provisions you have here. Then Cú Chulainn received the message from Fergus, and Fergus departed.
Etarcomol remained behind gazing at Cú Chulainn. What are you looking at? said Cú Chulainn.
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{translation of lines 1323-1360} You, said Etarcomol. An eye can soon glance over that, said Cú Chulainn. So I see, answered Etarcomol. I see no reason why anyone should fear you. I see in you no horror or fearfulness or superiority in numbers. You are merely a handsome youth with wooden weapons and fine feats of arms. Though you revile me said Cú Chulainn, I will not kill you because of Fergus. But for your being under his protection, I would have sent back your distended loins and your dismembered body behind your chariot to the encampment. Do not threaten me thus, said Etarcomol. As for the wonderful agreement you made, namely, to engage in single combat, it is I who will be the first of the men of Ireland to fight with you tomorrow. Then he went away, but he turned back again from Méithe and Ceithe, saying to his charioteer: I boasted in the presence of Fergus that I would encounter Cú Chulainn tomorrow. It is not easy for me, however, to wait until then. Turn the horses back again from the hill.
Láeg saw what was happening and said to Cú Chulainn The chariot is coming again and has turned its left side to us. That is a challenge which must be met, said Cú Chulainn. Let us go down to meet him at the ford and find out (what he wants).
I do not wish to do what you ask, said Cú Chulainn (to Etarcomol). You must do it, however, said Etarcomol. Cú Chulainn struck the sod beneath his feet and he fell prostrate with the sod on his belly. Begone! said Cú Chulainn. I am loath to dip my hands in your blood. I should have cut you into pieces just now but for Fergus. We shall not part like this, said Etarcomol, until I carry off your head or until I leave my head with you. The latter is what will happen, said Cú Chulainn. Then Cú Chulainn struck him with his sword under his armpits so that his garments fell off him, but he did not cut his skin. Begone then! said Cú Chulainn. No, said Etarcomol. Cú Chulainn touched him then with the edge of his sword and cut his hair off as cleanly as if it had been shaved off with a razor. He did not even scratch his skin. Then since the fellow was troublesome and pertinacious, he struck him on the crown of his head and clove him down to the navel.
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{translation of lines 1361-1397}
Fergus saw the chariot go past with only one man in it. He turned back to scold Cú Chulainn. It was wicked of you, you whippersnapper, said he, to violate my protection (of Etarcomol). You think my club is short. Do not be angry with me, master Fergus, said Cú Chulainn, ...Do not reproach me, master Fergus. He bowed down and let Fergus's chariot go past him three times. Ask his charioteer if I was the one who instigated the fight. Indeed it was not you, said Etarcomol's charioteer. He said, went on Cú Chulainn, that he would not go away till he carried off my head or left his own head with me. Which would you prefer, master Fergus? Indeed I prefer what has been done, said Fergus, for it is he who was insolent.
Then Fergus put a spanceling band through Etarcomol's heels and dragged him behind his own chariot to the camp. Whenever Etarcomol's body went over rocks, one half would part from the other; when the path was smooth, the two parts would come together again. Medb looked at him. That was not kind treatment for a young hound, Fergus, said Medb. It is no source of annoyance to me, said Fergus, that the mongrel should have waged battle with the great hound for whom he was no match.
Then Etarcomol's grave was dug and his headstone was planted in the ground; his name was written in ogam and he was mourned. That night Cú Chulainn did not attack them with his sling.
The Death of Nad Crantail
What man have you got to encounter Cú Chulainn tomorrow? asked Lugaid. They will give you him tomorrow, said Maine son of Ailill. We can get no one to encounter him, said Medb. Let us make a truce with him till a man be sought for him. A truce was granted them. Whither will you send, asked Ailill, to seek a man to encounter Cú Chulainn? There is no one in Ireland to be got for him, said Medb, unless Cú Roí mac Dáire or Nad Crantail the warrior be brought.
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{translation of lines 1398-1434}
One of Cú Roí's followers was in the tent. Cú Roí will not come, said he. He thinks that enough of his people have already come. Let a message be sent to Nad Crantail then. Maine Andoí went to Nad Crantail. They related their tidings to him. Come with us for the sake of the honour of Connacht. I will not, said he, unless Findabair is given to me. He came with them then. They brought his weapons in a cart from the east of Connacht to the encampment. You shall get Findabair, said Medb, as a reward for encountering yonder man. I shall do so, said he. That night Lugaid came to Cú Chulainn. Nad Crantail is coming to meet you tomorrow. Alas for you! You will not stand out against him. That is no matter, said Cú Chulainn.
According to another version it was then that Cú Chulainn chanted the verse: If Nad Crantail should fall.
On the morrow Nad Crantail went forth from the camp, taking with him nine stakes of holly, sharpened and charred. Cú Chulainn was there engaged in fowling, with his chariot beside him. Nad Crantail cast a stake at Cú Chulainn. Cú Chulainn sprang on to the top of that stake but it did not hinder him in his fowling. Similarly with the other eight stakes. When Nad Crantail cast the ninth stake, the flock of birds flew away from Cú Chulainn who went in pursuit of them. Then, like a bird himself, he stepped on to the points of the stakes, going from one stake to another, pursuing the birds that they might not escape him. They were all certain, however, that Cú Chulainn was fleeing from Nad Crantail.
That Cú Chulainn of yours, said Nad Crantail, has taken to flight before me. It was to be expected, said Medb, if goodly warriors opposed him, that the sprite would not hold out against bold men. Fergus and the Ulstermen were grieved to hear this. Fíacha mac Fir Fhebe was sent by them to upbraid Cú Chulainn. Tell him, said Fergus, that it was fine for him to attack the warriors as long as he acted bravely. It is better for him, however, to hide himself when he flees from a single opponent, for it is no greater dishonour for him than for the rest of the Ulstermen. Who boasted that I fled? asked Cú Chulainn. Nad Crantail, said Fíacha.
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{translation of lines 1435-1469} If he had boasted of the feat I had performed in his presence; it would have become him better, said Cú Chulainn. But he would not boast if only he had a weapon in his hand. You know that I kill no man unarmed. So let him come tomorrow and stand between Ochaíne and the sea, and however early he come, he shall find me waiting there and I shall not flee from him.
Cú Chulainn ended the meeting, and he cast his mantle around him after his night watch, but he did not notice the great pillar-stone as big as himself which was beside him and he covered it over between himself and his mantle and sat down beside it.
Then Nad Crantail arrived. His weapons were brought by him in a wagon. Where is Cú Chulainn? he asked. There he is over there, said Fergus. That is not how he appeared to me yesterday, said Nad Crantail. Are you the famous Cú Chulainn? And what if I am? said Cú Chulainn. If you are, said Nad Crantial, then until I carry the head of a little lamb to the camp, I shall not take back your head which is the head of a beardless boy. I am not Cú Chulainn at all, said Cú Chulainn. Go round the hill to him.
Cú Chulainn came to Láeg. Smear a false beard on me. The champion refuses to fight with me since I am beardless. So it was done for him. He went to meet Nad Crantail on the hill. I think that better, said Nad Crantail. Grant me fair play now. You shall have it provided that we know it. said Cú Chulainn. I will throw a cast at you, said Nad Crantail, and do not avoid it. I shall avoid it only by leaping upwards, said Cú Chulainn. Nad Crantail threw a cast at him and Cú Chulainn leapt upwards as it came. You do ill to avoid the cast, said Nad Crantail. Avoid my cast upwards also, said Cú Chulainn.
Cú Chulainn threw the spear at him but it was upwards he threw so that the spear came down on the crown of Nad Crantail's head and went through him to the ground. Indeed, he cried, you are the best warrior in Ireland! I have twenty- four sons in the encampment. Let me go and tell them what
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{translation of lines 1470-1503} hidden treasures I have. And I shall come back so that you may behead me for I shall die if the spear is taken out of my head. Good, said Cú Chulainn, provided that you come back again.
Then Nad Crantail went to the encampment. They all came forth to meet him. Where is the head of the distorted one that you have brought? they all asked. Stay, O warriors, until I tell my tale to my sons and go back again to fight with Cú Chulainn.
He went off to meet Cú Chulainn and cast his sword at him. Cú Chulainn leapt up so that the sword struck the pillar-stone and broke in two. Cú Chulainn was distorted as he had been when with the boys in Emain. Thereupon Cú Chulainn leapt on to Nad Crantail's shield and cut off his head. He struck him again on his headless neck (and split him) down to the navel and Nad Crantail fell in four sections to the ground. Then Cú Chulainn spoke these words
If Nad Crantail has fallen, there will be increase of strife. Alas that I do not now give battle to Medb with a third of the host!
The Finding of the Bull according to this Version
Then Medb went with a third of the army to Cuib in search of the bull and Cú Chulainn followed them. She went along Slige Midlúachra then as far as Dún Sobairche to harry the Ulstermen and the Cruithne. Cú Chulainn caught sight of Buide mac Báin from Slíab Cuilinn with the bull and fifteen heifers. Sixty warriors of Ailill's household formed his company, each man wrapped in a mantle. Cú Chulainn came towards them. Whence have you brought the cattle? asked he. From yonder mountain, answered the warrior. Tell me, where is their cow-herd? said Cú Chulainn. He is where we found him, said the warrior. Cú Chulainn gave three leaps to follow them as far as the ford, seeking to have speech with them. Then he spoke to their leader.
What is your name? said he. One who hates you not, who loves you not, Buide mac Báin, said he. Here is this spear for Buide, said Cú Chulainn.
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{translation of lines 1504-1539} He cast a small spear at him and it went into his armpit, and his liver on the other side broke in two at the impact of the spear. Cú Chulainn killed him at his ford. Hence the place-name Áth mBuide. Thereupon the bull was brought into the encampment. Then they decided in debate that if Cú Chulainn were deprived of his javelin, he would be no more formidable (than anyone else).
The Death of Redg the Satirist
Then Redg the satirist went, on Ailill's advice, to ask Cú Chulainn for the javelin, that is, Cú Chulainn's spear. Give me your spear, said the satirist. No indeed, said Cú Chulainn, but I will give your treasure. I shall not accept that, said the satirist. So he wounded the satirist since he did not accept what was offered him, and Redg said that he would bring dishonour on him (by satire) unless he got the javelin. So Cú Chulainn threw the javelin at him and it went right through his head. This treasure was quickly delivered indeed, said the satirist. Hence the name Áth Tolam Sét.
There is also a ford to the east of that place where the copper from the spear landed. Umarrith (Umashruth) is the name of that ford.
It was in Cuib that Cú Chulainn killed all those that we have mentioned, namely, Nath Coirpthe at his trees, Cruthen on his ford, Meic Búachalla at their cairn, Marc on his hill, Meille in his stronghold, Bodb in his tower, Bogaine in his marsh.
Cú Chulainn turned back again into Mag Muirthemne. He preferred to guard his own homeland. After going there he killed the men of Crochen (or Crónech), that is, Focherda, he cast off twenty men. He come upon them as they were setting up camp, ten cupbearers and ten warriors.
Medb turned back again from the north when she had remained there for a fortnight, ravaging the province, and when she had fought a battle against Findmór the wife of Celtchar mac Uthidir. After the destruction of Dún Sobairche in the territory of Dál Riada against Findmór she carried off fifty women captives. Wherever in Cuib Medb planted her horsewhip is named Bile Medba. Every ford and every hill by which she spent the night is named Áth Medba and Dindgna Medba. Then they all met at Focherd, Ailill and Medb and the men who drove the bull. His herdsman took the bull from them but by beating their shields with sticks they drove the bull across into a
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{translation of lines 1540-1577} narrow pass and the cattle trampled the herdsman into the ground. His name was Forgemen. And the hill there is called Forgemen.
Their only anxiety that night was to get some one from among them to contend with Cú Chulainn at the ford. Let us ask Cú Chulainn for a truce, said Ailill. Let Lugaid go on that mission, said they all. So Lugaid went to speak with him. What do the army think of me now? asked Cú Chulainn. They think that the request you made of them is a great disgrace, namely, that they should return to you your women and girls and half your cattle. But they think it more grievous than anything else that you should go on killing them and yet be provided with food by them. Then every day for a week a man fell there at Cú Chulainn's hands. Terms of fair play were broken against him; twenty men were sent to attack him all together, but he killed them all.
Go to him, Fergus, said Ailill, and ask if he will allow us to move camp. So they went then to Crónech. In that place there fell by him in single combat two men called Roth, two called Lúan, two female thieves, ten jesters, ten cupbearers, ten men called Fergus, six called Fedelm and six called Fiachrach. All these were killed by him in single combat. Then when they had pitched their tents in Crónech, they debated as to what they should do about Cú Chulainn.
I know what is right in this matter, said Medb. Send a message asking him to grant a truce with the host and say that he shall have half the cattle that are here. That message was taken to him. I shall do so, said Cú Chulainn, on condition that you do not violate the agreement.
The Meeting of Cú Chulainn and Finnabair
Aithremail went to him, and he went first to Láeg. Whose vassal are you? he asked. Láeg did not address him. Maine asked him the same question three times. I am Cú Chulainn's vassal, said Láeg, and do not plague me lest perchance I strike your head off. What a bad-tempered fellow ! said Maine turning away from him.
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{translation of lines 1578-1611} So then Maine went to speak to Cú Chulainn. Cú Chulainn had taken off his shirt and was sitting in the snow up to his waist while around him the snow had melted a man's length, so great was the fierce ardour of the warrior. Maine asked him three times in the same way whose vassal he was. Conchobor's vassal, and do not plague me. If you bother me any more, I shall cut off your head as the head is cut off a blackbird. It is not easy to speak to these two, said Maine.
He left them then and told Ailill and Medb what had happened. Let Lugaid go to him, said Ailill, and speak to him (and offer him) the maid.
So Lugaid went and gave Cú Chulainn the message. Friend Lugaid, said Cú Chulainn, this is a trick. It is the word of a king, said Lugaid. There will be no trickery. So be it done, said Cú Chulainn. Thereupon Lugaid went from him and told that answer to Ailill and Medb.
Let the jester go disguised as me, said Ailill, wearing a king's crown on his head. And let him stand far away from Cú Chulainn that he may not recognize him. And the girl shall go with him and he shall betroth her to Cú Chulainn. They shall come away quickly then and very likely you will deceive Cú Chulainn in that way and he will not hinder you until such time as he comes with the Ulstermen to the great battle.
So the jester went, accompanied by the maid, to Cú Chulainn and from afar off he addressed him. Cú Chulainn went to meet them. But in fact he recognized by the man's speech that he was a jester. He threw at him a sling-stone which he had in his hand and it went into the jester's head and drove his brains out. He came to the girl. He cut off her two plaits and thrust a stone through her mantle and her tunic. Then he thrust a stone through the middle of the jester. Their two pillar-stones are still there, Finnabair's stone and the jester's stone. Cú Chulainn left them thus.
Messengers came from Ailill and Medb in search of their people, for it seemed to them that they had long been gone. They were found in that plight. The whole story spread through the camp. Thereafter there was no truce between them and Cú Chulainn.
The Combat of Munremar and Cú Roí
When the hosts were there in the evening, they saw one stone thrown at them from the east and another thrown to meet it from the
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{translation of lines 1612-1644} west. The stones collided in the air and they kept falling between Fergus's camp and that of Ailill and that of the Érainn. This performance went on until the same time next day, and the hosts were standing, holding their shields over their heads to protect them from the battle-stones, until the plain was full of stones. Hence the name Mag Clochair. In fact it was Cú Ruí mac Dáire who had done this; he came to help his follower
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https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/new-brunswick/visit-study/locations/special-collections-university-archives/divisions-collections/university-archives/rutgers-history/benevolent-patriot-henry-rutgers-1745-1830
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Benevolent Patriot: Henry Rutgers, 1745-1830
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https://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/new-brunswick/visit-study/locations/special-collections-university-archives/divisions-collections/university-archives/rutgers-history/benevolent-patriot-henry-rutgers-1745-1830
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by David J. Fowler
[This is a revised version of an essay that originally appeared in the catalog accompanying the exhibition Benevolent Patriot: The Life and Times of Henry Rutgers, February 15-July 30, 2010, Special Collections & University Archives, Archibald S. Alexander Library.]
In early September 1776, Henry Rutgers, the scion of a prominent Dutch-American family, mounted his horse and rode "with a slow step, and an anxious state of mind" across the fields of his father's farm on the East River in Manhattan. As he rode off, he "contemplated my … present situation, and my future prospects." Recent events justified his trepidation. The British army was hard on his heels. Rutgers had been with the American army as a volunteer when it evacuated Brooklyn Heights after the defeat at the battle of Long Island on August 27. Worse, his younger brother Harman was among the first in that engagement who "fell in the Field fighting for the Liberties of his Country." Rutgers returned briefly with the American army to the city, and then was ordered to join the retreating rebels at Harlem Heights. He left aged parents, who had already fled to Albany, as well as property in New York City worth more than that of any other patriot. Shortly after his departure, the "mark of confiscation" was placed on the Rutgers house, which was then occupied by the enemy for the next seven years.[1]
The seventh child of Hendrick Rutgers (1712–1779) and Catharina De Peyster (1711–1779) was born on October 7, 1745 and baptized Hendrick in the Reformed "New Church" on Nassau Street in New York City. His mother belonged to one of the most prominent families in New York. The progenitor of the American branch of the Rutgers family was Rutger Jacobse (d. 1665), who emigrated in 1636 from the village of Schoenderwoerdt in the Netherlands to Fort Orange (Albany) in the colony of New Netherland. The family established itself in New York City around 1690, when Henry's great-grandfather, Harmanus (Harman) Rutgers, relocated there from Albany.[2]
The basis of the family's wealth was in brewing, a craft that required experience handed down through generations. During the eighteenth century, there were at least two breweries in New York City operated by different branches of the family. They found a ready market: alcoholic beverages were, after textiles, the most popular and economically important consumer good in early America. And the brewery's proximity to the urban waterfront meant that there was no lack of customers. Because of their long tradition over four generations as brewers, the Rutgers family has been deemed "the first of the 'brewing families' in America." Even as an octogenarian, Henry Rutgers still felt that beer and porter were "nourishing fluids, which will not injure any man."[3]
The family soon rose to prominence in the affairs of the Anglo-Dutch city. Because of their affluence, Rutgers men naturally achieved the coveted status of freeholder or freeman, which allowed them to vote and to hold offices such as alderman, assessor, assistant, coroner, or militia officer. As such, they were intimately involved in "the localist tendencies of public life." In 1735, Harmanus Rutgers (Hendrick Jr.'s grandfather) served as a grand juror in the precedent-setting libel trial of John Peter Zenger. By the time of his death in 1753, "Captain" Harmanus Rutgers was deemed "a very eminent Brewer … and a worthy honest Man."[4]
The New York City that Hendrick Jr. was born into was a colonial port town of approximately 12,000 people on the periphery of a global empire. The mid-eighteenth-century city where he was reared was a relatively compact triangular space comprising perhaps six thousand yards on each side and four thousand yards across the northern apex. It was indeed a "face-to-face-society" where most people knew one another. Business was conducted in coffeehouses, taverns, public markets, or in the streets. The city's major port facilities were situated on the East River to the south of the Rutgers property. The waterfront was the commercial lifeline of the city and the place where much social interaction took place. It bustled with the activity of seagoing and coasting vessels of all sorts, lighters and other small craft shuttling back and forth on the river, fishermen and oystermen following their callings, and cartmen plying their trade in the streets.[5] The riverfront was also a noisy, dirty, unhealthy, and sometimes dangerous place.
The maritime district spawned several ancillary occupations such as ship chandlers, coopers, carpenters, joiners, sailmakers, and ropemakers. Many of the waterfront area's residents were employed in these endeavors. Because of disruption, noise, and "Noisom Smells," most of the city's manufacturing enterprises—tanneries, breweries, distilleries, slaughterhouses—were relegated to areas north of Wall Street. In the 1760s two ropewalks, which were sheds or alleys hundreds of feet long where cable and hawser were twisted and tarred, flanked the Rutgers farm along Division Street and along its northern boundary.[6]
Hendrick Rutgers Sr. had been apprenticed to a merchant, but in 1753 he inherited the East River plantation that in succeeding years became known as the "Rutgers Farm." The property was located in the Bowery division of the city's Out Ward, a sprawling tract that for decades maintained a rural character of hills, fields, gardens, woods, and marshes. Rutgers soon built a house there "with bricks brought from Holland," which formed the basis of the later Rutgers mansion. At some point he also established a brewery on the farm. Since the Rutgers farm fronted on the East River, the family could also capitalize on related maritime pursuits. In 1772 the New York City Common Council, which owned rights to "land under water," granted water lots to Hendrick Sr., which would be exploited by his heirs.[7]
As early as 1755 part of the Rutgers farm was laid out in lots, which was a shrewd economic move that both facilitated division among the heirs and anticipated future development. By 1764 when his parents gave eighteen-year-old "Hendrick Rutgers Junr" several lots, the farm had been subdivided into at least 600 numbered parcels. Actual development, however, proceeded slowly and intermittently. Similarly, James De Lancey also had a development strategy for his subdivision adjacent to the Rutgers property. Over time, improvements were made to the Rutgers farm so that by the 1770s it consisted of twelve buildings and eighty acres, which included the old farmhouse on Bowery Lane, the new mansion, a brew house, a malt house, a mill, a stable, and other buildings.[8]
Nothing is known of Hendrick Jr.'s upbringing, but it was probably typical of young gentlemen of the time. In contrast to members of the mercurial merchant class who often had to "buy their way into gentlemanly status," he was fortunate in that his family's solid affluence assured his social position. When he reached adulthood, Hendrick's right to append "Esq." or "Gent." to his name would not have been questioned. The Rutgers family was part of the "bewildering web of marriages" characteristic of colonial gentry; in addition to his mother's De Peyster family, the Rutgerses were related by marriage to several other leading families of colonial New York, such as Bancker, Bedlow, Beekman, Clarkson, Gouverneur, LeRoy, and Philipse. One observer quipped that among the Dutch "Cousins in the fifteenth degree are looked upon as nearly related."[9] Throughout his adult life Henry Rutgers strove, not always successfully, to maintain family harmony.
At least one source of family discord was Hendrick Jr.'s brother Harman. In 1770 Harman matriculated at his brother's alma mater, King's College, but left in his second year. Even though Harman was in his mid-twenties when his father made out his will in 1775, the latter stipulated that his youngest son's inheritance was to be held in trust and doled out annually by Henry and his four sisters: "If the Trustees … shall think it prudent to trust my son Harmanus with any small sums of money they may do so, but I desire that they will be careful and sparing in that respect, lest he should misspend the same." In addition to his irresponsible nature, in 1773 Harman had likely merited disapproval by marrying Dorcas Tibbets, a woman of obscure background who was not Dutch and who was possibly regarded as beneath his station.[10]
The younger Hendrick was no doubt instructed in management of the farm where barley was grown for the brewery, as well as in the brewing process. At some point, either formally or informally, he acquired a proficiency in surveying, as well as a practical knowledge of architecture and construction. He would also have learned how to manage workmen, servants, and slaves, several of whom were owned by his father and worked at the brewery. Slaveholding was common among Dutch Americans. During the 1741 New York City slave uprising, another Rutgers family member had had three of his slaves convicted of conspiracy—one was hanged, one burned, and one transported. And John Hughson, the white man who allegedly incited the slaves, may have been gibbeted on the shoreline of the Rutgers property "at a place commonly called Hughsons Point." Like his father and grandfather before him, Henry Rutgers would himself own slaves.[11]
As a young adult, Hendrick's spiritual mentor was reputedly Rev. Archibald Laidlie, a Scot who was brought from the Netherlands in 1763 to preach in English at the Dutch Reformed church in New York City. Commentators noted that by the mid-eighteenth century, the Dutch in colonial New York were beginning to lose their language and their distinctive culture. They had to function in a political, social, commercial, and legal world that after 1664 was dominated by the English. One manifestation of this transition was a serious rift within the Reformed congregation over praying and preaching in English. By 1770, the city was a pluralistic religious marketplace where thirteen different Protestant denominations competed for members.[12] Together with the general acculturating trend among younger Dutch Americans, Reverend Laidlie may have influenced Hendrick Jr. to anglicize his name to "Henry."
For whatever reason, by 1763 when he matriculated at the Anglican, royalist, elitist, and expensive King's College, he was "Henry Rutgers." The young scholar was exceptional for the time in that he attended college. In 1766 he graduated with an A.B. degree and then commenced, at age twenty, the management of his father's business. Rutgers was part of a generation that experienced a seismic shift in allegiance from an overseas monarchy to a homegrown republic. The process by which he became imbued with radical Whig ideology is unclear; in the mid-1760s he may have been influenced by the Sons of Liberty led by the "radical triumvirate" of John Lamb, Isaac Sears, and Alexander McDougall. In contrast to others of the "better sort," Rutgers demonstrated sympathy for populist causes throughout his public life. He was listed as a freeholder in the city elections in 1769. He first entered public life in 1775 when he was appointed tax assessor for the Out Ward.[13]
Many of his fellow citizens, however, maintained their loyalty to the Crown. The King's College governors, faculty, and alumni were preponderantly loyalist in sentiment. The majority of merchants who comprised the New York Chamber of Commerce, which represented the city's commercial elite, also had "decidedly Tory leanings." Thomas Jones, a state supreme court justice who lived on nearby Mount Pitt, was one of the most prominent New York loyalists, as was the Rutgers family's neighbor to the west of Division Street, James De Lancey. In general, the counties in southern New York surrounding the city were strongholds of loyalism.[14] Henry Rutgers, therefore, was definitely going against the trend of his peers.
So when thirty-year-old Henry Rutgers took that anxious ride across the Rutgers farm in late summer 1776, he had much to lose. Since social status and rank in the army went hand-in-hand, it is not surprising that shortly after the battle of Harlem Heights, Rutgers was listed as a lieutenant "fit for duty" in the "N. levies" (i.e., new levies, or recruits) under Col. William Malcom. He was present on October 28 at the battle of White Plains with "the little disheartened band" of Americans who were saved from a nocturnal bayonet attack by a nor'easter that providentially delayed the enemy.[15] White Plains was apparently his last combat experience.
In 1777 Gen. Israel Putnam, who commanded posts on the Hudson River, appointed Rutgers a "deputy muster master" of the army. For the remainder of the war he acted in an administrative capacity in recruiting and mustering troops. While not glorious, the task of a muster master was crucial to the war effort: in order to conduct campaign operations, to garrison towns, forts, and other posts, and to assess state quotas for troops and supplies, the commander-in-chief had to know how many "effectives" (i.e., men fit for service) that he actually had. In 1776, Gen. George Washington argued that without accurate troop returns, "it is impossible that the business of an Army can be conducted with any degree of regularity, or propriety," and he enjoined "the utmost importance to be frequently certified of our whole strength and Stores." No doubt in recognition of both his social status and his patriotism, the first state legislature that met in Kingston in September 1777 appointed Henry Rutgers a representative for the city and county of New York. He excused himself because of his military responsibilities, however, and consequently his seat was declared vacant.[16]
The task of a muster master was not without its aggravations and rigors. Officers were tardy or careless in submitting timely returns of their units in the prescribed form. Rutgers's circuit included posts in the Hudson Valley, such as New Windsor, Fishkill, Peekskill, and West Point, and sometimes points beyond. In one instance, troop movements required that he undertake an arduous ride of fifty miles in the dead of winter. His attention to duty was recognized by his superior, Lt. Col. Richard Varick, who in January 1779 recommended him to John Jay, President of the Continental Congress, to fill a vacancy in the Continental army's Commissary General of Musters Department. Consequently, on April 6 Congress appointed Rutgers a "Deputy Commissary General of Musters" with the rank of lieutenant colonel.[17] He had now graduated to the level of a Continental staff officer. But 1779 also saw three great personal losses: his parents died in Albany ("that melancholy event"), as did his mentor Rev. Archibald Laidlie, who was in exile from his parish.[18] These losses, added to his brother's death in 1776 and the precarious situation of the family birthright, must have weighed heavily on his mind.
Despite his promotion, the frustrations of the position caused Lieutenant Colonel Rutgers to lament at one point: "I am wasting … time in pursuit of what will only serve the present, and be of no real advantage to me in future." But he took solace in the fact that "I have bestowed my mite towards the salvation of my country." In an effort to economize, moreover, in late 1779 Congress decided to merge the functions of Rutgers's department with that of the newly created Inspector General's department under the command of Major General Friedrich Wilhelm von Steuben. As a result, by January 1780 Rutgers and several of his fellow-officers were "deranged," i.e., without a position in the army. This state of affairs occasioned one of Colonel Rutgers's more caustic outbursts:
Most people who know anything of the Nature of the Department are amazed at the Stupidity of the Measure …. Perhaps some of the members of Congress had friends out of employ & the good natur'd Baron had promised to shoulder them forward in his new fangled Department. Thank fortune and the … Congress I am now disengaged …. I shall enjoy the consolation of being secure from the Capricious decrees of Congress. I have little expectation of … succeeding in getting our subsistence paid us … or even our extra expenses …. Good Heavens! Is this the virtuous C__ the Body that excited the admiration of the world? How are the mighty fallen? Take a general View of their conduct, and all appears to be going wrong ….
As to his future, Rutgers determined "to now retire to some secure retreat … until more prosperous times put's me in possession of my Estate now in the hands of the Enemy." And in contrast to the niggling of Congress, he hoped that "the fruitful fields no doubt will amply repay my labour."[19]
But Henry Rutgers was not to return to civilian life just yet. Thanks to the good offices of Gov. George Clinton, on July 1, 1780 he was appointed a "Lieut. Colonel in the Levies" and thus was back in the role, on the state level, of overseeing recruiting. Clinton's patronage provides an example of the importance of "connexions" in late eighteenth-century society. Around this same time Clinton also appointed Rutgers a commissioner to cosign a new emission of paper money; his compensation was to be a quarter-dollar for every one hundred bills he signed. The war years were not totally taken up with business, however. There were occasions for socializing with family and friends—or for giving advice to a young nephew. In November 1782 he wrote to "Master Henry Bancker," who was in school in Albany, and encouraged him to learn surveying and navigation. Rutgers even offered to loan his "case of Mathematical instruments" and related books, but added an avuncular admonition: "The instruments you must be very carefull of, as they are costly, and none to be had at this time." Uncle Henry also forecast that after this winter, "I am in hopes we shall be at New York"—prophetic words, as it turned out.[20]
Henry Rutgers's native city had endured a long ordeal of enemy occupation. Shortly after the British arrived in September 1776, a fire—either accidentally or deliberately set—devastated a large portion of the lower city, including an iconic part of the skyline, Trinity Church. Another fire in August 1778 wreaked similar destruction along the waterfront. The Rutgers farm was ringed with defensive artillery emplacements originally built by the American army. The Royal Navy had commandeered the East River shipyards immediately south of the farm.[21]
In 1778, the British made a ward-by-ward assessment of the property of New Yorkers who fled the city. The Rutgers property was valued at £80,000, an enormous sum for the time and worth far more than that of any other city patriot who was "in actual rebellion." Throughout the war, enemy forces were garrisoned along the East River in the vicinity of the farm. In October 1779, for instance, the German Bayreuth Regiment camped "near Corlears hook," which was on the river a little to the north of the property. The old Rutgers farmhouse in Bowery Lane was rented out for £5.[22] During the occupation the city's population ebbed and flowed based on troop movements, the arrivals and departures of fleets, and loyalists who sought refuge there.
At various times during the occupation, the Rutgers mansion was apparently used to quarter officers, as a barracks, and as a hospital. Part of the brew house was used as a kitchen for the "Hessian hospital," which indicates that the nearby mansion may have been used as a hospital. In July 1779 the kitchen was moved to another building "much nearer the hospital," and the brew house and an adjoining stable were then used as a depot for naval stores. Bodies of Hessian dead were likely buried on the Rutgers farm. Occupying forces no doubt despoiled the property. Crops were trampled, gardens ruined, and orchards and woodlots were cut and buildings and fences pulled down for firewood. The winter of 1780, in particular, was one of the most severe in memory. While American troops suffered in Morristown, thousands of British, German, and loyalist troops shivered in their cantonments in New York. One late casualty of the war was the Rutgers brewery, which was burned, either by accident or by arson, shortly before the British evacuated. It was apparently never rebuilt.[23]
When the American army retook possession of New York on November 25, 1783 (Evacuation Day), they inherited a city in ruins. The population had declined from a prewar figure of approximately 25,000 to a mere 12,000. Many still lived in "Canvas Town," where sailcloth was used to cover ruined and fire-damaged buildings. The New York City Common Council soon established a committee on wartime losses. Some of those left behind were an undesirable element: "idle wicked and dissolute persons" committed "frequent Robberies Thefts & violent Breaches of the Peace." In addition, there were "other abandoned Vagrants and Prostitutes whom the ordinary process of justice hath not awed nor reclaimed." The British left other more macabre reminders of their presence: in 1785 and in 1788, bodies were found buried in Catherine Street on the southern boundary of the Rutgers farm. They were exhumed and reinterred elsewhere.[24]
After the war, Henry Rutgers returned home and proceeded to assess and to recoup his losses at the "Rapacious hands" of the enemy, and to settle his late father's estate. It is unclear if he was with General Washington and Governor Clinton on November 25 when they made their triumphal procession from the Bull's Head Tavern on Bowery Lane into the liberated city; if not, he arrived shortly thereafter. No doubt in recognition of both his social status and his wartime service, in December 1783 a "general meeting of the Committee of Mechanicks" nominated Henry Rutgers and former Sons of Liberty John Lamb, Isaac Sears, and Marinus Willett as a slate of candidates for the assembly. They won in a landslide, the former refugees and army veterans no doubt cowing any opposition—it must have been sweet revenge. Rutgers thus attended the Seventh Session of the assembly that met at City Hall in New York between January and May 1784. His wartime losses at the hands of the British probably influenced him to vote in favor of a punitive five percent impost on all imports from the British West Indies.[25]
In 1784 Rutgers also found it necessary to petition the Confederation Congress on behalf of himself and two fellow-officers who had been deranged from the muster-master department in 1779 for their arrears of pay and year's advance of salary that they felt was due them. Congress instead recommended to the governor of New York in June 1785 that the state settle with them for the value in specie, and charge the amount to the United States. Not until April 1786, however, did the state assembly pass "An act for the relief of Henry Rutgers, and others." Certain issues still remained unresolved, because in August 1787 Rutgers again petitioned Congress for redress. Consequently, in February 1789 the state legislature passed another law regarding the claim.[26]
Along with his patron George Clinton, Rutgers espoused an antifederalist platform. As such, he was in a minority in Federalist-dominated New York City, and was even snubbed in Federalist social circles. Richard Varick, his former superior officer in the Continental army and mayor of New York in 1789, for example, was a leading Federalist. Rutgers ran for assemblyman in 1788 on the antifederalist ticket, but was defeated when the Federalists swept the election in the city. In 1794 the Democratic Society of New York, which advocated Jeffersonian principles, was founded. Henry Rutgers was elected a vice president, and the following two years he served as the organization's president. He was part of the "Republican Whig" state assembly ticket for the southern district in April 1796 that lost to the Federalists over Jay's Treaty and other issues. His involvement in the Democratic Society may explain why, although he was eligible, he was apparently not a member of the Society of the Cincinnati, which was an elitist, hereditary, and controversial fraternal organization of former Continental army officers. In the mid-1790s Rutgers was also a governor of the New York Hospital.[27]
Like other citizens of the new nation, Rutgers had to weather the postwar depression of the 1780s. In early 1785 he advertised his "Seat … near Corlears-Hook" for rent as "one of the most agreeable and convenient Villas in the suburbs," which may indicate that he was in straitened circumstances. He provided one impetus to the local economy in 1786, however, when he and other residents of the Out Ward petitioned the Common Council of New York City "to erect a public market-house at Catharine Slip, at their own expense." That June, Rutgers attended a council meeting to announce "that the Market House at Catharine Slip was erected & ready for the reception & accomdation [sic] of Butchers & Country people." The market proved popular and was subsequently enlarged several times. In late 1788 Rutgers sought to exploit the proximity of his property to the waterfront by petitioning the Common Council "for a Grant of the Soil under Water" opposite his land at Corlears Hook in order to build a slip; the next year the council granted his petition, and Rutgers Slip was constructed.[28]
Rutgers also joined, in 1789, other prominent New Yorkers such as George Clinton, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay as a subscriber to the bipartisan New York Manufacturing Society, which unsuccessfully attempted to establish textile factories to employ the "honest poor." By 1791, Rutgers's finances had apparently recovered sufficiently to establish "near his dwelling house at the ship-yards" a "Bleach-field & Thread Manufactory … with every apparatus necessary for carrying on the business in an extensive manner." He leased the enterprise to Matthew Adam, who advertised that he was conducting it "on the most approved and satisfactory method … upon the Dutch plan."[29]
Once back in the city, Rutgers soon resumed his role in public affairs. He was elected an assessor for the Out Ward (renamed the Seventh Ward in 1791), and more frequently, because of his reputation for probity, appointed an election inspector. When he was appointed an inspector in September 1790, for instance, the designated polling place was the well-known Bull's Head Tavern in Bowery Lane. Elections in the new nation were boisterous, rowdy, corrupt, and sometimes violent affairs. In the fall of 1803 when the Common Council designated the Presbyterian church on East Rutgers Street a polling place, Rutgers refused to open the church and complained that the "Corporation had no right to order the Election held in his Church and that it should not be open for that purpose being liable to receive injury." But because the nearby tenement he provided as an alternative was not the officially designated polling place, the Common Council declared the election void. Overall, the Seventh Ward had the lowest proportion of freeholders to renters in the city: of the 3,136 people who voted in the Seventh Ward in 1807, thirteen percent were freeholders as compared to eighty-six percent who rented.[30] The demographic of the neighborhood was definitely changing.
By 1788, Rutgers was also a major in the First Regiment of Militia of the City and County of New York, which was commanded by Maj. Gen. William Malcom. Because New York then served as the new nation's capital, it was a high-profile position. One highlight of the period occurred in 1789 when (now) "Lieutenant Colonel, Commandant" Rutgers led his militia regiment at George Washington's inaugural parade. Another was in July 1790 when the regiment paraded on the Rutgers property; they were commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Rutgers and were reviewed by President Washington, Governor Clinton, and the chiefs of the Creek tribe. In March 1795, however, citing "the increase of my business and the consequent daily avocations in which I am necessarily engaged," Rutgers resigned his commission in the state militia, thus ending nearly twenty years' military service on behalf of his country.[31] For the rest of his life, nonetheless, he would be known as "Colonel Rutgers."
One major problem in the late 1790s developed out of Rutgers's relationship with John Lamb, the former leader of the New York Sons of Liberty. In 1789, Lamb received the lucrative federal appointment as collector of customs for the Port of New York. In compliance with law, Rutgers and three other gentlemen stood surety for Lamb in the amount of $50,000. In 1796, however, an audit revealed that a dishonest clerk in Lamb's department embezzled a large sum of money. Lamb was forced to resign in 1797, and in 1799 the United States Attorney for New York sued Lamb, Rutgers, and some of the other sureties; Aaron Burr represented Rutgers. In February 1801, and again in March 1802, Rutgers and the other sureties petitioned Congress for a release from the obligations of their bond on the grounds that the Treasury Department was negligent in its oversight. Congress took no action, however, and in March 1803 the U.S. District Court for New York gave a judgment in favor of the United States. To his credit, Rutgers did make a good-faith effort to settle the matter, which was not accomplished until 1808.[32]
With the death of his father, Colonel Rutgers had become the family patriarch. He never married, but a significant development on the domestic scene was his adoption in 1789 of John P. (1785–1806) and William Bedlow Crosby (1786–1865), who were the sons of Rutgers's niece Catharine Bedlow (1757–1789) and her husband Dr. Ebenezer Crosby (1753–1788), who had served as a surgeon in George Washington's Life Guard. Both parents died within a few months of each other. On her deathbed, Catharine Bedlow Crosby chose her uncle Henry to be the boys' guardian "in preference to nearer relatives on account of his piety."[33]
Rutgers was now primarily a developer, landlord, and rentier who amassed wealth from leases and investments; as such, he represented a trend in the new nation toward owning not only material wealth, but also liquid, financial assets. Early nineteenth-century Manhattan has been described as an "irregular collection of mostly regular grids." One of the most distinctive of those "regular grids" was the Rutgers farm. Originally subdivided in 1755, the Rutgers farm was surveyed again the next year, in 1775 (in conjunction with his father making out a will), in the 1790s, and in 1813. The property was ultimately defined by Montgomery, Division, Catherine, and Cherry streets, which in later years comprised a significant portion of the Lower East Side neighborhood. Actual development initially proceeded slowly, but accelerated during the 1790s. Over time, hills were leveled, marshy areas filled, and the shoreline extended into the East River. Like other Manhattan developers, Henry Rutgers benefited from the burgeoning postwar urban population: 33,000 in 1790, 60,000 in 1800, 96,000 in 1810, 123,000 in 1820 and, by the year of his death in 1830, 202,000. And like most entrepreneurs of the time he was also a venture capitalist: by the early 1820s, he had invested in the Rutgers textile mill in Paterson, New Jersey.[34]
Rutgers's modus operandi in developing his property was to grant "ground leases" (i.e., long-term leases) either for buildings he himself had constructed, or to stipulate that the lessee construct a building according to specifications. Some of the buildings were used as residences, stores, or shops, such as that of the druggist Benjamin Underhill. Because of the property's proximity to the waterfront, some lessees were engaged in ancillary maritime pursuits. In 1797, the partnership of M'Bride and Blaire advertised a "sawing Business at Col. Rutgers on the East River," which was probably conducted on land leased from the latter. Likewise, in 1820 landlord Rutgers leased a property to Whitehead Hicks, "Lumber Merchant." In 1802, Rutgers gently chided his adopted grand-nephew William B. Crosby, who at age sixteen had been entrusted with managing his uncle's real estate, for leasing a sawpit and lumberyard at too favorable a rate: "Should I now give in to the measure of lowering my Rents to suit individuals, I may give up the Idea of your making a permanent bargain for any of my property." He could not resist closing with avuncular advice: "do not get wet feet … wet feet promote disorders." A typical lease might be for twenty-one years at sixty dollars per year paid quarterly.[35] It was guaranteed annual income.
An important method of controlling development was to require compliance with specified conditions. In May 1826, for example, Rutgers leased a lot to the mason Thompson Price. The lease stipulated that Price "build and erect a good substantial and workmanlike brick dwelling house not less than forty feet in depth, and not less than two stories in height, on the front of the said … premises, and so as to cover the whole front; but at no period of the term … shall there be more than one dwelling house." He also required his permission for leaseholders to sell their leases and reserved to himself first option to buy. Thus Rutgers was not only complying with state law regarding use of building materials that guarded against the ever-present danger from fire, he also maintained control over density of development and related quality-of-life issues. Uncontrolled development resulted in situations such as that at Corlears Hook, an impoverished neighborhood where in 1819 one building reportedly housed 103 people.[36]
Late in life, Colonel Rutgers congratulated himself on the development of the former Rutgers farm: "I now see the desolate fields entirely filled with the cheerful dwellings of men, free, independent, and happy!" One foreign traveler admired the private residences on Harman (later East Broadway), Henry, Madison, and Monroe streets. But Rutgers did not have complete control over how the property evolved. Many of the Seventh Ward's tavern brawls and street disturbances in the early nineteenth century were centered near Corlears Hook or in the vicinity of Catherine and Bancker (later Madison) streets. Bancker Street, where blacks and whites loitered at all hours around the numerous grog shops, was particularly notorious. Rutgers owned several properties on Bancker Street. In general, during the early nineteenth century the East River wards were evolving into "an unusual mix of vice and wealth." Corlears Hook, in particular, ultimately became one of the most notorious and squalid "sex districts."[37]
After a hiatus of sixteen years, Henry Rutgers rode the wave of Jeffersonian ascendancy when he was again elected to the New York Assembly for 1800–01 as a Republican representative for the City and County of New York. He was reelected in 1802, in 1804, in 1804–05, in 1807, and finally, in 1808. Although not an eloquent orator or debater, "by his stirling good sense, he acquired an influence." He apparently exerted a meliorating influence: "his unimpeachable moral character and uniform consistency gained him the confidence and respect of those who were his opponents." He often exerted his influence "in moderating animosity, and suppressing the feelings of rancour." The legislature also appointed him an elector for the presidential elections of 1808, 1816, and 1820.[38] When the Society of Tammany, which was originally founded as a fraternal and benevolent association and then became politicized over time, constructed its first permanent "Wigwam" in 1811–12, Henry Rutgers served on its building committee.[39]
Typical of the time, Assemblyman Rutgers was not averse to using his position behind-the-scenes to try to influence the legislative process in order to facilitate a private matter. His adopted grandnephew John P. Crosby had traveled to Jamaica to take possession of a plantation there to which he was heir. While on the island he contracted a fever and died in 1806. When his younger brother William B. Crosby attempted to claim the inheritance, the governor of Jamaica instead escheated the property on the grounds that Crosby was an alien. Henry Rutgers then attempted to use his influence in the state assembly to make passage of a pending bill regarding the estate of Sir William Pulteney, which dealt with extensive landholdings in western New York, attendant upon Crosby either gaining satisfaction in Jamaica or being indemnified from property of British subjects in the United States. In February 1807 Rutgers wrote confidently to Crosby that the matter was "beyond all doubt of successful issue." Nevertheless, by April Rutgers had to inform Crosby that the Pulteney bill had passed in committee of the whole, and that consequently he had to prosecute the matter in Jamaica.[40]
When war once again loomed with Great Britain in 1812, Colonel Rutgers supported what was a divisive and unpopular conflict. Shortly after news of the declaration of war arrived in New York, a meeting was held in City Hall Park on June 24 to express approval of the measure. The assemblage chose Rutgers chairman of the meeting and chose as secretary his friend, Marinus Willett. Rutgers transmitted the proceedings and resolutions of the meeting to President James Madison. In August 1814 two public meetings regarding the defense of the city were held at the park, both of which Rutgers chaired.[41] The previous December, Rutgers was among the group of prominent men whom the inventor Robert Fulton invited to join the Coast Defense Society. He served on committees that raised funds and supervised the construction of Fulton's novel, steam-powered warship, which was constructed at Brown's shipyard at Corlears Hook but was completed after the war ended. On the vessel's third trial run in September 1815, it departed from Corlears Hook and returned to Rutgers Slip. In December of that year Rutgers coauthored a report on the construction of the vessel, which also eulogized the inventor, who had died the previous February.[42]
It is said that Henry Rutgers resolved to devote one-quarter of his income to charitable causes. While that may or may not be true, it is more certain that "it was a remark which he often made, that, with regard to his charities, he was resolved to be his own executor." His numerous benefactions over several decades, some of which were anonymous, were in three interrelated areas: poor relief, education, and religious institutions. One contemporary estimated that Rutgers donated $10,000 yearly to the poor. He would also remit the rents of tenants who were unable to pay, a kindness which "secured the strong affection of the poorer classes of the community … dwelling on his property."[43]
Rutgers was particularly passionate about education. His support of education was recognized by the state legislature in 1802 when they appointed him a regent of the state university. Between 1804 and 1817, he also served on the board of trustees of the College of New Jersey at Princeton; he subscribed five thousand dollars to the vice president's fund. Rutgers supported the education of divinity students, and "frequently gave them a home in his house, while they were pursuing their studies." His will stipulated that the customary funeral expenses be kept at a minimum so that more money could go to the infant school society.[44]
His benefactions extended to all educational levels. In 1805 the Free School Society was incorporated to provide secular education for the children of the "laboring poor" who were otherwise excluded from denominational schools. One year later Henry Rutgers donated two adjoining lots in Henry Street for a new school, and was part of the committee that supervised construction of the building. In October 1811 "New York Free School No. 2" was completed, and it accepted its first class of neighborhood children on November 13. In the school's early years, Rutgers visited regularly. In January 1812, for instance, he "Examined the Boys in arithmetic—was well pleased with their performance, and heard several classes of Boys and Girls in reading and spelling." From 1810 to 1830, he served as a trustee of the renamed Public School Society. Upon the death in 1828 of its first president, De Witt Clinton, Rutgers succeeded to the office of president.[45]
Henry Rutgers's most enduring educational legacy resulted from the renaming of Queen's College in New Brunswick, New Jersey in his honor. Starting in 1816, Rutgers had served as a trustee of the college, although he actually attended only two annual meetings. His tenure on the board coincided with a troubled period in the college's history: there was conflict between the college trustees and the General Synod of the Reformed Church over governance, curriculum, and funding. In 1816, for the second time in its history, undergraduate education was suspended. Pleading ill health and inability to attend meetings, but possibly also because of the institution's problems, Rutgers resigned in 1821. As president of the Corporation of the Reformed Church, however, he maintained enough of an interest in the institution to both host and chair at his house in March 1822 a meeting of the "Committees of Conference appointed by the Board of Corporation of the General Synod & the Trustees of Queen's College" for the purpose of resolving the dispute over finances.[46]
In May 1825, the Queen's College trustees appointed Rev. Philip Milledoler professor of theology. Milledoler was a noted churchman who was also pastor of the Collegiate Dutch Church in New York, where Henry Rutgers was an elder. No doubt in deference to Rutgers's reputation for piety and benevolence, and also in hopes of a large donation, Milledoler suggested at a meeting of members of the General Synod on September 15, 1825, that they rename the college in honor of Rutgers, which was unanimously approved by both the synod and the trustees. That same day, the trustees also elected Reverend Milledoler president of the renamed college. On November 30 the state legislature approved the name change, and so Queen's College officially became Rutgers College. Early in 1826, Rutgers gave the eponymous institution $200 for the purchase of a bell to be hung in the new cupola of the college building—the bell is still rung today on special occasions. In May of that year he also gave a bond (dated March 27) for $5000 to the synod to be held in trust for the benefit of the college, the interest on which was to be paid semiannually.[47]
Rutgers's support of religious institutions was a natural outgrowth of his upbringing in the Dutch Reformed Church, his personal piety, and a general "culture of benevolence." There are several anecdotes regarding his piety, which was practiced both in the domestic and public spheres. In politics, "he never took part in any important measure, without making it a subject of special prayer." He made several donations of land to Dutch Reformed, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches, usually with the stipulation that the land revert to him if a church was not built in a specified time. In 1789, the heirs of Hendrick Rutgers gave to Shearith Israel congregation in New York "a small Spot of Ground … for a Slope of a Whall" adjacent to their cemetery, the oldest Jewish burial ground in North America.[48]
From its founding in 1816 until his death in 1830, Rutgers was a member of the Board of Managers of the American Bible Society, the oldest national benevolent society. During its early years, he made donations to the organization, served on committees, and authored reports. In December 1816 Rutgers reported to the Society on the request of a Bible society in North Carolina for Bibles printed in foreign languages for the use of European immigrants on the frontier. Reminiscent of the dispute over preaching in English in Dutch churches during the 1760s, he also added the recommendation:
The committee beg leave to observe that however desirable they are to accommodate the Emigrants with the Word of Life in their Native Language, they contemplate a day not far distant, when all Citizens of the United States will be compelled from necessity to embrace that language in which the Laws of the Land are promulgated, and every Citizen of course must for the convenience of Trade and intercourse, yield the use of their native language to that of the Country in which they reside.
He left a bequest in his will to the American Bible Society "to be expended in printing stereotype bibles."[49]
Henry Rutgers was both a product of, and an agent of the "Age of Benevolence" (1790–1840). His humanitarianism exemplifies a bridge between the older form of private charity and the newer form of philanthropy that was channeled through the proliferation of voluntary associations such as the Free School Society or the American Bible Society. He evidently practiced both forms simultaneously. One well-remembered charity was that every New Year's Day he gave to the children of his neighborhood a cake and a religious tract. When infirmity prevented him from personally distributing the gifts, they were given through the Sabbath schools affiliated with the three churches in his ward.[50]
In his later years Rutgers periodically suffered health problems. He died at home on February 17, 1830. A contemporary noted the passing of "the most benevolent man in this city," and commented that "his death at this inclement season will be severely felt" by the poor. On February 19, a special meeting of the Common Council, before which Rutgers had appeared numerous times over the years, was called to announce his death. They resolved that "as a testimonial of the high estimation which they entertain for his public and private Virtues," the entire council would attend his funeral. A memorial service was held on February 28 at the Market Street Presbyterian Church, at which his friend and pastor Rev. William McMurray delivered a eulogy. Rutgers was initially buried in the Reformed Church on Nassau Street (the same church in which he was baptized), then removed in 1858 to the Middle Church in Lafayette Place, and finally, in 1865, interred in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn.[51]
Henry Rutgers's life over eight decades focused on family, religion, neighborhood, community, and country. Hardly a letter passed to family or friends that did not close by conveying compliments to several people. It was his maxim to "above all Study to keep harmony in the family." In the case of his sister Anna Bancker, however, it was said that "she not only loved him extremely but feared him extremely," a comment which, along with other evidence, suggests a personality that used his wealth and influence to gain or maintain control. Certain family members were disgruntled over their share of his estate.[52] Why he never married is a matter of conjecture—it was never addressed in any extant contemporary source. Given his social prominence, piety, and benevolence, he was certainly not a licentious, avaricious, selfish, "disorderly bachelor" who, it was felt, threatened the stability of the early Republic; nor was he a "sporting male" type of bachelor who reveled in fighting, gaming, drinking, and womanizing.[53] His numerous acts of charity may to some extent have compensated emotionally and psychologically for his not marrying.
Henry Rutgers was a lifelong New Yorker. With the exception of his military service during the Revolutionary War and his tenure in the New York legislature, he spent his entire life in the city of his birth. He was passionately concerned about his city and his neighborhood, and occasionally addressed in person or petitioned the Common Council regarding local issues. There were, admittedly, also benefits to himself, such as his agitation to construct new wharves and piers in the East River of stone instead of wood. But despite his civic involvement, he was not immune from being cited for nuisances on his properties. In 1803 and 1804, he had used his influence both with the Common Council and in the state legislature "to extend the right of Suffrage" in the city.[54] When in January 1830 it was obvious that Colonel Rutgers was "nearly lost to us," Mayor Walter Bowne eulogized
This excellent man, this philanthropist who has always devoted himself to the great interests of his native City, and of his country, and shown [shone] conspicuously in the path of piety, and in all the charities of society …. His countrys [sic] good was his great object and he was a patriot in whom the people steadily reposed their confidence and delighted to Honor.[55]
A little over one month later, Henry Rutgers's last words paid fitting tribute to the place he loved: "home! home!" And the "mark of confiscation" placed by the British in 1776 still remained on his door.
^ The only retrospective source in Henry Rutgers's own words regarding his Revolutionary War experience is "Colonel Rutgers's Address," Magazine of the Reformed Dutch Church 2 (Oct. 1827): 212–"113" [i.e., 213]. Anecdotal material is in William McMurray, A Sermon Occasioned by the Death of Col. Henry Rutgers (New York, 1830), 20–21, 26–27 note (hereafter cited as McMurray, Sermon); it is unclear if Henry Rutgers had a formal rank in the army at this time, but McMurray comments (p. 20) that he "offered himself, as a volunteer." On the death of Harman (Harmanus) Rutgers, see Henry Rutgers to Gerard De Peyster, Aug. 30, 1776, Special Collections and University Archives, Rutgers University Libraries, New Brunswick, N.J. (hereafter cited as RUL). Rutgers commented: "More easily may it be conceived than expressed … it is an act of Divine Providence. As such must submit to the hand that gave the Blow." Since De Peyster (his brother-in-law) was in Albany and Rutgers asked him to tell his parents about Harman's death "in the most easy and gentle way," it is evident that they had already left the city. See also "Extract of a Letter from New-York, dated August 27, 1776" in Peter Force, comp., American Archives (Washington, D.C., 1848), 5th series, 1: 1184. Forty-five years after the event, a fellow-soldier still remembered Harman's death, William Crolius affidavit in George Cortelyea pension application (S12712), Revolutionary War Pension Application Files, U.S. National Archives. On the battle of Long Island, see Mark M. Boatner III, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution (Mechanicsburg, Pa., 1994), 647–56; Thomas W. Field, The Battle of Long Island (Brooklyn, N.Y., 1869); and Henry P. Johnston, The Campaign of 1776 Around New York and Brooklyn (Brooklyn, N.Y., 1878). Johnston mentions (p. 198) that Harman Rutgers "was struck in the breast by a cannon-shot," and also that according to family tradition, he was the first man killed in the battle. On September 24, 1776, a Hessian officer reported: "The houses of the rebels, now deserted, have all been marked G.R. [i.e., George Rex] and confiscated," Revolution in America: Confidential Letters and Journals, 1776–1784, of Adjutant General Major Baurmeister of the Hessian Forces, trans. and ed. Bernhard A. Uhlendorf (New Brunswick, N.J., 1957), 50 (hereafter cited as Baurmeister, Letters and Journals).
^ Genealogical information about the Rutgers family is found in the following sources: Ernest H. Crosby, "The Rutgers Family of New York," New York Genealogical and Biographical Record 17 (April 1886): 82–93 (hereafter cited as NYG&B Rec.); and Crosby, "A Brief Account of the Ancestry and Descendants of William Bedlow Crosby, of New York, and of Harriet Ashton Clarkson, His Wife," NYG&B Rec. 30 (Jan. 1899): 9–10, and (April 1899): 74–78; and "Copy of Rutgers Family Bible," NYG&B Rec. 30 (Oct. 1899): 243–54. George Olin Zabriskie corrects some errors made by E. H. Crosby in "Rutgers Family in New Netherland and New York," Halve Maen: Quarterly Magazine of the Dutch Colonial Period in America 41 (Oct. 1966): 9–10, 12, 15. See also Waldron Phoenix Belknap Jr., The De Peyster Genealogy (Boston, Mass., 1956); Margherita Arlina Hamm, Famous Families of New York, 2 vols. (New York, 1901), 2: 105–13; Whitehead Cornell Duyckinck and John Cornell, The Duyckinck and Allied Families (New York: Tobias A. Wright, 1908); Francis Bazley Lee, ed., Genealogical and Memorial History of the State of New Jersey, 4 vols. (New York, 1910), 2: 420–22; Berthold Fernow, comp. and ed., Calendar of Wills on File and Recorded in the Offices of the Clerk of the Court of Appeals, of the County Clerk at Albany, and of the Secretary of State, 1626–1836 (New York, 1896); Names of Persons for Whom Marriage Licenses Were Issued by the Secretary of the Province of New York, Previous to 1784 (Albany, N.Y., 1860); Collections of the New-York Genealogical and Biographical Society, Vol. 1, Marriages from 1639 to 1801 in the Reformed Dutch Church, New York (New York, 1890); Kenneth Scott, Genealogical Data from Colonial New York Newspapers (Baltimore, Md., 1977); and Henry B. Dawson, Introduction, The Case of Elizabeth Rutgers versus Joshua Waddington (Morrisania, N.Y., 1866), vi–xii. In September 1696, "Harmen Rutgerson, Brewer" appeared on a list of freemen of New York City, and again in February 1701 as "Harmanus Rutgerse, Brewer," The Burghers of New Amsterdam and the Freemen of New York, 1675–1866 (New York, 1886), 59, 76.
^ Paul G. E. Clemens points out that after cloth and clothing, "the most important consumer good was probably alcohol." "The Consumer Culture of the Middle Atlantic, 1760–1820," William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd series, 62 (Oct. 2005): 580n3. On the Rutgers family as brewers, see Stanley Baron, Brewed in America: A History of Beer and Ale in the United States (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1962), 21, 25, 27, 28, 69, 103; the quote is on p. 28. On alcohol consumption in general, see W. J. Rorabaugh, The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition (New York, 1979); and Morris Weeks Jr., Beer and Brewing in America (New York, 1949). The Henry Rutgers quote is from "Colonel Rutgers's Address," Magazine of the Reformed Dutch Church 2 (Oct. 1827): "113" [i.e., 213]. Unfortunately, the account books of the Rutgers brewery are not extant, but a sense of how the business functioned can be extrapolated from account book entries in the early 1770s by William D. Faulkner, a New York City brewer who was a contemporary of the Rutgers family, William D. Faulkner Account Books, New-York Historical Society, New York, N.Y.; Faulkner sold beer to both the American army and the British army, as well as to many vessels.
^ The public careers of Rutgers men in colonial New York are best traced in Minutes of the Common Council of the City of New York, 1675–1776, 8 vols. (New York, 1905) (hereafter cited as MCC, 1675–1776); check the comprehensive index in volume 8 under the Rutgers surname. In November 1734, Harmanus Rutgers Jr. and "Henry" (i.e., Hendrick) Rutgers are both listed as "shopkeepers" on a roll of freemen, Burghers of New Amsterdam and Freemen of New York, 124. The quote is from Gordon Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution (New York, 1992), 245. On the Zenger trial, see Livingston Rutherford, John Peter Zenger: His Press, His Trial, and a Bibliography of Zenger Imprints (New York, 1904); and James Alexander, A Brief Narrative of the Case and Trial of John Peter Zenger, Printer of the New York Weekly Journal, ed. Stanley N. Katz (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), 58, 215n19. E. H. Crosby identifies Henry Rutgers's grandfather Harmanus as the juror in the Zenger trial, "Rutgers Family," NYG&B Rec. 17 (1886): 87. Captain Harmanus Rutgers died on August 9, 1753; his death notice appeared in the New-York Gazette, Aug. 13, 1753.
^ On the New York waterfront, see Floyd M. Shumway, Seaport City: New York in 1775 (New York, 1975); Work Projects Administration Writers' Program, A Maritime History of New York (Garden City, N.Y., 1941); Carl Abbott, "The Neighborhoods of New York, 1760–1775," New York History 55 (Jan. 1974): 35–54; Ann Buttenwieser, Manhattan Water-Bound: Planning and Developing Manhattan's Waterfront from the Seventeenth Century to the Present (New York, 1978), 9–10, 13, 21–55; Myron H. Luke, The Port of New York, 1800–1810: The Foreign Trade and Business Community (New York, 1953); and John H. Morrison, History of New York Ship Yards (New York, 1909). The quote is from Wood, Radicalism of the American Revolution, 60, 63. On cartmen, see Graham R. Hodges, The New York City Cartmen, 1667–1850 (New York, 1986).
^ Abbott, "Neighborhoods of New York," New York History 55 (Jan. 1974): 36–37, 47–48. The two ropewalks flanking the Rutgers farm are depicted on Francis Maerschalck, A Plan of the City of New York from an actual Survey, 1754; John Montresor, A Plan of the City of New-York & its Environs … survey'd in the Winter, 1766; and Bernard Ratzer, Plan of the City of New York, in North America: Surveyed in the Years 1766 & 1767. For a description of ropewalks, see Russell Bourne, Cradle of Violence: How Boston's Waterfront Mobs Ignited the American Revolution (Hoboken, N.J., 2006), 153–55; a riot between British soldiers and workers at a ropewalk occurred only a few days before the Boston Massacre.
^ On the Rutgers farm, see Stokes, Iconography of Manhattan Island, 6 vols. (New York, 1915–1928), 6: 134–36 (hereafter cited as Stokes, Iconography); David Valentine, Manual of the Corporation of the City of New York for 1860 (New York, 1860), 556–57; and Crosby, "Rutgers Family," NYB&G Rec. 17 (1886): 87, 88, 89. Increments were no doubt made to the property over the years. In 1776, the brigade to which artist John Trumbull was attached camped "on the … beautiful high ground, which surrounded Col. Rutgers's seat, near Corlaer's Hook," The Autobiography of Colonel John Trumbull, Patriot-Artist, 1756–1843, ed. Theodore Sizer (London, 1953), 24. On the grant of water lots, see MCC, 1676–1776, 7: 367, 374, 397, 398. An institutional history of the city at this time is George William Edwards, New York as an Eighteenth-Century Municipality, 1731–1776 (New York, 1917).
^ The earliest known survey of part of the property—in July 1755—is mentioned in Articles of Agreement, May 14, 1772, between William Bedlow, Ann Bancker, Gerard De Peyster, Henry Rutgers Jr., Harmanus Rutgers, and Mary Rutgers, Conger Papers, New York State Library, Albany, N.Y. Another survey in May 1756 is mentioned in Deed of Gift, Jan. 1, 1764, from Hendrick and Catharina Rutgers to "Hendrick Rutgers Junr," New-York Historical Society; and also Deed of Gift, Jan. 1, 1764, from same to William Bancker, RUL. Another survey was apparently made in August 1775, Deed of Gift, Jan. 9, 1785, from Anna Bancker to Henry Bancker, RUL. Unfortunately, none of these earliest surveys have yet been discovered. The will of Hendrick Rutgers, 1775, provides a description of the property, New-York Historical Society Collections for 1900: Abstracts of Wills, 9: 213–15. On James De Lancey's strategy to develop his property, which was aborted by the war, see Elizabeth Blackmar, Manhattan for Rent, 1785–1850 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1989), 33–35, 37–39. Two sources during the British occupation estimate the Rutgers farm at eighty acres: "Estimate of the Value of real Estates in the Out Ward of the City of New York, belonging to Persons in actual Rebellion [1778]" in B. F. Stevens, Facsimiles of Manuscripts in European Archives Relating to America, 1773–1783, 25 vols. (1889–1898; reprint Wilmington, Del., 1970), 12: no. 1235; and "A List of Farms on New York Island 1780," which was made by the surveyor Evert Bancker, New York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin (April 1917): 8–9.
^ The quote is from Wood, Radicalism of the American Revolution, 119. On titles, see Jackson Turner Main, The Social Structure of Revolutionary America (Princeton, N.J., 1965), 215, 217–19; and Wood Radicalism of the American Revolution, 21. Catharina De Peyster Rutgers was prominent enough to sit for a portrait. The quote about marriages is from Larry R. Gerlach, Prologue to Independence: New Jersey in the Coming of the American Revolution (New Brunswick, N.J., 1976), 31; Wood also notes the "incredibly tangled webs of kinship," Radicalism of the American Revolution, 44. The comment on the Dutch is from Thomas Jones, The History of New York During the Revolutionary War, 2 vols. (New York, 1879), 2: 326. Even a family descendant was bewildered: "The number of Anthonys and Harmans in the Rutgers family makes it difficult to be accurate in determining which one is referred to in any particular instance by contemporary records," E. H. Crosby, "Rutgers Family of New York," NYG&B Rec. 17 (1886): 88n.
^ On Harman Rutgers, see abstract of the will of Hendrick Rutgers, in New-York Historical Society Collections for 1900: Abstracts of Wills (New York, 1901), 214–15. In 1770, Harmanus is listed as "Left College in his second year" in "The Matricula or Register of Admissions and Graduations … in King's College," transcribed in Herbert and Carol Schneidner, eds., Samuel Johnson, President of King's College: His Career and Writings, 4 vols. (New York, 1929), 4: 255. He is also listed along with his brother, Henry Jr., as a freeholder in A Copy of the Poll List, of the Election for Representatives for the City and County of New-York … [1769], Early American Imprints, no. 11374. On his wife Dorcas Tibbets, see Names of Persons for Whom Marriage Licenses Were Issued by the Secretary of the Province of New York, Previous to 1784, 332; and Dorcas Remsen affidavit in Pardon Burlingham pension application (W17526), Revolutionary War Pension Application Files, U.S. National Archives. Burlingham was Dorcas's second, and Remsen her third husband; she mistakenly remembered that she married Harman Rutgers in 1776, which is contradicted by the official marriage record cited above. The surname "Tibbets" does not appear in MCC, 1675–1776; "Dorcas" is an English, not a Dutch given name.
^ On the 1741 slave uprising, see Jill Lepore, New York Burning: Liberty, Slavery, and Conspiracy in Eighteenth-Century Manhattan (New York, 2005), 5, 164, 165, 226. Harmanus Rutgers's slave Quash worked at the family brewery; Quash was burned at the stake, ibid., Appendix C, 268–69. Hughson's Point is mentioned on two Rutgers family deeds in 1764 (see note 8), but evidently is found in no other source. John Hughson was of the "lower sort" who owned a tavern on the western side of Manhattan where, in violation of law, he allowed slaves to congregate and allegedly incited them. The surname does not appear in the colonial Minutes of the Common Council, which is an indication of the family's lack of social prominence; thus, it is unlikely that a location in the Out Ward would be named in honor of him or his family. The most recent book on the 1741 slave uprising claims that Hughson was hanged and gibbeted near the Collect (or Fresh Water) Pond, Lepore, New York Burning, 119–20. But the famous David Grim map of New York City depicts Hughson as being gibbeted on the southeastern part of the Rutgers property, A Plan of the City and Environs of New York, as they were in the Years 1742, 1743 and 1744. Drawn by D__ G__ in the 76th year of his age who had at this time a perfect & correct recollection of every part of the same, 1813; no. 57 in the map key refers to "Plot Hughson Gibbeted." There is the possibility that he was hanged near the Collect Pond and gibbeted at "Hughson's Point" in sight of passing vessels in order to serve as both a warning and a deterrent. For slaveholding by Henry Rutgers's grandfather and father, see abstracts of their wills, Collections of the New-York Historical Society for the Year 1895: Abstracts of Wills (New York, 1896), 4: 445–50, and Collections … for the Year 1900; Abstracts of Wills (New York, 1901), 9: 213–15. Henry Rutgers's 1823 will states: "It is my desire and will that my Negro wench slave named Hannah being superannuated, be supported out of my Estate," Will of Henry Rutgers (transcription), RUL. In 1892, his grandnephew William B. Crosby's youngest daughter, Mary, reminisced about her "great great uncle" Henry Rutgers: "My uncle had a strong voice, and report says that his orders to his negroes across the East River could be heard by them," "Reminiscences of Rutgers Place," William B. Crosby Papers, New-York Historical Society. Rutgers could have employed both slave and free blacks. Other family members also owned slaves: in 1798 Henry Rutgers witnessed an agreement regarding an eleven-year-old female slave owned by his sister, Mary McCrea, Duyckinck Papers, New York State Library.
^ William McMurray mentions that Laidlie was Rutgers's "early religious instructor," Sermon, 23. On Laidlie, see William B. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit; or Commemorative Notices of Distinguished American Clergymen of Various Denominations, 9 vols. (New York, 1869), 9: 40–43. On the controversy within the Dutch Reformed Church over preaching in English, see Joyce D. Goodfriend, "Archibald Laidlie and the Transformation of the Dutch Reformed Church in Eighteenth-Century New York City," Journal of Presbyterian History 81 (Fall 2003): 149–62; Randall Balmer, A Perfect Babel of Confusion: Dutch Religion and English Culture in the Middle Colonies (New York, 1989), 141–56; and Alexander J. Wall, "The Controversy in the Dutch Church in New York Concerning Preaching in English, 1754–1768," New York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin 12 (July 1928): 39–58. Primary sources on the controversy are in Ecclesiastical Records, State of New York, 7 vols. (Albany, N.Y., 1901–1916), especially volume 6; check the comprehensive index in volume 7 under "Laidlie, Rev. Archibald," "English language and the Dutch church," and "English preaching in the Collegiate Church of New York." In 1748, the Swedish traveler Peter Kalm noted that in New York "most of the young people now speak principally English, and go only to the English church; and would even take it amiss if they were called Dutchmen and not Englishmen" (emphasis in original), Travels into North America by Peter Kalm, trans. John Reinhold Forster (Barre, Mass., 1972), 140.
^ Jackson Turner Main estimates that only one family in ten was able to send their sons to college, The Social Structure of Revolutionary America (Princeton, N.J., 1965), 247. Aside from his admission in 1763 and his graduation in 1766, there is apparently no other evidence regarding Henry Rutgers's attendance at the college, "The Matricula or Register of Admissions and Graduations … in King's College," transcribed in Schneider and Schneider, Samuel Johnson, 4: 250, 252. He is listed in the first alumni catalogue in 1774, Catalogus Eorum exhibens Nomina qui in collegio Regali, Novi-Eboraci, Laurea alicujus Gradus donate fuerunt, ab anno 1758 ad annum 1774 (broadside), Early American Imprints, no. 13363. See also "Kings [sic] College Alumni … Class of 1766," Columbia University Quarterly 9 (March 1909): 187–90. His enrollment coincided with the arrival of Rev. Myles Cooper as president, and also with a change in curriculum. On King's College during this period, see David C. Humphrey, From King's College to Columbia, 1746–1800 (New York, 1976), 126–53, 176–83; and Robert A. McCaughey, Stand, Columbia: A History of Columbia University in the City of New York, 1754–2004 (New York, 2003), 27–33. On the transition from a monarchy to a republic, see Wood, Radicalism of the American Revolution. On the Sons of Liberty, see Roger J. Champagne, "New York's Radicals and the Coming of Independence," Journal of American History (June 1964): 21–40 (the quote is on p. 21); Herbert M. Morais, "The Sons of Liberty in New York," in Richard B. Morris, ed., The Era of the American Revolution (New York, 1939), 269–89; and Henry B. Dawson, The Sons of Liberty in New York (Poughkeepsie, N.Y., 1859). Henry Rutgers's name is not specifically mentioned in any of the foregoing secondary sources, nor in the John Lamb Papers at the New-York Historical Society. Rutgers is listed as a freeholder in A Copy of the Poll List, of the Election for Representatives for the City and County of New-York … [1769], Early American Imprints, no. 11374. On Rutgers being appointed an assessor, see MCC, 1676–1776, 8: 108.
^ On the royalist sentiments of the governors, faculty, and alumni of King's College, see Humphrey, From King's College to Columbia, 139–44, 150–54, 209–16, 219–24, 269–70, 354n4; and McCaughey, Stand, Columbia, 44–48. By way of comparison, the College of New Jersey at Princeton under the Presbyterian minister John Witherspoon was "a veritable seminary of sedition," Gerlach, Prologue to Independence, 274. On Thomas Jones, see American National Biography (New York, 1999), s.v. "Jones, Thomas" (hereafter cited as ANB); Jones was embittered by his treatment by the rebels. On royalism in general in New York, see Alexander C. Flick, Loyalism in New York During the American Revolution (New York, 1901); Wallace Brown, The King's Friends: The Composition and Motives of the American Loyalist Claimants (Providence, R.I., 1965), 77–110, 306–11; Robert M. Calhoun, The Loyalists in Revolutionary America, 1760–1781 (New York, 1973), 370–81, 408–30; and Philip Ranlet, The New York Loyalists (Knoxville, Tenn., 1986). On events leading to rebellion in New York and in New York City, see Bernard Mason, The Road to Independence: The Revolutionary Movement in New York, 1773–1777 (Lexington, Ky., 1966); Edward Countryman, A People in Revolution: The American Revolution and Political Society in New York, 1760–1790 (Baltimore, Md., 1981); and Joseph S. Tiedemann, Reluctant Revolutionaries: New York City and the Road to Independence, 1763–1776 (Ithaca, N.Y., 1997).
^ Compiled Service Records of Soldiers Who Served in the American Army During the Revolutionary War (Record Group 93), U.S. National Archives, Washington, D.C., microfilm. The anecdote regarding the battle of White Plains is in McMurray, Sermon, 26–27n. On the battle of White Plains, see Boatner, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution, 1200–02. There is no factual basis for the claim that Henry Rutgers was wounded at White Plains; the three most reliable sources—his own retrospective account, Rev. William McMurray's sermon (for both see note 1), and later family accounts—make no mention of it.
^ In his memorial to the Committee of the States in August 1784, Rutgers mentions his appointment by General Putnam in 1777, Papers of the Continental Congress, microfilm, reel 51, item 41, v.8, p. 339 (hereafter cited as PCC). On September 12, 1777, Paul Todd of Massachusetts wrote to his father that "this day we had a general muster of the whole brigade by the Muster Master Genl. [torn] Rutgers. We were all oblig'd to turn out," Paul Todd pension application (W1617), Revolutionary War Pension Application Files, U.S. National Archives. Another soldier recalled that in October of that year, Rutgers was the muster master in Col. Udney Hay's regiment of artificers, Shadrach Hurlburt pension application (S29915); see also Gilbert Weeks affidavit in Michael Verlie pension application (S42593). On the importance of accurate returns, see General Orders, Jan. 8, 1776, and Washington to John Sullivan, June 16, 1776, both in W. W. Abbot et al., eds., The Papers of George Washington: Revolutionary War Series, 17 vols. to date (Charlottesville, Va., 1985–2008), 3: 52–53, 5: 11. Examples of muster rolls signed by Rutgers are in Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775–1783, U.S. National Archives. On Rutgers's appointment to, and his declining to serve in the state legislature, see Votes & Proceedings of the Assembly, Sept. 1, 10, 1777, and Feb. 16, 1778, Records of the States of the United States, microfilm, B.2, reel 6, p. 131–34 (hereafter cited as Early State Records). He was appointed instead of elected to the legislature because it was "impracticable" to hold elections in the Southern District due to the British occupation.
^ There is very little in standard secondary sources on the Commissary General of Musters Department, even less on the state level than on the Continental level. The lack of primary sources may be a result of the devastating fires at the War Department in 1800 and at the New York State Library in 1911. But see Charles H. Lesser, ed., The Sinews of Independence: Monthly Strength Reports of the Continental Army (Chicago, 1976), Introduction, xi–xxxv; and John George Rommel Jr., "Richard Varick: New York Aristocrat" (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1966). See also Henry Rutgers to George Clinton, June 24, 1777, in Public Papers of George Clinton, First Governor of New York, 1777–1795, 1801–1804, 10 vols. (New York and Albany, 1899–1914), 2: 48–49; Rutgers enjoined officers (p. 49): "It is expected that the Rolls will be Accurately made out as none but such can be received." The routine functioning of the department can best be traced in a series of letters from Henry Rutgers to Richard Varick, July 8 and Aug. 12, 1778; and Jan. 8 and 29, Feb. 21, March 17, April 10, May 30, and Dec. 24, 1779, all in the Richard Varick Papers, New-York Historical Society. Varick was Rutgers's immediate superior officer; on Varick, see ANB, s.v. "Varick, Richard." See also Henry Rutgers to Joseph Ward, April 11, May 26, Aug. 26, and Dec. 24, 1779; and Jan. 12 and Feb. 21, 1780, all at the Chicago History Museum (formerly the Chicago Historical Society), Chicago, Ill. Colonel Ward was commander of the department; there is little information about the department in William Carver Bates, "Col. Joseph Ward, 1737–1812: Teacher, Soldier, Patriot," The Bostonian Society Publications, vol. 4, 1907, 69–72. On Rutgers's promotion as a Continental Deputy Muster Master General, see Richard Varick to John Jay, Jan. 28, 1779, PCC, reel 104, item 78, v.23, p. 157; John Jay to Rutgers, April 7, 1779, PCC, reel 24, item 14, p. 81; John Fell's Diary, April 1, 6, 1779, and John Jay to George Washington, April 8, 1779, all in Smith, ed., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 12: 271, 301, 309; and General Orders, April 15, 1779, in John C. Fitzpatrick, ed., The Writings of George Washington, 39 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1931–44), 14: 389. For further information about the department, see John P. Butler, comp., Index: The Papers of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, 4 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1978), 3: 3624–3625, under relevant headings.
^ On Aug. 7, 1779, the Royal Gazette (New York) published a death notice of Hendrick Rutgers, "a member of the Dutch reformed church, and a gentleman of very large estate in this city." Laidlie died at Red Hook; some sources place his death in 1778, not 1779. The quote, which refers to the death of his father, is from Rutgers to Joseph Ward, Feb. 21, 1780, Chicago History Museum; nothing is known about the circumstances of his mother's death.
^ Henry Rutgers to Joseph Ward, Feb. 21, 1780, Chicago History Museum.
^ Henry Rutgers to George Clinton, July 5, 1780, and Clinton's draft of a reply to same, July 8, RUL. On Clinton, see ANB, s.v. "Clinton, George." The law authorizing the emission of money was passed on June 15, 1780, Laws of the State of New-York, Passed … in the last Sitting of the Third Session of the Legislature (1780); an example of the actual emission signed by Rutgers is owned by RUL. See also "An Act for the Payment of certain contingent Expences of this State," April 14, 1782, which states that Rutgers and others shall be paid two shillings for each hundred bills signed, John D. Cushing, comp., First Laws of the State of New York (Wilmington, Del., 1984), 251–55; Rutgers is mentioned on p. 253. Henry Rutgers to Henry Bancker, Nov. 24, 1782, RUL.
^ There are several works on New York during the British occupation. See New York City During the American Revolution: Being a Collection of Original Papers … From … the Mercantile Library Association (New York, 1861); Oscar Barck, New York During the War for Independence: With Special Reference to the Period of British Occupation (New York, 1931); Wilbur C. Abbott, New York in the American Revolution (New York, 1929), 182–286; Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker, Father Knickerbocker Rebels: New York City During the Revolution (New York, 1948); Ewald Gustav Schaukirk, Occupation of New York City by the British (1887; New York, 1969 reprint); Baurmeister, Letters and Journals; The Twilight of British Rule in Revolutionary America: The New York Letter Book of General James Robertson, 1780–1783, ed. Milton M. Klein and Ronald W. Howard (Cooperstown, N.Y., 1983). On the defensive works in the vicinity of the Rutgers property, see "A Return of the Batteries in and near the City of New York," March 24, 1776, PCC, reel 81, item 67, v.1, p. 149; The Papers of George Washington: Revolutionary War Series, 4: 368–369 and n2; Charles Lee, "Report on the Defence of New York, March, 1776," in The Lee Papers: Collections of the New-York Historical Society for the Year 1871, 4 vols. (New York, 1872), 1: 354–57 (Lee mentions that a battery was planned "at the foot of the Jews' Burying-Ground" and another on the heights above it); and Robert B. Roberts, New York's Forts in the Revolution (Madison, N.J., 1980), especially p. 265, 308. For a rare first-person account by a private soldier, see Johann Conrad Döhla, A Hessian Diary of the American Revolution, trans. and ed. Bruce E. Burgoyne (Norman, Ok., 1990), 27. On the Royal Navy shipyards, see Stokes, Iconography, 5: 1214.
^ "Estimate of the Value of the real Estates in the Out Ward of the City of New York, belonging to Persons in actual Rebellion [1778]," in Stevens, Facsimiles of Manuscripts in European Archives Relating to America, 1773–1783, 12: no. 1235; Henry Rutgers and "Hendk. Rutgers & Co." also owned property in the East Ward, ibid. On Crown forces stationed along the East River, see Baurmeister, Letters and Journals, 318–19, 387, 430, 510; on the Bayreuth Regiment, see Döhla, Diary, entry for Oct. 31, 1779, p. 114; on the Rutgers farmhouse, see Barck, New York City During the War for Independence, 248.
^ See Stephen Payne Adye to Carl Wilhelm von "Hackenberg" [Hachenberg], July 29, 1779, Collections of the New-York Historical Society for the Year 1875: Official Letters of Major General James Pattison (New York, 1876), 233; and Stokes, Iconography, 5: 1090. In May 1782, Dr. Lauckhard, physician to the Hessian General Hospital, offered a reward for a horse that strayed from a pasture at Corlears Hook near Rutgers's house, Kenneth Scott, comp., Rivington's New York Newspaper: Excerpts from a Loyalist Press, 1773–1783 (New York, 1973), 293. An account by "Joshua" in 1835 claimed that "hundreds" of Hessians were buried on the Rutgers farm, Stokes, Iconography, 5: 1214. On the winter of 1780 in the city, see Baurmeister, Letters and Journals, 340–41. One week before the British evacuated the city, Rutgers's brother-in-law Stephen McCrea wrote to the commander-in-chief requesting compensation for damages done on an estate at Corlears Hook by the Commissary General's Department, McCrea to Sir Guy Carleton, Nov. 18, 1783, Report on American Manuscripts in the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 4 vols. (London, 1909), 4: 464; it is unclear whether McCrea was acting on his own behalf or on Rutgers's. For references to the burned brewery, see MCC, 1784–1831, 1: 182, 186, 376. There is a possibility that the brewery referred to was owned by the other branch of the Rutgers family; there is, nonetheless, no evidence that Henry Rutgers resumed the brewing business in the postwar period.
^ On the procession into the city, see Stokes, Iconography, 5: 1173–74. In the postwar period, Evacuation Day was celebrated throughout the city with banquets and other celebrations; see, for example, MCC, 1784–1831, 1: 187, 688, 690, and 2: 51, 53, 117, 120, 202, 204, 305, 410, 411, 484, 585, 588, 689, 691. On the committee regarding losses, see 1: 8; on disorderly persons, see, 1: 35, 49. On the bodies in Catherine Street, which may have been buried from the Hessian hospital, see 1: 187, 356; and Stokes, Iconography, 5: 1214.
^ The quote is from Henry Rutgers to Joseph Ward, Feb. 21, 1780, Chicago History Museum. It is unclear exactly when Rutgers returned to the city, but he was obviously there by late 1783. On the city's first postwar election in December 1783, see Staughton Lynd, "The Mechanics in New York Politics, 1774–1788," Labor History 5 (Fall 1964): 225–46; see especially p. 235n42. Rutgers joined former Sons of Liberty John Lamb, Isaac Sears, and Marinus Willett as victors; Rutgers drew the third highest number of votes: 231. See also Alfred F. Young, The Democratic Republicans of New York: The Origins, 1763–1797 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1967), 67; and Anthony Gronowicz, "Political 'Radicalism' in New York City's Revolutionary and Constitutional Eras," in Paul A. Gilje and William Pencak, eds., New York in the Age of the Constitution, 1775–1800 (Cranbury, N.J., 1992), 98–111. On Rutgers's attendance and voting record in the 1784 New York Assembly, see Journals of the Assembly, A.1b, reel 4, Early State Records. On the impost, see Cathy Matson, "Liberty, Jealousy, and Union: The New York Economy in the 1780s," in Gilje and Pencak, eds., New York in the Age of the Constitution, 118. General overviews of the period are Sydney Pomerantz, New York, An American City, 1783–1803: A Study of Urban Life (New York, 1938); and E. Wilder Spaulding, New York in the Critical Period, 1783–1789 (New York, 1932). According to an account in 1835, it was not all work: in 1786 a "Race Course" was established on the Rutgers farm, Stokes, Iconography, 5: 1214.
^ On Rutgers and his fellow officers' claims for pay, see Worthington Chauncey Ford et al., eds, Journals of the Continental Congress, 1774–1789, 34 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1904–1937) (hereafter cited as JCC), letter of March 27, 1783, 24: 220; Memorial of Henry Rutgers, Richard Lush, and Jacob John Lansing to the Committee of the States, Aug. 1, 1784, PCC, reel 51, item 41, v.8, p. 339; JCC, 28: 91n1; Committee Report, Feb. 22 1785, PCC, reel 28, item 19, v. 5, p. 261; JCC, resolution of June 2, 1785, 28: 416; Charles Thomson to George Clinton, June 3, 1785, in Paul H. Smith et al, eds., Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774–1789, 26 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1976–2000), 22: 427; Petition of Henry Rutgers, Richard Lush, and Jacob John Lansing to Congress, Aug. 20, 1787, PCC, reel 55, item 42, v.6, p. 528; JCC, Oct. 3, 4, 1787, 33: 607–09, 744; and JCC, 34: 624. The laws passed were "An Act for the Relief of Henry Rutgers, and others," April 15, 1786, Laws of the State of New-York, Passed by the Legislature … at their Ninth Session (New York, 1786); and "An Act for the relief of Henry Rutgers and others," Feb. 6, 1789, Laws of the State of New-York, Passed by the Legislature … at their Twelfth Session (New York, 1789).
^ On George Clinton, see John P. Kaminski, George Clinton: Yeoman Politician of the New Republic (Madison, Wisc., 1993). On Richard Varick, see Rommel, "Richard Varick: New York Aristocrat" (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1966). John Jay's wife excluded Rutgers from her "dinner and supper list" for 1787–88, Young, Democratic Republicans of New York, 51n.5; Jay was a conservative alumnus of King's College. On the election of 1788, see Stephen L. Schechter, "A Biographical Gazeteer of New York Federalists and Antifederalists," 157–206 (and especially p. 194), in Schechter, ed., The Reluctant Pillar: New York and the Adoption of the Federal Constitution (Albany, N.Y., 1987). See also Stephen L. Schechter and Richard B. Bernstein, eds., New York and the Union: Contributions to the American Constitutional Experience (Albany, N.Y., 1990). For general works, see also Jackson Turner Main, The Antifederalists: Critics of the Constitution, 1781–1783 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1965); and Gordon S. Wood, The Creation of the American Republic, 1776–1787 (New York, 1972). On the Democratic Societies and the rise of the Jeffersonians, see Young, Democratic Republicans of New York; on Rutgers's involvement with the New York Democratic Society, see p. 393–94, 404. See also Eugene P. Link, Democratic-Republican Societies, 1790–1800 (New York, 1942). Rutgers is listed as "1st Vice President" and then as President of the organization in, respectively, William Duncan, The New-York Directory and Register, for the Year 1794 (New York, 1794), 280; Duncan, The New-York Directory … for …1795 (New York, 1795), 323; and John Low, New-York Directory … for … 1796 (New York, 1796), 57. All three directories also list Rutgers as a governor of the New-York Hospital. On the 1796 election, see Young, Democratic Societies of New York, 466. The earliest list of members of the New York Society of the Cincinnati does not include Rutgers which, given his social prominence, would unlikely be an oversight, David Franks, The New-York Directory (New York, 1786), 70. Nor does Rutgers appear on subsequent lists. His friend Marinus Willett at one time served as the New York chapter's president. Rutgers is also not included in John Schuyler, Institution of the Society of the Cincinnati … With Extracts from the … Transactions of the New York State Society (New York, 1886). The most recent biographical directory does include Rutgers, but does not address his absence from the earlier lists, Francis J. Sypher Jr., New York State Society of the Cincinnati: Biographies of Original Members and Other Continental Officers (Fishkill, N.Y., 2004), 410–11. Perhaps his absence from the lists was related to the circumstances of his derangement from the Muster Master Department in 1780, but Richard Varick, who had also served in the same department, served as the New York chapter's president. In the later nineteenth century, however, members of the Crosby family were eligible for membership based on Henry Rutgers's Revolutionary War service.
^ On the postwar economy in New York state, see Cathy Matson, "Liberty, Jealousy, and Union," in Gilje and Pencak, eds., New York in the Age of the Constitution, 112–150. Rutgers's advertisement appeared in the New-York Journal, and State Gazette, Jan. 27, 1785; he also advertised other house lots on long-term leases. On Catherine Market, see MCC, 1784–1831, 1:225; and Thomas F. De Voe, The Market Book, Containing a Historical Account of the Public Markets in the Cities of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Brooklyn (New York, 1862), 1: 341–70. On Rutgers Slip, see MCC, 1784–1831, 1: 422, 482–83, 494, 551; 2: 300; 8: 587; 9: 22, 70, 231, 234, 240. On municipal ownership of land, see Hendrik Hartog, Public Property and Private Power: The Corporation of the City of New York in American Law, 1730–1870 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1983); and George Ashton Black, The History of the Municipal Ownership of Land on Manhattan Island (New York, 1897).
^ The subscription list of the New York Manufacturing Society appears in The Daily Advertiser (New York), March 17, 1789; the Society's Constitution and Minutes, 1789–1792, are at the New-York Historical Society. See also Raymond A. Mohl, Poverty in New York, 1783–1825 (New York, 1971), 222–23; Harold C. Syrett et al., eds., The Papers of Alexander Hamilton, 27 vols. (New York, 1961–1987), 5: 300; and Christine Stansell, City of Women: Sex and Class in New York, 1789–1860 (New York, 1986), 16. On the bleach-field and thread manufactory, see Rita Susswein Gottesman, comp., The Arts and Crafts in New York, 1777–1790: Advertisements and News Items from New York City Newspapers (New York, 1954), 299; the advertisement appeared in the Daily Advertiser (New York), May 13, 1791.
^ On the incident involving "his church," see MCC, 1784–1831, 3: 385, 407–08; other examples of Rutgers as an election inspector are 1: 76, 319, 592, 744, 2: 69, 333, 391, 396, and 3: 144. Another indication of Rutgers's reputation for probity is that he was occasionally called upon to attest regarding the service of Revolutionary War veterans: in 1828 it was pointed out that "the oath of Coll. Henry Rutgers … cannot be doubted," Anthony Post pension application (S46337), Revolutionary War Pension Application Files, U.S. National Archives; see also John Banks pension application (S35776). On the proportion of freeholders to renters in the 1807 elections in the Seventh Ward, see Blackmar, Manhattan for Rent, Appendix, 272, Table 2.
^ Stokes, Iconography, 5: 1233, 1240, 1271. On William Malcom, see Sypher, New York State Society of the Cincinnati, 296–98. Henry Rutgers to George Clinton, March 3, 1795, RUL. A vignette of the city at this time is provided in Thomas E. V. Smith, The City of New York in the Year of Washington's Inauguration, 1789 (New York, 1889). In 1789, Rutgers was listed as "Lieutenant Colonel, Commandant" of the First Regiment of militia, The New York Directory and Register, for the Year 1789 (New York, 1789), 127.
^ On this matter, see Oliver Wolcott Jr. to Alexander Hamilton, April 4, 1800, Syrett, ed., Papers of Alexander Hamilton, 24: 390–91 and n1; Aaron Burr to Marinus Willett, Jan. 28, 1802; Marinus Willett to Aaron Burr, March 16, 1802; Aaron Burr to Henry Rutgers, April 4, 1802; Aaron Burr to Albert Gallatin, April 19, 1802; and Aaron Burr to William Edgar, June 7, 1802, all in Mary-Jo Kline et al, eds., Political Correspondence and Public Papers of Aaron Burr, 2 vols. (Princeton, N.J., 1983), 2: 658–59, 695–96, 706–07, 718–19, 723–24, and 1: 291; and Henry Rutgers to Albert Gallatin, July 16, 1807, RUL.
^ In 1780, Rutgers wrote that after his father's death in 1779, "the care of the family … more immediately devolves upon me," Rutgers to Joseph Ward, Feb. 21, 1780, Chicago History Museum. On the Crosby family, see Ernest H. Crosby, "A Brief Account of the Ancestry and Descendants of William Bedlow Crosby, of New York, and of Harriet Ashton Clarkson, His Wife," NYG&B Rec. 29 (Oct. 1898): 8–10, and NYG&B Rec. 30 (April 1899): 73–77; the quote is on p. 74. On Dr. Ebenezer Crosby, see also Sypher, New York State Society of the Cincinnati, 110–11.
^ On the growing trend toward liquid assets, see Paul G. E. Clemens, "Material Culture and the Rural Economy: Burlington County, New Jersey, 1760–1820," in Peter O. Wacker and Paul G. E. Clemens, Land Use in New Jersey: A Historical Geography (New Brunswick, N.J., 1995), 270; the author comments that "the growth in liquid assets was spectacular." By 1821, Rutgers was financially secure enough to loan $10,000, Promissory note from Henry Rutgers to Daniel D. Tompkins, RUL; Tompkins, who was then U.S. Vice President, had incurred personal debts on behalf of the public when he was New York's governor during the War of 1812. The quote is from Dell Upton, "Inventing the Metropolis: Civilization and Urbanity in Antebellum New York," in Catherine Hoover Voorsanger and John K. Howat, eds., Art and the Empire City: New York, 1825–1861 (New York, 2000), 5. Stokes, Iconography, 6: 134–36. For an overview of Manhattan development during this period, see Blackmar, Manhattan for Rent. In addition to the surveys of the Rutgers property made in 1755, 1756, and 1775 mentioned in note 8 above, there were also published surveys made by New York City Surveyors Casimir Goerck in the 1790s, and by Bridges and Poppleton in 1813. In addition, in 1874 City Surveyor J. B. Holmes published the reconstructed map, Map of Rutger's [sic] Farm as it existed in 1784, accurately made from reliable data, RUL, and New York Public Library. The artist John Trumbull compared the "beautiful high ground, which surrounded Col. Rutgers's seat" that he saw in 1776 with the same place in the antebellum period: "all that part of the city is now flat as a table," Sizer, ed., Autobiography of Colonel John Trumbull, 24. Population figures, which are rounded, are from Historical Statistics of the United States: Earliest Times to the Present (Cambridge, England, 2006), 1–110, Table Aa832–1033; and Ira Rosenwaike, Population History of New York City (Syracuse, N.Y., 1972), 16, Table 2, 18, Table 3, 36, Table 6. The Rutgers textile mill is mentioned in Rutgers's will; he bequeathed ten shares in "the Rutgers factory at Patterson" to Samuel Torbert Jr., provided that Torbert "will follow the business of spinning and weaving at that factory or some other," Will of Henry Rutgers (transcription), RUL.
^ As early as 1785, Rutgers advertised "a number of House Lots, on ground rent, for a term of years," New-York Journal, Jan. 27, 1785. Lease between Henry Rutgers and Benjamin M. Underhill, May 1, 1826, New-York Historical Society; and lease between Henry Rutgers and Whitehead Hicks, Feb. 9, 1820, New York State Library. For another lease, see Rutgers to John Morss, builder, Bayard-Campbell-Pearsall Papers, New York Public Library. On the sawing business, see Gottesman, comp., The Arts and Crafts in New York, 1777–1790, 198; the advertisement appeared in the Daily Advertiser (New York), July 12, 1797. The quote is from Henry Rutgers to William B. Crosby, Feb. 29, 1802, RUL. For other letters regarding young Crosby's management of Rutgers's affairs while he was in Albany, see same to same, Feb. 6 and March 5, 1801, Rutgers Papers, New York State Library. On February 6, Rutgers advised: "Mind that you let every Person who rents Houses, Stores or Lumber Yards sign an agreement, and see that everything therein is fully expressed." Rutgers's sister Mary McCrea was also a landlord; see agreements between Mary McCrea and Timothy Mount, cordwainer, Feb. 22, 1812, Ephraim Place, cordwainer, Feb. 22, 1812, and David McCallon, sailmaker, April 24, 1815, all in Duyckinck Papers, New York State Library. Rutgers's other sister, Anna Bancker, was also a landlord, for whom William B. Crosby served as agent; see MCC, 1784–1831, v 9: 182, 266.
^ Lease between Henry Rutgers and Thompson Price, May 1, 1826, Conger Papers, New York State Library. For concerns about buildings in Henry Street being converted into "dram shops and groceries" instead of residences, see William B. Crosby to Henry Remsen Sr., May 7 and 13, 1828, Remsen Papers, New York Public Library. On Corlears Hook, see Stansell, City of Women, 9. A useful method of determining which properties Rutgers owned and, in some cases, who were his tenants, are the city inspectors' citations for nuisances (e.g., privy to be emptied); see MCC, 1784–1831, 8: 36, 434–35, 457, 563, 592, 596, 712–14, 721, 728; 9: 315, 734; 10: 437; 11: 425, 755; 12: 413; 14: 86, 187, 236, 569; 15: 462; 16: 311, 487, 603, 748; 17: 196, 686; and 18: 61. An example of an actual citation for filling the "Sunken Lots" on Madison Street is George Cuming, City Inspector, to Henry Rutgers, owner, and William B. Crosby, agent, May 20, 1828, Duyckinck Papers, New York State Library. On Rutgers's properties, see also notes by Edmund Shotwell, "Henry Rutgers Real Estate Dealings," Shotwell Collection (R–MC 005), RUL. William Bran was "superintendent or collector for Henry Rutgers for many years," Abraham Dally affidavit, Nov. 28, 1843, in William Bran pension application (W1219), Revolutionary War Pension Application Files, U.S. National Archives.
^ The foreign traveler is quoted in Charles Lockwood, Bricks and Brownstone:The New York Row House, 1783–1929, An Architectural and Social History (New York, 1972), 36. On street disturbances, see Paul A. Gilje, The Road to Mobocracy: Popular Disorder in New York City, 1763–1834 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1987), 239–40. On Rutgers's properties on Bancker Street, see MCC, 1784–1831, 10: 629–30, 14: 569. On "sex districts," see Timothy J. Gilfoyle, City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and the Commercialization of Sex, 1790–1920 (New York, 1992), 49–54; the quote is on p. 49.
^ Writing from Albany in March 1801, Rutgers expressed his delight at the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson on "the memorable 4 March." He described the celebrations and noted: "The 6th and 7th Wards [in New York City] … were not asleep. It was often mentioned here that their exertions … gave a Republican Presidency. … All seem to agree that Republican exertions at this time will terminate the reign of Federalism," Rutgers to William B. Crosby, March 5, 1801, Rutgers Papers, New York State Library. The quotes are from McMurray, Sermon, 28, 35. A useful guide to Rutgers's political career is Franklin B. Hough, The New York Civil List (Albany, N.Y., 1861), 183, 189, 209, 210, 213, 215, 218, 219, 371, 398; on Rutgers as a presidential elector, see 390, 391. Rutgers's attendance and voting record while an assemblyman can be traced in the Journals of the Assembly, A.1b, reels 6–8, Early State Records. See also the following correspondence from the period: Rutgers to William B. Crosby, Feb. 8 and 14, 1806, and Feb. 27, March 30, and April 4–5, 1807, all in the Crosby Papers, New-York Historical Society; Rutgers to Henry Remsen, Feb. 16, 1807, Rutgers to William B. Crosby, Feb. 23, 1807, and Benjamin Romaine to Henry Rutgers, March 14, 1808, all at RUL.; and Rutgers to William B. Crosby, Feb. 6 and March 5, 1801, Feb. 1, March 6 and March 11, 1807, all in the Rutgers Papers, New York State Library. See also To the Electors of the Southern District (broadside), New York, April 11, 1803, which is signed by Rutgers, BRO2624, New York State Library. That his political influence in the city extended beyond his tenure in the legislature is indicated by Daniel D. Tompkins to Col. Macomb, April 6, 1812, and Tompkins to Henry Rutgers, April 6, 1812, in Public Papers of Daniel D. Tompkins, Governor of New York, 1807–1817 (Albany, N.Y., 1902), 2: 525–26, 532–35. See also Rutgers to Thomas Jefferson, Dec. 5, 1806, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress; and General Republican Meeting (broadside), [April 24, 1808], which Rutgers chaired, BRO4716, New York State Library. A general study of politics during the period is Alvin Kass, Politics in New York State, 1800–1830 (Syracuse, N.Y., 1965); the classic study is Jabez D. Hammond, The History of Political Parties in the State of New-York, 2 vols. (Albany, N.Y., 1842); neither mentions Rutgers, however. See also Noble E. Cunningham, The Jeffersonian Republicans: The Formation of Party Organization (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1957); and Cunningham, The Jeffersonian Republicans in Power: Party Operations, 1801–1809 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1963).
^ On the early history of the Tammany Society, see Edwin P. Kilroe, "Saint Tammany and the Origin of the Society of Tammany, or Columbian Order in the City of New York" (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1913); Peter Paulson, "The Tammany Society and the Jeffersonian Movement in New York City, 1795–1800," New York History 34 (1953): 72–84; and Young, Democratic Republicans of New York, 202–03, 398–99. On Rutgers's membership on the Building Committee, see E. Vale Blake, History of the Tammany Society or Columbian Order From Its Organization to the Present Time (New York, 1901), 42.
^ Regarding this protracted matter, see John Player to Henry Rutgers, Feb. 4, 1803; Edward Carroll to William B. Crosby, Feb. 10 and Nov. 28, 1806; Henry Rutgers to Crosby, Feb. 27, March 30, April 4–5, 1807; James Smith to Crosby, Feb. 19, 1814; Daniel Robert to Crosby, Nov. 23, 1815; Edward Carroll to Crosby, Feb. 13, 1816; Benjamin Tallmadge to Crosby, May 3, 1816; Robert Troup to Crosby, July 22, 1816; and Joseph Fellows to Crosby, July 6, 1817, all in the William B. Crosby Papers, New-York Historical Society. See also Henry Rutgers to William B. Crosby, March 3 and 11, 1807, Rutgers Papers, New York State Library; and Edward Carroll to Crosby, Aug. 9, 1806, personal collection of Michael C. Barr. The quotes are
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Giggens (left) and Gecaj (right)
Background information Origin New Haven, CT Years active 2005 - 2009 Former Members
Gecaj
Giggens
The Gecaj and Giggens Power Show is a radio show that broadcasts live from WSIN Radio 1590am on the campus of Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, CT. Hosted by Albumsix.com users, Gecaj and Giggens, the show is known in the Weezer community as having played Rivers Cuomo's Alone II album in its entirety before it was officially released.
The Power Show also interviewed www.weezer.com's Karl Koch, and tried to interview Weezer twice, to no response. They did meet Weezer on September 24, 2008 when Weezer was playing Madison Square Garden during their Troublemaker Tour.
The Power Show ended with episode 100 on December 16, 2009.
History
In the spring of 2005, Gecaj and Giggens both knew they were to attend SCSU in the fall. They also both knew they wanted to have their own radio show, and play their favorite band of all time, Weezer. At the fall semester orientation, Giggens found the WSIN table, and signed himself and Gecaj up to become DJs. At the first radio station meeting, members were told to come up with a name for their radio shows, and both Gecaj and Giggens agreed that their names needed to be in the show's name. On this historic occasion, Gecaj suggested The Power Show, as mere filler until a real name could be thought of, but the name stuck.
The first Gecaj and Giggens Power Show aired on September 13, 2005, with the first song played being "My Name is Jonas". The playlist for this show was made up on the spot. All that remains of the first show is this playlist, as neither had archived the show in any way.
Early episodes of the Power Show struck a chord with fellow station members and many high school students would often skip class to listen to the Power Show. Due to the alternative and indie music they played, a lot of people began to hang out with them on the air, and the first Power Show family was born. On these early shows, sing-a-longs would happen, Giggens would wear ties, and Gecaj's love of wrestling found its way into on-air conversations. The Power Show helped out at the station's third ever SINFEST concert on the school's campus, and keeping with their love for Weezer, had an all Weezer show before seeing them in concert one day in October 2005. Giggens called in live from the concert during a friend's radio show to give an update as to what had been played so far (these were the days before Twitter). The Power Show emailed Weezer to see if an interview could happen, to no response.
For the next couple of years, The Power Show had many ups and downs. The show went on hiatus when work and class schedules conflicted with each other in 2007, resulting in Giggens' first solo show called Tune In, Drop Out, With Giggens, a 1960's garage rock show. When The Power Show returned in the fall of 2007, their on-air family had changed, they had more listeners than ever, and the rule "If we have over 20 listeners, our shirts will come off" started.
On November 18, 2008, The Power Show broke their personal record and station record for amount of listeners due to the fact that they played all of Rivers Cuomo's Alone II album before its official release. They had received the mail while on-air, and opened one piece to discover Alone II. Upon seeing this, Giggens logged onto Albumsix.com, where he informed members that The Power Show was going to play the entire album immediately. The thread he started quickly massed over 60 pages worth of commentary and won an Albumsix award at the end of the year for being one of the most popular threads.
24 Hour Power Show
On May 14, 2009, The Power Show held its first 24 hour special. After months of planning and lots of sleep, Gecaj and Giggens upheld a WSIN tradition, and ended the season with episode 90. During this 24 hour broadcast, The Power Show interviewed many of Albumsix.com's talented musicians. Almost every half hour from 10am until 12am featured a member of the message board. The Power Show would interview the artist over the phone, and then play two tracks selected by the artist themselves. On this show, The Power Show broke the records again, as episode 90 remains the most listened to Power Show to date, and the most listened to radio show on WSIN Radio (as of March 24, 2011).
As of June 16, 2009, The Power Show had played Weezer and Weezer related bands over 100 times.
Interview with Karl Koch
On November 4, 2009, The Power Show interviewed www.weezer.com's webmaster Karl Koch. Questions were asked regarding the upcoming "Rarities" CD, aswell as "Pinkerton Deluxe". They also talked about Karl's project, Karlophone, in which Karl said he would like to perform live someday, but didn't know if it was possible.
The Final Episode
The Gecaj and Giggens Power Show ended its four year run at WSIN 1590am with episode 100 on December 16, 2009. The three hour special saw Gecaj and Giggens playing songs usually played during Season One of the show, as well as new classics like Steel Panther's "Death To All But Metal". As the show came to a close, Gecaj read off a list of names he wished to thank for help over the years, and Giggens gave a small speech. The final song ever played was "Only In Dreams" by Weezer. After the song finished, the duo came back on the air and said one more final goodbye.
Trivia
The Power Show's introduction song is "Higher and Higher" from the comedy film, "Wet Hot American Summer".
Giggens has every Power Show on CD-Rs except for the first show. There are over 200 CDs.
Power Show family member Joe Ballaro (ex Hot Rod Circuit, ex Death in the Park, and currently a member of The Queen Killing Kings) often calls in to give band news before anyone else knows about it regarding whatever band he's in at the time. The Power Show was the first to hear of Hot Rod Circuit's last show playlist, before they played it at Toad's Place in December 2007.
Some of the most played and requested songs on The Power Show include "Death To All But Metal" by Steel Panther, "You're The Best" by Joe Esposito, "She's Like The Wind" by Patrick Swayze, and "Bonafide Lovin'" by Chromeo.
Episode 91 saw the introduction of outro music on The Power Show with The Paul Butterfield Blues Band's "Screamin'".
On September 9, 2009, The Power Show interviewed their friends, and Wind-Up Records recording artists, The Queen Killing Kings. The band performed two songs live on-air.
On September 30, 2009, The Power Show interviewed singer/songwriter Allison Weiss via phone.
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Billy said, “In heaven.”
Tommy said, “In our bathroom.
Asked to explain, Tommy said, “Every morning my dad knocks on the bathroom door and says, ‘Jesus Christ, are you ever going to come out?'”
* * * * *
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep
One Sunday the pastor was talking about prayer during the children’s sermon. One precocious six-year-old boy piped up and said, “My mommy prays with me every night!”
“That’s wonderful,” said the pastor. “What does she say when she prays with you? Do you use a certain prayer?”
“Oh, no,” the boy replied, “She just says, ‘Thank you, God. He’s in bed!'”
* * * * *
You Can’t Beat a Dead Horse Joke
The country pastor approached the deacon one Sunday after worship. “Say, deacon,” he said. “A horse died out in front of the church during worship.”
“Well, it’s the job of the pastor to look after the dead,” replied the deacon. “Why tell me?”
“You’re right, it is my job,” said the pastor. “But we always notify the next of kin first.”
* * * * *
After the third time that the father told his son and daughter to be quiet in church, the daughter pouted and asked, “Why do we have to be quiet in church?”
Her brother quickly chimed in, “Because people are sleeping!”
* * * * *
Spare Parts
The keynote speaker was in such a hurry to get to the venue that when he arrived and sat down at the head table, he suddenly realized that had forgotten his dentures.
Turning to the man next to him, he whispered, “I forgot my teeth!”
The man said, “No problem.” With that he reached into his briefcase and pulled out a pair of dentures. “Try these,” he said. The speaker tried them. “Too loose,” he said.
The man dug around in his briefcase again. “Here, try these.”
The speaker tried them and responded. “Too tight.”
The man didn’t seem taken aback at all. He dug around in his briefcase again. “Here. I have this pair. Give them a try.”
The speaker smiled. “They fit perfectly.” He ate his meal and gave his speech without any further troubles.
After the event concluded, the speaker went over to thank his benefactor and return the spare parts.
“I want to thank you for coming to my rescue. Where is your office? I’ve been looking for a good dentist.”
“Oh, I’m not a dentist,” the man replied. “I’m the local funeral director.”
* * * * *
Overhead on Noah’s Ark
1. “Did anyone think about bringing a couple of umbrellas?”
2. “Hey, there are more than two flies in here!”
3. “Wasn’t someone supposed to bring some shovels?”
4. “Okay, who’s the wise guy who let the mosquitoes on board?”
5. “Don’t make me pull this ark over and come back there!”
6. “Steak for dinner? We didn’t bring any steak with us. Uh.Oh.”
7. “Are we there yet?”
* * * * *
Jesus Returns
The pastor was working in his office one day when the church secretary came scurrying through the door, out of breath.
“Pastor, Pastor, I have news!” she said, trying to regain her composure.
“Well, what’s the news?” asked the perplexed pastor.
“Jesus is coming. He’s back, and he’s coming here right now. What should we do?”
The pastor smiled, turned back to his computer and answered, “Look busy.”
* * * * *
Following the pastor’s fiery sermon on sin, one recent convert soughth him out for a clarification.
“I’m not sure if i’ve actually died to sin,” he said, “but it makes me sick to my stomach on a regular basis.”
* * * * *
Our church has a singles ministry called SALT (Single Adults Learning Together). During a recent service, our minister mentioned SALT in the announcements. “If any of you are single,” he told the congregation, “be sure to check out SALT. Those initials stand for …” The minister paused a moment before continuing. At last he seemed to remember their meaning. “They stand for Single Adults Living Together.”
–Carolyn Bolz, Riverside, CA. Today’s Christian Woman, “Heart to Heart.”
How to Keep a Child Still in Worship
The pastor recalls, “After a recent worship service the mother of a fidgety seven-year-old boy told me how she finally got her son to sit still and be quiet. About halfway through the sermon, she leaned over and whispered, ‘If you don’t be quiet, the preacher is going to lose his place and will have to start his sermon all over again!’ It worked!”
* * * * *
Things you’ll never hear in church:
– Hey! It’s MY turn to sit on the front pew!
– I was so enthralled, I never noticed your sermon went over time 25 minutes.
– Personally, I find witnessing much more enjoyable than golf.
– I’ve decided to give our church the $500.00 a month I used to send to TV evangelists.
– I volunteer to be the permanent teacher for the Junior High Sunday School class.
– Forget the denominational minimum salary: let’s pay our pastor so s/he can live like we do.
-I love it when we sing hymns I’ve never heard before!
-Since we’re all here, let’s start the worship service early!
-Pastor, this winter we’d like to send you to this Bible seminar in the Bahamas.
– Nothing inspires me and strengthens my commitment like our annual stewardship campaign!
* * * * *
A distraught man sought the advice of his wise pastor. “I was born blind,” he exclaimed, “But some people tell me that if I had more faith I could be healed.”
The pastor paused a moment before speaking.
“I see you carry a cane,” she said. “Whenvever people say that, hit them over the head with the cane. Then tell them if they had more faith it wouldn’t hurt!”
* * * * *
There was a very gracious lady who was mailing an old family Bible to her brother in another part of the country.
“Is there anything breakable in here?” asked the postal clerk.
“Only the Ten Commandments,” answered the lady.
The Pope and the Business Man
During an audience at the Vatican, a businessman approached the Pope with an offer: Change the last line of the Lord’s prayer from “give us this day our daily bread” to “give us this day our daily chicken.” and KFC will donate $10 million to Catholic charities. The Pope declined. Two weeks later he was back, this time with a $50 million offer. Again the Pope declined. A month later the man offers $100 million, and this time the Pope accepts.
At a meeting of the Cardinals, The Pope announces his decision in the good news/bad news format. The good news is… that we have $100 million for charities. The bad news is that we lost the Wonder Bread account!
* * * * *
After two hours of meeting, the chair of Committee on Church Growth was ready to call it a night.
“Unless anybody has another idea besides calling every service Easter or Christmas,” she said, “I’ll accept a motion to adjourn.”
* * * * *
Some ministers were talking about death and dying over coffee at the local cafe. “What would you want people to say about you at your funeral?” one of them asked.
“I’d want people to say, ‘He was a great and compassionate humanitarian who cared about those in need,” responded a recently retired minister.
“I’d like for people to say, ‘He was a good father and husband, a man whose life was a fine example for others to follow,” intoned another.
“Oh, I’d like for people to remember me for my fine sermons and church growth,” said the newest member of the group.
A grizzled old farmer leaned over from the next table and said, “That’s all well and good, fellas, but I’d rather hear ’em say ‘Look, he’s moving!'”
* * * * *
The Best Way to Pray
A priest, a minister and a guru sat discussing the best positions for prayer, while a telephone repairman worked nearby
“Kneeling is definitely the best way to pray,” the priest said.
“No,” said the minister. “I get the best results standing with my hands outstretched to Heaven.”
“You’re both wrong,” the guru said. “The most effective prayer position is lying down on the floor.”
The repairman could contain himself no longer. “Hey, fellas,” he interrupted. “The best prayin’ I ever did was when I was hangin’ upside down from a telephone pole.”
* * * * * * *
Can I Get a Testi-money?
It was testimony time at the church stewardship committee meeting.
“I’m very rich,” one man said. “I am very rich because God has blessed me. I am rich because when I was a young man, with only $1 in my pocket, I heard an address by a missionary. The Spirit told me to give everything I had to that missionary. So I gave that dollar.”
A fellow committee member tapped him on the shoulder. “I dare you to do it again,” she said.
* * * * *
A Cat-achism Baptism
The young son of a Baptist minister was in church one morning when he saw for the first time the rite of baptism by immersion. He was greatly interested in it, and the next morning proceeded to baptize his three cats in the bathtub.
The first kitten bore it very well, and so did the other young cat, but the old family cat rebelled. It struggled with him, clawed and tore him, and got away.
With considerable effort he caught it again and proceeded with the ceremony. But she acted worse than ever, clawed at him, spit, and scratched his hands and face.
Finally, after barely getting her splattered with water, he dropped her on the floor in disgust and said: “Fine, be an Atheist.”
* * * * *
Purely Academic
Philosophy is a game with objectives and no rules.
Mathematics is a game with rules and no objectives.
Theology is a game whose object is to bring rules into the subjective.
* * * * *
While shaking hands with the pastor after worship, Mrs. Jones noticed that he had a rather bad cut on his face.
“Why pastor, what happened? How did you cut your face?,” she asked.
“Well, I was thinking about my sermon this morning while I was shaving,” the pastor replied. “I guess I wasn’t concentrating and cut myself in the process.”
“That’s too bad,” Mrs. Jones replied. “Next time you should concentrate on your shaving and cut your sermon.”
* * * * *
And those bulletin blooper continue with more zingers from actual church publications. Enjoy!
The sermon this morning: ‘Jesus Walks on the Water.’ The sermon tonight: ‘Searching for Jesus.’
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Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
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Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say ‘Hell, to someone who doesn’t care much about you.
————————–
Don’t let worry kill you off – let the Church help.
————————–
Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.
————————–
The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.
————————–
The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind. They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.
————————–
This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church. Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.
————————–
The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the Congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.
————————–
Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.
————————–
Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.
May 2013 be marked with much holy hilarity!
* * * * *
The church installed hot air hand dryers in the bathrooms to cut down on paper towel waste and save money. They worked just fine, but the Rev. Jones ordered them removed after someone scrawled a note on the wall next to it: “For the pastor’s latest sermon, push here!”
* * * * *
A Little Help from Joseph
One day during our children’s sermon, I was telling the kids about how the angel came to Mary to tell her about how she would help bring Jesus into the world. One little girl seemed puzzled about this whole scene. Then another child asked what I thought the first thing Mary would have asked for after the angel left her. Instantly this little girl chimed in with “I’ll bet she asked for a little help from Joseph!
* * * * *
Seen on the door of a church nursery:
1 Corinthians 15:51
“Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.”
* * * * *
The Sidestitch Spouse
At Sunday School they were teaching how God created everything, including human beings. Little Johnny seemed especially intent when they told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam’s ribs. Later in the week his mother noticed him lying down as though he were ill, and said, “Johnny, what is the matter?” Little Johnny responded, “I have pain in my side. I think I’m going to have a wife.”
* * * * *
What Denomination?
A woman went into a post office to buy some stamps for her Christmas cards. What denomination do you want ? asked the lady at the counter. ‘Good God!’ she replied, Has it come to this? I suppose you’d better give me twenty Catholic and twenty Presbyterian.
* * * * *
SPELLCHECK CHURCH BULLETIN BLOOPERS
The spring retreat will be hell May 10th and 11th.
The senior choir invites any member of the congregation who enjoys sinning to join.
The outreach committee has enlisted twenty-five members to make calls on people who are not afflicted with any church.
The third verse will be sung without musical accomplishment.
The agenda was adopted. The minutes were approved. The financial secretary gave a grief report.
Pastor is on vacation. Massages can be given to the church secretary.
Ushers will eat latecomers.
Attend and you will hear and excellent speaker and heave a healthy lunch.
*****
PECANS IN THE CEMETERY
On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, old pecan tree just inside the cemetery fence. One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts.
“One for you, one for me, one for you, one for me,” said one boy. Several dropped and rolled down toward the fence.
Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle. As he passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetery. He slowed down to investigate. Sure enough, he heard, “One for you, one for me, one for you, one for me…”
He just knew what it was. He jumped back on his bike and rode off. Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane, hobbling along.
“Come here quick,” said the boy, “you won’t believe what I heard! Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetery dividing up the souls!”
The man said, “Beat it kid, can’t you see it’s hard for me to walk.” When the boy insisted though, the man hobbled slowly to the cemetery.
Standing by the fence they heard, “One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me.”
The old man whispered, “Boy, you’ve been tellin’ me the truth. Let’s see if we can see the Lord…?”
Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence, yet were still unable to see anything. The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron bars of the fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the Lord.
At last they heard, “One for you, one for me. That’s all. Now let’s go get those nuts by the fence and we’ll be done…”
They say the old man had the lead for a good half-mile before the kid on the bike passed him.
* * * * *
The pastor’s college-age daughter came running to her in tears. “Mom, you gave me some terrible financial advice!”
“I did? What did I tell you?” said her mother.
“You told me to put my money in that big bank, and now that big bank is in trouble.”
“That’s one of the largest and best banks in the state,” she said. “There must be some mistake.”
“I don’t think so,” she sniffed. “They just returned one of my checks with a note saying, ‘Insufficient Funds’.”
* * * * *
Eino, a Finn from Cook County in northern Minnesota, was an older, single gentleman who was born and raised a Lutheran. Each Friday night after work, he would fire up his outdoor grill and cook a venison steak.
Now, all of Eino’s neighbors were Catholic…..and since it was Lent, they were forbidden from eating meat on Fridays. The delicious aroma from the grilled venison steaks was causing such a problem for the Catholic faithful that they finally talked to their priest. The priest came to visit Eino, and suggested that Eino convert to Catholicism.
After several classes and much study, Eino attended Mass…..and as the priest sprinkled holy water over Eino, he said, “You were born a Lutheran and raised a Lutheran, but now you are Catholic.”
Eino’s neighbors were greatly relieved, until Friday night arrived, and the wonderful aroma of grilled venison filled the neighborhood.
The priest was called immediately by the neighbors and, as he rushed into Eino’s yard, clutching a rosary and prepared to scold Eino, he stopped in amazement and watched……
There stood Eino, clutching a small bottle of water which he carefully sprinkled over the grilling meat, and chanting: “You were born a deer, and raised a deer, but now you are a walleye.
* * * * *
Share and Share Alike
A couple whose marriage was on the rocks sought the advice of their pastor. The pastor encouraged them to patch up their quarrel and keep their vows, but the couple was adamant.
“Well,” said the pastor, “you know the consequences if you insist on a divorce. Remember this: you must divide your property equally.”
The wife flared up. “You mean the $4,000 I have saved up? I must give him half? My money?”
“Yes,” said the pastor. “He gets $2,000. You get $2,000.”
“What about my furniture? I paid for that.”
“Same thing,” answered the pastor. “You split it equally.”
There was a challenging gleam in the wife’s eye. “What about our three children?”
The pastor was stumped at first but then quickly came up with a Solomonic solution. “Go back and live together until your fourth child is born. Then you take two children and your husband takes two.”
The wife shook her head. “No, I’m sure that wouldn’t work out. If I depended on him, I wouldn’t have the three I’ve got.”
* * * * *
The Stud
Two priests die at the same time and meet Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter said, “I’d like to get you guys in now, but our computer is down. You’ll have to go back to Earth for about a week, but you can’t go back as priests. So what else would you like to be?”
The first priest says, “I’ve always wanted to be an eagle, soaring above the Rocky Mountains.”
“So be it,” says St. Peter, and off flies the first priest.
The second priest asks, “Will any of this week ‘count’, St. Peter?”
“No,” he says. “I told you the computer’s down. There’s no way we can keep track of what you’re doing.”
“In that case. I’ve always wanted to be a stud.”
“So be it,” says St. Peter, and the second priest disappears.
When the computer is running again, God asks St. Peter to recall the two priests. “Will you have any trouble locating them?”
“The first one should be easy,” says St. Peter. “He’s somewhere over the Rockies, flying with the eagles. But the second one could prove to be more difficult” He’s on a snow tire, somewhere in North Dakota.”
* * * * *
The New Baby
After the birth of his baby brother, a little boy was thoroughly annoyed at all of his crying and screaming.
“Where did we get him anyway?” he asked his mother.
“He came from heaven!” his mother replied.
“Well I can see why they threw him out!” the boy replied.
* * * * *
Fine Dining and Divine Frugality
God greets Mother Teresa at the Pearly Gates. “Thou be hungry, Mother Teresa?” saith God. “I could eat,” Mother Teresa replies. So God opens a can of tuna and reaches for a chunk of rye bread and they share it.
While eating this humble meal, Mother Teresa looks down into Hell and sees the inhabitants devouring huge steaks, lobsters, pheasants, pastries and fine wines. Curious, but deeply trusting, Mother Teresa remains quiet.
The next day God again invites Mother Teresa to join him for a meal. Again, it is tuna and rye bread. Once again looking down, Mother Teresa can see the denizens of Hell enjoying caviar, champagne, lamb, truffles and chocolates. Still Mother Teresa says nothing.
The following day, mealtime arrives and another can of tuna is opened. Mother Teresa can’t contain herself any longer. Meekly, she says: “God, I am grateful to be in heaven with you as a reward for the pious, obedient life I led. But here in heaven all I get to eat is tuna and a
piece of rye bread and in the Other Place they eat like emperors and kings! Forgive me, O God, but I just don’t understand…”
God sighs. “Let’s be honest, Mother Teresa,” he says. “For just two people, does it pay to cook?!”
* * * * *
Fred was very old, sick, and doctors said he would not l and dying. There was an elderly man at home in his bed, dying. He smelled the aroma of his favorite chocolate chip cookies baking in the kitchen downstairs, and he wanted one last cookie before he died. His life fading, he made his way down the stairs and crawled into the kitchen where his wife was busily baking cookies.
With his last remaining strength, he crawled to the table and was just barely able to lift his withered arm to the cookie sheet. As he grasped a warm, moist chocolate chip cookie, his favorite kind, his wife suddenly whacked his hand with a spatula.
Gasping for breath, he asked her, “Why did you do that?”
“Those are for the funeral.
* * * * *
Not Broken
After examining the miserly tips left by a church group, our waitress was not pleased. Looking toward my table, she grumbled, “These people come in with the Ten Commandments and a ten-dollar bill, and they don’t break any of them!”
+ + + + +
Everybody Pull!
An out-of-town pastor drove his car into a ditch in a desolated area. Luckily, a local farmer came to help with his big strong horse, named Buddy. He hitched Buddy up to the car and yelled, “Pull, Martha, pull!” Buddy didn’t move.
Then the farmer hollered, “Pull, Peter, pull!” Buddy didn’t respond.
Once more the farmer commanded, “Pull, Jezebel, pull!”
Nothing.
Then the farmer nonchalantly said, “Pull, Buddy, pull!” And the horse easily
dragged the car out of the ditch.
The pastor was most appreciative and very curious. He asked the farmer why he called his horse by the wrong name three times.
The farmer said, “Oh, Buddy is blind and if he thought he was the only one
pulling, he wouldn’t even try.”
Stewardship Application: Buddy’s sort of like a church member on stewardship Sunday. Christians need to know others have “skin in the game” too. Don’t holler “Whoa, mule!” before you even get started. Make it a team effort–even if you have to pull in the “invisible” reserve players.
* * * * *
Mary was surprised to receive $10 from her uncle for her birthday. The uncle asked how she was going to spend it.
Mary said, “I’m taking it to Sunday School to put in the offering. God’s gonna be just as surprised as I was at not getting a dollar like usual!”
* * * * *
The new minister in the local congregation learned that one of the wealthiest members on the roll was not a regular contributor or attender, so he made a phone call.
“From all appearances your business is doing quite well, yet you haven’t given a penny to your own church,” the pastor began. “Wouldn’t you like to help us in ministry this year?”
The lapsed member replied, “Did you know that my mother is ill, with extremely expensive medical bills?”
“Um, no,” mumbled the pastor.
“Or that my brother is blind and unemployed? Or that my sister’s husband died, leaving her broke with four kids?”
“I … I … I had no idea.”
“So,” said the member, “if I don’t give them any money, why would I give any to the church?”
* * * * *
An archeologist, a pastor, and an entomologist were discussing the ongoing search for Noah’s ark.
“I have faith that we will find it one day,” opined the pastor.
“I agree,” said the archeologist, “but you need my scientific skill and expertise.”
“You’re both wrong,” sniffed the entomologist. “I can guarantee that the ark will never be found.”
“How can you be so sure?” asked the other two.
“Well, if it’s true Noah included two of every critter, then the termites have taken care of the evidence,” replied the entomologist.
* * * * *
A preacher went into his church and he was praying to God. While he was praying, he asked God, “How long is 10 million years to you?” God replied, “1 second.” The next day the preacher asked God, “God, how much is 10 million dollars to you?” And God replied, “A penny.” Then finally the next day the preacher asked God, “God, can I have one of your pennies?” And God replied, “Just wait a sec.”
* * * * *
The Preacher and his Horse
A circuit-riding preacher trained his horse to go when he said, “Praise the Lord,” and to stop when he said, “Amen.” The preacher mounted the horse, said “Praise the Lord,” and went for a ride in the nearby mountains.
When he wanted to stop for lunch by a mountain stream, he said, “Amen.”
He took off again, saying “Praise the Lord.”
The horse started heading toward the edge of a cliff on a narrow mountain trail. The preacher got excited and said, “Whoa!” Then he remembered and said, “Amen,” and the horse stopped just short of the edge. The preacher was so relieved that he looked up to heaven and said, “Praise the Lord!”
* * * * *
The Chief Hog
A church secretary answered the phone and heard the caller say, “I want to talk to the chief hog of the trough.”
“Sir,” she replied, “that is no way to talk about the Reverend. He is the pastor of this church.”
“Sorry, Lady,” he said. “I just wanted to donate $100,000 to the church.”
Quickly she said, “Just a minute. Here comes the big fat pig now!”
* * * * *
Ole and Lena were sitting side by side on the pew listening to the pastor go on and on with his sermon. Lena looked over and noticed that Ole’s eyes were closed. She elbowed him in the ribs.
“Wake up, Ole! What are you doing going to sleep during the sermon?”
“I was not asleep; I was considering the great hereafter,” whispered Ole.
“He’s not talking about heaven,” said Lena.
“I know he’s not.” said Ole. “I was thinking about the coffee and donuts we’ll have here after.”
* * * * *
Kill the Sermon Not the Messenger!
The new pastor was earnestly practicing his sermon delivery in the empty sanctuary when he realized the elderly sexton was standing in the doorway listening.
“I’ll bet you’ve heard a lot of preaching over the years,” said the pastor, trying to make small talk. “What did you think of my sermon execution?”
“Better make sure it’s dead,” replied the sexton.
* * * * *
In honor of the recent finding of the Higgs Boson Particle:
Higgs Boson walks into a Catholic church. Priest says, “How dare you call yourself the God particle! Blasphemer! Get out!” Higgs Boson says: “Well, OK–but without me, you can’t have mass!”
* * * * *
Money isn’t everything.
It can buy a house, but not a home.
It can buy a bed, but not sleep.
It can buy a clock, but not time.
It can buy you a book, but not knowledge.
It can buy you a position, but not respect.
It can buy you medicine, but not health.
It can buy you blood, but not life.
It can buy you sex, but not love.
So you see, money isn’t everything…
I tell you all this because I am your friend, and as your friend I want to take away your pain and suffering… so send me all your money, and I will suffer for you.
CASH ONLY, PLEASE!
* * * * *
The cash-strapped church was doing all it can to save money. The altar guild proudly reported they had saved $5 by washing the linens by hand, rather than having them dry cleaned.
“Great,” the pastor said. “Wash them again!”
* * * * *
A little boy wanted $100 badly and prayed for two weeks but nothing happened. Then he decided to write a letter to the Lord requesting the $100. When the local postal authorities received the letter addressed to the Lord, USA, they decided to send it to the IRS. The agent who opened the letter was so impressed, touched, and amused that he sent the little boy a $5.00 bill, thinking this would appear to be a lot of money to a little boy. The little boy was delighted with the $5.00, and sat down to write a thank-you note to the Lord. It said: Dear Lord, Thank you very much for sending me the money. However, I noticed that for some reason you had to send it through the IRS and as usual, those jerks deducted $95.
*****
HYMN # 365
A minister was preaching a sermon about the evils of alcohol. With great emphasis he said, ‘If I had all the beer in the world, I’d take it and pour it into the river.
With even greater emphasis he said, ‘And if I had all the wine in the world, I’d take it and pour it into the river.’
And then finally, shaking his fist in the air, he said, ‘And if I had all the whiskey in the world, I’d take it and pour it into the river.’
Sermon complete, he sat down…
The choir director stood cautiously and announced with a smile, nearly laughing, ‘There will be a change for the hymn of the day. Please turn to #365, ‘Shall We Gather at the River.’
* * * * * *
On the way to Sunday school with his offering money, little Johnny stopped at the convenience store for candy. “Shouldn’t you give that money to church?” asked the shopkeeper. “No, I ll spend the money on chocolate, and then you can give it to church.”
* * * * *
Pesky squirrels had overrun the town’s four churches: Presbyterian, Baptist, Methodist and Lutheran.
After much prayer and consideration, the Presbyterians determined that the squirrels were predestined to be there and people shouldn’t interfere with God’s divine will.
In the Baptist Church the squirrels had nested in the baptistery, so the deacons put a lid on it and tried to drown the squirrels. But they escaped and kept on multiplying.
The Methodists decided they would not harm any of God’s creaturs, so they humanely trapped the critters and set them free across town. Three days later the squirrels were back.
The Lutherans came up with the best and most effective solution. They baptized the squirrels, made them members of the church and gave them a copy of the popular tract, “Tithing In A Nutshell.” The horrified squirrels immediately left for the Methodist Church.
* * * * *
A man being mugged by two thugs put up a tremendous fight! Finally, the thugs subdued him and took his wallet. Upon finding only two dollars in the wallet, the surprised thug said “Why did you put up such a fight?” To which the man promptly replied “I was afraid that you would find the $200 hidden in my shoe!”
* * * * *
Pastor to a congregation member: “Can you give me change for a dollar?”
Member: “Sure thing, pal.”
Pastor: “Pal? Pal?? Is that any way to talk to your pastor? Let’s try it again Can you give me change for a dollar?”
Member: “No, reverend.”
* * * * *
Question and answer
Q: Why didn’t Noah go fishing?
A: He had only two worms!
Q: When was the longest day in the Bible?
A: The day Adam was created because there was no Eve.
Q: Why did God create man before woman?
A: God didn’t want any advice.
Q: What do you call a sleepwalking nun?
A: A roamin’ Catholic!
Doctor: ‘Your recovery was a miracle!’
Patient: ‘PRAISE GOD. Now I don’t have to pay you!’
Q: Why did Moses wander in the desert for 40 years?
A: Even then men wouldn’t ask for directions!
*****
Planning His Future
After a church service on Sunday morning, a young boy suddenly announced to his mother, “Mom, I’ve decided to become a minister When I grow up.”
“That’s okay with us, but what made you decide that?”
“Well,” said the little boy, “I have to go to church on Sunday anyway, and I figure it will be more fun to stand up and yell, than to sit and listen.”
* * * * *
The Tate Family
How many members of the Tate family belong to your church?
There is old man Dic-Tate who wants to run everything, while Uncle Ro-Tate tries to change everything. There’s sister Agi-Tate who stirs up plenty of trouble, with help from her husband, Irri-Tate. Whenever new projects are suggested, Hesi-Tate and his wife, Vege-Tate, want to wait until next year. Then there is Aunt Imi-Tate, who wants our church to be like all the others. Devas-Tate provides the voice of doom, while Poten-Tate wants to be a big shot. But not all members of the family are bad. Brother Facili-Tate is quite helpful in church matters. And a delightful, happy member of the family is Miss Felici-Tate. Cousins Cogi-Tate and Medi-Tate always think things over and lend helpful, steady hands. And of course there is the black sheep of the family, Ampu-Tate, who has completely cut himself off from the church. How about it – do you know anyone in the “Tate” family?
* * * * *
Eager to hire the young pastor just out of seminary, the elder of the small country church asked what kind of salary the candidate expected.
“I’d like $70,000, housing, full medical benefits and a generous retirement plan,” said the pastor.
The elder replied, “How about a brand new BMW too?”
“Your kidding!” said the pastor.
“I am,” the elder said, “but you started it!
* * * * *
How Much is an Easter Sermon Worth?
One Easter Sunday Pastor Jones announced to the congregation, ‘My good people, I have here in my hands three sermons……
A $100 sermon that lasts five minutes
A $50 sermon that lasts fifteen minutes
And a $20 sermon that lasts a full hour.
Now, we’ll take the offering and see which one I’ll deliver.’
* * * * *
The new pastor was startled to learn that the wealthiest member of the congregation never gave a dime. So she stopped by to ask him why.
“The annual report of your corporation lists your salary at $750,000, and yet you never have given to the church,” she began. “May I ask why?”
“Well,” he began, “Did the corporate report mention that my mother is ill, with extremely expensive medical bills? Or that I have three children in expensive private schools? Or that my brother, who has a wife and three children, was disabled in an accident and can’t work?” He asked again. “Was any of that in the corporate report?”
“No,” said the pastor. “So sorry.”
“Well,” he concluded, “If I don’t give them any money, why would I give any to the church?”
* * * * *
The friendly usher at the country church greeted the elderly woman visitor at the door and helped her up the steps. “Where would you like to sit?” he asked politely.
“The front row, please,” she answered.
“You really don’t want to do that,” the usher said. “The pastor is really boring.”
“Do you happen to know who I am?” the woman inquired.
“No,” he said.
“I’m the pastor’s mother,” she replied indignantly.
“Do you know who I am?” he asked.
“No,” she said.
“Good,” he answered.
* * * * *
A seminary student was preaching his first sermon. He meant to say that “God called me to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out the devil.” However, what came off of his stammering tongue was, “God called me to heal the dead, cast out the sick, and raise the devil.”
* * * * *
By the time Bobby arrived, the football game had already started. “Why are you so late?” asked his friend.
“I couldn’t decide between going to church and going to the football game. So I tossed a coin,” said Bobby.
“But that shouldn’t have taken too long.” said the friend.
“Well, I had to toss it 35 times.”
* * * * *
Father George was opening his mail one morning. Taking a single sheet of paper from an envelope, he found written on it only one word: ‘Fool’.
The following Sunday, in church, Father George announced to the assembled congregation, ‘I have known many people who have written letters to me and forgotten to sign their names. But this week I received a letter from someone who signed his name and had forgotten to write a letter.’
* * * * *
The chairman of the finance committee grumpily declared that the meeting could not go forward because they were one person shy of a quorum. Eager to get on with the meeting’s business, the pastor insisted he be allowed to pray.
“Dear Jesus,” he began, “You have taught us that where two or three are gathered in your name, you are also. We gather in your name, Lord, so we know you are here to make a quorum.”
Red faced, the chairman convened the meeting.
* * * * *
A woman approached the minister after the sermon, and thanked him for his discourse. “I found it so helpful,” she said.
The minister replied: “I hope it will not prove as helpful as the last sermon you heard me preach.”
“Why, what do you mean?” asked the astonished woman.
“Well,” said the minister, “that sermon lasted you three months.”
* * * * *
After a very long and boring sermon the parishoners filed out of the church saying nothing to the preacher. Towards the end of the line was a thoughtful person who always commented on the sermons.”Pastor, today your sermon reminded me of the peace and love of God!”
“Wow!” gushed the pastor. “Tell me why.”
“Well – it reminded me of the Peace of God because it passed all understanding and the Love of God because it endured forever!”
Babysitter
A Sunday School teacher asked her class why Joseph and Mary took Jesus with them to Jerusalem. A small child replied, “They couldn’t get a babysitter.”
* * * * * * *
What are the Three Gifts?
While participating in a church Christmas pageant many years past, I had the good fortune to be chosen as the narrator. Each rehearsal went off well and then on the night of the show, I, in a loud and penetrating voice, announced the gifts of the Magi as “gold, Frankenstein, and myrrh.”
* * * * * * *
Confused
Did you hear about the dyslexic agnostic insomniac?
He would stay up all night wondering about the existence of doG.
The Inn is Full
A Jewish lady named Mrs. Rosenberg many years ago was stranded late one night at a fashionable resort – one that did not admit Jews. The desk clerk looked down at his book and said, “Sorry, no room. The hotel is full.”
The Jewish lady said, “But your sign says that you have vacancies.”
The desk clerk stammered and then said curtly, “You know that we do not admit Jews. Now if you will try the other side of town…”
Mrs. Rosenberg stiffened noticeable and said, “I’ll have you know I converted to your religion.”
The desk clerk said, “Oh, yeah, let me give you a little test. How was Jesus born?”
Mrs. Rosenberg replied, “He was born to a virgin named Mary in a little town called Bethlehem.”
“Very good,” replied the hotel clerk. “Tell me more.”
Mrs. Rosenberg replied, “He was born in a manger.”
“That’s right,” said the hotel clerk. “And why was he born in a manger?”
Mrs. Rosenberg said loudly, “Because a jerk like you in the hotel wouldn’t give a Jewish lady a room for the night!”
* * * * *
The Perfect Pastor
The Perfect Pastor preaches exactly 10 minutes, condemns sin roundly, but never hurts anyone’s feelings. The perfect pastor works from 8 a.m. until midnight, is always on call, and fills in as the church caretaker.
The Perfect Pastor makes $500 a week, wears good clothes, drives a good car, buys good books, and donates $100 a week to the church. He or she is 29 years old and has 40 years’ worth of experience.
The Perfect Pastor has a burning desire to work with teenagers, and he spends most of the time with the senior citizens. He or she smiles all the time with a straight face because of a sense of humor that maintains serious dedication to the church. The perfect pastor makes 15 home visits a day and is always in the office when needed.
The Perfect Pastor always has time for church meetings and all of its committees, never missing the meeting of any church organization. And he or she is always busy evangelizing the unchurched.
The Perfect Pastor is always in the next town over!
Perplexed Primate
The gorilla at the zoo looked confused as he read two books –the Bible and Darwin’s “Origin of the Species.” The tiger asked him what was wrong.
“I can’t figure out if I’m supposed to be my brother’s keeper or my keeper’s brother.”
* * * * *
Jesus and Cornelius
One night a robber broke into a home and heard a voice say, “Jesus is watching you!” while he rummaged through the desk.
He replied, “Who said that?!”
Once again he heard the same thing, “Jesus is watching you!”
The robber looked around the room only to see a parrot. He asked the parrot what its name was. The parrot replied, “Cornelius.”
The robber said, “What kind of a name is that?! Who names a parrot that?!”
The parrot said, “The same person who named that rottweiler behind you Jesus.”
* * * * *
Nuts by the Fence
On the outskirts of a small town, there was a big, old pecan tree just inside the cemetery fence. One day, two boys filled up a bucketful of nuts and sat down by the tree, out of sight, and began dividing the nuts.
“One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me,” said one boy. Several dropped and rolled down toward the fence.
Another boy came riding along the road on his bicycle. As he passed, he thought he heard voices from inside the cemetery. He slowed down to investigate. Sure enough, he heard, “One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me.”
He just knew what it was. He jumped back on his bike and rode off. Just around the bend he met an old man with a cane, hobbling along.
“Come here quick,” said the boy, “you won’t believe what I heard! Satan and the Lord are down at the cemetery dividing up the souls.”
The man said, “Beat it kid, can’t you see it’s hard for me to walk.” When the boy insisted though, the man hobbled slowly to the cemetery.
Standing by the fence they heard, “One for you, one for me. One for you, one for me…”
The old man whispered, “Boy, you’ve been tellin’ me the truth. Let’s see if we can see the Lord.”
Shaking with fear, they peered through the fence, yet were still unable to see anything. The old man and the boy gripped the wrought iron bars of the fence tighter and tighter as they tried to get a glimpse of the Lord.
At last they heard, “One for you, one for me. That’s all. Now let’s go get those nuts by the fence and we’ll be done.”
They say the old man made it back to town a full 5 minutes ahead of the kid on the bike.
* * * * *
The Christian barber had been thinking he should share his faith with his customers more, and one night in pryer he decided to witness to the first customer who walked in the next morning.
Soon after he opened his shop the first man came in and said, “I want a shave!”
The barber said, “Certainly. I’ll be with you in a moment.” He went in the back of his shop and prayed: “Lord, I’m going to witness to this man, so help me to know just the right thing to say. Amen.”
Then quickly the barber came out with his razor knife in one hand and a Bible in the other while saying “Good morning sir. I have a question for you … Are you ready to die?”
* * * * *
Frustrated by his congregation’s apathy, the pastor surprised the Altar Guild volunteer when he ordered that prune juice be used instead of wine for communion. “Why prune juice?” she asked.
The pastor smiled. “If my sermons won’t move them, the prune juice will!”
* * * * *
The Veterinarian
One Sunday, in counting the money in the weekly offering, the pastor of a small church found a pink envelope containing $1,000. It happened again the next week!
The following Sunday, he watched as the offering was collected and saw an elderly woman put the distinctive pink envelope on the plate. This went on for weeks until the pastor, overcome by curiosity, approached her.
“Ma’am, I couldn’t help but notice that you put $1,000 a week in the collection plate,” he stated.
“Why, yes,” she replied, “every week my son sends me money, and I give some of it to the church.”
The pastor replied, “That’s wonderful. But $1,000 is a lot; are you sure you can afford this? How much does he send you?”
The elderly woman answered, “$10,000 a week.”
The pastor was amazed. “Your son is very successful; what does he do for a living?”
“He is a veterinarian,” she answered.
“That’s an honorable profession……I had no idea they made that much money,” the pastor said….”Where does he practice?”
The woman answered proudly, “In Nevada…He has two cat houses, one in Las Vegas, and one in Reno!!!”
* * * * *
The village pastor was known for his weakness for trout. He loved trout and he loved to fish. “But not on Sunday!” he preached in the sermon.
The next day one of his members presented him with a fine string of fish. “I guess I ought to tell you, parson, that those trout were caught on Sunday.”
The minister hesitated, gazed appreciatively at the speckled trout. And he accepted the gift.
“The fish aren’t to blame for that,” he said piously.
* * * * *
A pig and a chicken were walking through a poor section of the city.
The chicken said to the pig, “Look at all those hungry people. Let’s give them ham and eggs for breakfast.”
The pig said, “Wait a minute. For you, it’s a donation. For me, it’s a sacrifice.”
* * * * *
A few more definitions for words near and dear to the hearts of Christians everywhere:
Bulletin: 1)Something to read during the sermon; 2)a fan used in churches without air conditioning; 3)your receipt for attending church.
Choir: A group of people who sing loudly enough to enable the rest of us to lip-sync all hymns.
Recessional hymn: The final hymn of a Church service; this hymn is usually the quietest of all hymns because so many parishioners have already left before it is sung.
* * * * *
A cat and a mouse died on the same day and went up to Heaven. At the top they met God and he asked them ‘How do you like it so far?’
The mouse replied ‘It’s great, but can I get a pair of roller skates?’ God said ‘Sure’, and he gave him a pair of roller skates.
The next day God saw the cat and asked him ‘How do you like it up here so far?’ and the cat replied ‘Great, I didn’t know you had meals on wheels up here!’
* * * * *
Three boys are in the schoolyard bragging about their fathers. The first boy says, “My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a poem, they give him $50.”
The second boy says, “That’s nothing. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a song, they give him $100.”
The third boy says, “I got you both beat. My Dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a sermon. And it takes eight people to collect all the money!”
* * * * *
Johnny was on the way to church when he stopped by the corner store. He was going to use his Sunday school money to buy candy when the proprietor, who knew the family well, put up his hand.
“Son, you should give that money to the church.”
Johnny replied, “I have an better idea, I’ll buy the candy, and then YOU can give it to the church.!”
* * * * *
An old man was on his death bed, and wanted to be buried with his money. He called his priest, his doctor and his lawyer to his bedside. “Here’s $30,000 cash to be held by each of you. I trust you to put this in my coffin when I die so I can take all my money with me.”
At the funeral, each man put an envelope in the coffin. Riding away in a limousine, the priest suddenly broke into tears and confessed, “I only put $20,000 into the envelope because I needed $10,000 to repair the roof of the church.”
“Well, since we’re confiding in each other,” said the doctor, “I only put $10,000 in the envelope because we needed a new X-ray machine for the pediatrics ward at the hospital which cost $20,000.”
The lawyer was aghast. “I’m ashamed of both of you,” he exclaimed. “I want it known that when I put my envelope in that coffin, I enclosed a check for the full $30,000.”
* * * * *
Three men died in a car accident and met Jesus himself at the Pearly Gates. The Lord spoke unto them saying, “I will ask you each a simple question. If you tell the truth I will allow you into heaven, but if you lie….Hell is waiting for you.
To the first man the Lord asked, “How many times did you cheat on your wife?” The first man replied, “Lord, I was a good husband. I never cheated on my wife.” The Lord replied, “Very good! Not only will I allow you in, but for being faithful to your wife I will give you a huge mansion and a limo for your transportation.
To the second man the Lord asked, “How many times did you cheat on your wife?” The second man replied, “Lord, I cheated on my wife twice.” The Lord replied, “I will allow you to come in, but for your unfaithfulness, you will get a four- bedroom house and a BMW. To the third man the Lord asked, “So, how many times did you cheat on your wife?”
The third man replied, “Lord, I cheated on my wife about 8 times.” The Lord replied, “I will allow you to come in, but for your unfaithfulness, you will get a one-room apartment, and a Yugo for your transportation.
A couple hours later the second and third men saw the first man crying his eyes out. “Why are you crying?” the two men asked. “You got the mansion and limo!” The first man replied, “I’m crying because I saw my wife a little while ago, and she was riding a skateboard!”
* * * * *
An elderly woman had recently died. Having never married, she requested no male pallbearers. In her handwritten instructions for her memorial service, she wrote …
“They wouldn’t take me out while I was alive; I don’t want them to take me out when I’m dead.”
*****
After church, Johnny tells his parents he has to go and talk to the minister right away. They agree and the pastor greets the family.
“Pastor,” Johnny says, “I heard you say today that our bodies came from the dust.”
“That’s right, Johnny, I did.”
“And I heard you say that when we die, our bodies go back to dust.”
“Yes, I’m glad you were listening. Why do you ask?”
“Well you better come over to our house right away and look under my bed ’cause there’s someone either comin’ or goin’!”
* * * * *
Mr. Johnson, a businessman from Wisconsin, went on a business trip to Louisiana. He immediately sent an e-mail back to his wife, Jean. Unfortunately, he mistyped a letter and the e-mail ended up going to a Mrs. Joan Johnson, the wife of a preacher who just passed away.
The preacher’s wife took one look at the e-mail and promptly fainted. When she was finally revived, she nervously pointed to the message, which read: “Arrived safely, but it sure is hot down here!”
* * * * *
For the benefit of the unchurched, here is a glossary of “churchy” words:
Bulletin– 1 )Something to read during the sermon; 2)a fan used in churches without air conditioning; 3)your receipt for attending church.
Choir– A group of people who sing loudly enough to enable the rest of us to lip-sync all hymns.
Recessional hymn– The final hymn of a service; this hymn is usually the quietest of all hymns because so many parishioners have already left before it is sung.
* * * * *
After a very long and boring sermon the parishioners filed out of the church saying nothing to the preacher. Towards the end of the line was a thoughtful person who always commented on the sermons.
“Pastor, today your sermon reminded me of the peace and love of God!”
The pastor was thrilled. “No one has ever said anything like that about my preaching before. Tell me why.”
Well, it reminded me of the Peace of God because it passed all understanding and the Love of God because it endured forever!”
* * * * *
The most expensive vehicle to operate, per mile, is the shopping cart!
* * * * *
This minister just had all of his remaining teeth pulled and new dentures were being made.The first Sunday, he preached only 10 minutes.
The second Sunday, he preached only 20 minutes.
But, on the third Sunday, he preached 1 hour 25 minutes.
When asked about this by some of the congregation, he responded this way.
The first Sunday, my gums were so sore it hurt to talk.
The second Sunday, my dentures were hurting a lot.
The third Sunday, I accidentally grabbed my wife’s dentures… and I couldn’t stop talking!
* * * * *
The little boy was helping his mom around the house, and he left the broom on the back porch.
His mother was cleaning up the kitchen when she realized that her broom was missing.She asked the little boy about the broom and he told her where it was.
She then asked him to please go get it. The little boy informed his mom that he was afraid of the dark and didn’t want to go out to get the broom.
His mother smiled and said “The Lord is out there too, don’t be afraid.”
The little boy opened the back door a little and said “Lord if you’re out there, please hand me the broom.”
* * * * *
A policeman pulls over a car full of nuns. “Sister, this is a 55 MPH highway,” he says, “Why are you going so slow?”
The Sister replies, “Sir, I saw a lot of signs that said 40, not 55.
“Oh, Sister, ” the officer says, “that’s not the speed limit, that’s the highway you are on!”
The Sister says, “Oh! Silly me! Thanks for letting me know. I’ll be more careful.”
At this point, the officer sees the other nuns in the car shaking and trembling. “Excuse me, Sister, what’s wrong with your friends back there?”
The Sister answers, “Oh, we just got off Highway 101.”
** * * *
“Sunday school was boring,” groused the fourth grader.
His mother asked, “Did you study Jesus?
“”No,” the boy sulked. “He wasn’t even there!”
* * * *
A man wanted to be buried with his money. On his death bed, he called his pastor, his doctor and his lawyer to his bedside. “Here’s $30,000to be held by each of you. I trust you to put this in my coffin when I die so I can take all my money with me.”
At the funeral, each man put an envelope in the coffin. Riding away in a limousine, the pastor suddenly broke into tears and confessed, “I put only $20,000 into the envelope because I needed $10,000 to repair the roof of the church.”
“Well, since we’re confiding in each other,” said the doctor, “I put only $10,000 in the envelope because we needed a new CAT Scan machine for the pediatrics ward at the hospital, and we were $20,000 short.”
The lawyer was aghast. “I’m ashamed of both of you,” he exclaimed. “I want it known that when I put my envelope in that coffin, I enclosed a check for the full $30,000.”
* * * * *
A businessman was in big trouble. He had put everything into his business, and now it was failing. It was so bad he was even contemplating suicide. As a last resort he went to a priest and poured out his story of tears and woe.
When he had finished, the priest said, “Here’s what I want you to do: Put a beach chair and your Bible in your car and drive down to the beach. Take the beach chair and the Bible to the water’s edge, sit down in the beach chair, and put the Bible in your lap. Open the Bible; the wind will rifle the pages, but finally the open Bible will come to rest on a page. Look down at the page and read the first thing you see. That will be your answer, that will tell you what to do.”
A year later the businessman went back to the priest and brought his wife and children with him. The man was in a new custom-tailored suit, his wife in a mink coat, the children shining. The businessman pulled an envelope stuffed with money out of his pocket, gave it to the priest as a donation in thanks for his advice.
The priest recognized the benefactor, and was curious. “You did as I suggested?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” replied the businessman.
“You went to the beach?”
“Absolutely.”
“You sat in a beach chair with the Bible in your lap?”
“Absolutely.”
“You let the pages rifle until they stopped?”
“Absolutely.”
“And what were the first words you saw?”
“Chapter 11.”
* * * * *
The choir director became peeved when a buzzing insect distracted the singers during practice. When it landed, she promptly squashed it.
“What is it?” a singer asked.
The director grinned: “A bee-flat!”
* * * * *
At Sunday School they were teaching how God created everything, including human beings. Little Johnny seemed especially intent when they told him how Eve was created out of one of Adam’s ribs. Later in the week his mother noticed him lying down as though he were ill, and said, “Johnny, what is the matter?”
Little Johnny responded, “I have pain in my side. I think I’m going to have a wife.”
*****
Greeting people at the door after Easter services, Pastor Jane was delighted to shake hands with “Seldom-Seen” Steve, and even more delighted when he complimented her on her sermon and said service was “amazing.” Faced with such evidence of faithfulness, she asked why he didn’t come to church more often.
“I’m just following the Lord’s example,” he said. “If Christ can rise up early only one Sunday a year, that’s good enough for me, too!”
*****
This year’s church carnival included a dunking tank, where softball throwers with good aim could make a big splash with the pastor. The tank proved a popular attraction, but things really took off when the pastor put a sign above himself that read, “Goliath.”
*****
In a moment creative inspiration, the entrepreneur who owned the Laundromat beside the church commissioned this sign for his window: “Where cleanliness really is next to Godliness!”
*****
Two pastors were riding very fast on a motorcycle. They were promptly stopped by a policeman who said, “What do you think you are doing? What if you have an accident?”
The pastor driving said, “Don’t worry, Jesus is with us.”
“In that case,” the policeman said, “I have to book you. Three people are not allowed to ride on a motorcycle.”
*****
A Pastor in Florida lamented that it was very difficult to get his message across to his congregation. “It’s so beautiful here in the winter,” he said, “that heaven doesn’t interest them. And it’s so hot here in the summer that hell doesn’t scare them.”
*****
Jesus made a quick return to earth for a visit. He came upon a lame man, had compassion on him, and healed his leg. Further down the road, Our Lord came upon a blind man, had compassion on him, and healed him. A little further down the road, Jesus came upon a man sitting on the curb sobbing his heart out. Jesus asked him what was wrong. The man cried out in agony, “I’m a pastor!”
Jesus sat down beside him, put his arm around him… and cried too.
*****
Bulletin Bloopers
“As we move into the new worship center we want to ask everyone to avoid carrying food or drink (coffee, soft drinks, candy, pot, etc.) into the sanctuary.”
“The outreach committee has enlisted 25 volunteers to make calls on people who are not afflicted with any church.”
“Parents are asked to remind their children to be on their pest behavior.”
“Announcement requesting baking donations for the annual bazaar: ‘And I don’t want abstract promises. I want concrete pies!'” “Announcing a covenanting service for the new minister, the bulletin had it as a ‘coveting’ service.”
“As soon as the weather clears up, the men will have a goof outing.”
From Ralph Milton’s RUMORS, a free Internet ‘e-zine’ for Christians with a sense of humor.” Subscribe by sending a blank email to rumors-subscribe@joinhands.com.
*****
“The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning and a good ending; and to have the two as close together as possible.”
–George Burns
*****
An Irishman goes into the confessional box after years of being away from the Church. There’s a fully equipped bar with Guinness on tap. On the other wall is a dazzling array of the finest cigars and chocolates.
Then the priest comes in. “Father, forgive me, for it’s been a very long time since I’ve been to confession,” says our man. “But I must first admit that the confessional box is much more inviting than it used to be.”
“Get out,” says the priest. “You’re on my side.”
–Shamelessly stolen from Rumors, the weekly ezine of Ralph Milton.
*****
An unmarried guy decides life would be more fun if he had a pet. So he goes to the pet store looking for something a bit unusual. He finally settles on a talking centipede, the kind that really does have a hundred legs.
The next day being Sunday, he decides to take the centipede to church. He goes up to the little centipede box and says, “Would you like to go to church with me today?”
There’s no answer. A few minutes later he tries again. “How about going to church with me?” After a few more minutes, he says, more urgently, “Are you coming?”
A tiny, bug-like voice comes out of the box. “I heard you the first time! I’m putting on my shoes.”
*****
To prepare for his talk about global missions, the speaker had brought an inflatable globe the size of a beach ball. Misfortune struck when minutes before the talk his globe sprang a leak and deflated.
Nonplused, the speaker used the limp prop to make a point: “Funny how, when you get rid of a lot of the hot air, the world isn’t very small after all.”
*****
An elderly couple were killed in an accident and found themselves being given a tour of heaven by Saint Peter.
Here is your oceanside condo, over there are the tennis courts, swimming pool, and two golf courses. If you need any refreshments, just stop by any of the many bars located throughout the area,” said Peter.
“Heck, Gloria,” the old man hissed when Saint Peter walked off, “we could have been here ten years ago if you hadn’t insisted on exercising three times a week and eating that stupid oat bran, wheat germ, and low-fat food!”
*****
As Bill was approaching mid-life, not only was he going bald, but he also had a large pot belly. The last straw came when he asked a woman co-worker out on a date, and she all but laughed at him. Determined to change his life, he joined a gym, started eating right, and got an expensive hair transplant and new clothes. Six months later he asked his female co-worker out, and this time she accepted.
All dressed up for the date, looking better than he ever had. He stood poised to ring the woman’s doorbell, when a bolt of lightning struck him and knocked him off his feet. As he lay there dying, he turned his eyes toward the heavens and said, “Why, God, why now? After all I’ve been through, how could you do this to me?”
From up above, there came a voice, “Bill? Is that you? I didn’t recognize you.”
*****
The drunk boasts to the stranger he’s just met, “I’m Jesus Christ, and I can prove it!” He leads his new friend to a bar. When they enter, the bartender looks up and yells “Jesus Christ, are you here again?”
*****
A guy goes to a zoo and sees a gorilla with two books. The gorilla looks confused. One of the books is the Bible, the other Darwin. The guy asks the gorilla why he looks confused. The gorilla says “I can’t figure out if I’m my brother’s keeper or my keeper’s brother!”
*****
It was just before Christmas and the magistrate was in a happy mood. He asked the prisoner who was in the dock, ‘What are you charged with?’
The prisoner replied, ‘Doing my Christmas shopping too early.’
‘That’s no crime’, said the magistrate. ‘Just how early were you doing this shopping?’
‘Before the shop opened’, answered the prisoner.
*****
Pastor’s Announcement Before Offering:
“I would like to remind you that what you are about to give is deductible, cannot be taken with you and is considered in the Bible that the love of this is the root of all evil.”
*****
A Sunday School teacher decided to have her 2nd grade class memorize Psalm 23, one of the most quoted passages in the Bible. She gave the children a month to learn the chapter.
One little boy was excited about the task, but he just couldn’t memorize the Psalm. Although he practiced and practiced, he could hardly get past the first line. The day came for the children to recite Psalm 23 before the congregation. The little boy was nervous. When his turn came, he stepped up to the microphone and proudly said, “The Lord is my Shepherd and that’s all I need to know!”
*****
Forget EPA estimates! Per mile, the most expensive vehicle to operate is the shopping cart!
*****
The visiting preacher was really getting the congregation moving. Near the end of his sermon he said, “This church has really got to walk,” to which someone in the back yelled, “Let her walk, preacher!”
The preacher then said, “If this church is going to go, it’s got to get up and run!” Somone again yelled with gusto, “Let her run preacher.”
Feeling the surge of the church, the preacher then said with even louder gusto, “If this church is going to go it’s got to really fly!” Once again with ever greater gusto, someone yelled, “Let her fly, preacher, let her fly!”
The preacher then seized the moment and stated with even greater gusto, “If this church is really going to fly, it’s going to need money!” Someone in the back yelled, with gusto, “Let her walk, preacher, let her walk!”
*****
Our church was saddened to learn this week of the death of one of our most valued members, Someone Else. Someone’s passing creates a vacancy that will be difficult to fill. Else has been with us for many years and for every one of those years, Someone did far more than a normal person’s share of the work.
Whenever there was a job to do, a class to teach, or a meeting to attend, one name was on everyone’s list, “Let Someone Else do it.” Whenever leadership was mentioned, this wonderful person was looked to for inspiration as well as results; “Someone Else can work with that group.”
It was common knowledge that Someone Else was among the most generous givers in our church. Whenever there was a financial need, everyone just assumed Someone Else would make up the difference.
Someone Else was a wonderful person; sometimes appearing superhuman. Were the truth known, everybody expected too much of Someone Else. Now Someone Else is gone! We wonder what we are going to do. Someone Else left a wonderful example to follow, but who is going to follow it? Who is going to do the things Someone Else did?
When you are asked to help this year, remember — we can’t depend on Someone Else anymore.
*****
As my five-year-old son and I were heading to McDonald’s one day, we passed a car accident. Usually when we see something terrible like that, we say a prayer for whoever might be hurt, so I pointed and said to my son, “We should pray.”
From the back seat I heard his earnest voice: “Dear God, please don’t let those cars block the entrance to McDonald’s.”
-Sherri Leard, in Readers Digest
*****
For those who tire of excuses why people don’t go to church, these are the reasons why I never wash. 1. I was forced to wash as a child. 2. People who wash are hypocrites – they think they’re cleaner than others. 3. There are so many kinds of soap I could never decide which was right. 4. I used to wash, but it got boring. 5. I only wash on Christmas and Easter. 6. None of my friends wash. 7. I’ll start washing when I’m older. 8. I really don’t have the time. 9. The bathroom isn’t warm enough. 10. People who make soap are only after your money.
*****
A Lutheran pastor and his wife were driving in Chicago, and they were pulled over for speeding. As officer O’Malley approached the pastor, he saw the pastor’s Roman style collar and mistook him for a Catholic priest. “Oh, sorry about that, father,” he said. “Just try and slow it down a little, OK?”
As they drove away, the pastor’s wife said, “Shame on you! You know who he thought you were!”
“Oh, I know who he thought I was,” replied the pastor. “I’m just wondering who he thought you were.”
*****
Two priests die at the same time and meet Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates. St. Peter said, “I’d like to get you guys in now, but our computer is down. You’ll have to go back to Earth for about a week, but you can’t go back as priests. So what else would you like to be?”
The first priest says, “I’ve always wanted to be an eagle, soaring above the Rocky Mountains.”
“So be it,” says St. Peter, and off flies the first priest.
The second priest asks, “Will any of this week ‘count’, St. Peter?”
“No,” he says. “I told you the computer’s down. There’s no way we can keep track of what you’re doing.”
“In that case. I’ve always wanted to be a stud.”
“So be it,” says St. Peter, and the second priest disappears.
When the computer is running again, God asks St. Peter to recall the two priests. “Will you have any trouble locating them?”
“The first one should be easy,” says St. Peter. “He’s somewhere over the Rockies, flying with the eagles. But the second one could prove to be more difficult” He’s on a snow tire, somewhere in North Dakota.”
*****
A man died and went to heaven. He was met at the Pearly Gates by St. Peter who led him down the golden streets. They passed stately homes and beautiful mansions until they came to the end of the street where they stopped in front of a rundown cabin. The man asked St. Peter why he got a hut when there were so many mansions he could live in. St. Peter replied, “I did the best with the money you sent us.”
*****
Three little boys discovered they were about the only ones in their playgroup who weren’t baptized, so they decided to do something about it.
They went to the nearest church, but only the janitor was there. “I’ll baptize you,” he said, and one at a time he dunked their little heads in a toilet bowl.
When they got outside, one of the boys asked, “What religion do you think we are?’
The oldest one said, “We’re not Katlick, because they pour the water on you. And we’re not Babtis, because they dunk all of you in the water.”
The middle boy said, “We’re not Methdiss, because they just sprinkle water on you.”
The littlest one said, “Didn’t you smell that water?! I think we’re Pisscopailians.”
*****
A retired preacher was driving to town to buy a lawn mower when he saw one at a yard sale. When he stopped, he found the mower was purring nicely at idle and the seller assured him it ran great. Satisfied, the preacher brought the mower home. But the next day he pulled the starter rope again and again, but it would not start, no matter what he tried.
Finally he called the seller and accused him of deception. “I said the mower runs great, NOT that it starts great,” the man reminded him. “But there is a secret. You have to cuss at the mower — really let it know who’s boss.”
The preacher was aghast. “I haven’t cussed in years,” he said. “I don’t think I remember how.” The seller chuckled a bit and said, “Well, if you keep pulling on that starter rope, eventually it’ll all come back to you.”
*****
Fun Quotes
“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” Benjamin Franklin
“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.” Albert Einstein
“How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.” Abraham Lincoln
*****
“Why don’t you go to church?” the Lutheran pastor asked the man with whom he had struck up a conversation in the grocery line. “All I have are my work clothes,” he said, looking down at his dusty jeans, muddy boots and sweat-stained tee shirt. “I can’t come to a Lutheran Church like this.” The pastor then collected some nice clothes from the congregation and gave the man quite an upgrade in his wardrobe. Several weeks later the pastor bumped into him again. This time the man wore a pair of kakhi slacks, penny loafers and a buttondown shirt. “Why didn’t I see you at church?” the pastor asked. “Well,” the man began, “Last Sunday I showered, shaved and put on the clothes you gave me. I looked so dang good I decided to go to the Episcopal Church instead.”
*****
A religious man is on top of a roof during a great flood. A man comes by in a boat and says “get in, get in!” The religious man replies, “No I have faith in God, he will grant me a miracle.”
Later the water is up to his waist and another boat comes by and the guy tells him to get in again. He responds that he has faith in god and god will give him a miracle. With the water at about chest high, another boat comes to rescue him, but he turns down the offer again: “God will grant me a miracle.”
With the water at chin high, a helicopter throws down a ladder and they tell him to get in, mumbling with the water in his mouth, he again turns down the request for help for the faith of God. He arrives at the gates of heaven with broken faith and says to Peter, I thought God would grant me a miracle and I have been let down.” St. Peter chuckles and responds, “I don’t know what you’re complaining about, we sent you three boats and a helicopter.”
*****
A Sunday school teacher challenged her children to take some time on Sunday afternoon to write a letter to God. They were to bring their letter back the following Sunday. One little boy wrote, “Dear God, We had a good time at church today. Wish you could have been there.”
*****
Biblical Questions and Answers:
Q. Who was the greatest financieer in the Bible?
A. Noah. He was floating his stock while everyone else was in liquidation.
Q. Who was the greatest female financier in the Bible?
A. Pharaoh’s daughter. She went down to the bank of the Nile and drew out a little prophet.
*****
A lawyer, a doctor and a pastor went hunting. When they saw a buck, all three of them shot at the deer simultaneously. But only one shot struck the buck, and an argument broke out on which of them had actually made the kill.
A game officer came on the scene and, after examining the buck, settled the matter. “The pastor shot the buck,” he said with confidence. “I can tell because the bullet went in one ear and out the other.”
*****
After the service, a parishioner thanked the minister for the wonderful sermon. “I found it so helpful,” she said. The minister replied: “I hope it will not prove as helpful as the last sermon you heard me preach.” “Why, what do you mean?” asked the astonished woman. “Well,” said the minister, “that sermon lasted you three months.”
*****
There is the story of a preacher who got up one Sunday and announced to his congregation: “I have good news and bad news. The good news is, we have enough money to pay for our new building program. The bad news is, it’s still out there in your pockets.”
*****
Four Catholic ladies are having coffee together. The first one tells her friends, “My son is a priest. When he walks into a room, everyone calls him ‘Father’.”
The second Catholic woman chirps, “My son is a Bishop. Whenever he walks into a room, people say, ‘Your Grace’.”
The third Catholic woman says smugly, “My son is a Cardinal. Whenever he walks into a room, people say, ‘Your Eminence’.”
The fourth Catholic woman sips her coffee in silence. The first three women give her this subtle “Well…..?”
She replies, “My son is a gorgeous, 6’2″, hard bodied stripper. When he walks into a room, people say, ‘Oh my God…’.”
*****
What do you call a sleepwalking nun?
A roamin’ Catholic!
*****
When a toddler asked the pastor why he wore a clerical collar, the minister explained it was part of the “uniform” for a pastor in their denomination. He then removed it from his shirt for the lad to examine.
“Do you know what it says on the collar?” asked the pastor.
The boy, who didn’t know how to read, looked at the letters and guessed, “Kills fleas and ticks up to six months.”
*****
How many sopranos in the choir does it take to change a lightbulb?
1. One. She holds the bulb and the world revolves around her.
2. Two. One to hold the diet cola and the other to get her accompanist to do it.
3. Four. One to change the bulb and three to pull the chair out from under her.
*****
A monastery in the English countryside had fallen on hard times, and decided to establish a business to defray their expenses. Other monasteries, they knew, had opened bakeries or wineries. Being English, however, they decided to open a fish-and-chips restaurant. The establishment soon became very popular, attracting people from all over.
One city fellow, thinking himself clever, asked one of the brothers standing nearby, “I suppose you’re the ‘fish friar’?”
“No,” answered the brother levelly, “I’m the ‘chip monk’.”
*****
Joe was opening a new business, and one of his friends decided to send flowers for the occasion. The flowers arrived and Joe read the card. It said, “Rest in Peace.” Joe, enraged, called the florist to complain. The florist replied, “Sir, I’m really sorry for the mistake, but rather than getting angry, you should imagine this: somewhere there is a funeral taking place today, and they have flowers with a note saying, “Congratulations on your new location.”
*****
A minister was walking to church one morning when he passed one of his members working in his garden. “Can’t you hear those bells calling you to church?” asked the minister.
“Eh, what’s that?” said the member.
“Can’t you hear those bells calling you to church?”
“I’m afraid you’ll have to speak a little louder!” said the member.
“CAN’T YOU HEAR THOSE BELLS CALLING YOU TO CHURCH?!” shouted the minister.
“I’m sorry,” said the member, “I can’t hear you because of those darned BELLS!”
*****
When the Lutheran pastor’s three Baptist colleagues accepted her invitation to participate in a special worship service one Sunday, she placed an additional three seats for them in the sanctuary.
The assisting minister asked what they were for.
“Three chairs for the Baptists,” the pastor said.
“What?” asked the assisting minister, who was hard of hearing.
The pastor said louder, “Three chairs for the Baptists.”
“What?” he asked again.
Practically shouting, the pastor said, “Three chairs for the Baptists!”
The assisting minister dutifully turned to the congregation and said, “Hip hip, hurray! Hip hip, hurray! Hip hip, hurray!”
*****
After finishing the last book of the Left Behind series, the believer’s phone rang, and it was Jesus!
Jesus: “I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that I am back.”
Believer: “And the bad news?”
Jesus: “I’m calling from Salt Lake City.”
*****
The full-of-herself religious woman was deeply shocked when the new neighbors called on Sunday morning and asked to borrow her lawn mower.
“The very idea of cutting grass on Sunday,” she ranted to her husband. “Shameful! Certainly, they can’t have it. Tell them our lawn mower is broken.”
*****
A boy asks his father to use the car and the father replies “No, not until you cut your hair!”.
The boy replies “But father…Jesus had long hair!”
To which his father says, “Yeah, but Jesus walked everywhere.”
*****
Denominational falling:
When the Methodist minister falls down the stairs, he picks himself up and
says, “That was an experience, how do I learn from it?”
When the Catholic priest falls down the stairs, he picks himself up and
says, “I must have done something really bad to deserve that.”
When the Presbyterian minister falls down the stairs, he picks himself up
and says, “That was inevitable, I’m glad it’s over.”
When a Lutheran minister falls down the stairs, he picks himself up and
says, “Who pushed me?”
*****
The Sunday School teacher was describing that when Lot’s wife looked back at Sodom she turned into a pillar of salt, when Bobby interrupted. “My mommy looked back once while she was driving,” he announced, “and she turned into a telephone pole.”
*****
When you prepare you sermons on paper, they say that you are just reading off the paper and not hearing from God. But when you DON’T have paper, they say that you were not prepared!
*****
A family went to church one day. The choir sang beautifully and the Pastor preached the word of God profoundly. The congregation shouted and danced praised unto God. They had a really exciting time in The Lord. On the way home, the youngest son said. “Dad, I can’t believe they put on that whole show for only a dollar!”
*****
After church one Sunday, little Suzy announced that she wanted to be a pastor. Pleased and surprised, her parents asked her why she came to that decision.
“Well,” she explained, “I figured it would be more fun to stand in front and yell than sit in the pews and listen.”
*****
Inscribed in stone over the front doors of the grand old church was the message,
“This is the Gate of Heaven.”
But on the door the staff had placed a sign, “Please Use Side Entrance.”
*****
Delivering a speech at a banquet on the night of his arrival in a large city, a visiting minister told several anecdotes he expected to repeat at meetings the next day.
Because he wanted to use the jokes again, he requested the reporters to omit them from any accounts they might turn in to their newspapers.
A cub reporter, in commenting on the speech, ended his piece with the following: “The minister told a number of stories that cannot be published.”
*****
A preacher’s young daughter asked her dad why, before entering the pulpit to preach, he always bowed his head and closed his eyes for a few seconds. He replied, “I’m asking God to help me preach a good sermon.
After a moment’s thought, she asked, “Daddy, why doesn’t God do it?”
*****
The minister stormed into the lay council and flung his sermon notes on the table. “Today,” he shouted to the church officer, “I have preached to a congregation of asses!” The Church officer nodded, “So that was why you kept calling them ‘beloved brethren.'”
*****
An impoverished old man applied for membership in a rich church. The pastor attempted to put him off with all kinds of evasive remarks, and finally dismissed him, saying, “Go ahead and pray on it.”
Several days later he returned. “Well,” asked the pastor, “did the Lord give you a message?” “Yes Sir, he did” was the old man’s answer. “He told me it wasn’t any use. He said, ‘I’ve been trying to get in that same church myself for ten years, and I still can’t make it.'”
*****
A preacher was completing a temperance sermon: with great expression he said, “If I had all the beer in the world, I’d take it and throw it into the river.” With even greater emphasis he said, “And if I had all the wine in the world, I’d take it and throw it into the river.”
And then finally, he said, “And if I had all the whiskey in the world, I’d take it and throw it into the river.”
He sat down. The song leader then stood very cautiously and announced with a smile, “For our closing song, let us sing Hymn # 365: “Shall We Gather at the River.”
*****
A seminary student was preaching his first sermon. He meant to say that “God called me to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out the devil.” However, what came off of his stammering tongue was, “God called me to heal the dead, cast out the sick, and raise the devil.”
*****
A young man is playing golf with a priest. At a short hole the priest asks, “What are you going to use on this hole son?”
The young man says, “An eight iron, father. How about you?”
The priest says, “I’m going to hit a soft seven and pray.” The young man hits his eight iron and puts the ball on the green. The priest tops his 7 iron and dribbles the ball out a few yards.
The young man says, “I don’t know about you father, but in my church when we pray, we keep our head down.”
*****
A minister was worried about asking the congregation for money for repairs, so, he asked the organist if she could play some inspirational music to get the congregation in a giving mood after he made his pitch.
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I’ll think of something.”
During the service, the minister said, “We still need $6,000 more for the new roof. Would those who can pledge at least $100 please stand up.”
Just then the organist began “The Star Spangled Banner.”
*****
The minister stormed into the council and flung his sermon notes on the table.
“Today,” he shouted to the church officer, “I have preached to a congregation of asses!”
The Church officer nodded, “So that was why you kept calling them ‘brothers and sisters.”
*****
The pastor told the search committee, “If I am voted in as pastor of this church, I will work hard to bring us into the 20th century.”
Someone spoke up: ” Uh, Preacher, don’t you mean the 21st century?” The pastor replied, “Let’s take it one century at a time.”
*****
Realistic New Year’s Resolutions
10. Read less. There are better things to do with your time.
9. Forget dieting. It’s easier to gain weight than to lose it.
8. Stop exercising. Waste of time.
7. Watch more TV. There are too many good programs that you’re missing.
6. Procrastinate more. You didn’t want to do it anyway.
5. Drink more alcohol. It’s no fun being sober.
4. Start being more superstitious.
3. Spend more time at work. The boss won’t approve time off anyway.
2. Stop bringing food from home. There are plenty of fast food restaurants.
1. Take up a new habit. Smoking? Swearing? Drinking? All three?
*****
The pastor was out Christmas shopping for his family when he saw a great train set display in the high-end toy store. After 10 minutes of rapt watching, he told the sales woman, “I’ll take it.”
“Your son will really like it,” she beamed.
The pastor thought a moment and said, “In that case, I’ll take two.”
*****
A guy bought his wife a beautiful diamond ring for Christmas.
After hearing about this extravagant gift, a friend of his said, “I thought she wanted one of those sporty four-wheel-drive vehicles.”
“She did,” he replied. “But where was I going to find a fake Jeep?”
*****
The pastor always used the phrase, “It might be worse,” when some calamity would come his way. One day a friend said to him, “I’ve something to tell you, and you won’t be able to use your favorite phrase. I dreamt last night that I died and went to hell.” “It might be worse,” said the preacher. The friend came unglued: “man alive, how could it be worse?” to which the pastor replied: “it might be true.”
*****
No sooner had the church installed hot-air hand dryers in the rest rooms when the pastor called for them to be removed. The units worked fine, but some wag had written on the wall above the dryer in the men’s room, “Push button for a sample our pastor’s preaching.”
*****
Four pastors were on vacation when one of them confessed he had a problem with alcohol. He knew these men, his most trusted and valued friends, would quietly help him.
The second pastor said that he too, had a secret vice — gambling.
The third pastor confided that lust was a really big issue for him.
The fourth pastor announced that he also had a problem: gossip.
*****
Two ministers met in the after life. One said, “Isn’t heaven wonderful after the parish ministry?”
The other said, “This isn’t heaven!”
*****
For the umpteenth time Mrs. Jones told her pastor, “I’m so scared! My husband says he’s going to kill me if I continue to come to your church.”
“Yes, yes, my child,” replied the pastor, tired of hearing this before. “I will continue to pray for you, Mrs. Jones. Have faith – the Lord will watch over you.”
“Oh yes, he has kept me safe thus far, only…..”
“Only what, my child?”
“Now he says if I keep coming to your church, he’s going to kill YOU!”
“Well,” said the pastor. “Perhaps it’s time to check out that little church on the other side of town.”
*****
A bishop visited a church in his jurisdiction. Only three people turned up to hear him preach.
He asked the pastor, “Did you publicize my visit?”
“No,” replied the pastor, “but word seems to have gotten around anyway”.
*****
Two pastors were discussing the decline in morals in the modern world.
“I didn’t sleep with my wife before I was married,” said one clergyman self-righteously, “Did you?”
“I don’t know,” said the other. “What was her maiden name?”
*****
Lying in the hospital bed, a dying man began to flail about and make motions as if he would like to speak. The pastor, keeping watch at the side of his bed, leaned quietly over and asked, “Do you have something you would like to say?”
The man nodded, and the pastor handed him a pad and pen.
”Use this to write a note and I will give it to your wife. She’s on her way.”
Gathering his last bit of strength, the scrawled his message and then died.
The pastor folded the note without reading it, then maintained a vigil until the wife arrived. When she came, he handed her the note, “His last words,” the pastor said. She fainted when she read, “GET OFF MY OXYGEN HOSE!”
*****
The young pastor was excited when they asked him to preach one Sunday in prison, but he was also very nervous .
On the day he arrived at the prison, he was greeted by a large group of prisoners waiting to hear him. As the young pastor walked and stood behind the pulpit, he said, “Good morning. It’s so good to see you here!”
*****
A man had a habit of grumbling at the food his wife placed before him at family meals. Then he would ask the blessing.
One day after his usual combination complaint-prayer, his little girl asked, “Daddy, does God hear us when we pray?”
“Why, of course,” he replied. “He hears us every time we pray.”
She pauses on this a moment, and asked, “Does he hear everything we say the rest of the time?”
“Yes, dear, every word,” he replied, encouraged that he had inspired his daughter to be curious about spiritual matters.
However, his pride was quickly turned to humility…
“Then which does God believe?”
*****
When the pastor arrived at the family’s house for dinner, the little girl informed him that her mama was cooking buzzard for dinner.
“We’re having chicken,” her father reassured the pastor.
“But daddy,” the daughter exclaimed, “I heard Mommy tell you we were having the old buzzard for dinner.”
*****
A climber fell off a cliff, and as he tumbled down, he caught hold of a small branch wedged in the rock.
“HELP! IS THERE ANYBODY UP THERE?” he shouted.
A majestic voice boomed through the gorge:
“I will help you, my son, but first you must have faith in me.”
“Yes, yes, I trust you!” cried the man.
“Let go of the branch,” boomed the voice.
There was a long pause, and the man shouted up again, “IS THERE ANYONE ELSE UP THERE I COULD TALK TO?”
*****
“Thanks for the generous donation,” the church treasurer said, looking at a check she had just been handed.
The donor smiled. “Well, you can thank the Holy Spirit.”
The treasurer rolled her eyes. “C’mon. It wasn’t that generous.”
*****
The greatest surprise of Mary’s life was receiving a dollar on her fourth birthday. She carried the bill about the house and was seen sitting on the stairs admiring it.
“What are you going to do with your dollar?” her mother asked.
“Take it to Sunday School,” said Mary promptly.
“To show your teacher?” Mary shook her head.
“No,” she said. “I’m going to give it to God. He’ll be as surprised as I am to get something besides pennies.”
*****
My first job was working in an orange juice factory, but I got canned…couldn’t concentrate.
Then I worked in the woods as a lumberjack, but I just couldn’t hack it, so they gave me the ax.
After that I tried to be a tailor, but I just wasn’t suited for it …mainly because it was a so-so job.
Next I tried working in a muffler factory but that was too exhausting.
Then I tried to be a chef — figured it would add a little spice to my life, but I just didn’t have the thyme.
I attempted to be a deli worker, but any way I sliced it, I couldn’t cut the mustard.
My best job was being a musician, but eventually I found I wasn’t noteworthy.
I studied a long time to become a doctor, but I didn’t have any patience.
I became a professional fisherman, but discovered that I couldn’t live on my net income.
I managed to get a good job working for a pool maintenance company, but the work was just too draining.
So then I got a job in a workout center, but they said I wasn’t fit for the job.
After many years of trying to find steady work I finally got a job as a historian until I realized there was no future in it.
My last job was working at Starbucks, but I had to quit because it was always the same old grind.
*****
The visitor was curious when he saw the Bible verse on the door from 1 Corinthians 15:51: “Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed.”
It all became clear when the visitor realized the door was to the nursery.
*****
Recreation is my shepherd, I shall not stay at home; It maketh me to lie down in a sleeping bag; It leadeth me down the interstate each weekend.
It restoreth my suntan; It leadeth me to state parks for comfort’s sake. Even though I stray on the Lord’s Day, I will fear no reprimand, for I am relaxed; My rod and reel they comfort me.
I anointed my skin with oil, My gas tank runneth dry; Surely my trailer shall follow me all the weekends of summer, And I shall return to the house of the Lord this fall.
But by then, it will be hunting season and football season, And that’s another psalm.
*****
Q: How many independent Baptists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Only one – any more than that and it might seem like an ecumenical activity.
Q: How many Presbyterians does it take to change a light bulb?
A: It doesn’t matter, as long as it’s done decently and in order.
Q: How many Unitarians does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Two. One to write a solemn statement which will affirm that: This light bulb is natural, a part of the universe, and evolved over many years by small steps. And we seek for each light bulb the fullest opportunity to develop itself to its full electrical potential. The second Unitarian’s job is to read this statement and then write the obligatory criticism and dissent.
Q: How many missions magazine editors does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Just one — they’re trained to bring light to a dark world.
Q: How many atheists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None – there’s no point, since atheists refuse to see the light.
Q: How many Quakers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Ten to sit around in a circle until one feels an inner light.
Q: How many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Thirteen – one to change the bulb and 12 to sit around talking about how much they miss the old bulb.
Q: How many creationists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None – they just wait for God to say “Let there be light.”
Q: How many Calvinists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: If God has predestined the light bulb to shine, it will change itself.
Q: How many Brethren does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Change? What is this change you speak of?
Q: How many campfire worship leaders does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Just one, but soon all those around can warm up in its glowing.
*****
The greatest surprise of Mary’s life was receiving a dollar on her fourth birthday. She carried the bill about the house and was seen sitting on the stairs admiring it.
“What are you going to do with your dollar?” her mother asked.
“Take it to Sunday School,” said Mary promptly.
“To show your teacher?” Mary shook her head.
“No,” she said. “I’m going to give it to God. He’ll be as surprised as I am to get something besides pennies.”
*****
“What did you learn in Sunday school?” the grandfather asked the little boy after church.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?” replied the grandfather. “Didn’t you study Jesus?”
The boy scowled. “No, he wasn’t even there.”
*****
During a Lutheran worship service a man began to be moved by the Spirit.
Out loud he said “Amen!” People around him were a little disturbed.
Then louder he said, “Hallelujah!” A few more people were becoming disturbed.
Louder still he shouted “Praise Jesus!”
An usher moved quickly down the aisle. He bent over and whispered to the man, “Sir! Control yourself!”
The man exclaimed, “I can’t help it. I got religion!!!”
To which the usher responded, “Well you didn’t get it here!”
*****
Definitions:
Bulletin: 1)Something to read during the sermon; 2)a fan used in churches without air conditioning; 3)your receipt for attending church.
Choir: A group of people who sing loudly enough to enable the rest of us to lip-sync all hymns.
Recessional hymn: The final hymn, and usually the quietest of all hymns because so many parishioners have already left before it is sung.
Ushers: The only guys in the church who still do not know the actual seating capacity of a pew.
Relics: Older members who still remember when to sit, stand, and kneel during worship. *****
A Nun was taking a shower one day and she heard the door bell ring, she yelled “Who is it?”
And the person ringing the door bell yelled, “I’m the blind man.”
So the Nun got out of the shower and wrapped her hair in a towel, she didn’t bother putting a towel around herself.
She opened the door and said, “What do you want?”, and the man said, “I’m here to check your blinds.”
*****
A man who died is refused entry into heaven. “There’s no record of you having done a good deed,” St. Peter explained. “Have you?”
The man thinks and replies, “Well, there was this one time when I was driving down the highway and saw a group of thugs assaulting this poor girl. I stopped, grabbed my tire iron, walked up to the leader of the gang and yelled ‘Leave her alone, you sick, deranged animals!’ ”
Impressed, St. Peter asks, “When did this happen?’
“About two minutes ago.”
*****
As the substitute preacher was greeting the congregation he made the statement, “You know, a substitute preacher is like a piece of cardboard in a broken window. He fills the space, but after all, he’s not the real glass.” He then proceeded with his sermon. After the service, a lady approached him trying to pay him a compliment by saying, “You weren’t a replacement after all. You were a real pane.
*****
A middle-aged woman has a heart attack and is taken to the hospital. While on the operating table she has a near death experience. During that experience she sees God and asks if this is it. God says no and explains that she has another 30 years to live.
Upon her recovery she decides to just stay in the hospital and have a face lift, liposuction, breast augmentation, tummy tuck, etc. She even has someone come in and change her hair color. She figures since she’s got another 30 years she might as well make the most of it.
She walks out of the hospital after the last operation and is killed by an ambulance speeding by. She arrives in front of God and complains, “I thought you said I had another 30 years.”
God replies,” I didn’t recognize you.”
*****
All four churches in the small town had a serious problem with squirrel infestation.
The Presbyterians decided that it was predestined that squirrels be in the church and that they would just have to live with them.
The Methodists decided they should deal with the squirrels lovingly in the style of Charles Wesley. They humanely trapped them and released them in a park at the edge of town. Within 3 days, they were all back in the church.
The Catholics also humanely trapped them and attempted to teach them the “rhythm” method which of course did not work.
The Lutherans had the best solution. They confirmed the squirrels, and now they see the animals only at Christmas and Easter.
*****
A pious man who had reached the age of 105 suddenly stopped going to church. Alarmed by the old fellow’s absence after so many years of faithful attendance the pastor went to see him. He found him in excellent health, so the pastor asked, “How come after all these years we don’t see you at services anymore?”
The old man looked around and lowered his voice. I’ll tell you, Pastor,” he whispered. “When I got to be 90 I expected God to take me any day. But then I got to be 95, then 100, then 105. So I figured that God is very busy and must have forgotten about me ….. and I don’t want to remind Him.”
*****
The Preacher’s Lament
“If I express myself on a subject, I’m trying to run things.
If I’m silent, I’m dumb or have lost interest.
If I’m often at my office (preparing messages), why don’t I get out and learn what’s going on.
If I’m out when they call, why am I not tending to business, or studying for a message.
If I’m not at home at night, I’m out having a good time.
If I’m home, I’m neglecting important outside contacts and activities.
If I don’t agree with persons, I’m bullheaded.
If I do agree, I don’t have any ideas of my own.
If I don’t do what I’m requested, I’m a very poor pastor or minister.
If I do agree, well, that’s what I’m paid for.
If I give someone a short answer, I’m “too big for my britches.”
If I attempt to explain the pros and cons of an issue, I’m a know-it-all.
If I’m well dressed, I think I’m a big sho
|
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3704
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dbpedia
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3
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https://www.calvertcountymd.gov/3604/News-Press-Releases
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News & Press Releases
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3704
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dbpedia
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0
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https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/%3Fid%3D2497602442
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3704
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dbpedia
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https://shankhall.com/
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Shank Hall
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Milwaukee's showcase live music venue since 1989.
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images/favicon.ico
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Shank Hall
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https://shankhall.com
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3704
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dbpedia
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1
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https://www.pbs.org/theblues/songsartists/songsbioalpha.html
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The Blues . The Songs & the Artists . Biographies . Alphabetic
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Jeff Beck
Born: June 24, 1944, Surrey, England
Jeff Beck is a musician's musician he never reached the mainstream superstardom of many of his contemporaries, probably partly due to his sporadic presence on the music scene and the fact that he is not a vocalist. Regardless, Beck is an innovative master of electric guitar and as such he has been idolized by other guitarists for decades. Among other virtuoso qualities of his playing, he is known for the stunning power, authority and control of his fretwork as well as for his somewhat erratic versatility. Beck took his initial place in British rock by joining the Yardbirds as Eric Clapton's replacement. He later formed his own self-named group, with then unknown vocalist Rod Stewart and bassist Ron Wood (who would later join the Rolling Stones as a guitarist). The Jeff Beck Group put out some blisteringly rocking versions of blues classics such as Willie Dixon's "I Ain't Superstitious" and "You Shook Me," influencing both blues-rock and hard rock devotees in the process, including Led Zeppelin and Cream. Beck's later work reflects a continuous evolution and includes superb jazz-fusion. He continues to record and tour, and his latest album includes a cover of Muddy Waters's "Rollin' and Tumblin."
Essential listening: "You Know What I Mean," "Led Boots," "Escape," "Cause We've Ended As Lovers," "I Ain't Superstitious," "You Shook Me"
Big Bill Broonzy
Born: June 26, 1893, Scott, Mississippi
Died: August 15, 1958, Chicago, Illinois
Also known as: William Lee Conley Broonzy
As a young boy Big Bill Broonzy would return home from a day's fieldwork with cornstalks, which he'd rub together as a homemade fiddle while his many brothers and sisters 16 danced to the music he made. By the age of 14 he was performing as a professional fiddler, and after moving to Chicago as an adult he switched to guitar. He became a prolific songwriter as well as a performer and recording artist and was a foundational contributor to the pre-war Chicago blues scene. He was a clever lyricist with a flair for narrative, and is known for having one of the largest and most versatile repertoires on record, from a slick urban blues sound to his acoustic country blues roots as well as folk and traditional spirituals. Broonzy also acted as a mentor to younger musicians, helping many of them secure performing dates and recording sessions. When the Chicago blues sound was transformed by the emergence of the electric guitar, Broonzy kept performing as a more itinerant folk-blues act, paving the way for the future of blues in Europe and the U.K. As he aged he continued to perform, even as he suffered from throat cancer, to which he succumbed in 1958.
Essential listening: "When Will I Get to be Called a Man," "Key to the Highway," "Big Bill Blues," "All by Myself"
Ruth Brown
Born: January 1, 1928, Portsmouth, Virginia
Ruth Brown's smooth vocals made the rhythm and blues charts regularly between 1949 and 1955, and helped a then-fledgling Atlantic Records establish itself as a formidable presence in the R&B world. Later in her long and versatile career she became known as a rock and roll and pop singer as well as a stage and film actress, winning a Tony award on Broadway. She has influenced many R&B and soul artists, and her enduring talent is evidenced by her recent solo recordings and guest appearances with artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland and B.B. King, as well as a Grammy win in the late 1980s. Brown continues to perform.
Essential listening: "(Mama) He Treats Your Daughter Mean," "Teardrops From My Eyes," "Don't Deceive Me," "Mambo Baby"
Willie Brown
Born: August 6, 1900, Clarksdale, Mississippi
Died: December 30, 1952, Tunica, Mississippi
Willie Brown was an outstanding guitarist as well as vocalist who had an enormous influence on the origination and development of Delta blues. Brown performed regularly with blues legends Charley Patton, Son House and Robert Johnson, and also backed Patton and House on recordings. He is known as an accompanist rather than a soloist, although he did record three extraordinary solo performances. Later in his career he primarily performed with Son House. Both Brown and House disappeared from the music scene during the 1940s, and, sadly, Brown died before the blues revival of the 1960s, when many of his contemporaries were rediscovered by blues scholars.
Essential listening: "M & O Blues," "Make Me a Pallet on the Floor," "Future Blues"
Paul Butterfield Blues Band
Born: December 17, 1942, Chicago, Illinois
Died: May 3, 1987, Los Angeles, California
At the age of 16, harmonica player Paul Butterfield regularly sat in with blues legends Otis Rush, Magic Sam, and Howlin' Wolf, among others, at Chicago clubs. Butterfield formed his own soon-to-be-legendary band in 1963 with guitarist Elvin Bishop and eventually drummer Sam Lay and bassist Jerome Arnold. This lineup was one of the first racially integrated blues bands in the city. Their 1965 self-titled release, featuring the additions of guitarist Mike Bloomfield and keyboardist Mark Naftalin, had a huge impact on the 1960s blues revival, and they also broke ground backing Bob Dylan's legendary performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival (the electric sound outraged many purist folk fans). Later the band changed personnel again, eventually including jazz great David Sanborn (in his early years) on saxophone. Their success began to wind down in the late sixties, although they did appear at Woodstock and released two final albums in 1968 and 1969. Paul Butterfield continued to perform throughout the seventies.
Essential listening: "I Got My Mojo Working," "Blues With a Feeling," "Born in Chicago," "Shake Your Money Maker," "Mellow Down Easy," "Two Trains Running"
Ray Charles
Born: September 23, 1930, Albany, Georgia
Died: June 10, 2004, Beverly Hills, California
Ray Charles is known for his innovative blend of genres his enormously popular body of work reflects inspiration from gospel, blues, jazz, pop, R&B, soul and country. As a vocalist he was originally inspired by Nat King Cole, and his early recordings reflect this smooth influence. Charles later came into his own with 1954's "I've Got a Woman," which marked a dramatic change in his style it reflected a heavy gospel influence integrated with pop and his vocals were suddenly uninhibited and raw. This trend in Charles's music would continue, culminating in his 1959 signature hit and timeless classic "What'd I Say." His ability to bring together many influences, infusing them all with a gospel core, has had a huge impact on both soul and rock and roll music, influencing Steve Winwood, Joe Cocker, Stevie Wonder, and others. Charles is often referred to as the Father of Soul. He is a legendary musical figure and continues to tour.
Essential listening: "Losing Hand," "I've Got a Woman," "Unchain My Heart', "What'd I Say," "Drown in My Own Tears," "Hit the Road Jack"
Sam Chatmon
Born: January 10, 1897, Boltmon, Mississippi
Died: February 2, 1983, Hollandale, Mississippi
Sam Chatmon was born into a highly musical family reportedly there were 11 sons, all of them musicians. As a boy Sam often played with the Chatmon Family String Band, and when three of his brothers formed the Mississippi Sheiks, who became very popular, he sometimes played with them as well. But Sam Chatmon was a multi-instrumentalist in his own right playing mandolin, bass, guitar and banjo and worked as a traveling musician with a wide repertoire that included blues until the early 1940s. He became a plantation worker until the 1960s blues revival, at which point, like many of his contemporaries, he embarked upon a second career as a musician, performing and recording until his death in 1983.
Essential listening: "My Little Woman," "Shake 'Em All Down," "God Don't Like Ugly," "Hollandale Blues," "Sitting on Top of the World"
Marshall Chess
Born: March 13, 1942, Chicago, Illinois
Marshall Chess is the son of Leonard Chess who, along with his brother Phil, co-founded the legendary Chicago blues label Chess Records. Chess released some of the greatest blues ever recorded by legends such as Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter, Muddy Waters, Koko Taylor, and many others, and Chess box sets are among the finest collections of blues available today. Marshall Chess grew up, literally, with the blues, hanging out at the Chess offices to be near his father, surrounded by blues greats and learning the finer points of recording. He later dropped out of college to work for Chess. After many years as a producer he started his own label, Cadet Concept, for which he produced the departure release Electric Mud, which featured Muddy Waters in a more electric, psychedelic blues arena. Despite initially strong sales, the album was widely panned by critics. After his father's death in 1969, Chess co-founded Rolling Stones Records and served as executive producer on the group's releases from 1971 through 1976 (or Sticky Fingers through Black and Blue, to be more specific). He has also worked as a film producer. One of his most admirable qualities is his confidence and resilience as a producer in spite of its lukewarm reception, Chess still considers Electric Mud to be a great piece of work, and as he says in the film Godfathers and Sons, "I'm still not afraid to make the worst blues album ever made."
Essential listening: Electric Mud
Eric Clapton
Born: March 30, 1945, Ripley, England
Also known as: Eric Patrick Clapp
Eric Clapton's talent has graced some of the best bands in rock and blues history: the Yardbirds, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Cream and Blind Faith. He is a rock and blues star in his own right, maintaining a reputation for decades as one of Great Britain's finest guitarists. Clapton reportedly left the Yardbirds in order to immerse himself in blues with the Bluesbreakers ; his subsequent forays into blues-rock with Cream and Blind Faith did a lot to merge the two genres in popular music. He has moved between rock, blues and pop throughout his career, but his major influences include Muddy Waters, B.B. King, and Robert Johnson, and his renditions of blues classics especially his cover of Johnson's "Crossroads" are among his best-known recordings. He is a master of painfully expressive guitar work, matched by his emotional vocal delivery. Although much of his work is outstanding, he is probably best known for the album Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs, which is commonly considered to be a masterpiece. Among other brilliant work, that album includes the rock classic "Layla."
Essential listening: "Have You Ever Loved A Woman," "Bell-Bottom Blues," "Crossroads" "Key to the Highway," "Layla"
Shemekia Copeland
Born: 1979, New York, New York
Shemekia Copeland began appearing on stage with her father, Texas bluesman Johnny Copeland, as a child, and as a teenager she toured with him as his opening act, stunning audiences with a confident stage presence which seemed to belie her youth. Her vocal prowess matches her charisma as a performer. At the age of 19, Copeland released her debut album, inspiring comparisons to blues legends Etta James and Koko Taylor. By 2002 Copeland had released two more albums to critical acclaim, and won three of the blues' prestigious W.C. Handy awards. She has worked with Ruth Brown, one of her original influences, as well as Dr. John and others.
Read an archived version of Shemekia Copeland's USAToday online chat.
Essential listening: "The Other Woman," "I Always Get My Man," "Have Mercy," "Your Mama's Talking," "Not Tonight," "The Push I Need"
Ida Cox
Born: February 25, 1896, Toccoa, Georgia
Died: November 10, 1967, Knoxville, Tennessee
Also known as: Ida Prather
Ida Cox was one of the great 1920s blues singers. She began her career as a teenager, traveling throughout the south as a singer with tent and vaudeville shows. Cox was also a versatile businesswoman for a time she ran her own touring company, working as a producer and manager as well as performer. She was a prolific and popular recording artist throughout the 1920s who wrote many of her own songs, one of which is the well-known "Wild Women Don't Have the Blues." Cox tended to direct her shows toward black female audiences, with songs that examined various issues from a female perspective. Cox's career was active throughout the 1930s, when health problems reportedly forced her into retirement, although she did manage an additional recording session in the early 1960s.
Essential listening: "Wild Women Don't Have the Blues," "Last Mile Blues," "Pink Slip Blues," "Cemetery Blues"
Cream
Eric Clapton, born March 30, 1945, Ripley, England; Ginger Baker, born August 19, 1939, Lewisham, England; Jack Bruce, born May 14, 1943, Lanarkshire, Scotland
Cream combined the superb musicianship of bassist Jack Bruce, drummer Ginger Baker, and guitarist Eric Clapton, and became a powerhouse of blues-rock that had an enormous influence on the future of rock and heavy metal. They were all groundbreaking musicians known for their innovative, aggressive styles, and when they played together as a band they inspired one another to new heights of brilliance. They brought to the blues a jazz-inspired flair for improvisation, and although they were sometimes criticized for their seemingly endless jam sessions, at their best their competitive instrumental assaults showcased their unique gifts. Eric Clapton raised the blues guitar solo to a high art form; Jack Bruce's fervent and often melodic bass playing could pass for a second lead guitar; and rock had never seen the likes of Ginger Baker's percussive mastery (and it's possible that no one has matched him to this day). The trio covered blues classics from legends such as Albert King, Skip James, and Willie Dixon in addition to original material, and in the process introduced the blues to a new audience and broke ground for subsequent heavy blues-rock bands such as Led Zeppelin. Cream formed in 1966 and broke up in 1968. All of their releases are classics.
Essential listening: "Sunshine of Your Love," "Crossroads," "Strange Brew," "Tales of Brave Ulysses"
Bo Diddley
Born: December 30, 1928, McComb, Mississippi
Also known as: Otha Ellas Bates McDaniels
Like many bluesmen, Bo Diddley has his deepest musical roots in gospel. He also studied classical music in his youth, but turned to blues after he was introduced to the music of John Lee Hooker. Reportedly it was Hooker's classic "Boogie Chillen" that had such a dramatic impact. Diddley's music is definitely blues-based, however he has had a more profound impact on rock and roll, especially through the beat he's known for, which became foundational in the genre. He influenced the Yardbirds, the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, among many others, with his particularly lighthearted, rhythm-based brand of blues. Diddley grew up in Chicago and began his blues career playing on the street, eventually forming his own band which included harmonica master Billy Boy Arnold and signing with record label Chess. Many of his songs are blues and rock and roll classics. Diddley further influenced rock and roll with his design of a square guitar, one of his trademarks. He continues to tour and record.
Essential listening: "Who Do You Love," "You Can't Judge a Book by its Cover," "Mona," "I'm a Man"
Willie Dixon
Born: July 1, 1915, Vicksburg, Mississippi
Died: January 29, 1992, Burbank, California
Willie Dixon is best known for his songwriting prowess, although his influence on the blues includes his superb work as a producer, arranger, session musician and performer. Dixon began performing in Chicago in the late 1930s; his career was interrupted briefly in the early 1940s when he was jailed for refusing the draft as a conscientious objector. He later worked for the blues label Chess, where his songwriting gave a significant boost to the careers of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Little Walter and others. Howlin' Wolf had such success with his rendition of Dixon's tunes that for years they were his primary recording and performance efforts. As a mentor to vocalist Koko Taylor, Dixon had her record "Wang Dang Doodle," which became a huge hit and is still her signature classic. Later in his life Dixon had to fight to reap the financial rewards of his art and subsequently worked on behalf of other artists to assist them in securing publishing royalties. He influenced not only his contemporaries, but countless blues and rock and roll artists, including Led Zeppelin, the Doors and Cream. His body of work as a songwriter boasts many blues standards and rock and roll classics.
Essential listening: "Back Door Man," "I Can't Quit You Baby," "The Seventh Son," "You Shook Me," "The Little Red Rooster"
Fats Domino
Born: February 26, 1928, New Orleans, Louisiana
Also known as: Antoine Domino
Fats Domino began performing at the age of 14. His music combines classic "boogie woogie" piano with a New Orleans beat and flavor and R&B and jazz roots, expressed through his signature warm, easygoing vocals. Domino was enormously popular throughout the fifties and into the early sixties, hitting the R&B charts time after time with his original songs (often co-written with manager Dave Bartholomew) and eventually crossing over onto the pop charts. He made rhythm and blues music palatable to a wider audience, as his style represented the calmer edge of the spectrum, in contrast to incendiary rock artists such as Little Richard. As a performer his shy charm and warm grin reflected the mood of his music. Domino's wide popularity helped black music reach a white audience. Most of his numerous hits have become classics.
Essential listening: "Walkin' to New Orleans," ""Blueberry Hill," "Ain't It a Shame," "I'm Walkin'," "Blue Monday", "The Fat Man"
Dr. John
Born: November 21, 1940, New Orleans
Also known as: Malcolm John Rebennack, Jr.
Dr. John combines the roots of New Orleans blues with jazz, funk, rhythm and blues, pop and rock, infused with his sense of humor and particularly original and inventive artistic sensibility. He grew up in New Orleans and was exposed to the city's music early on his father owned a record store and repaired equipment in local nightclubs. Dr. John became a session musician, where he worked with such local legends as Allen Toussaint and Professor Longhair. He eventually moved to Los Angeles and continued doing session work. Legend has it he recorded his first album with excess studio time donated by Sonny & Cher. That first release, Gris Gris, along with a later release, Gumbo, are two examples of his finest work, although an even later album contained his 1973 chart hit "Right Place, Wrong Time." Dr. John is a charismatic performer who in his heyday outfitted himself in Mardi Gras regalia as a witch doctor of sorts to perform a show that was part theatric ritual. He has collaborated with many notable artists and is an accomplished producer and arranger. He continues to record, perform and work as a highly respected producer.
Essential listening: "Such A Night," "Right Place, Wrong Time," "Makin' Whoopee"
Rosco Gordon
Born: 1934, Memphis, Tennessee
Died: July 11, 2002, New York, New York
Rosco Gordon was an integral part of the Memphis Beale Street blues scene during the forties and fifties. He created a shuffle rhythm on piano known as "Rosco's rhythm" that influenced blues, and, in the opinion of some historians, also inspired the creation of the distinctive rhythm of Jamaican ska, itself a precursor of reggae. On Beale Street Gordon worked with Johnny Ace, Bobby Blue Bland and others, and in the early fifties his song "Booted" hit number one on the R&B charts. That same year he had another hit with "No More Doggin'." Throughout his career he never matched that early success, but he did continue to record and perform. Like many bluesmen he took an extended hiatus from music to earn an alternative living, but later in his life he began performing again, and continued to do so until his death in 2002.
Essential listening: "Booted," "I'm Gonna Shake It," "No More Doggin'," "She's My Baby"
Buddy Guy
Born: July 30, 1936, Lettsworth, Louisiana
Also known as: George Guy
Buddy Guy's name has become synonymous with Chicago blues. A dramatic, buoyantly joyful performer with a voice that can be at once smooth and gritty, Guy is also an esteemed guitarist. He has been idolized by the idols themselves for his superb musicianship Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jeff Beck, Johnny Winter and even, reportedly, Jimi Hendrix have all acknowledged him as an inspiration. Guy's style of playing was heavily influenced by B.B. King, to whom he is often compared. Early in his career he worked with many of Chicago's blues legends as a session player for Chess records and teamed up with harmonica player Junior Wells; the two were a popular duo in the city for many years. Guy was more popular as a live act than as a recording artist until he teamed up with Eric Clapton in the early 1990s, which precipitated a successful and enduring comeback. In Chicago he is known as the King of the Blues. His talent and influence, his long history with the city's blues greats and his successful local blues club "Legends," contribute to his own legend.
Essential listening: "Broken Hearted Blues," "Stone Crazy," "Mary Had a Little Lamb," "Try to Quit You, Baby"
W.C. Handy
Born: November 16, 1873, Muscle Shoals, Alabama
Died: March 28, 1958, New York, New York
Also known as: William Christopher Handy
W.C. Handy is widely recognized by his self-proclaimed moniker, "Father of the Blues" due to his steadfast and pioneering efforts to document, write and publish blues music and his life-long support of the genre. Although much of his musical taste leaned toward a more sophisticated and polished sound, Handy was among the first to recognize the value of the blues, and Southern black music in general, as an important American legacy. Handy was an accomplished bandleader and songwriter who performed throughout the South before continuing his career in New York. He came across the Delta blues in the late 1890s, and his composition "Memphis Blues," published in 1912, was the first to include "blues" in the title. Some historians don't consider "Memphis Blues" to be an actual blues song, however it did influence the creation of other blues tunes, including the historic "Crazy Blues," which is commonly known as the first blues song to ever be recorded (by Mamie Smith in 1920). A Memphis park was named after Handy in recognition of his contribution to blues and the Blues Foundation recognizes the genre's achievements annually with the prestigious W.C. Handy award.
Essential listening: "St. Louis Blues," "Yellow Dog Blues," "Beale Street Blues"
Corey Harris
Born: February 21, 1969, Denver, Colorado
Corey Harris can play and sing like a classic bluesman his first album was a thorough exploration and interpretation of Delta blues. Since then he has incorporated the influence of rich musical traditions from New Orleans to Africa to the Caribbean, all while maintaining his reputation as a first-class performer and recording artist. Harris learned how to play the guitar when he was 12, and was originally inspired by Texas blues legend Lightnin' Hopkins. As a student he traveled to Africa and later moved to New Orleans where he performed on the streets before signing a recording contract. Each of Harris's albums has received critical acclaim, and he continues to draw from a wide range of influences, including hip hop, reggae, funk, jazz, blues, R&B and Latin music.
Essential listening: "Black Maria," "Feel Like Going Home," "Keep Your Lamp Trimmed and Burning," "Bound to Miss Me," "Capitaine"
Alvin Youngblood Hart
Born: March 2, 1963, Oakland, California
Alvin Youngblood Hart is a contemporary bluesman whose original music and cover interpretations are infused with a pure Delta blues influence. A native of California, Hart's family roots are in Mississippi, and he grew up visiting the area annually, falling in love with the rural lifestyle and hearing stories of blues patriarch Charley Patton. The influences of legendary bluesmen such as Bukka White, Son House, Howlin' Wolf, and Muddy Waters can be heard in Hart's many classic interpretations of blues standards as well as his original material. His additional influences include the Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, and B.B. King as well as formidable vocalists Jimmy Witherspoon and Jimmy Reed. While living in California as a teenager, Hart taught himself to play guitar and spent a lot of time immersed in the Delta blues and its history. Ironically, his performance career began when he just happened to be stationed in Natchez, Mississippi as a member of the Coast Guard. He eventually began playing gigs in California, and ended up with a record deal after a stint opening for Taj Mahal brought him wider visibility. In 1997 Youngblood won the W.C. Handy award for Best New Artist.
Essential listening: "Devil Got My Woman," "Things "Bout Coming My Way," "That Kate Adams Jive," "Jinx Blues," "Motherless Child"
Jimi Hendrix
Born: November 27, 1942, Seattle, Washington
Died: September 18, 1970, London, England
Seattle-born lead guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist Jimi Hendrix created an amazing body of work during his short career, changing the face of music forever through his revolutionary guitar playing and recordings. Although he is often perceived as a rock and roll icon, his roots lie in the blues. As he once recalled: "The first guitarist I was aware of was Muddy Waters. I heard one of his old records when I was a little boy and it scared me to death, because I heard all of these sounds. Wow, what is that all about?" Picking up the guitar in his teens, Hendrix eventually spent four grueling years on the national R&B circuit as a sideman. Upon setting out on his own, he settled first in New York, then relocated to London. By late 1966 he was a sensation in Europe, and in the U.S. shortly thereafter, mesmerizing audiences with searing electric guitar work coupled with the flash of an R&B road band playing the guitar with his teeth, behind his neck, and between his legs. Hendrix became the Aquarian Age avatar of the no-holds-barred African-American showbiz tradition, and the blues were rarely far from the surface of his work. His career and creative trajectory took him to ever greater heights until his passing in 1970. Today, his legend continues to grow, and his example continues to inspire new generations of musicians.
Essential listening: "Devil Got My Woman," "Things "Bout Coming My Way," "That Kate Adams Jive," "Jinx Blues," "Motherless Child"
Text derived from the Jimi Hendrix Gallery at Experience Music Project, Seattle.
Billie Holiday
Born: April 7, 1915, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died: July 17, 1959, New York, New York
Also known as: Eleanora Fagan Gough
Billie Holiday was a legendary vocalist whose uncompromising artistry and highly original, personalized style which included an innovative sense of phrasing, rhythm and harmony has had a tremendous impact on generations of vocalists from all genres. Holiday's life was fraught with difficulty, which may be why she was able to sing the blues so convincingly. A huge part of her appeal was her ability to convey the meaning of the lyrics, giving the impression that she had lived her material. Holiday has acknowledged Bessie Smith and Louis Armstrong as two of her primary influences, and during her career she worked with legends Artie Shaw, Cab Calloway and Benny Goodman. Among her many classic recordings are the disturbingly evocative "Strange Fruit," which controversially addressed the violence of racism, and her own composition "God Bless the Child."
Essential listening: "Lover Man," "God Bless the Child," "Strange Fruit," "Good Morning Heartache"
John Lee Hooker
Born: August 22, 1917, Clarksdale, Mississippi
Died: August 21, 2001, Los Altos, California
John Lee Hooker was a master of "boogie" with haunting, sensuously compelling signature vocals and the ability to create a whole world of sound from a single, repetitive chord. His unique, original style hugely influenced other blues artists and especially rock and roll. The Rolling Stones, the Animals, early Fleetwood Mac and Johnny Winter are just a few of Hooker's admirers. Early on he was influenced by gospel and Delta blues. He learned to play guitar from his stepfather, who reportedly knew blues legend Charley Patton. In 1943 he moved to Detroit, where his sound was a welcome and complete change from the slicker post-war blues. For the next four decades Hooker continued to work with his signature style, performing and recording, and his devotion to his craft never faded, even when his popularity did. The respect he'd long garnered from the blues and rock community was evident in his comeback 1989 release The Healer, which featured a roll call of prestigious names from both genres. As he aged he was known as a living blues legend, and he continued to perform, even when he had to be slowly escorted to the stage.
Essential listening: "Boogie Chillen," "I'm in the Mood," "Hoogie Boogie," "Boom Boom," "Baby Lee," "The Healer"
Lightnin' Hopkins
Born: March 15, 1912, Centerville, Texas
Died: January 30, 1982, Houston, Texas
Also known as: Sam Hopkins
Lightnin' Hopkins's influence on Texas blues is surpassed only by that of Blind Lemon Jefferson and T-Bone Walker. Like Walker, Hopkins met Jefferson when he was just a boy and was forever influenced by his exposure to the musician. Hopkins's original brand of blues was characterized by an unusual sense of rhythm and loose sense of structure. His many moods and personality nuances came through in his ever-changing performance and diverse repertoire. He was a talented songwriter, known for his ability to create lyrics on the spot, and he hardly ever played a song with the exact same lyrics twice. Hopkins played and recorded primarily in Texas throughout most of his career until, as one of the many blues greats who benefited from the blues revival of the 1960s, he was kept busy touring and performing at festivals. He was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, two years before his death.
Essential listening: "Tim Moore's Farm," "Coffee Blues," "Lightnin's Boogie," "Hopkins's Sky Hop"
Son House
Born: March 21, 1902, Riverton, Mississippi
Died: October 19, 1988, Detroit, Michigan
Also known as: Eddie James House, Jr.
Son House was originally a preacher, and he brought the fiery intensity of Baptist gospel to his interpretation of Delta blues. A powerfully emotional performer, his presence onstage was riveting and almost frightening in its ability to move the listener. He was influenced by and often played with blues greats Charley Patton and Willie Brown, yet his style remained distinctly his own. He is credited as the primary influence on blues legends Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters as well as Bonnie Raitt and many others. House disappeared from the blues scene from the early 1940s through the mid-1960s, until researchers tracked him down, whereupon he began a second career as a respected performer. His past association with Patton and Johnson, as well as his own legendary skill, made him particularly valuable and respected as a living record of blues history. As music critic Cub Koda put it, "Hailed as the greatest living Delta singer still actively performing, nobody dared call themselves the king of the blues as long as Son House was around." *
Essential listening: "Preachin' the Blues," "Death Letter," "John the Revelator," "Dry Spell Blues," "My Black Mama"
* www.allmusic.com
Howlin' Wolf
Born: June 10, 1910, West Point, Mississippi
Died: January 10, 1976, Hines, Illinois
Also known as: Chester Arthur Burnett
Howlin' Wolf was inspired by the passionate showmanship of legends Charley Patton and Tommy Johnson, but he took it to the next level. More than just a great showman, "the howler" was an almost transcendent performer, losing himself in the power of the music and letting it flow uninhibitedly through his voice. Wolf could whip the crowd into a frenzy like no other performer, and his stature at more than 6 feet tall and 300 or so pounds matched his formidable musical presence. His voice was truly original, a nasty sounding, expressively gritty growl that conveyed the meaning of the lyrics many of them penned by legendary songwriter Willie Dixon and his interpretation helped many songs become classics. The allure of Wolf's music was further enhanced by the superb guitarists who played with him Willie Johnson in the early years and Hubert Sumlin in later years as well as his own skill with guitar and harmonica, the latter of which he learned to play from master Sonny Boy Williamson. Wolf was a hero of many equally gritty rock and rollers, including the Rolling Stones. Like many Mississippi bluesmen, Wolf saw his career take off in Chicago, where to this day he is an enduring and beloved part of the city's history.
Essential listening: "Smokestack Lightnin'," "Moanin' at Midnight," "Evil," "Killing Floor," "Shake for Me"
Mississippi John Hurt
Born: July 3, 1893, Teoc, Mississippi
Died: November 2, 1966, Grenada, Mississippi
Also known as: John Smith Hurt
Mississippi John Hurt brought unprecedented warmth to the blues, characterized by his gentle, gracious presence as a performer and the tenderness and depth of his songwriting. Hurt mastered a form of finger picking on the guitar that significantly influenced generations of blues, folk and rock musicians. From the time he was 14, Hurt performed locally in and near his tiny hometown while making his living as a farm laborer. Like other Mississippi masters, he was tracked down later in life by a blues fan and scholar and introduced to the burgeoning blues revival of the mid-1960s. During the last three years of his life, to his surprise and delight, he was accepted with open arms by thousands of fans and subsequently made his living as a performer. He has influenced the musicianship and songwriting of blues, folk and rock and his musical descendants include Taj Mahal, Ben Harper, Bob Dylan and many others.
Essential listening: "Frankie," "Louis Collins," "Avalon Blues," "Stack O' Lee," "Big Leg Blues"
Elmore James
Born: June 27, 1910, Richland, Mississippi
Died: May 24, 1963, Chicago, Illinois
Elmore James was a master of slide guitar, and has influenced just about everyone who has ever picked up a slide. His powerful vocals would naturally and dramatically crack and catch, giving authenticity to his sound. His on-and-off day job as a radio repairman complemented his art he experimented with sound distortion decades before it became a staple of modern rock. James began performing at the age of 14, and played with Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf, Sonny Boy Williamson and others. His style as a vocalist and guitarist were heavily influenced by Robert Johnson, and his reworking of Johnson's original "(I Believe I'll) Dust My Broom" became a signature hit for him (under the shortened title "Dust My Broom"). Like his contemporary Muddy Waters, James brought his version of Delta blues to Chicago, where his amazing band, the Broomdusters, added to the city's superb music scene. James has influenced blues and rock and roll musicians, from B.B. King and Eric Clapton to Johnny Winter and Duane Allman, as well as many others.
Essential listening: "Dust My Broom," "The Sky is Crying," "Hand in Hand," "Shake Your Money Maker"
Skip James
Born: June 21, 1902, Bentonia, Mississippi
Died: October 3, 1969, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Also known as: Nehemiah Curtis James
Skip James is known for his unique, haunting style of blues. He combined falsetto vocals with minor chords, complex finger picking, an idiosyncratic tuning, and a highly personal style of songwriting to create some of the genre's most original music. James was one of Robert Johnson's biggest influences; his original song "Devil Got My Woman" was reworked by Johnson and became the latter's signature hit "Hellhound on my Trail". Like many of his contemporaries of the early Delta blues scene, he turned to another means of livelihood, becoming a preacher at the age of 30 and turning his musical attention to gospel. By chance James was rediscovered during the early 1960s, and subsequently thrilled blues fans at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival, thereby re-launching his career. It was obvious that his musical skills were still as sharp as ever and his unique style was intact. In 1966 the band Cream released a popular version of James's original "I'm So Glad."
Essential listening: "Devil Got My Woman," "I'm So Glad," "Sickbed Blues, "Hard Time Killin' Floor Blues"
Blind Lemon Jefferson
Born: July 1897, Couchman, Texas
Died: December, 1929, Chicago, Illinois
Also known as: Deacon L.J. Bates
Blind Lemon Jefferson was a groundbreaking artist on many levels, and is the undisputed father of Texas blues. His innovative guitar style probably partly influenced by Mexican flamenco guitarists featured a flair for arpeggios (playing each note of a chord separately rather than in unison), unconventional use of bass notes and unusual phrasing as well as jazz-inspired improvisation, all of which paved the way for the many brilliant Texas guitarists who would follow in his lineage, from T-Bone Walker to Stevie Ray Vaughan. Walker, in fact, knew Jefferson and was directly influenced by him. Even early in his career Jefferson's remarkable talent was evident. He built a fan base playing on the streets of Dallas, and was able to provide for his family on those earnings. He recorded close to 100 songs within only four years, and his commercial success broke ground for male blues singers in an era where the genre was dominated by women, such as Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith. As a talented songwriter he shifted the common practice of blues vocalists primarily performing songs written by others. His original material includes many blues classics.
Essential listening: "See That My Grave is Kept Clean," "Jack of Diamonds," "Matchbox Blues"
Blind Willie Johnson
Born: 1902, Marlin, Texas
Died: 1947, Beaumont, Texas
Blind Willie Johnson was a deeply religious man who played gospel music, much of it blues-based, as a way to preach. His passionate performance style featured powerful, rough vocals designed to reach the masses from Texas street corners. Johnson was a talented songwriter as well as a superb slide guitarist. He would pick the melody while accompanying himself with a bass line he'd play with his thumb, and he reportedly played slide with a pocketknife rather than the customary bottleneck. During the 1930s Johnson did some recording for Columbia. A number of his songs became classics, and have been covered by many artists, including Eric Clapton, Peter, Paul and Mary and Ry Cooder.
Essential listening: "Motherless Children Have a Hard Time," "Let Your Light Shine on Me," "Dark Was the Night Cold Was the Ground," "If I Had My Way"
Robert Johnson
Born: May 8, 1911, Hazelhurst, Mississippi
Died: August 28, 1938, Greenwood, Mississippi
A young Robert Johnson hung around the Saturday night dances in the Delta watching Son House, Willie Brown and Charley Patton play and, to their amusement, trying to play guitar during the breaks. Years later Johnson ran into House and Brown, and Johnson's skill on the instrument stunned them. He had acquired his skill in such a short time that it inspired a rumor that became legend Johnson must have sold his soul to the devil. His tortured voice and emotional intensity seemed to give credence to the legend, although it is more likely that his own determination and inherent talent, as well as his exposure to the great Delta bluesmen, deserve the credit for his genius. In addition to being a gifted lyricist and composer and innovative guitarist, Johnson transferred "boogie woogie" from the piano to the guitar, playing the bottom guitar strings to accompany himself with a bass line, a technique that has become standard in blues composition. His influence on blues, from Muddy Waters and Eric Clapton to the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, is legendary.
Essential listening: "Walkin' Blues," "Love in Vain Blues," "Come on in My Kitchen" "Terraplane Blues," "Cross Road Blues"
Tommy Johnson
Born: 1896, Terry, Mississippi
Died: November 1, 1956, Crystal Springs, Mississippi
Tommy Johnson was a hell-raiser who could belt out the blues with a wide vocal range, from a low throaty snarl to a high falsetto. He had a dramatic flair in performance similar to his contemporary, Delta blues king Charley Patton, and in the early, pre-Robert Johnson days his influence on the genre was second only to that of Patton and Son House. He was not a virtuoso on the guitar, but had an original, evocative style, well-matched to his theatrical delivery. Johnson significantly influenced blues greats Muddy Waters, Robert Nighthawk and especially Howlin' Wolf, who would carry on and even outdo the Patton/Johnson tradition of incendiary, down-and-dirty showmanship. Johnson was also the quintessential blues bad boy, with a penchant for rampant womanizing and for alcohol, the latter of which led him to drastic extremes. He was known to down denatured alcohol, used for artificial heat, when the real thing wasn't available, a habit he documented in his original song "Canned Heat," from which the 1960s blues-rock group took its name. Johnson left behind a small but outstanding collection of recordings, almost all of which became classics.
Essential listening: "Maggie Campbell," "Big Road Blues," "Cool Drink of Water," "Canned Heat"
Tom Jones
Born: June 6, 1940, Pontypridd, South Wales
Tom Jones is a stunning vocalist with a powerful, emotionally expressive baritone-tenor range matched by a legendarily charismatic stage presence that has often been compared to that of Elvis Presley Presley, in fact, regarded him as one of the world's finest vocalists. Jones's first hit, "It's Not Unusual," reached number one in the U.K. and placed in the U.S. top 10 in 1965. He followed that up with a steady string of hits throughout the sixties, and eventually landed his own TV series. Jones's prolific recording career has encompassed everything from gospel to rockabilly to funk to electronic and dance music in the late eighties he collaborated with techno group Art of Noise, and had a big hit with a tongue-in-cheek cover of Prince's, "Kiss," a recording that showcased Jones's enduring talent and appeal as well as his sense of humor. Other milestones include a superb recording collaboration with the Chieftains and an acclaimed performance at the legendary Glastonbury Festival, both in the early nineties. Jones remains an esteemed performer worldwide, and continues to tour and record; his latest release, Mr. Jones, is a collaboration with acclaimed hip hop artist Wyclef Jean.
Essential listening: "Tennessee Waltz," "Kiss," "Green, Green Grass of Home," "She's a Lady," "I Who Have Nothing"
Albert King
Born: April 25, 1923, Indianola, Mississippi
Died: December 21, 1992
Also known as: Albert Nelson
As a child an enterprising Albert King reportedly built his own guitar out of a cigar box. A brilliant guitarist in his own right, King was originally inspired by Texas blues great Blind Lemon Jefferson. Like B.B. King, he was a master of single string solos and used the technique of "string bending" to great emotional effect. He was also left-handed, and instead of restringing the guitar, he just learned to play it upside down, which added an original tone to his style. His blues are infused with a Memphis soul sound; he became a rock and blues star after signing to the Memphis-based Stax label, which was responsible for some of the finest soul music ever recorded. King always managed to keep his sound fresh and original, and had a significant impact on blues and rock; he has influenced Eric Clapton, Robert Clay, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Otis Rush, among others. He had the honor of playing San Francisco's Fillmore West on opening night with John Mayall and Jimi Hendrix and often shared the bill with rock artists throughout his career. King continued to tour until his death in 1992.
Essential listening: "Don't Throw Your Love on Me So Strong," "Crosscut Saw," "Born Under a Bad Sign," "I'll Play the Blues for You"
B.B. King
Born: September 16, 1925, Indianola, Mississippi
Also known as: Riley B. King
B.B. King's career has spanned five decades and taken him from the clubs of Memphis to the finest concert halls in the world. He's known as the King of the Blues, and for his enduring and successful efforts as a gracious, respected blues diplomat he deserves much of the credit for the genre's mainstream popularity and recognition. Early in his career King worked as a Memphis disc jockey, where he was known as the Beale Street Blues Boy, which was later shortened to B.B. Although King's roots are in Delta blues, his sound has always been more polished, probably due to his wide variety of influences, which include jazz, gospel and pop. King's highly influential style probably originally inspired by Texas blues greats Blind Lemon Jefferson and T-Bone Walker features "single string" guitar solos that are so well-integrated with his commanding vocals that it's sometimes hard to tell the two apart. He also "bends" the strings, which continues the sound in a way that enhances the music's emotion. He has influenced countless blues and rock artists, including Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Johnny Winter and Jeff Beck. King continues to record and perform as powerfully as ever.
Essential listening: "Three O'Clock Blues," "How Blue Can You Get," "The Thrill is Gone," "Sweet Little Angel," "Paying the Cost to be the Boss"
Chris Thomas King
Born: October 14, 1963, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Also known as: Chris Thomas
The essence of Chris Thomas King's versatile, heavily blues-influenced music can perhaps best be hinted at with a quick sample of his album titles: his 1986 debut, The Beginning; 1995's 21st Century Blues From da Hood; 2000's Me, My Guitar and the Blues; and 2002's Dirty South Hip-Hop Blues. King's early influences leaned toward soul, rock and reggae, specifically Prince, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley, but it was inevitable that his blues birthright (as the son of Louisiana bluesman Tabby Thomas) would eventually wend its way into his work. King toured Europe with his father in 1983, and since then the blues have been an integral part of his work. Throughout his career he has fused the blues with hip hop, rap, funk and soul, and also has repeatedly returned to a more pure form of blues, exploring the soul and history of the music in a critically acclaimed, always-evolving body of work. King is most recently known for his appearance on the award-winning soundtrack from the film O Brother Where Art Thou , in which he also played a supporting role.
Read an archived version of King's Washington Post online chat.
Essential listening: "Soon This Morning Blues," "Mary Jane," "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues," "Da Thrill is Gone From Here," "Revelations"
Sam Lay
Born: March 20, 1935, Birmingham, Alabama
Sam Lay is the quintessential blues drummer, and was a major figure on the Chicago blues scene in the 1960's. He played for years with legend Howlin' Wolf, and throughout his career has backed many other blues greats, including Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, and Willie Dixon. He eventually was hired away from Howlin' Wolf by the legendary Paul Butterfield Blues Band. Lay was part of Butterfield's band when they backed Bob Dylan at his infamous premier electric performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. He has played on many classic albums, including the 1965 release Paul Butterfield Blues Band, that significantly impacted the 1960s blues revival; Muddy Waters's Fathers and Sons; and Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited. Lay is famous for the "double shuffle" beat, which, like Bo Diddley's famous rock beat, was originally inspired by the clapping rhythms of gospel congregations. Lay has been nominated for several W.C. Handy awards.
Essential listening: "I'm Ready," "Standing Around Crying" (from Fathers and Sons, Chess); "Blues With a Feeling," "I Got My Mojo Working," "Shake Your Money Maker" (from Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Elektra)
Lead Belly
Born: January 20, 1888, Mooringsport, Louisiana
Died: December 6, 1949, New York, New York
Also known as: Huddie William Ledbetter
By all accounts Lead Belly was a captivating performer, and the story of his colorful life certainly gives credence to the reputation. His performance was enchanting enough to disarm even the heavy arm of Southern, white, law enforcement he twice was pardoned from long prison sentences as a result of his talent. Lead Belly was an itinerant musician, and a living catalogue of many musical traditions and influences, from folk to country blues to prison songs to ballads. His wide repertoire carried a rich sense of black history. He traveled and played for a time with Blind Lemon Jefferson, who was probably his primary blues influence and reportedly taught him how to play slide guitar. It was folklorist John Lomax who recognized Lead Belly as a national treasure and orchestrated his second prison release on those grounds, later recording him and organizing performances. Lead Belly later moved to New York and became an integral part of the city's folk scene. During his lifetime he never experienced the success and recognition he deserved, but his influence on American music is incalculable. He has inspired many songwriters, including Bob Dylan, and his recordings document a rich musical legacy that without him might have been forgotten.
Essential listening: "Goodnight Irene," "Bourgeois Blues," "Scottsboro Blues," "Rock Island Line"
J.B. Lenoir
Born: May 5, 1929, Monticello, Mississippi
Died: April 29, 1967, Urbana, Illinois
J.B. Lenoir probably picked up his solid "boogie woogie" influence in New Orleans, where he spent some time performing before he settled into Chicago's blues scene during the fifties and sixties. While in New Orleans he played with blues greats Sonny Boy Williamson II and Elmore James. Once Lenoir made it to Chicago, Big Bill Broonzy helped introduce him to the local blues community, and he became an important part of the city's blues scene. He was a talented songwriter and bluesman with an obvious political awareness. Examples of his outspoken views can be found in "Korea Blues," and "Eisenhower Blues" the latter reportedly caused enough controversy that his record label forced him to remake the tune under the title "Tax Paying Blues." His penchant for social commentary and his high-pitched vocals distinguish him from other bluesmen of that time. Lenoir's recordings are also distinctive for their excellent saxophone arrangements and unconventional drumming (Alex Atkins and Ernest Cotton were often on sax with Al Gavin on drums). Lenoir had successfully toured Europe and was likely about to achieve greater fame when he died in 1966 due to complications from a car accident.
Essential listening: "Shot on James Meredith," "Mama, Talk to Your Daughter," "Everybody Wants to Know," "Natural Man," "Eisenhower Blues," "Korea Blues," "Vietnam Blues"
Little Richard
Born: December 5, 1932, Macon, Georgia
Also known as: Richard Wayne Penniman
Little Richard was a crucial link between R&B and rock and roll, merging the two with passionate, gospel-inspired vocals and a truly incendiary presence that translated incredibly well onto recording tape. The true peak of his career only lasted three years (and included appearances in rock and roll films), but his many hits are absolute classics and he had an enormous influence on blues, rock, and pop music. Little Richard's recordings feature an overwhelming compilation of superb musicianship his ferocious vocals and relentlessly wild piano playing, strong baritone and tenor sax (often Alvin Tyler and Lee Alvin, respectively), and fabulous rhythm section (namely drummer Earl Palmer). Like other performers such as Son House and Blind Willie Johnson, the religious fervor Little Richard brought to his music was key to its riveting appeal. In 1957 he actually turned his back on his music career in favor of religious studies. He came back to music in the early 1960s, and later repeated the journey from music to religion and back again. Little Richard continues to perform on occasion.
Essential listening: "Lucille," "Good Golly Miss Molly," "Long Tall Sally," "Tutti Frutti"
Alan Lomax
Born: January 15, 1915, Austin, Texas
Died: July 19, 2002, Sarasota, Florida
Alan Lomax began his long career as a folklorist when he was still a teenager, traveling with his father, John, throughout the South to preserve the area's music legacy of folk, work songs and spirituals, among other music. During their travels to Southern prisons, the father and son team came upon William Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, recorded him for the first time and actually negotiated his release on the basis of the singer/songwriter's talent. Alan Lomax subsequently returned to the South on his own, where he recorded many Mississippi bluesmen, including Muddy Waters, Son House, and Mississippi Fred McDowell. He also recorded jazz legend Jelly Roll Morton. Lomax's life was dedicated to preserving the musical legacy of not only the United States, but other parts of the world as well, including Europe and the Caribbean. His blues recordings are classics, and in his award-winning memoir, The Land Where the Blues Began, he not only chronicled the history of the blues as seen through his field experiences, but also captured the bitter racism that was faced by the now-legendary artists he recorded. Lomax left behind an invaluable musical and historical legacy.
Essential listening: "Walking Blues," "Country Blues," "Life is Like That" (from The Land Where the Blues Began, 2002, Rounder)
Brownie McGhee
Born: November 30, 1915, Knoxville, Tennessee
Died: February 23, 1996, Oakland, California
Also known as: Walter McGhee
Brownie McGhee played blues guitar in a style that was heavily influenced by Blind Boy Fuller, a North Carolina native whose repertoire included a complicated finger picking style characteristic of a regional genre known as Piedmont blues. Early in his career, McGhee worked as a traveling performer. When he made it to North Carolina he met Blind Boy Fuller and his manager, J.B. Long, and it was Long who helped McGhee make his first recordings. McGhee later moved to New York where he teamed up with harmonica player Sonny Terry. With the help of legendary singer/songwriter Lead Belly, McGhee and Terry became an important part of the city's folk scene, working with such artists as Pete Seeger and Woody Guthrie. As a duo they were enormously popular performers and prolific recording artists for almost four decades. McGhee also opened a music school in Harlem where he offered guitar lessons. Both individually and in his partnership with Sonny Terry, McGhee had a lasting influence on both blues and folk. He was an accomplished and versatile guitarist and vocalist whose mastery as a musician included R&B, electric blues and vintage country blues, in addition to the Piedmont style he helped preserve.
Essential listening: "Workingman's Blues," "Death of Blind Boy Fuller," "Living With the Blues"
Magic Slim
Born: August 7, 1937, Grenada, Mississippi
Also known as: Morris Holt
A Magic Slim performance brings the history of Chicago blues to life he studied and played with the masters and he brings their styles together, infusing them with his own fiery skill. He might not be the King of the Blues in Chicago, but he's certainly one of the royal family. Slim grew up in Mississippi and knew blues great Magic Sam when the two were children it was Sam who gave him the nickname. Slim came to Chicago in the mid-fifties with the hopes of becoming a great bluesman, but didn't have the skill level to hold his own with the city's stars. He came back ten years later having honed his licks and formed a band with his brothers; the group soon became a powerful force on the city's South Side. Slim was particularly influenced by the guitar work of Muddy Waters, Freddie King, Buddy Guy, Otis Rush and his old buddy Magic Sam, and he was a devoted student. Decades (and personnel changes) later Slim and his band still maintain a reputation for blowing the room away with their powerful lead and rhythm guitar stylings and a truly amazing repertoire, including fine original material.
Essential listening: "Scuffling," "Love My Baby," "Help Yourself"
Taj Mahal
Born: May 17, 1942, New York, New York
Also known as: Henry St. Claire Fredericks
Taj Mahal is an extremely versatile songwriter, musician and performer who incorporates his lifelong study of blues and other genres, as well as the music of other cultures including Hawaiian, West African, reggae, zydeco, R&B, Latin, gospel, jazz and folk in his songwriting and performance. Mahal has mastered many instruments, including piano, bass, guitar, banjo and harmonica, and is an expressive vocalist. His deep respect for the true roots of all musical styles is evident in his performance. Stories of legendary and obscure artists from blues and other genres as well as various musical styles and influences are often interspersed between songs. Mahal began performing as a folk singer while he was still a teenager, and during college he became part of Boston's folk scene. He eventually moved to Los Angeles where for a short time he worked with guitar master Ry Cooder. Mahal's loyalty to blues can be found on most of the albums he has released in his prolific career, and is particularly evident in his early, critically-acclaimed releases. Taj Mahal continues to record and perform.
Essential listening: "Fishin' Blues," "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl," "Do I Love Her," "Satisfied and Tickled Too," "Strut," "Hard Way"
John Mayall
Born: November 29, 1933, Manchester, England
John Mayall's considerable talent as a composer and performer is often overshadowed by the influence of his ever-changing band, the Bluesbreakers, which has been in existence since the early 1960's, and early on gained a prestigious reputation that has endured to the present day. Mayall brought together a stunning array of talent in the groundbreaking group, which mined the annals of American blues history in addition to performing original music. The group was partly experimental, and as a result its sound was inconsistent, but much of it was outstanding. Many members of the Bluesbreakers subsequently became superstars. Even a short list of the band's veterans reads like a who's who in enduring sixties and seventies blues-rock: Eric Clapton and bassist Jack Bruce, who left to form the supergroup Cream; guitarist Mick Taylor, who left to join the Rolling Stones; and guitarist Peter Green, bassist John McVie and drummer Mick Fleetwood, who with others co-founded Fleetwood Mac (originally conceived as a pure blues band). Mayall continues to perform, often with longtime Bluesbreakers veterans and other blues legends.
Essential listening: "All Your Love," "Room to Move," "Ramblin' On My Mind," "Parchman Farm," "It Ain't Right"
Memphis Minnie
Born: June 3, 1897, Algiers, Louisiana
Died: August 6, 1973, Memphis, Tennessee
Also known as: Lizzie Douglas
Memphis Minnie was an accomplished guitarist, banjo player, vocalist and songwriter whose career was long and prolific, and she won the enduring respect of her contemporaries, male and female. Her talent had an impact on Memphis's famed Beale Street blues community as well as both the pre-war and post-war Chicago blues scene. She established herself on Beale Street during the 1920s, then moved to Chicago in 1930, where she reportedly regularly won guitar playing competitions, beating out the best of them, including Big Bill Broonzy, Tampa Red, and Muddy Waters. In addition to her superb musicianship, her performance featured rich vocals with a deep, full tone. Her songwriting, often conveying a purely female perspective, was as gutsy and suggestive as any of her male counterparts, and many of her originals have become classics. Among her many contributions to the blues, she was also known for her kindness and generosity toward up and coming blues musicians. In 1971 Led Zeppelin recorded its take on her original "When the Levee Breaks" a testament to the timeless appeal of her music.
Essential listening: "Bumble Bee," "I'd Rather See Him Dead," "Moaning the Blues," "When the Levee Breaks," "Hoodoo Lady"
Muddy Waters
Born: April 4, 1915, Rolling Forks, Mississippi
Died: April 30, 1983, Westmont, Illinois
Also known as: McKinley Morganfield
Muddy Waters grew up in the Mississippi Delta, singing as he worked in the cotton fields as a boy and playing near his favorite muddy creek thus the nickname. He picked up a guitar when he was 17. Influenced by the deeply emotional performer Son House as well as Robert Johnson, Waters became an accomplished bluesman himself. In the early 1940s he took the raw depth of the Delta blues to Chicago, and in a few years he had revolutionized the city's blues scene. His many contributions to Chicago blues include his skill with an electric guitar, his tough, powerful vocals, and his evocative, compelling songwriting. As a bandleader he established the ensemble sound and style of Chicago electric blues just about every great Chicago blues player of that time was in Waters's band at one point or another. British rockers the Rolling Stones took their name from a Waters's song a testament to Waters's extensive influence on both American and British rock and roll.
Essential listening: "Rolling Stone," "Honey Bee," "I Can't Be Satisfied," "Mannish Boy," "Got My Mojo Working"
Willie Nix
Born: August 6, 1922, Memphis, Tennessee
Died: July 8, 1991, Leland, Mississippi
Willie Nix was an innovative drummer and gifted lyricist as well as vocalist, and was an integral part of Memphis's Beale Street blues community during the late forties and early fifties. Nix originally began performing as a tap-dancer when he was very young his creative sense of rhythm as a drummer likely had its roots in his instincts as a dancer. Nix recorded and played in both Memphis and Chicago, and worked with legendary bluesmen in both cities, among them Junior Parker, B.B. King, Elmore James, Sonny Boy Williamson II, and Bobby Blue Bland. Nix eventually moved back to Memphis and continued to be a local fixture in the blues community. He performed on and off until his death in 1991.
Essential listening: "Truckin' Little Woman," "Nervous Wreck," "No More Love"
Junior Parker
Born: March 27, 1932, West Memphis, Arkansas
Died: November 18, 1971, Chicago, Illinois
Also known as: Herman Parker, Jr.
Junior Parker was known for his prowess as a vocalist, bandleader, songwriter and harmonica player, but it was his voice which music historians describe as "honeyed," "velvet-smooth" and "magic carpet" that brought him real fame. Parker was mentored in the subtleties of blues harp (harmonica) by the blues legend Sonny Boy Williamson II, and joined Howlin' Wolf's band when he was still a teenager. He was part of Memphis's famous Beale Street blues community. Reportedly one of talent scout Ike Turner's many discoveries, Parker recorded for Sun records in the early fifties; his rendition of the self-penned "Mystery Train" made it to number 5 on the R&B charts and was later covered by Elvis Presley. Parker's recordings would make the charts many more times throughout the decade and into the early sixties. During the late fifties Parker led a highly successful R&B revue, Blues Consolidated, which also featured fellow Beale Street vocalist Bobby Blue Bland. Though he never was able to sustain the fame he'd achieved during the fifties, Parker continued working as a recording artist and performer throughout the sixties.
Essential listening: "Mystery Train," "Next Time You See Me," "Barefoot Rock," "Feelin' Good," "Love My Baby"
Charley Patton
Born: 1891, Edwards, Mississippi
Died: April 28, 1934, Indianola, Mississippi
Charley Patton is the uncontested father of the Delta blues. His ferocious, high energy performance brought the house down on a regular basis with a gritty, raw vocal style and an ability to act as a one-man percussion section with his guitar, creating an innovative flow of rhythm and counter-rhythm. His uninhibited performances onstage were reflected in his lifestyle he was a match for any one of his musical descendants as a hard drinker and womanizer. Patton's legacy has inspired, directly and indirectly, generations of both blues and rock and roll musicians. The guitar gymnastics of Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan are echoes of Patton's performance style, and his use of rhythm and "popping" bass notes presaged funk by decades. Patton influenced and played with blues greats Son House and Willie Brown, and also influenced Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Johnny Shines, John Lee Hooker, and Pop Staples, among many others.
Essential listening: "Pony Blues," "High Water Everywhere," "Oh Death," "High Sheriff Blues"
Sam Phillips
Born: January 1, 1923, Florence, Alabama
Died: July 31, 2003, Memphis, Tennessee
Sam Phillips has had an enormous impact on music, particularly blues, rock and roll and rockabilly. As an innovative producer and owner of Memphis's legendary Sun Studios, Phillips made his mark on music history by discovering and recording such legends as Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and others. Slightly earlier in his career, however, Phillips recorded many blues legends, including Howlin' Wolf, B.B. King, Little Milton and Junior Parker. Sun Studios is often called "The Birthplace of Rock and Roll" in 1951 Phillips recorded the legendary single "Rocket 88," which is often referred to as the first rock and roll record. The song reached number one on R&B charts and helped put Memphis on the musical map. Phillip's obvious gift for bringing out the best in his recording artists is evident on early Sun recordings, which are also known for their live, vital sound. Sun Studios still exists in its original Memphis location.
Essential listening: "B.B. Blues," "My Baby Walked Off," "I Found a New Love," "Lookin' for My Baby" (from Blue Flames: A Sun Blues Collection, Rhino-Sun)
Professor Longhair
Born: December 19, 1918, Bogalusa, Louisiana
Died: January 30, 1980, New Orleans, Louisiana
Also known as: Henry Roeland "Roy" Byrd
Professor Longhair is known as the Father of New Orleans rhythm and blues. He was a vocalist and songwriter, and as a pianist his wildly innovative style combined zydeco, jazz, blues, calypso and ragtime influences with an amazing sense of rhythm. Longhair's infectious talent influenced New Orleans-based greats such as Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, and Fats Domino, among others. He began performing when he was quite young, and later formed several bands, including Professor Longhair and his Blues Jumpers, with whom he recorded the single, "Baldhead," which eventually reached number 5 on the R&B charts. During most of his career he remained a local legend because of his lack of interest in touring, but many of his recordings became New Orleans classics, including "Tipitina," for which the legendary nightclub was named. Longhair's popularity subsided during the 1960's and he worked as a janitor until his performance career was revived in the early seventies. Thereafter he was a regular at New Orleans's Jazz & Heritage Festival, toured the U.S. and Europe and continued to record to critical acclaim.
Essential recordings: "Tipitina," "Baldhead," "Big Chief," "Go to the Mardi Gras," "In the Night"
Gertrude "Ma" Rainey
Born: April 26, 1886, Columbus, Georgia
Died: December 22, 1939, Columbus, Georgia
Also known as: Gertrude Pridgett
Ma Rainey is commonly known as the Mother of the Blues because of her significant influence on the many female blues singers who succeeded her. She began performing in minstrel and vaudeville shows around the age of 14, and is widely considered to be one of the first female singers to perform blues in that setting. She was an important link between the rough vocals of country blues, then a male-dominated genre which her vocal delivery resembled, and the more polished sound of classic urban blues, a female-dominated genre which she ultimately influenced. In 1904 Rainey married William (known as Pa) Rainey, and the two of them performed together calling themselves "Assasinators of the Blues." Legend has it that during their travels Ma Rainey met Bessie Smith, and became somewhat of a mentor to the young singer. In addition to Rainey's vocal prowess, she was also a talented songwriter. After more than two decades of performing, Rainey began to record in 1923, and she left behind a prolific legacy that includes many classics.
Essential listening: "C.C. Rider," "Bo Weavil Blues," "Jelly Bean Blues," "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"
Bonnie Raitt
Born: November 8, 1949
An accomplished slide guitarist and blues singer/songwriter, Bonnie Raitt incongruously dropped out of an Ivy League college to work as an itinerant blues musician. Her considerable skill made an impression on Boston's blues scene, and she quickly won the respect of her peers, later playing with blues legends Howlin' Wolf, Son House, Muddy Waters, and others. Raitt began recording to critical acclaim in the early seventies, mixing blues with R&B, pop, jazz and New Orleans influences and garnering a loyal cult following. Like her female predecessors, her music often features a gender-specific spin on the blues; her original interpretation of Chris Smither's "Love Me Like a Man" contains a clever response to Muddy Waters's "Rock Me," and her rendition of Sippie Wallace's "Women Be Wise" likewise offers a refreshing female perspective. In the eighties Raitt's career slowed somewhat until the release of the aptly-titled Nick of Time in 1989, at which point, in the words of blues historian Robert Santelli, she "pulled off one of the greatest career turnarounds in modern pop history."* Raitt received six Grammy awards for the album, and followed it up with another Grammy-winner in 1992. She continues to record and tour.
Essential listening: "Love Me Like a Man," "Give It Up or Let Me Go," "Women Be Wise," "Walking Blues," "Feeling of Falling"
* Santelli, Robert. The Big Book of Blues. New York: Penguin Books, 1993.
Jimmy Reed
Born: September 9, 1925, Dunleith, Mississippi
Died: August 29, 1976, Oakland, California
Also known as: Mathias James Reed
Jimmy Reed's brand of blues was smooth, warm and even sweet quite a contrast to the rough, gritty sound which usually characterizes the genre. Reed and his guitarist Eddie Taylor were childhood friends in Mississippi, and they later settled in Chicago, where they would became a unique recording presence. Reed's easygoing style, built on a solid foundation of Delta blues, featured walking "boogie woogie" bass notes, catchy rhythmic hooks crafted by Taylor and fluid harmonica riffs. All this was delivered through Reed's expressive, irresistible vocals the combination was a contagiously compelling sound. Some of Reed's success was also due to his wife Mary Lee's considerable talent as a songwriter. Reed's recordings were hugely popular with both blues and pop audiences; he enjoyed a long series of hits from 1955 through 1961. Many of his songs have been covered by blues, rock and roll and pop artists, including the Rolling Stones, who along with Bob Dylan acknowledge him as a huge influence. Even the king of rock and roll, Elvis Presley, couldn't resist recording a Jimmy Reed song.
Essential listening: "Ain't That Loving You Baby," "Baby What Do You Want Me to Do," "Hush, Hush," "Shame, Shame, Shame," "You Don't Have to Go"
The Rolling Stones
Original and later band members: Mick Jagger, born July 26, 1943, Dartford, England; Keith Richards, born December 18, 1943, Dartford, England; Brian Jones, born February 28, 1942, Cheltenham, England, died July 3, 1969, London, England; Charlie Watts, born June 2, 1941, Islington, London, England; Bill Wyman, born October 24, 1936, London, England; Ron Wood, born June 1, 1947, Hillingdon, London, England
The Rolling Stones melded blues and R&B with classic rock and roll, and eventually lived up to their self-proclaimed moniker "the World's Greatest Rock and Roll band." As rock and roll's quintessential bad boys, in the beginning the Stones were the antithesis of the clean-cut Beatles, and their sound was a gritty, edgy departure from the sounds of the time. The band took their name from a Muddy Waters song, a testament to the fact that they were avid fans of classic blues. As a young man, outrageously charismatic front man and songwriter Mick Jagger was a regular mail-order customer of the Chicago blues label Chess Records (the band would later record there and work for years with the co-founder's son Marshall). Guitarists Brian Jones and Keith Richards (who formed a notoriously brilliant songwriting partnership with Jagger) were both heavily influenced by Delta blues; Jones idolized legendary blues slide guitarist Elmore James and Richards's highly influential playing made considerable use of the genre's open chord tunings. Drummer Charlie Watts and bassist Bill Wyman were a formidable rhythm section; Watts had previously played with one of Great Britain's esteemed blues band, Blues, Inc. Jones left the band just before his death 1969 and was replaced by Mick Taylor, a veteran of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Taylor left in 1975, and in 1976 was replaced by Ron Wood, who had played with the Jeff Beck Group as well as Small Faces. Wyman left the group in 1991, and was replaced in 1994 by Daryl Jones. The Rolling Stones, who continue to tour, are commonly regarded as one of the most influential bands in the history of music.
Essential listening: "Loving Cup," "Moonlight Mile," "Love in Vain," "I Just Want to Make Love to You"
Bobby Rush
Born: November 10, 1940, Homer, Louisiana
Bobby Rush began performing in Chicago as a teenager, and performed with blues greats Freddie King and Luther Allison. He saw some recording success during the 1970s, making the R&B charts with his hit "Chicken Heads," which is still one of his standards, and became a very popular performer and prolific recording artist after he moved to Mississippi in the early eighties. Rush is known for his high-energy performances, featuring lighthearted, funky, and often very suggestive blues, R&B, and soul. He has received several nominations for the prestigious W.C. Handy awards as well as other blues, R&B and soul awards.
Read an archived version of Bobby Rush's Washington Post online chat.
Essential listening: "A Man Can Give It (But He Can't Take It)," "Chicken Heads," "Mama Talk To Your Daughter," "Sue," "What's Good for the Goose is Good for the Gander"
Otis Rush
Born: April 29, 1934, Philadelphia, Mississippi
Otis Rush is a stunning vocalist, innovative guitarist and songwriter who has hugely influenced blues and rock artists, including Johnny Winter, Stevie Ray Vaughan (whose band, Double Trouble, was named after Rush's song of the same name), Jeff Beck, and Carlos Santana. Rush was inspired to become a bluesman after he moved to Chicago in the late forties and saw Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf perform. Along with Buddy Guy and Magic Slim, Rush developed a playing style that would become known as the "West Side sound," an emotionally intense combination of guitar licks and expressive vocals, with an urban sound that signified a departure from classic Mississippi Delta blues. Willie Dixon recognized Rush's genius early on, and Rush's recording of Dixon's original, "I Can't Quit You, Baby," reached number 9 on the R&B charts in the mid-fifties. A songwriter in his own right, Rush's frequent use of minor keys provides his music with a subtle but unmistakably anguished tone and interesting moodiness. He is a left-handed guitarist, and like Albert King, one of his primary influences, he plays the guitar upside down rather than having it restrung. Rush continues to tour.
Essential listening: "I Can't Quit You, Baby," "Double Trouble," "So Many Roads, So Many Trains," "All Your Love"
Bessie Smith
Born: April 15, 1894, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Died: September 26, 1937, Clarksdale, Mississippi
Bessie Smith's talent as a vocalist is legendary and she has influenced generations of blues singers, from Billie Holiday to Janis Joplin. She was enormously successful throughout the twenties as a blues and sometimes jazz singer, and beyond that she was an inspiration to the black community, as she lived her life with confidence and uncompromising self-respect, on no one's terms but her own. This self-assurance was part of the appeal of her rich, expressive vocals. Smith sometimes wrote her own material, such as "Back Water Blues." Her career was impacted by the Depression, as were the careers of many artists, but she continued to perform. She was probably on the verge of a comeback, reportedly having been scheduled to play Carnegie Hall at John Hammond's legendary concert "From Spirituals to Swing," when she was killed in a car accident in 1937.
Essential recordings: "Lost Your Head Blues," "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," "'Tain't Nobody's Business if I Do," "Back Water Blues," "Broken Hearted Blues"
Mamie Smith
Born: May 26, 1883, Cincinnati, Ohio
Died: October 30, 1946, New York, New York
Mamie Smith was primarily a cabaret and vaudeville singer, but she made blues history by being the first singer to record a blues song. "Crazy Blues," recorded in 1920, was a huge hit, selling more than one million copies within a year of its release. This success inspired the release of further blues recordings by female artists. So, although Mamie Smith technically wasn't a blues singer, she was a groundbreaking and influential artist for the genre. Her majestic stage presence and ornate costumes and jewelry also influenced other female blues singers of the twenties.
Essential listening: "Crazy Blues," "It's Right Here for You," "You Can't Keep a Good Man Down," "That Thing Called Love"
Victoria Spivey
Born: October 15, 1906, Houston, Texas
Died: October 3, 1976, New York, New York
Victoria Spivey's career lasted much longer than that of most other female blues singers of the 1920s. She was a clever songwriter who unflinchingly addressed diverse topics, and as a vocalist her delivery of the blues was sincere and convincing. Spivey started out as a performer in Houston, and is rumored to have played with Blind Lemon Jefferson. For a time she worked as a songwriter for the St. Louis Music Company, and later was based in New York, where she performed constantly. Spivey was artistically influenced by blues great Ida Cox, and she may have also been influenced by her on a more practical level both women are reputed to have had formidable business acumen. Spivey took a hiatus from music during the fifties, but managed a comeback in the early sixties, starting her own record company just in time for the mid-sixties blues revival to breathe new life into her career as a performer. She released predominantly classic blues on her record label, and continued to tour until her death in 1976.
Essential listening: "Dope Head Blues," "Black Snake Blues," TB Blues," "Organ Grinder Blues"
Koko Taylor
Born: September 28, 1935, Memphis, Tennessee
Also known as: Cora Walton
Koko Taylor is a living testament to blues history and can still belt out a song as powerfully and joyfully as ever. A warm, charismatic performer, she has been the undisputed Queen of Chicago Blues for decades, and her reign is still going strong. Taylor's career began after she and her husband moved from Memphis to Chicago, where they frequented the local blues clubs. Once she began sitting in with bands it quickly became obvious she could hold her own not only among female vocalists, but with any of the male heavy hitters, such as contemporaries Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters. Among her fans was blues great Willie Dixon, who was instrumental in the advancement of her career. Her recording of his original song "Wang Dang Doodle" climbed the rhythm and blues charts, was a million-plus seller, and remains one of her classics. For almost 20 years running she garnered the pretigious W.C. Handy Award. A legend in her own right, she has been compared to blues greats Bessie Smith and Big Mama Thornton. In the late 1980s Taylor overcame health challenges and adversity to maintain her reputation as a performer and recording artist of passionate, soulful blues.
Essential listening: "I'm A Woman," "Wang Dang Doodle," "What Kind of Man is This," "I Got What it Takes"
Sonny Terry
Born: October 24, 1911, Greensboro, North Carolina
Died: March 12, 1986, New York, New York
Sonny Terry was a legendary harmonica player who hugely influenced both blues and folk music. Terry began his career playing on the streets of Raleigh Durham, North Carolina, where he met local blues guitarist and vocalist Blind Boy Fuller. The two began performing and recording as a duo. After Fuller's death Terry teamed up with guitarist Brownie McGhee, who had been heavily influenced by Fuller. The musical partnership of Terry and McGhee would last three decades. The two became an important part of New York's folk scene, playing with legends Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Lead Belly. They were a versatile and enormously popular duo who always maintained their signature style, Piedmont blues, which was specific to the southeast United States. As a team they recorded prolifically and kept a busy touring schedule. The partnership ended in the mid-seventies and Terry continued to record and perform on his own. He published a book, The Harp Styles of Sonny Terry, in 1975.
Essential listening: "Mountain Blues," "One Monkey Don't Stop the Show," "Sonny's Whoopin' the Doop," "I Think I Got the Blues"
Sister Rosetta Tharpe
Born: March 20, 1921, Cotton Plant, Arkansas
Died: October 9, 1973, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Sister Rosetta Tharpe mastered the guitar by the age of 6, and grew up singing gospel with her mother. Tharpe was a riveting performer with a flair for showmanship and a definite blues influence in her phrasing and musicianship. She signed a recording contract with Decca while still a teenager and her recordings were huge hits. Tharpe's talent and appeal were so outrageous and contagious that it was inevitable her talents would one day extend beyond the gospel community. Her later career embodied the early, ongoing battle between sacred music and a more secular sound a struggle that many black artists from the gospel tradition have had to face. Eventually Tharpe caused great controversy in the gospel community and lost much of her loyal audience when she recorded pure blues in the early 1950s (along with gospel artist Madame Marie Knight). It took about a decade before Tharpe made her way back to acceptance from the gospel community. She continued to tour until her death in 1973.
Essential listening: "Rock Me," "This Train," "Down by the Riverside," "Didn't it Rain," "Up Above My Head"
Big Mama Thornton
Born: December 11, 1926, Montgomery, Alabama
Died: July 25, 1984, Los Angeles, California
Also known as: Willie Mae Thornton
Big Mama Thornton was a great blues vocalist in the tradition of Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie and Ma Rainey, and was also a drummer and harmonica player. She had considerable success with her 1953 recording of "Hound Dog," which reached number 1 on the R&B charts and stayed there for seven weeks. (Three years later the song was immortalized by Elvis Presley.) Thornton began her professional singing career at the age of 14, touring the South with the Hot Harlem Revue. She later moved to Houston, Texas where she did some recording and worked with Johnny Otis and Junior Parker, among others. In the early sixties she settled in San Francisco, playing in local blues clubs as well as touring with blues festivals. Thornton continued to perform until her death in 1984. Among her recordings is "Ball 'n Chain," recorded in 1965, which Janis Joplin covered three years later.
Essential listening: "Hound Dog," "Ball and Chain," "Just Like a Dog," "I Smell a Rat," "Stop Hoppin' on Me"
Ali Farka Toure
Born: 1939, Gourmararusse, Mali
Ali Farka Toure is a multi-lingual West African vocalist, guitarist, drummer, and songwriter who, as music historian Richie Unterberger observed, has been "described as 'the African John Lee Hooker' so many times that it probably began to grate on both Toure's and Hooker's nerves."* The comparison is due to Toure's mesmerizing, stripped-down sound that features innovative rhythm and haunting, low vocals. His exceptional music is often described as uniting the sounds of the Mississippi Delta with those of West Africa, and he clearly adds more global influences, musically and instrumentally, to the mix. Toure has had an enormous influence on world music, and has worked with Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal and the Chieftains, among others.
Essential listening: "Ali's Here," "Saukare," "Bonde," "Amandrai," "Soukora"
* www.allmusic.com
Big Joe Turner
Born: May 18, 1911, Kansas City, Missouri
Died: November 24, 1985, Inglewood, California
Big Joe Turner was an accomplished and uncommonly versatile vocalist. His career spanned half a century, during which he transitioned effortlessly from blues to R&B to rock and roll. Turner earned the nickname "Boss of the Blues" because of his powerhouse vocals and formidable stage presence. A Kansas City native, Turner started out playing in local nightclubs, mostly with pianist Pete Johnson, and sometimes with big bands, including that of Count Basie. Turner and Johnson became one of many acts noticed by legendary talent scout John Hammond. At Hammond's suggestion they moved to New York and were part of his "Spirituals to Swing" concert in 1938. The duo snared a regular gig at New York's Café Society, a prestigious jazz club, and their enormous popularity was partially responsible for the rise of "boogie woogie" music during the late thirties and early forties. Turner began to record and tour in the early forties, working with Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, and others. A decade later Turner transitioned to R&B, releasing years of solid hits between 1951 and 1956, and in the process becoming known as one of the founding fathers of rock and roll. Turner continued to perform and record until his death in 1985.
Essential listening: "Roll 'Em Pete," "Honey Hush," "Shake, Rattle, and Roll," "Corinna Corrina," "Chains of Love"
Ike Turner
Born: November 5, 1931, Clarksdale, Mississippi
Also known as: Izear Luster Turner, Jr.
Ike Turner has been an integral part of the history of blues, rock and R&B. As a pianist and guitarist he backed visiting bluesmen and performed with his own band, the Kings of Rhythm, while still in high school. He worked as a talent scout in Memphis and throughout the south, and as such he accelerated the careers of Howlin' Wolf, Little Milton and others; as a session musician he often backed up the talent he discovered. Turner's band recorded the song "Rocket 88" in 1951 (recorded under the name Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats), which hit number 1 on the R&B charts and is often called the "first rock and roll song." The band became very popular in St. Louis, and in the late fifties Turner added vocalist Annie Mae Bullock to the mix (who later changed her name to Tina Turner and married Ike). The band became the Ike & Tina Turner Review, and made R&B and rock history, charting singles, packing black nightclubs and touring with the Rolling Stones. Tina left the band and the marriage in 1974; subsequently Ike experienced some hard times, and his career faded. He later made a comeback, and continues to record and perform.
Essential listening: "Rocket 88," "Shake a Tail Feather," "Proud Mary," "Steel Guitar Rag," "I'm Lonesome Baby," "Tore Up," "Ike's Theme," "Catfish Blues"
Otha Turner
Born: June 2, 1907, Jackson, Mississippi
Died: February 26, 2003
Blues fife and drum musician Otha Turner grew up near the Mississippi Delta. Fife and drum music is a traditional genre that has its roots in the northern Mississippi hill country and is based on African-American work songs and spirituals. The fife is an instrument similar to the flute, often made out of bamboo. Turner worked as a farmer in Como, Mississippi, where he also led the Rising Star Fife and Drum band for sixty years. The band eventually made it to Chicago, where for years they opened the city's legendary Blues Festival. While in his nineties, Turner preserved his historically significant music with the recordings Everybody's Hollerin' Goat and Senegal to Senatobia.
Essential listening: "Shimmy She Wobble," "Granny Do Your Dog Bite," "Shake 'Em," "Boogie," "My Babe," "Senegal to Senatobia," "Sunu"
Stevie Ray Vaughan
Born: October 3, 1954, Dallas, Texas
Died: August 27, 1990, East Troy, Wisconsin
Stevie Ray Vaughan almost single-handedly created a blues revival during the 1980s for blues fans it was a refreshing, electrifying change from the predominant sound of that decade. He was assisted in this feat by contemporaries Albert Collins and Robert Cray. Vaughan was a stunning guitarist who mesmerized crowds and listeners with a signature sound and breathtaking skill, combining the influences of both Texas and Chicago blues. His guitar gymnastics echoed those of Jimi Hendrix, and that combined with his soulful, original style made his music irresistible to rock fans as well as blues aficionados. The Texas native dropped out of high school and made his way to Austin to play music; he formed a band that soon became well-known in the city. Eventually he and his band were signed to Epic and their first release, Texas Flood, made blues history. He had taken his rightful place alongside other blues legends when his life and career were cut short by tragedy. Vaughan died in a helicopter crash after a performance with Buddy Guy and Eric Clapton.
Essential listening: "Pride and Joy," "The Sky is Crying," "Texas Flood," "Couldn't Stand the Weather," "Little Wing"
Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson
Born: December 18, 1917, Houston, Texas
Died: July 2, 1988, Los Angeles, California
Eddie Vinson was an R&B saxophone player, bandleader, songwriter, and vocalist with a signature voice whose long and prolific career also encompassed jazz and blues. Vinson got his nickname, "Cleanhead," after an episode with a lye-based hair straightener left him bald. He was raised in a musical family and played saxophone in high school. Vinson's career from the mid-thirties through the mid-forties included stints in legendary bands, including Chester Boone's band in Houston, which at the time included genius blues guitarist T-Bone Walker; Milt Larkin's band, which boasted a superb saxophone section; and, after Vinson relocated to New York in 1941, the Cootie Williams Orchestra. Williams's recordings of "Somebody's Got to Go," and "Cherry Red", on which Vinson also appeared as a vocalist, were huge hits. In 1945 Vinson formed his own band, which reportedly for a time included John Coltrane. Vinson played at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1970. For the next two decades he toured and recorded in the U.S. and Europe, where he was particularly popular.
Essential listening: "Kidney Stew," "Cherry Red," "Somebody's Got to Go," "Cleanhead Blues," "Old Maid Boogie"
T-Bone Walker
Born: May 28, 1910, Linden, Texas
Died: March 16, 1975, Los Angeles, California
Also known as: Aaron Thibeaux Walker
Some music critics maintain that no one has ever matched T-Bone Walker's genius as an electric blues guitarist. His extraordinary talent influenced blues and rock greats, including Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Otis Rush and Stevie Ray Vaughan, among others. Walker was born into a musical family, and Texas blues legend Blind Lemon Jefferson was a family friend. As a boy Walker reportedly acted as escort to Jefferson when the blind musician played on the streets of Dallas, and was definitely influenced by Jefferson musically. Walker began his career in Texas and later moved to Los Angeles. Walker's absolute authority with the instrument translated into precise, incendiary musicianship complemented by a confident, masterful stage presence. His ability as a vocalist was every bit as impressive, and he is the author of many blues classics, including "Stormy Monday," which has been covered endlessly and would probably appear in any top 10 list of the best blues ever written.
Essential listening: "Stormy Monday," "Strollin' With Bones," "T-Bone Shuffle," "T-Bone Blues," "I Walked Away," "Cold Cold Feeling"
Bukka White
Born: November 12, 1909, Houston, Mississippi*
Died: February 26, 1977, Memphis Tennessee
Also known as: Booker T. Washington White
Bukka White moved to the Mississippi Delta as an adolescent and was influenced by Charley Patton as a result he played a particularly pure form of Delta blues. White's devotion to the music was considerable; after a run-in with the law in Mississippi in 1937, he jumped bail in order to record in Chicago. He was apprehended and incarcerated at Mississippi's Parchman Farm, where he was popular as an entertainer, and where his gift for songwriting wasn't hampered like many of his originals, the song "Parchman Farm Blues" became a classic. White's real taste of fame came after Bob Dylan recorded White's original song "Fixin' to Die Blues" in the early 1960s. Curious about the song's original author, two young blues players found White by sending a general delivery letter to Aberdeen, Mississippi (tipped off by his blues song of the same title). These leaps in visibility led to White's fame in later life, as both a performer and a storyteller, as he embodied both the Delta blues and its rich history.
Essential Listening: "Shake 'Em on Down," "The Panama Limited," "Aberdeen Mississippi Blues," "Fixin' to Die Blues," "Parchman Farm Blues"
Cassandra Wilson
Born: December 4, 1955, Jackson, Mississippi
Cassandra Wilson is primarily known as an accomplished jazz singer, although her stunning full, low voice and skill as a songwriter have encompassed other genres, and she has been heavily influenced by the musical traditions of the south, including the Delta blues. She cites the complexity of Robert Johnson's songwriting, guitar work and vocal delivery as one of her primary influences. Wilson is a prolific recording artist, and has followed up her 1985 debut with almost one album each year, and sometimes two. Her body of work includes acoustic blues, folk, jazz, and funk. Wilson's 1999 release, Traveling Miles, was a tribute to Miles Davis. She has toured with Wynton Marsalis. Her critically-acclaimed recent release, Belly of the Sun, was recorded in Mississippi with both her own band and local musicians and combines funk, pop and rock with a tribute to pure Delta blues.
Essential listening: "You Move Me," "Round Midnight," "Darkness on the Delta," "You Gotta Move," "Hot Tamales"
Sonny Boy Williamson
Born: March 30, 1914, Jackson, Tennessee
Died: June 1, 1948, Chicago, Illinois
Also known as: John Lee Williamson
Sonny Boy Williamson's innovative skill with the harmonica brought it to center stage as a lead instrument in Chicago blues. He also popularized the "call and response" performance technique with the instrument, delivering a vocal line, answering with his characteristically sharp harp riffs followed by another vocal delivery. Williamson acquired his nickname because of the young age at which he began performing; during those early years he traveled the South, sometimes in the company of his biggest influence, Sleepy John Estes, as well as Robert Nighthawk and others. In the late 1930s he moved to Chicago where he worked as a session player and became an influential and successful mainstay of the city's blues scene as a performer and recording artist. He is credited with composing many original songs that became blues standards, especially for the harmonica, and he influenced a long line of superb harmonica players, including Junior Wells, Little Walter and Rice Miller, who was also known as Sonny Boy Williamson II.
Essential listening: "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl," "Early in the Morning," "Whiskey Headed Woman Blues," "Shake that Boogie"
Jimmy Witherspoon
Born: August 8, 1923, Gurdon, Arkansas
Died: September 18, 1997, Los Angeles, California
Jimmy Witherspoon was both a blues and jazz singer during the mid-forties, and hugely influential in his ability to merge the two genres with his deep, full vocals. He was originally influenced by Big Joe Turner, to whom he is often compared. Witherspoon realized he had talent after sitting in with brilliant jazz pianist Teddy Weatherford's big band while stationed overseas. Pianist and bandleader Jay McShann hired Witherspoon to take the place of lead vocalist Walter Brown in his band; during this stint Witherspoon developed his own vocal style. He began recording on his own in 1949, and had a big hit with his version of Bessie Smith's hit "Ain't Nobody's Business." The song not only reached number 1 on the R&B charts, but its stay on the charts was record-breaking. Witherspoon followed that up with a number 5 hit the same year, "In the Evening When the Sun Goes Down." As rock and roll's popularity increased, Witherspoon's career took a downturn, and he focused more on jazz, always infusing it with a blues sensibility. He continued to perform until the end of his life, although he never repeated his early success.
Essential listening: "Ain't Nobody's Business," "In the Evening When the Sun Goes Down," "Big Fine Girl," "No Rollin' Blues"
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https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/mckechnie-magna-carta-a-commentary
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Magna Carta: A Commentary
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This is a detailed and meticulous edition of Magna Carta with each clause in the original Latin, followed by an English translation and heavily annotated by the editor.
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https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/mckechnie-magna-carta-a-commentary
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John Lackland (King John) (author)
William Sharp McKechnie (editor)
This is a detailed and meticulous edition of Magna Carta with each clause in the original Latin, followed by an English translation and heavily annotated by the editor.
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https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Literature_and_Literacy/British_and_Irish_Literature/British_Literature_I_-_Middle_Ages_to_the_Eighteenth_Century_and_Neoclassicism_(Robinson_and_Getty)/01%253A_The_Middle_Ages/1.04%253A_Beowulf
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en
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1.4: Beowulf
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2018-10-29T02:41:10+00:00
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Humanities LibreTexts
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https://human.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Literature_and_Literacy/British_and_Irish_Literature/British_Literature_I_-_Middle_Ages_to_the_Eighteenth_Century_and_Neoclassicism_(Robinson_and_Getty)/01%3A_The_Middle_Ages/1.04%3A_Beowulf
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1.5.1 Beowulf
Part I:
Lo! the Spear-Danes’ glory through splendid achievements
The folk-kings’ former fame we have heard of,
How princes displayed then their prowess-in-battle.
Oft Scyld the Scefing from scathers in numbers
From many a people their mead-benches tore.
Since first he found him friendless and wretched,
The earl had had terror: comfort he got for it,
Waxed ’neath the welkin, world-honor gained,
Till all his neighbors o’er sea were compelled to
Bow to his bidding and bring him their tribute:
An excellent atheling! After was borne him
A son and heir, young in his dwelling,
Whom God-Father sent to solace the people.
He had marked the misery malice had caused them,
That reaved of their rulers they wretched had erstwhile
Long been afflicted. The Lord, in requital,
Wielder of Glory, with world-honor blessed him.
Famed was Beowulf, far spread the glory
Of Scyld’s great son in the lands of the Danemen.
So the carle that is young, by kindnesses rendered
The friends of his father, with fees in abundance
Must be able to earn that when age approacheth
Eager companions aid him requitingly,
When war assaults him serve him as liegemen:
By praise-worthy actions must honor be got
’Mong all of the races. At the hour that was fated
Scyld then departed to the All-Father’s keeping
Warlike to wend him; away then they bare him
To the flood of the current, his fond-loving comrades,
As himself he had bidden, while the friend of the Scyldings
Word-sway wielded, and the well-lovèd land-prince
Long did rule them. The ring-stemmèd vessel,
Bark of the atheling, lay there at anchor,
Icy in glimmer and eager for sailing;
The belovèd leader laid they down there,
Giver of rings, on the breast of the vessel,
The famed by the mainmast. A many of jewels,
Of fretted embossings, from far-lands brought over,
Was placed near at hand then; and heard I not ever
That a folk ever furnished a float more superbly
With weapons of warfare, weeds for the battle,
Bills and burnies; on his bosom sparkled
Many a jewel that with him must travel
On the flush of the flood afar on the current.
And favors no fewer they furnished him soothly,
Excellent folk-gems, than others had given him
Who when first he was born outward did send him
Lone on the main, the merest of infants:
And a gold-fashioned standard they stretched under heaven
High o’er his head, let the holm-currents bear him,
Seaward consigned him: sad was their spirit,
Their mood very mournful. Men are not able
Soothly to tell us, they in halls who reside,
Heroes under heaven, to what haven he hied.
Part II
In the boroughs then Beowulf, bairn of the Scyldings,
Belovèd land-prince, for long-lasting season
Was famed mid the folk (his father departed,
The prince from his dwelling), till afterward sprang
Great-minded Healfdene; the Danes in his lifetime
He graciously governed, grim-mooded, agèd.
Four bairns of his body born in succession
Woke in the world, war-troopers’ leader
Heorogar, Hrothgar, and Halga the good;
Heard I that Elan was Ongentheow’s consort,
The well-beloved bedmate of the War-Scylfing leader.
Then glory in battle to Hrothgar was given,
Waxing of war-fame, that willingly kinsmen
Obeyed his bidding, till the boys grew to manhood,
A numerous band. It burned in his spirit
To urge his folk to found a great building,
A mead-hall grander than men of the era
Ever had heard of, and in it to share
With young and old all of the blessings
The Lord had allowed him, save life and retainers.
Then the work I find afar was assigned
To many races in middle-earth’s regions,
To adorn the great folk-hall. In due time it happened
Early ’mong men, that ’twas finished entirely,
The greatest of hall-buildings; Heorot he named it
Who wide-reaching word-sway wielded ’mong earlmen.
His promise he brake not, rings he lavished,
Treasure at banquet. Towered the hall up
High and horn-crested, huge between antlers:
It battle-waves bided, the blasting fire-demon;
Ere long then from hottest hatred must sword-wrath
Arise for a woman’s husband and father.
Then the mighty war-spirit endured for a season,
Bore it bitterly, he who bided in darkness,
That light-hearted laughter loud in the building
Greeted him daily; there was dulcet harp-music,
Clear song of the singer. He said that was able
To tell from of old earthmen’s beginnings,
That Father Almighty earth had created,
The winsome wold that the water encircleth,
Set exultingly the sun’s and the moon’s beams
To lavish their lustre on land-folk and races,
And earth He embellished in all her regions
With limbs and leaves; life He bestowed too
On all the kindreds that live under heaven.
So blessed with abundance, brimming with joyance,
The warriors abided, till a certain one gan to
Dog them with deeds of direfullest malice,
A foe in the hall-building: this horrible stranger
Was Grendel entitled, the march-stepper famous
Who dwelt in the moor-fens, the marsh and the fastness; T
he wan-mooded being abode for a season
In the land of the giants, when the Lord and Creator
Had banned him and branded. For that bitter murder,
The killing of Abel, all-ruling Father
The kindred of Cain crushed with His vengeance;
In the feud He rejoiced not, but far away drove him
From kindred and kind, that crime to atone for,
Meter of Justice. Thence ill-favored creatures,
Elves and giants, monsters of ocean,
Came into being, and the giants that longtime
Grappled with God; He gave them requital.
Part III
When the sun was sunken, he set out to visit
The lofty hall-building, how the Ring-Danes had used it
For beds and benches when the banquet was over.
Then he found there reposing many a noble
Asleep after supper; sorrow the heroes,
Misery knew not. The monster of evil
Greedy and cruel tarried but little,
Fell and frantic, and forced from their slumbers
Thirty of thanemen; thence he departed
Leaping and laughing, his lair to return to,
With surfeit of slaughter sallying homeward.
In the dusk of the dawning, as the day was just breaking,
Was Grendel’s prowess revealed to the warriors:
Then, his meal-taking finished, a moan was uplifted,
Morning-cry mighty. The man-ruler famous,
The long-worthy atheling, sat very woful,
Suffered great sorrow, sighed for his liegemen,
When they had seen the track of the hateful pursuer,
The spirit accursèd: too crushing that sorrow,
Too loathsome and lasting. Not longer he tarried,
But one night after continued his slaughter
Shameless and shocking, shrinking but little
From malice and murder; they mastered him fully.
He was easy to find then who otherwhere looked for
A pleasanter place of repose in the lodges,
A bed in the bowers. Then was brought to his notice
Told him truly by token apparent
The hall-thane’s hatred: he held himself after
Further and faster who the foeman did baffle.
So ruled he and strongly strove against justice
Lone against all men, till empty uptowered
The choicest of houses. Long was the season:
Twelve-winters’ time torture suffered
The friend of the Scyldings, every affliction,
Endless agony; hence it after became
Certainly known to the children of men
Sadly in measures, that long against Hrothgar
Grendel struggled:—his grudges he cherished,
Murderous malice, many a winter,
Strife unremitting, and peacefully wished he
Life-woe to lift from no liegeman at all of
The men of the Dane-folk, for money to settle,
No counsellor needed count for a moment
On handsome amends at the hands of the murderer;
The monster of evil fiercely did harass,
The ill-planning death-shade, both elder and younger,
Trapping and tricking them. He trod every night then
The mist-covered moor-fens; men do not know where
Witches and wizards wander and ramble.
So the foe of mankind many of evils
Grievous injuries, often accomplished,
Horrible hermit; Heort he frequented,
Gem-bedecked palace, when night-shades had fallen
(Since God did oppose him, not the throne could he touch,
The light-flashing jewel, love of Him knew not).
’Twas a fearful affliction to the friend of the Scyldings
Soul-crushing sorrow. Not seldom in private
Sat the king in his council; conference held they
What the braves should determine ’gainst terrors unlooked for.
At the shrines of their idols often they promised
Gifts and offerings, earnestly prayed they
The devil from hell would help them to lighten
Their people’s oppression. Such practice they used then,
Hope of the heathen; hell they remembered
In innermost spirit, God they knew not,
The true God they do not know.
Judge of their actions, All-wielding Ruler,
No praise could they give th Greedy and cruel tarried but little,
Fell and frantic, and forced from their slumbers Thirty
of thanemen; thence he departed Leaping and
laughing, his lair to return to, With surfeit of
slaughter sallying homeward.
In the dusk of the dawning, as the day was just breaking, Was
Grendel’s prowess revealed to the warriors:
Part IV
So Healfdene’s kinsman constantly mused on
His long-lasting sorrow; the battle-thane clever
Was not anywise able evils to ’scape from:
Too crushing the sorrow that came to the people,
Loathsome and lasting the life-grinding torture,
Greatest of night-woes. So Higelac’s liegeman,
Good amid Geatmen, of Grendel’s achievements
Heard in his home: of heroes then living
He was stoutest and strongest, sturdy and noble.
He bade them prepare him a bark that was trusty;
He said he the war-king would seek o’er the ocean,
The folk-leader noble, since he needed retainers.
For the perilous project prudent companions
Chided him little, though loving him dearly;
They egged the brave atheling, augured him glory.
The excellent knight from the folk of the Geatmen
Had liegemen selected, likest to prove them
Trustworthy warriors; with fourteen companions
The vessel he looked for; a liegeman then showed them,
A sea-crafty man, the bounds of the country.
Fast the days fleeted; the float was a-water,
The craft by the cliff. Clomb to the prow then
Well-equipped warriors: the wave-currents twisted
The sea on the sand; soldiers then carried
On the breast of the vessel bright-shining jewels,
Handsome war-armor; heroes outshoved then,
Warmen the wood-ship, on its wished-for adventure.
The foamy-necked floater fanned by the breeze,
Likest a bird, glided the waters,
Till twenty and four hours thereafter
The twist-stemmed vessel had traveled such distance
That the sailing-men saw the sloping embankments,
The sea cliffs gleaming, precipitous mountains,
Nesses enormous: they were nearing the limits
At the end of the ocean. Up thence quickly
The men of the Weders clomb to the mainland,
Fastened their vessel (battle weeds rattled,
War burnies clattered), the Wielder they thanked
That the ways o’er the waters had waxen so gentle.
Then well from the cliff edge the guard of the Scyldings
Who the sea-cliffs should see to, saw o’er the gangway
Brave ones bearing beauteous targets,
Armor all ready, anxiously thought he,
Musing and wondering what men were approaching.
High on his horse then Hrothgar’s retainer
Turned him to coastward, mightily brandished
His lance in his hands, questioned with boldness.
“Who are ye men here, mail-covered warriors
Clad in your corslets, come thus a-driving
A high riding ship o’er the shoals of the waters,
And hither ’neath helmets have hied o’er the ocean?
I have been strand-guard, standing as warden,
Lest enemies ever anywise ravage
Danish dominions with army of war-ships.
More boldly never have warriors ventured
Hither to come; of kinsmen’s approval,
Word-leave of warriors, I ween that ye surely
Nothing have known. Never a greater one
Of earls o’er the earth have I had a sight of
Than is one of your number, a hero in armor;
No low-ranking fellow adorned with his weapons,
But launching them little, unless looks are deceiving,
And striking appearance. Ere ye pass on your journey
As treacherous spies to the land of the Scyldings
And farther fare, I fully must know now
What race ye belong to. Ye far-away dwellers,
Sea-faring sailors, my simple opinion
Hear ye and hearken: haste is most fitting
Plainly to tell me what place ye are come from.”
Part V
The chief of the strangers rendered him answer,
War-troopers’ leader, and word-treasure opened:
“We are sprung from the lineage of the people of Geatland,
And Higelac’s hearth-friends. To heroes unnumbered
My father was known, a noble head-warrior
Ecgtheow titled; many a winter
He lived with the people, ere he passed on his journey,
Old from his dwelling; each of the counsellors
Widely mid world-folk well remembers him.
We, kindly of spirit, the lord of thy people,
The son of King Healfdene, have come here to visit,
Folk-troop’s defender: be free in thy counsels!
To the noble one bear we a weighty commission,
The helm of the Danemen; we shall hide, I ween,
Naught of our message. Thou know’st if it happen,
As we soothly heard say, that some savage despoiler,
Some hidden pursuer, on nights that are murky
By deeds very direful ’mid the Danemen exhibits
Hatred unheard of, horrid destruction
And the falling of dead. From feelings least selfish
I am able to render counsel to Hrothgar,
How he, wise and worthy, may worst the destroyer,
If the anguish of sorrow should ever be lessened,
Comfort come to him, and care-waves grow cooler,
Or ever hereafter he agony suffer
And troublous distress, while towereth upward
The handsomest of houses high on the summit.”
Bestriding his stallion, the strand-watchman answered,
The doughty retainer: “The difference surely
’Twixt words and works, the warlike shield-bearer
Who judgeth wisely well shall determine.
This band, I hear, beareth no malice
To the prince of the Scyldings. Pass ye then onward
With weapons and armor. I shall lead you in person;
To my war-trusty vassals command I shall issue
To keep from all injury your excellent vessel,
Your fresh-tarred craft, ’gainst every opposer
Close by the sea-shore, till the curved-neckèd bark shall
Waft back again the well-beloved hero
O’er the way of the water to Weder dominions.
To warrior so great ’twill be granted sure
In the storm of strife to stand secure.”
Onward they fared then (the vessel lay quiet,
The broad-bosomed bark was bound by its cable,
Firmly at anchor); the boar-signs glistened
Bright on the visors vivid with gilding,
Blaze-hardened, brilliant; the boar acted warden.
The heroes hastened, hurried the liegemen,
Descended together, till they saw the great palace,
The well-fashioned wassail-hall wondrous and gleaming:
’Mid world-folk and kindreds that was widest reputed
Of halls under heaven which the hero abode in;
Its lustre enlightened lands without number.
Then the battle-brave hero showed them the glittering
Court of the bold ones, that they easily thither
Might fare on their journey; the aforementioned warrior
Turning his courser, quoth as he left them:
“’Tis time I were faring; Father Almighty
Grant you His grace, and give you to journey
Safe on your mission! To the sea I will get me
’Gainst hostile warriors as warden to stand.”
Part VI
The highway glistened with many-hued pebble,
A by-path led the liegemen together.
Firm and hand-locked the war-burnie glistened,
The ring-sword radiant rang ’mid the armor
As the party was approaching the palace together
In warlike equipments. ’Gainst the wall of the building
Their wide-fashioned war-shields they weary did set then,
Battle-shields sturdy; benchward they turned then;
Their battle-sarks rattled, the gear of the heroes;
The lances stood up then, all in a cluster,
The arms of the seamen, ashen-shafts mounted
With edges of iron: the armor-clad troopers
Were decked with weapons. Then a proud-mooded hero
Asked of the champions questions of lineage:
“From what borders bear ye your battle-shields plated,
Gilded and gleaming, your gray-colored burnies,
Helmets with visors and heap of war-lances?—
To Hrothgar the king I am servant and liegeman.
’Mong folk from far-lands found I have never
Men so many of mien more courageous.
I ween that from valor, nowise as outlaws,
But from greatness of soul ye sought for King Hrothgar.”
Then the strength-famous earlman answer rendered,
The proud-mooded Wederchief replied to his question,
Hardy ’neath helmet: “Higelac’s mates are we;
Beowulf hight I. To the bairn of Healfdene,
The famous folk-leader, I freely will tell
To thy prince my commission, if pleasantly hearing
He’ll grant we may greet him so gracious to all men.”
Wulfgar replied then (he was prince of the Wendels,
His boldness of spirit was known unto many,
His prowess and prudence): “The prince of the Scyldings,
The friend-lord of Danemen, I will ask of thy journey,
The giver of rings, as thou urgest me do it,
The folk-chief famous, and inform thee early
What answer the good one mindeth to render me.”
He turned then hurriedly where Hrothgar was sitting,
Old and hoary, his earlmen attending him;
The strength-famous went till he stood at the shoulder
Of the lord of the Danemen, of courteous thanemen
The custom he minded. Wulfgar addressed then
His friendly liegelord: “Folk of the Geatmen
O’er the way of the waters are wafted hither,
Faring from far-lands: the foremost in rank
The battle-champions Beowulf title.
They make this petition: with thee, O my chieftain,
To be granted a conference; O gracious King Hrothgar,
Friendly answer refuse not to give them!
In war-trappings weeded worthy they seem
Of earls to be honored; sure the atheling is doughty
Who headed the heroes hitherward coming.”
Part VII
Hrothgar answered, helm of the Scyldings:
“I remember this man as the merest of striplings.
His father long dead now was Ecgtheow titled,
Him Hrethel the Geatman granted at home his
One only daughter; his battle-brave son
Is come but now, sought a trustworthy friend.
Seafaring sailors asserted it then,
Who valuable gift-gems of the Geatmen carried
As peace-offering thither, that he thirty men’s grapple
Has in his hand, the hero-in-battle.
The holy Creator usward sent him,
To West-Dane warriors, I ween, for to render
’Gainst Grendel’s grimness gracious assistance:
I shall give to the good one gift-gems for courage.
Hasten to bid them hither to speed them,
To see assembled this circle of kinsmen;
Tell them expressly they’re welcome in sooth to
The men of the Danes.” To the door of the building
Wulfgar went then, this word-message shouted:
“My victorious liegelord bade me to tell you,
The East-Danes’ atheling, that your origin knows he,
And o’er wave-billows wafted ye welcome are hither,
Valiant of spirit. Ye straightway may enter
Clad in corslets, cased in your helmets,
To see King Hrothgar. Here let your battle-boards,
Wood-spears and war-shafts, await your conferring.”
The mighty one rose then, with many a liegeman,
An excellent thane-group; some there did await them,
And as bid of the brave one the battle-gear guarded.
Together they hied them, while the hero did guide them,
’Neath Heorot’s roof; the high-minded went then
Sturdy ’neath helmet till he stood in the building.
Beowulf spake (his burnie did glisten,
His armor seamed over by the art of the craftsman):
“Hail thou, Hrothgar! I am Higelac’s kinsman
And vassal forsooth; many a wonder
I dared as a stripling. The doings of Grendel,
In far-off fatherland I fully did know of:
Sea-farers tell us, this hall-building standeth,
Excellent edifice, empty and useless
To all the earlmen after evenlight’s glimmer
’Neath heaven’s bright hues hath hidden its glory.
This my earls then urged me, the most excellent of them,
Carles very clever, to come and assist thee,
Folk-leader Hrothgar; fully they knew of
The strength of my body. Themselves they beheld me
When I came from the contest, when covered with gore
Foes I escaped from, where five I had bound,
The giant-race wasted, in the waters destroying
The nickers by night, bore numberless sorrows,
The Weders avenged (woes had they suffered)
Enemies ravaged; alone now with Grendel
I shall manage the matter, with the monster of evil,
The giant, decide it. Thee I would therefore
Beg of thy bounty, Bright-Danish chieftain,
Lord of the Scyldings, this single petition:
Not to refuse me, defender of warriors,
Friend-lord of folks, so far have I sought thee,
That I may unaided, my earlmen assisting me,
This brave-mooded war-band, purify Heorot.
I have heard on inquiry, the horrible creature
From veriest rashness recks not for weapons;
I this do scorn then, so be Higelac gracious,
My liegelord belovèd, lenient of spirit,
To bear a blade or a broad-fashioned target,
A shield to the onset; only with hand-grip
The foe I must grapple, fight for my life then,
Foeman with foeman; he fain must rely on
The doom of the Lord whom death layeth hold of.
I ween he will wish, if he win in the struggle,
To eat in the war-hall earls of the Geat-folk,
Boldly to swallow them, as of yore he did often
The best of the Hrethmen! Thou needest not trouble
A head-watch to give me; he will have me dripping
And dreary with gore, if death overtake me,
Will bear me off bleeding, biting and mouthing me,
The hermit will eat me, heedless of pity,
Marking the moor-fens; no more wilt thou need then
Should I fall, send my armor to my lord, King Higelac.
Find me my food. If I fall in the battle,
Send to Higelac the armor that serveth
To shield my bosom, the best of equipments,
Richest of ring-mails; ’tis the relic of Hrethla,
The work of Wayland. Goes Weird as she must go!”
Part VIII
Hrothgar discoursed, helm of the Scyldings:
“To defend our folk and to furnish assistance,
Thou soughtest us hither, good friend Beowulf.
The fiercest of feuds thy father engaged in,
Heatholaf killed he in hand-to-hand conflict
’Mid Wilfingish warriors; then the Wederish people
For fear of a feud were forced to disown him.
Thence flying he fled to the folk of the South-Danes,
The race of the Scyldings, o’er the roll of the waters;
I had lately begun then to govern the Danemen,
The hoard-seat of heroes held in my youth,
Rich in its jewels: dead was Heregar,
My kinsman and elder had earth-joys forsaken,
Healfdene his bairn. He was better than I am!
That feud thereafter for a fee I compounded;
O’er the weltering waters to the Wilfings I sent
Ornaments old; oaths did he swear me.
It pains me in spirit to any to tell it,
What grief in Heorot Grendel hath caused me,
What horror unlooked-for, by hatred unceasing.
Waned is my war-band, wasted my hall-troop;
Weird hath offcast them to the clutches of Grendel.
God can easily hinder the scather
From deeds so direful. Oft drunken with beer
O’er the ale-vessel promised warriors in armor
They would willingly wait on the wassailing-benches
A grapple with Grendel, with grimmest of edges.
Then this mead-hall at morning with murder was reeking,
The building was bloody at breaking of daylight,
The bench-deals all flooded, dripping and bloodied,
The folk-hall was gory: I had fewer retainers,
Dear-beloved warriors, whom death had laid hold of.
Sit at the feast now, thy intents unto heroes,
Thy victor-fame show, as thy spirit doth urge thee!”
For the men of the Geats then together assembled,
In the beer-hall blithesome a bench was made ready;
There warlike in spirit they went to be seated,
Proud and exultant. A liegeman did service,
Who a beaker embellished bore with decorum,
And gleaming-drink poured. The gleeman sang whilom
Hearty in Heorot; there was heroes’ rejoicing,
A numerous war-band of Weders and Danemen.
Part IX
Unferth spoke up, Ecglaf his son,
Who sat at the feet of the lord of the Scyldings,
Opened the jousting (the journey of Beowulf,
Sea-farer doughty, gave sorrow to Unferth
And greatest chagrin, too, for granted he never
That any man else on earth should attain to,
Gain under heaven, more glory than he):
“Art thou that Beowulf with Breca did struggle,
On the wide sea-currents at swimming contended,
Where to humor your pride the ocean ye tried,
From vainest vaunting adventured your bodies
In care of the waters? And no one was able
Nor lief nor loth one, in the least to dissuade you
Your difficult voyage; then ye ventured a-swimming,
Where your arms outstretching the streams ye did cover,
The mere-ways measured, mixing and stirring them,
Glided the ocean; angry the waves were,
With the weltering of winter. In the water’s possession,
Ye toiled for a seven-night; he at swimming outdid thee,
In strength excelled thee. Then early at morning
On the Heathoremes’ shore the holm-currents tossed him,
Sought he thenceward the home of his fathers,
Beloved of his liegemen, the land of the Brondings,
The peace-castle pleasant, where a people he wielded,
Had borough and jewels. The pledge that he made thee
The son of Beanstan hath soothly accomplished.
Then I ween thou wilt find thee less fortunate issue,
Though ever triumphant in onset of battle,
A grim grappling, if Grendel thou darest
For the space of a night near-by to wait for!”
Beowulf answered, offspring of Ecgtheow:
“My good friend Unferth, sure freely and wildly,
Thou fuddled with beer of Breca hast spoken,
Hast told of his journey! A fact I allege it,
That greater strength in the waters I had then,
Ills in the ocean, than any man else had.
We made agreement as the merest of striplings
Promised each other (both of us then were
Younkers in years) that we yet would adventure
Out on the ocean; it all we accomplished.
While swimming the sea-floods, sword-blade unscabbarded
Boldly we brandished, our bodies expected
To shield from the sharks. He sure was unable
To swim on the waters further than I could,
More swift on the waves, nor would I from him go.
Then we two companions stayed in the ocean
Five nights together, till the currents did part us,
The weltering waters, weathers the bleakest,
And nethermost night, and the north-wind whistled
Fierce in our faces; fell were the billows.
The mere fishes’ mood was mightily ruffled:
And there against foemen my firm-knotted corslet,
Hand-jointed, hardy, help did afford me;
My battle-sark braided, brilliantly gilded,
Lay on my bosom. To the bottom then dragged me,
A hateful fiend-scather, seized me and held me,
Grim in his grapple: ’twas granted me, nathless,
To pierce the monster with the point of my weapon,
My obedient blade; battle offcarried
The mighty mere-creature by means of my hand-blow.
Part X
“So ill-meaning enemies often did cause me
Sorrow the sorest. I served them, in quittance,
With my dear-lovèd sword, as in sooth it was fitting;
They missed the pleasure of feasting abundantly,
Ill-doers evil, of eating my body,
Of surrounding the banquet deep in the ocean;
But wounded with edges early at morning
They were stretched a-high on the strand of the ocean,
Put to sleep with the sword, that sea-going travelers
No longer thereafter were hindered from sailing
The foam-dashing currents. Came a light from the east,
God’s beautiful beacon; the billows subsided,
That well I could see the nesses projecting,
The blustering crags. Weird often saveth
The undoomed hero if doughty his valor!
But me did it fortune to fell with my weapon
Nine of the nickers. Of night-struggle harder
’Neath dome of the heaven heard I but rarely,
Nor of wight more woful in the waves of the ocean;
Yet I ’scaped with my life the grip of the monsters,
Weary from travel. Then the waters bare me
To the land of the Finns, the flood with the current,
The weltering waves. Not a word hath been told me
Of deeds so daring done by thee, Unferth,
And of sword-terror none; never hath Breca
At the play of the battle, nor either of you two,
Feat so fearless performèd with weapons
Glinting and gleaming . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . I utter no boasting;
Though with cold-blooded cruelty thou killedst thy brothers,
Thy nearest of kin; thou needs must in hell get
Direful damnation, though doughty thy wisdom.
I tell thee in earnest, offspring of Ecglaf,
Never had Grendel such numberless horrors,
The direful demon, done to thy liegelord,
Harrying in Heorot, if thy heart were as sturdy,
Thy mood as ferocious as thou dost describe them.
He hath found out fully that the fierce-burning hatred,
The edge-battle eager, of all of your kindred,
Of the Victory-Scyldings, need little dismay him:
Oaths he exacteth, not any he spares
Of the folk of the Danemen, but fighteth with pleasure,
Killeth and feasteth, no contest expecteth
From Spear-Danish people. But the prowess and valor
Of the earls of the Geatmen early shall venture
To give him a grapple. He shall go who is able
Bravely to banquet, when the bright-light of morning
Which the second day bringeth, the sun in its ether-robes,
O’er children of men shines from the southward!”
Then the gray-haired, war-famed giver of treasure
Was blithesome and joyous, the Bright-Danish ruler
Expected assistance; the people’s protector
Heard from Beowulf his bold resolution.
There was laughter of heroes; loud was the clatter,
The words were winsome. Wealhtheow advanced then,
Consort of Hrothgar, of courtesy mindful,
Gold-decked saluted the men in the building,
And the freeborn woman the beaker presented
To the lord of the kingdom, first of the East-Danes,
Bade him be blithesome when beer was a-flowing,
Lief to his liegemen; he lustily tasted
Of banquet and beaker, battle-famed ruler.
The Helmingish lady then graciously circled
’Mid all the liegemen lesser and greater:
Treasure-cups tendered, till time was afforded
That the decorous-mooded, diademed folk-queen
Might bear to Beowulf the bumper o’errunning;
She greeted the Geat-prince, God she did thank,
Most wise in her words, that her wish was accomplished
That in any of earlmen she ever should look for
Solace in sorrow. He accepted the beaker,
Battle-bold warrior, at Wealhtheow’s giving,
Then equipped for combat quoth he in measures,
Beowulf spake, offspring of Ecgtheow:
“I purposed in spirit when I mounted the ocean,
When I boarded my boat with a band of my liegemen,
I would work to the fullest the will of your people
Or in foe’s-clutches fastened fall in the battle.
Deeds I shall do of daring and prowess,
Or the last of my life-days live in this mead-hall.”
These words to the lady were welcome and pleasing,
The boast of the Geatman; with gold trappings broidered
Went the freeborn folk-queen her fond-lord to sit by.
Then again as of yore was heard in the building
Courtly discussion, conquerors’ shouting,
Heroes were happy, till Healfdene’s son would
Go to his slumber to seek for refreshing;
For the horrid hell-monster in the hall-building knew he
A fight was determined, since the light of the sun they
No longer could see, and lowering darkness
O’er all had descended, and dark under heaven
Shadowy shapes came shying around them.
The liegemen all rose then. One saluted the other,
Hrothgar Beowulf, in rhythmical measures,
Wishing him well, and, the wassail-hall giving
To his care and keeping, quoth he departing:
“Not to any one else have I ever entrusted,
But thee and thee only, the hall of the Danemen,
Since high I could heave my hand and my buckler.
Take thou in charge now the noblest of houses;
Be mindful of honor, exhibiting prowess,
Watch ’gainst the foeman! Thou shalt want no enjoyments,
Survive thou safely adventure so glorious!”
Part XI
Then Hrothgar departed, his earl-throng attending him,
Folk-lord of Scyldings, forth from the building;
The war-chieftain wished then Wealhtheow to look for,
The queen for a bedmate. To keep away Grendel
The Glory of Kings had given a hall-watch,
As men heard recounted: for the king of the Danemen
He did special service, gave the giant a watcher:
And the prince of the Geatmen implicitly trusted
His warlike strength and the Wielder’s protection.
His armor of iron off him he did then,
His helmet from his head, to his henchman committed
His chased-handled chain-sword, choicest of weapons,
And bade him bide with his battle-equipments.
The good one then uttered words of defiance,
Beowulf Geatman, ere his bed he upmounted:
“I hold me no meaner in matters of prowess,
In warlike achievements, than Grendel does himself;
Hence I seek not with sword-edge to sooth him to slumber,
Of life to bereave him, though well I am able.
No battle-skill has he, that blows he should strike me,
To shatter my shield, though sure he is mighty
In strife and destruction; but struggling by night we
Shall do without edges, dare he to look for
Weaponless warfare, and wise-mooded Father
The glory apportion, God ever-holy,
On which hand soever to him seemeth proper.”
Then the brave-mooded hero bent to his slumber,
The pillow received the cheek of the noble;
And many a martial mere-thane attending
Sank to his slumber. Seemed it unlikely
That ever thereafter any should hope to
Be happy at home, hero-friends visit
Or the lordly troop-castle where he lived from his childhood;
They had heard how slaughter had snatched from the wine-hall
Had recently ravished, of the race of the Scyldings
Too many by far. But the Lord to them granted
The weaving of war-speed, to Wederish heroes
Aid and comfort, that every opponent
By one man’s war-might they worsted and vanquished,
By the might of himself; the truth is established
That God Almighty hath governed for ages
Kindreds and nations. A night very lurid
The trav’ler-at-twilight came tramping and striding.
The warriors were sleeping who should watch the horned-building,
One only excepted. ’Mid earthmen ’twas ’stablished,
Th’ implacable foeman was powerless to hurl them
To the land of shadows, if the Lord were unwilling;
But serving as warder, in terror to foemen,
He angrily bided the issue of battle.
Part XII
’Neath the cloudy cliffs came from the moor then
Grendel going, God’s anger bare he.
The monster intended some one of earthmen
In the hall-building grand to entrap and make way with:
He went under welkin where well he knew of
The wine-joyous building, brilliant with plating,
Gold-hall of earthmen. Not the earliest occasion
He the home and manor of Hrothgar had sought:
Ne’er found he in life-days later nor earlier
Hardier hero, hall-thanes more sturdy!
Then came to the building the warrior marching,
Bereft of his joyance. The door quickly opened
On fire-hinges fastened, when his fingers had touched it;
The fell one had flung then—his fury so bitter—
Open the entrance. Early thereafter
The foeman trod the shining hall-pavement,
Strode he angrily; from the eyes of him glimmered
A lustre unlovely likest to fire.
He beheld in the hall the heroes in numbers,
A circle of kinsmen sleeping together,
A throng of thanemen: then his thoughts were exultant, He minded to sunder from each of the thanemen
The life from his body, horrible demon,
Ere morning came, since fate had allowed him
The prospect of plenty. Providence willed not
To permit him any more of men under heaven
To eat in the night-time. Higelac’s kinsman
Great sorrow endured how the dire-mooded creature
In unlooked-for assaults were likely to bear him.
No thought had the monster of deferring the matter,
But on earliest occasion he quickly laid hold of
A soldier asleep, suddenly tore him,
Bit his bone-prison, the blood drank in currents,
Swallowed in mouthfuls: he soon had the dead man’s
Feet and hands, too, eaten entirely.
Nearer he strode then, the stout-hearted warrior
Snatched as he slumbered, seizing with hand-grip,
Forward the foeman foined with his hand;
Caught he quickly the cunning deviser,
On his elbow he rested. This early discovered
The master of malice, that in middle-earth’s regions,
’Neath the whole of the heavens, no hand-grapple greater
In any man else had he ever encountered:
Fearful in spirit, faint-mooded waxed he,
Not off could betake him; death he was pondering,
Would fly to his covert, seek the devils’ assembly:
His calling no more was the same he had followed
Long in his lifetime. The liege-kinsman worthy
Of Higelac minded his speech of the evening,
Stood he up straight and stoutly did seize him.
His fingers crackled; the giant was outward,
The earl stepped farther. The famous one minded
To flee away farther, if he found an occasion,
And off and away, avoiding delay,
To fly to the fen-moors; he fully was ware of
The strength of his grapple in the grip of the foeman.
’Twas an ill-taken journey that the injury-bringing,
Harrying harmer to Heorot wandered:
The palace re-echoed; to all of the Danemen,
Dwellers in castles, to each of the bold ones,
Earlmen, was terror. Angry they both were,
Archwarders raging. Rattled the building;
’Twas a marvellous wonder that the wine-hall withstood then
The bold-in-battle, bent not to earthward,
Excellent earth-hall; but within and without it
Was fastened so firmly in fetters of iron,
By the art of the armorer. Off from the sill there
Bent mead-benches many, as men have informed me,
Adorned with gold-work, where the grim ones did struggle.
The Scylding wise men weened ne’er before
That by might and main-strength a man under heaven
Might break it in pieces, bone-decked, resplendent,
Crush it by cunning, unless clutch of the fire
In smoke should consume it. The sound mounted upward
Novel enough; on the North Danes fastened
A terror of anguish, on all of the men there
Who heard from the wall the weeping and plaining,
The song of defeat from the foeman of heaven,
Heard him hymns of horror howl, and his sorrow
Hell-bound bewailing. He held him too firmly
Who was strongest of main-strength of men of that era.
Part XIII
For no cause whatever would the earlmen’s defender
Leave in life-joys the loathsome newcomer,
He deemed his existence utterly useless
To men under heaven. Many a noble
Of Beowulf brandished his battle-sword old,
Would guard the life of his lord and protector,
The far-famous chieftain, if able to do so;
While waging the warfare, this wist they but little,
Brave battle-thanes, while his body intending
To slit into slivers, and seeking his spirit:
That the relentless foeman nor finest of weapons
Of all on the earth, nor any of war-bills
Was willing to injure; but weapons of victory
Swords and suchlike he had sworn to dispense with.
His death at that time must prove to be wretched,
And the far-away spirit widely should journey
Into enemies’ power. This plainly he saw then
Who with mirth of mood malice no little
Had wrought in the past on the race of the earthmen
(To God he was hostile), that his body would fail him,
But Higelac’s hardy henchman and kinsman
Held him by the hand; hateful to other
Was each one if living. A body-wound suffered
The direful demon, damage incurable
Was seen on his shoulder, his sinews were shivered,
His body did burst. To Beowulf was given
Glory in battle; Grendel from thenceward
Must flee and hide him in the fen-cliffs and marshes,
Sick unto death, his dwelling must look for
Unwinsome and woful; he wist the more fully
The monster flees away to hide in the moors.
The end of his earthly existence was nearing,
His life-days’ limits. At last for the Danemen,
When the slaughter was over, their wish was accomplished.
The comer-from-far-land had cleansed then of evil,
Wise and valiant, the war-hall of Hrothgar,
Saved it from violence. He joyed in the night-work,
In repute for prowess; the prince of the Geatmen
For the East-Danish people his boast had accomplished,
Bettered their burdensome bale-sorrows fully,
The craft-begot evil they erstwhile had suffered
And were forced to endure from crushing oppression,
Their manifold misery. ’Twas a manifest token,
When the hero-in-battle the hand suspended,
The arm and the shoulder (there was all of the claw
Of Grendel together) ’neath great-stretching hall-roof.
Part XIV
In the mist of the morning many a warrior
Stood round the gift-hall, as the story is told me:
Folk-princes fared then from far and from near
Through long-stretching journeys to look at the wonder,
The footprints of the foeman. Few of the warriors
Who gazed on the foot-tracks of the inglorious creature
His parting from life pained very deeply,
How, weary in spirit, off from those regions
In combats conquered he carried his traces,
Fated and flying, to the flood of the nickers.
There in bloody billows bubbled the currents,
The angry eddy was everywhere mingled
And seething with gore, welling with sword-blood;
He death-doomed had hid him, when reaved of his joyance
He laid down his life in the lair he had fled to,
His heathenish spirit, where hell did receive him.
Thence the friends from of old backward turned them,
And many a younker from merry adventure,
Striding their stallions, stout from the seaward,
Heroes on horses. There were heard very often
Beowulf’s praises; many often asserted
That neither south nor north, in the circuit of waters,
O’er outstretching earth-plain, none other was better
’Mid bearers of war-shields, more worthy to govern,
’Neath the arch of the ether. Not any, however,
’Gainst the friend-lord muttered, mocking-words uttered
Of Hrothgar the gracious (a good king he).
Oft the famed ones permitted their fallow-skinned horses
To run in rivalry, racing and chasing,
Where the fieldways appeared to them fair and inviting,
Known for their excellence; oft a thane of the folk-lord,
A man of celebrity, mindful of rhythms,
Who ancient traditions treasured in memory,
New word-groups found properly bound:
The bard after ’gan then Beowulf’s venture
Wisely to tell of, and words that were clever
To utter skilfully, earnestly speaking,
Everything told he that he heard as to Sigmund’s
Mighty achievements, many things hidden,
The strife of the Wælsing, the wide-going ventures
The children of men knew of but little,
The feud and the fury, but Fitela with him,
When suchlike matters he minded to speak of,
Uncle to nephew, as in every contention
Each to other was ever devoted:
A numerous host of the race of the scathers
They had slain with the sword-edge. To Sigmund accrued then
No little of glory, when his life-days were over,
Since he sturdy in struggle had destroyed the great dragon,
The hoard-treasure’s keeper; ’neath the hoar-grayish stone he,
The son of the atheling, unaided adventured
The perilous project; not present was Fitela,
Yet the fortune befell him of forcing his weapon
Through the marvellous dragon, that it stood in the wall,
Well-honored weapon; the worm was slaughtered.
The great one had gained then by his glorious achievement
To reap from the ring-hoard richest enjoyment,
As best it did please him: his vessel he loaded,
Shining ornaments on the ship’s bosom carried,
Kinsman of Wæls: the drake in heat melted.
He was farthest famed of fugitive pilgrims,
Mid wide-scattered world-folk, for works of great prowess,
War-troopers’ shelter: hence waxed he in honor.4
Afterward Heremod’s hero-strength failed him,
His vigor and valor. ’Mid venomous haters
To the hands of foemen he was foully delivered,
Offdriven early. Agony-billows
Oppressed him too long, to his people he became then,
To all the athelings, an ever-great burden;
And the daring one’s journey in days of yore
Many wise men were wont to deplore,
Such as hoped he would bring them help in their sorrow,
That the son of their ruler should rise into power,
Holding the headship held by his fathers,
Should govern the people, the gold-hoard and borough,
The kingdom of heroes, the realm of the Scyldings.
He to all men became then far more beloved,
Higelac’s kinsman, to kindreds and races,
To his friends much dearer; him malice assaulted.—
Oft running and racing on roadsters they measured
The dun-colored highways. Then the light of the morning
Was hurried and hastened. Went henchmen in numbers
To the beautiful building, bold ones in spirit,
To look at the wonder; the liegelord himself then
From his wife-bower wending, warden of treasures,
Glorious trod with troopers unnumbered,
Famed for his virtues, and with him the queen-wife
Measured the mead-ways, with maidens attending.
Part XV
Hrothgar discoursed (to the hall-building went he,
He stood by the pillar, saw the steep-rising hall-roof
Gleaming with gold-gems, and Grendel his hand there):
“For the sight we behold now, thanks to the Wielder
Early be offered! Much evil I bided,
Snaring from Grendel: God can e’er ’complish
Wonder on wonder, Wielder of Glory!
But lately I reckoned ne’er under heaven
Comfort to gain me for any of sorrows,
While the handsomest of houses horrid with bloodstain
Gory uptowered; grief had offfrightened
Each of the wise ones who weened not that ever
The folk-troop’s defences ’gainst foes they should strengthen,
’Gainst sprites and monsters. Through the might of the Wielder
A doughty retainer hath a deed now accomplished
Which erstwhile we all with our excellent wisdom
Failed to perform. May affirm very truly
What woman soever in all of the nations
Gave birth to the child, if yet she surviveth,
That the long-ruling Lord was lavish to herward
In the birth of the bairn. Now, Beowulf dear,
Most excellent hero, I’ll love thee in spirit
As bairn of my body; bear well henceforward
The relationship new. No lack shall befall thee
Of earth-joys any I ever can give thee.
Full often for lesser service I’ve given
Hero less hardy hoard-treasure precious,
To a weaker in war-strife. By works of distinction
Thou hast gained for thyself now that thy glory shall flourish
Forever and ever. The All-Ruler quite thee
With good from His hand as He hitherto did thee!”
Beowulf answered, Ecgtheow’s offspring:
“That labor of glory most gladly achieved we,
The combat accomplished, unquailing we ventured
The enemy’s grapple; I would grant it much rather
Thou wert able to look at the creature in person,
Faint unto falling, the foe in his trappings!
On murder-bed quickly I minded to bind him,
With firm-holding fetters, that forced by my grapple
Low he should lie in life-and-death struggle
’Less his body escape; I was wholly unable,
Since God did not will it, to keep him from going,
Not held him that firmly, hated opposer;
Too swift was the foeman. Yet safety regarding
He suffered his hand behind him to linger,
His arm and shoulder, to act as watcher;
No shadow of solace the woe-begone creature
Found him there nathless: the hated destroyer
Liveth no longer, lashed for his evils,
But sorrow hath seized him, in snare-meshes hath him
Close in its clutches, keepeth him writhing
In baleful bonds: there banished for evil
The man shall wait for the mighty tribunal,
How the God of glory shall give him his earnings.”
Then the soldier kept silent, son of old Ecglaf,
From boasting and bragging of battle-achievements,
Since the princes beheld there the hand that depended
’Neath the lofty hall-timbers by the might of the nobleman, Each one before him, the enemy’s fingers;
Each finger-nail strong steel most resembled,
The heathen one’s hand-spur, the hero-in-battle’s
Claw most uncanny; quoth they agreeing,
That not any excellent edges of brave ones
Was willing to touch him, the terrible creature’s
Battle-hand bloody to bear away from him.
Part XVI
Then straight was ordered that Heorot inside
With hands be embellished: a host of them gathered,
Of men and women, who the wassailing-building
The guest-hall begeared. Gold-flashing sparkled
Webs on the walls then, of wonders a many
To each of the heroes that look on such objects.
The beautiful building was broken to pieces
Which all within with irons was fastened,
Its hinges torn off: only the roof was
Whole and uninjured when the horrible creature
Outlawed for evil off had betaken him,
Hopeless of living. ’Tis hard to avoid it
(Whoever will do it!); but he doubtless must come to The place awaiting, as Wyrd hath appointed,
Soul-bearers, earth-dwellers, earls under heaven,
Where bound on its bed his body shall slumber
When feasting is finished. Full was the time then
That the son of Healfdene went to the building;
The excellent atheling would eat of the banquet.
Ne’er heard I that people with hero-band larger
Bare them better tow’rds their bracelet-bestower.
The laden-with-glory stooped to the bench then
(Their kinsmen-companions in plenty were joyful,
Many a cupful quaffing complaisantly),
Doughty of spirit in the high-tow’ring palace,
Hrothgar and Hrothulf. Heorot then inside
Was filled with friendly ones; falsehood and treachery
The Folk-Scyldings now nowise did practise.
Then the offspring of Healfdene offered to Beowulf
A golden standard, as reward for the victory,
A banner embossed, burnie and helmet;
Many men saw then a song-famous weapon
Borne ’fore the hero. Beowulf drank of
The cup in the building; that treasure-bestowing
He needed not blush for in battle-men’s presence.
Ne’er heard I that many men on the ale-bench
In friendlier fashion to their fellows presented
Four bright jewels with gold-work embellished.
’Round the roof of the helmet a head-guarder outside
Braided with wires, with bosses was furnished,
That swords-for-the-battle fight-hardened might fail
Boldly to harm him, when the hero proceeded
Forth against foemen. The defender of earls then
Commanded that eight steeds with bridles
Gold-plated, gleaming, be guided to hallward,
Inside the building; on one of them stood then
An art-broidered saddle embellished with jewels;
’Twas the sovereign’s seat, when the son of King Healfdene
Was pleased to take part in the play of the edges;
The famous one’s valor ne’er failed at the front when
Slain ones were bowing. And to Beowulf granted
The prince of the Ingwins, power over both,
O’er war-steeds and weapons; bade him well to enjoy them.
In so manly a manner the mighty-famed chieftain,
Hoard-ward of heroes, with horses and jewels
War-storms requited, that none e’er condemneth
Who willeth to tell truth with full justice.
Part XVII
And the atheling of earlmen to each of the heroes
Who the ways of the waters went with Beowulf,
A costly gift-token gave on the mead-bench,
Offered an heirloom, and ordered that that man
The warrior killed by Grendel is to be paid for in gold.
With gold should be paid for, whom Grendel had erstwhile
Wickedly slaughtered, as he more of them had done
Had far-seeing God and the mood of the hero
The fate not averted: the Father then governed
All of the earth-dwellers, as He ever is doing;
Hence insight for all men is everywhere fittest,
Forethought of spirit! much he shall suffer
Of lief and of loathsome who long in this present
Useth the world in this woful existence.
There was music and merriment mingling together
Touching Healfdene’s leader; the joy-wood was fingered,
Measures recited, when the singer of Hrothgar
On mead-bench should mention the merry hall-joyance
Of the kinsmen of Finn, when onset surprised them:
“The Half-Danish hero, Hnæf of the Scyldings,
On the field of the Frisians was fated to perish.
Sure Hildeburg needed not mention approving
The faith of the Jutemen: though blameless entirely,
When shields were shivered she was shorn of her darlings,
Of bairns and brothers: they bent to their fate
With war-spear wounded; woe was that woman.
Not causeless lamented the daughter of Hoce
The decree of the Wielder when morning-light came and
She was able ’neath heaven to behold the destruction
Of brothers and bairns, where the brightest of earth-joys
She had hitherto had: all the henchmen of Finn
War had offtaken, save a handful remaining,
That he nowise was able to offer resistance
To the onset of Hengest in the parley of battle,
Nor the wretched remnant to rescue in war from
The earl of the atheling; but they offered conditions,
Compact between the Frisians and the Danes.
Another great building to fully make ready,
A hall and a high-seat, that half they might rule with
The sons of the Jutemen, and that Folcwalda’s son would
Day after day the Danemen honor
When gifts were giving, and grant of his ring-store
To Hengest’s earl-troop ever so freely,
Of his gold-plated jewels, as he encouraged the Frisians
On the bench of the beer-hall. On both sides they swore then
A fast-binding compact; Finn unto Hengest
With no thought of revoking vowed then most solemnly
The woe-begone remnant well to take charge of,
His Witan advising; the agreement should no one
By words or works weaken and shatter,
By artifice ever injure its value,
Though reaved of their ruler their ring-giver’s slayer
They followed as vassals, Fate so requiring:
Then if one of the Frisians the quarrel should speak of
In tones that were taunting, terrible edges
Should cut in requital. Accomplished the oath was,
And treasure of gold from the hoard was uplifted.
The best of the Scylding braves was then fully
Prepared for the pile; at the pyre was seen clearly
The blood-gory burnie, the boar with his gilding,
The iron-hard swine, athelings many
Fatally wounded; no few had been slaughtered.
Hildeburg bade then, at the burning of Hnæf,
The bairn of her bosom to bear to the fire,
That his body be burned and borne to the pyre.
The woe-stricken woman wept on his shoulder,
In measures lamented; upmounted the hero.
The greatest of dead-fires curled to the welkin,
On the hill’s-front crackled; heads were a-melting,
Wound-doors bursting, while the blood was a-coursing
From body-bite fierce. The fire devoured them,
Greediest of spirits, whom war had offcarried
From both of the peoples; their bravest were fallen.
Part XVIII
“Then the warriors departed to go to their dwellings,
Reaved of their friends, Friesland to visit,
Their homes and high-city. Hengest continued
Biding with Finn the blood-tainted winter,
Wholly unsundered; of fatherland thought he
Though unable to drive the ring-stemmèd vessel
O’er the ways of the waters; the wave-deeps were tossing,
Fought with the wind; winter in ice-bonds
Closed up the currents, till there came to the dwelling
A year in its course, as yet it revolveth,
If season propitious one alway regardeth,
World-cheering weathers. Then winter was gone,
Earth’s bosom was lovely; the exile would get him,
The guest from the palace; on grewsomest vengeance
He brooded more eager than on oversea journeys,
Whe’r onset-of-anger he were able to ’complish,
The bairns of the Jutemen therein to remember.
Nowise refused he the duties of liegeman
When Hun of the Frisians the battle-sword Láfing,
Fairest of falchions, friendly did give him:
Its edges were famous in folk-talk of Jutland.
And savage sword-fury seized in its clutches
Bold-mooded Finn where he bode in his palace,
When the grewsome grapple Guthlaf and Oslaf
Had mournfully mentioned, the mere-journey over,
For sorrows half-blamed him; the flickering spirit
Could not bide in his bosom. Then the building was covered
With corpses of foemen, and Finn too was slaughtered,
The king with his comrades, and the queen made a prisoner.
The troops of the Scyldings bore to their vessels
All that the land-king had in his palace,
Such trinkets and treasures they took as, on searching,
At Finn’s they could find. They ferried to Daneland
The excellent woman on oversea journey,
Led her to their land-folk.” The lay was concluded,
The gleeman’s recital. Shouts again rose then,
Bench-glee resounded, bearers then offered
Wine from wonder-vats. Wealhtheo advanced then
Going ’neath gold-crown, where the good ones were seated
Uncle and nephew; their peace was yet mutual,
True each to the other. And Unferth the spokesman
Sat at the feet of the lord of the Scyldings:
Each trusted his spirit that his mood was courageous,
Though at fight he had failed in faith to his kinsmen.
Said the queen of the Scyldings: “My lord and protector,
Treasure-bestower, take thou this beaker;
Joyance attend thee, gold-friend of heroes,
And greet thou the Geatmen with gracious responses!
So ought one to do. Be kind to the Geatmen,
In gifts not niggardly; anear and afar now
Peace thou enjoyest. Report hath informed me
Thou’lt have for a bairn the battle-brave hero.
Now is Heorot cleansèd, ring-palace gleaming;
Give while thou mayest many rewards,
And bequeath to thy kinsmen kingdom and people,
On wending thy way to the Wielder’s splendor.
I know good Hrothulf, that the noble young troopers
He’ll care for and honor, lord of the Scyldings,
If earth-joys thou endest earlier than he doth;
I reckon that recompense he’ll render with kindness
Our offspring and issue, if that all he remember,
What favors of yore, when he yet was an infant,
We awarded to him for his worship and pleasure.”
Then she turned by the bench where her sons were carousing,
Hrethric and Hrothmund, and the heroes’ offspring,
The war-youth together; there the good one was sitting
’Twixt the brothers twain, Beowulf Geatman.
Part XIX
A beaker was borne him, and bidding to quaff it
Graciously given, and gold that was twisted
Pleasantly proffered, a pair of arm-jewels,
Rings and corslet, of collars the greatest
I’ve heard of ’neath heaven. Of heroes not any
More splendid from jewels have I heard ’neath the welkin,
Since Hama off bore the Brosingmen’s necklace,
The bracteates and jewels, from the bright-shining city,
Eormenric’s cunning craftiness fled from,
Chose gain everlasting. Geatish Higelac,
Grandson of Swerting, last had this jewel
When tramping ’neath banner the treasure he guarded,
The field-spoil defended; Fate offcarried him
When for deeds of daring he endured tribulation,
Hate from the Frisians; the ornaments bare he
O’er the cup of the currents, costly gem-treasures,
Mighty folk-leader, he fell ’neath his target;
The corpse of the king then came into charge of
The race of the Frankmen, the mail-shirt and collar:
Warmen less noble plundered the fallen,
When the fight was finished; the folk of the Geatmen
Part XIX
A beaker was borne him, and bidding to quaff it
Graciously given, and gold that was twisted
Pleasantly proffered, a pair of arm-jewels,
Rings and corslet, of collars the greatest
I’ve heard of ’neath heaven. Of heroes not any
More splendid from jewels have I heard ’neath the welkin,
Since Hama off bore the Brosingmen’s necklace,
The bracteates and jewels, from the bright-shining city,
Eormenric’s cunning craftiness fled from,
Chose gain everlasting. Geatish Higelac,
Grandson of Swerting, last had this jewel
When tramping ’neath banner the treasure he guarded,
The field-spoil defended; Fate offcarried him
When for deeds of daring he endured tribulation,
Hate from the Frisians; the ornaments bare he
O’er the cup of the currents, costly gem-treasures,
Mighty folk-leader, he fell ’neath his target;
The corpse of the king then came into charge of
The race of the Frankmen, the mail-shirt and collar:
Warmen less noble plundered the fallen,
When the fight was finished; the folk of the Geatmen
The field of the dead held in possession.
The choicest of mead-halls with cheering resounded.
Wealhtheo discoursed, the war-troop addressed she:
“This collar enjoy thou, Beowulf worthy,
Young man, in safety, and use thou this armor,
Gems of the people, and prosper thou fully,
Show thyself sturdy and be to these liegemen
Mild with instruction! I’ll mind thy requital.
Thou hast brought it to pass that far and near
Forever and ever earthmen shall honor thee,
Even so widely as ocean surroundeth
The blustering bluffs. Be, while thou livest,
A wealth-blessèd atheling. I wish thee most truly
Jewels and treasure. Be kind to my son, thou
Living in joyance! Here each of the nobles
Is true unto other, gentle in spirit,
Loyal to leader. The liegemen are peaceful,
The war-troops ready: well-drunken heroes,
Do as I bid ye.” Then she went to the settle.
There was choicest of banquets, wine drank the heroes:
Weird they knew not, destiny cruel,
As to many an earlman early it happened,
When evening had come and Hrothgar had parted
Off to his manor, the mighty to slumber.
Warriors unnumbered warded the building
As erst they did often: the ale-settle bared they,
’Twas covered all over with beds and pillows.
Doomed unto death, down to his slumber
Bowed then a beer-thane. Their battle-shields placed they,
Bright-shining targets, up by their heads then;
O’er the atheling on ale-bench ’twas easy to see there
Battle-high helmet, burnie of ring-mail,
And mighty war-spear. ’Twas the wont of that people
To constantly keep them equipped for the battle,
At home or marching—in either condition—
At seasons just such as necessity ordered
As best for their ruler; that people was worthy.
Part XX
They sank then to slumber. With sorrow one paid for
His evening repose, as often betid them
While Grendel was holding the gold-bedecked palace,
Ill-deeds performing, till his end overtook him,
Death for his sins. ’Twas seen very clearly,
Known unto earth-folk, that still an avenger
Outlived the loathed one, long since the sorrow
Caused by the struggle; the mother of Grendel,
Devil-shaped woman, her woe ever minded,
Who was held to inhabit the horrible waters,
The cold-flowing currents, after Cain had become a
Slayer-with-edges to his one only brother,
The son of his sire; he set out then banished,
Marked as a murderer, man-joys avoiding,
Lived in the desert. Thence demons unnumbered
Fate-sent awoke; one of them Grendel,
Sword-cursèd, hateful, who at Heorot met with
A man that was watching, waiting the struggle,
Where a horrid one held him with hand-grapple sturdy;
Nathless he minded the might of his body,
The glorious gift God had allowed him,
And folk-ruling Father’s favor relied on,
His help and His comfort: so he conquered the foeman,
The hell-spirit humbled: he unhappy departed then,
Reaved of his joyance, journeying to death-haunts,
Foeman of man. His mother moreover
Eager and gloomy was anxious to go on
Her mournful mission, mindful of vengeance
For the death of her son. She came then to Heorot
Where the Armor-Dane earlmen all through the building
Were lying in slumber. Soon there became then
Return to the nobles, when the mother of Grendel
Entered the folk-hall; the fear was less grievous
By even so much as the vigor of maidens,
War-strength of women, by warrior is reckoned,
When well-carved weapon, worked with the hammer,
Blade very bloody, brave with its edges,
Strikes down the boar-sign that stands on the helmet.
Then the hard-edgèd weapon was heaved in the building,
The brand o’er the benches, broad-lindens many
Hand-fast were lifted; for helmet he recked not,
For armor-net broad, whom terror laid hold of.
She went then hastily, outward would get her
Her life for to save, when some one did spy her;
Soon she had grappled one of the athelings
Fast and firmly, when fenward she hied her;
That one to Hrothgar was liefest of heroes
In rank of retainer where waters encircle,
A mighty shield-warrior, whom she murdered at slumber,
A broadly-famed battle-knight. Beowulf was absent,
But another apartment was erstwhile devoted
To the glory-decked Geatman when gold was distributed.
There was hubbub in Heorot. The hand that was famous
She grasped in its gore; grief was renewed then
In homes and houses: ’twas no happy arrangement
In both of the quarters to barter and purchase
With lives of their friends. Then the well-agèd ruler,
The gray-headed war-thane, was woful in spirit,
When his long-trusted liegeman lifeless he knew of,
His dearest one gone. Quick from a room was
Beowulf brought, brave and triumphant.
As day was dawning in the dusk of the morning,
Went then that earlman, champion noble,
Came with comrades, where the clever one bided
Whether God all gracious would grant him a respite
After the woe he had suffered. The war-worthy hero
With a troop of retainers trod then the pavement
(The hall-building groaned), till he greeted the wise one,
The earl of the Ingwins; asked if the night had
Fully refreshed him, as fain he would have it.
Part XXI
Hrothgar rejoined, helm of the Scyldings:
“Ask not of joyance! Grief is renewed to
The folk of the Danemen. Dead is Æschere,
Yrmenlaf’s brother, older than he,
My true-hearted counsellor, trusty adviser,
Shoulder-companion, when fighting in battle
Our heads we protected, when troopers were clashing,
And heroes were dashing; such an earl should be ever,
An erst-worthy atheling, as Æschere proved him.
The flickering death-spirit became in Heorot
His hand-to-hand murderer; I can not tell whither
The cruel one turned in the carcass exulting,
By cramming discovered. The quarrel she wreaked then,
That last night igone Grendel thou killedst
In grewsomest manner, with grim-holding clutches,
Since too long he had lessened my liege-troop and wasted
My folk-men so foully. He fell in the battle
With forfeit of life, and another has followed,
A mighty crime-worker, her kinsman avenging,
And henceforth hath ‘stablished her hatred unyielding,
As it well may appear to many a liegeman,
Who mourneth in spirit the treasure-bestower,
Her heavy heart-sorrow; the hand is now lifeless
Which availed you in every wish that you cherished.
Land-people heard I, liegemen, this saying,
Dwellers in halls, they had seen very often
A pair of such mighty march-striding creatures,
Far-dwelling spirits, holding the moorlands:
One of them wore, as well they might notice,
The image of woman, the other one wretched
In guise of a man wandered in exile,
Except he was huger than any of earthmen;
Earth-dwelling people entitled him Grendel
In days of yore: they know not their father,
Whe’r ill-going spirits any were borne him Ever before.
They guard the wolf-coverts, Lands inaccessible, wind-beaten nesses,
Fearfullest fen-deeps, where a flood from the mountains
’Neath mists of the nesses netherward rattles,
The stream under earth: not far is it henceward
Measured by mile-lengths that the mere-water standeth,
Which forests hang over, with frost-whiting covered,
A firm-rooted forest, the floods overshadow.
There ever at night one an ill-meaning portent
A fire-flood may see; ’mong children of men
None liveth so wise that wot of the bottom;
Though harassed by hounds the heath-stepper seek for,
Fly to the forest, firm-antlered he-deer,
Spurred from afar, his spirit he yieldeth,
His life on the shore, ere in he will venture
To cover his head. Uncanny the place is:
Thence upward ascendeth the surging of waters,
Wan to the welkin, when the wind is stirring
The weathers unpleasing, till the air groweth gloomy,
And the heavens lower. Now is help to be gotten
From thee and thee only! The abode thou know’st not,
The dangerous place where thou’rt able to meet with
The sin-laden hero: seek if thou darest!
For the feud I will fully fee thee with money,
With old-time treasure, as erstwhile I did thee,
With well-twisted jewels, if away thou shalt get thee.”
Part XXII
Beowulf answered, Ecgtheow’s son:
“Grieve not, O wise one! for each it is better,
His friend to avenge than with vehemence wail him;
Each of us must the end-day abide of
His earthly existence; who is able accomplish
Glory ere death! To battle-thane noble
Lifeless lying, ’tis at last most fitting.
Arise, O king, quick let us hasten
To look at the footprint of the kinsman of Grendel!
I promise thee this now: to his place he’ll escape not,
To embrace of the earth, nor to mountainous forest,
Nor to depths of the ocean, wherever he wanders.
Practice thou now patient endurance
Of each of thy sorrows, as I hope for thee soothly!”
Then up sprang the old one, the All-Wielder thanked he,
Ruler Almighty, that the man had outspoken.
Then for Hrothgar a war-horse was decked with a bridle,
Curly-maned courser. The clever folk-leader
Stately proceeded: stepped then an earl-troop
Of linden-wood bearers. Her footprints were seen then
Widely in wood-paths, her way o’er the bottoms,
Where she faraway fared o’er fen-country murky,
Bore away breathless the best of retainers
Who pondered with Hrothgar the welfare of country.
The son of the athelings then went o’er the stony,
Declivitous cliffs, the close-covered passes,
Narrow passages, paths unfrequented,
Nesses abrupt, nicker-haunts many;
One of a few of wise-mooded heroes,
He onward advanced to view the surroundings,
Till he found unawares woods of the mountain
O’er hoar-stones hanging, holt-wood unjoyful;
The water stood under, welling and gory.
’Twas irksome in spirit to all of the Danemen,
Friends of the Scyldings, to many a liegeman
Sad to be suffered, a sorrow unlittle
To each of the earlmen, when to Æschere’s head they
Came on the cliff. The current was seething
With blood and with gore (the troopers gazed on it).
The horn anon sang the battle-song ready.
The troop were all seated; they saw ’long the water then
Many a serpent, mere-dragons wondrous
Trying the waters, nickers a-lying
On the cliffs of the nesses, which at noonday full often
Go on the sea-deeps their sorrowful journey,
Wild-beasts and wormkind; away then they hastened
ot-mooded, hateful, they heard the great clamor,
The war-trumpet winding. One did the Geat-prince
Sunder from earth-joys, with arrow from bowstring,
From his sea-struggle tore him, that the trusty war-missile
Pierced to his vitals; he proved in the currents
Less doughty at swimming whom death had offcarried.
Soon in the waters the wonderful swimmer
Was straitened most sorely with sword-pointed boar-spears,
Pressed in the battle and pulled to the cliff-edge;
The liegemen then looked on the loath-fashioned stranger.
Beowulf donned then his battle-equipments,
Cared little for life; inlaid and most ample,
The hand-woven corslet which could cover his body,
Must the wave-deeps explore, that war might be powerless
To harm the great hero, and the hating one’s grasp might
Not peril his safety; his head was protected
By the light-flashing helmet that should mix with the bottoms,
Trying the eddies, treasure-emblazoned,
Encircled with jewels, as in seasons long past
The weapon-smith worked it, wondrously made it,
With swine-bodies fashioned it, that thenceforward no longer
Brand might bite it, and battle-sword hurt it.
And that was not least of helpers in prowess
That Hrothgar’s spokesman had lent him when straitened;
And the hilted hand-sword was Hrunting entitled,
Old and most excellent ’mong all of the treasures;
Its blade was of iron, blotted with poison,
Hardened with gore; it failed not in battle
Any hero under heaven in hand who it brandished,
Who ventured to take the terrible journeys,
The battle-field sought; not the earliest occasion
That deeds of daring ’twas destined to ’complish.
Ecglaf’s kinsman minded not soothly,
Exulting in strength, what erst he had spoken
Drunken with wine, when the weapon he lent to
A sword-hero bolder; himself did not venture
’Neath the strife of the currents his life to endanger,
To fame-deeds perform; there he forfeited glory,
Repute for his strength. Not so with the other
When he clad in his corslet had equipped him for battle.
Part XXIII
Beowulf spake, Ecgtheow’s son:
“Recall now, oh, famous kinsman of Healfdene,
Prince very prudent, now to part I am ready,
Gold-friend of earlmen, what erst we agreed on,
Should I lay down my life in lending thee assistance,
When my earth-joys were over, thou wouldst evermore serve me
In stead of a father; my faithful thanemen,
My trusty retainers, protect thou and care for,
Fall I in battle: and, Hrothgar belovèd,
Send unto Higelac the high-valued jewels
Thou to me hast allotted. The lord of the Geatmen
May perceive from the gold, the Hrethling may see it
When he looks on the jewels, that a gem-giver found I
Good over-measure, enjoyed him while able.
And the ancient heirloom Unferth permit thou,
The famed one to have, the heavy-sword splendid
The hard-edgèd weapon; with Hrunting to aid me,
I shall gain me glory, or grim-death shall take me.”
The atheling of Geatmen uttered these words and
Heroic did hasten, not any rejoinder
Was willing to wait for; the wave-current swallowed
The doughty-in-battle. Then a day’s-length elapsed ere
He was able to see the sea at its bottom.
Early she found then who fifty of winters
The course of the currents kept in her fury,
Grisly and greedy, that the grim one’s dominion
Some one of men from above was exploring.
Forth did she grab them, grappled the warrior
With horrible clutches; yet no sooner she injured
His body unscathèd: the burnie out-guarded,
That she proved but powerless to pierce through the armor,
The limb-mail locked, with loath-grabbing fingers.
The sea-wolf bare then, when bottomward came she,
The ring-prince homeward, that he after was powerless
(He had daring to do it) to deal with his weapons,
But many a mere-beast tormented him swimming,
Flood-beasts no few with fierce-biting tusks did
Break through his burnie, the brave one pursued they.
The earl then discovered he was down in some cavern
Where no water whatever anywise harmed him,
And the clutch of the current could come not anear him,
Since the roofed-hall prevented; brightness a-gleaming
Fire-light he saw, flashing resplendent.
The good one saw then the sea-bottom’s monster,
The mighty mere-woman; he made a great onset
With weapon-of-battle, his hand not desisted
From striking, that war-blade struck on her head then
A battle-song greedy. The stranger perceived then
The sword would not bite, her life would not injure,
But the falchion failed the folk-prince when straitened:
Erst had it often onsets encountered,
Oft cloven the helmet, the fated one’s armor:
’Twas the first time that ever the excellent jewel
Had failed of its fame. Firm-mooded after,
Not heedless of valor, but mindful of glory,
Was Higelac’s kinsman; the hero-chief angry
Cast then his carved-sword covered with jewels
That it lay on the earth, hard and steel-pointed;
He hoped in his strength, his hand-grapple sturdy.
So any must act whenever he thinketh
To gain him in battle glory unending,
And is reckless of living. The lord of the War-Geats
(He shrank not from battle) seized by the shoulder
The mother of Grendel; then mighty in struggle
Swung he his enemy, since his anger was kindled,
That she fell to the floor. With furious grapple
She gave him requital early thereafter,
And stretched out to grab him; the strongest of warriors
Faint-mooded stumbled, till he fell in his traces,
Foot-going champion. Then she sat on the hall-guest
And wielded her war-knife wide-bladed, flashing,
For her son would take vengeance, her one only bairn.
His breast-armor woven bode on his shoulder;
It guarded his life, the entrance defended
’Gainst sword-point and edges. Ecgtheow’s son there
Had fatally journeyed, champion of Geatmen,
In the arms of the ocean, had the armor not given,
Close-woven corslet, comfort and succor,
And had God most holy not awarded the victory,
All-knowing Lord; easily did heaven’s
Ruler most righteous arrange it with justice;
Uprose he erect ready for battle.
Part XXIV
Then he saw mid the war-gems a weapon of victory,
An ancient giant-sword, of edges a-doughty,
Glory of warriors: of weapons ’twas choicest,
Only ’twas larger than any man else was
Able to bear to the battle-encounter,
The good and splendid work of the giants.
He grasped then the sword-hilt, knight of the Scyldings,
Bold and battle-grim, brandished his ring-sword,
Hopeless of living, hotly he smote her,
That the fiend-woman’s neck firmly it grappled,
Broke through her bone-joints, the bill fully pierced her
Fate-cursèd body, she fell to the ground then:
The hand-sword was bloody, the hero exulted.
The brand was brilliant, brightly it glimmered,
Just as from heaven gemlike shineth
The torch of the firmament. He glanced ’long the building,
And turned by the wall then, Higelac’s vassal
Raging and wrathful raised his battle-sword
Strong by the handle. The edge was not useless
To the hero-in-battle, but he speedily wished to
Give Grendel requital for the many assaults he
Had worked on the West-Danes not once, but often,
When he slew in slumber the subjects of Hrothgar,
Swallowed down fifteen sleeping retainers
Of the folk of the Danemen, and fully as many
Carried away, a horrible prey.
He gave him requital, grim-raging champion,
When he saw on his rest-place weary of conflict
Grendel lying, of life-joys bereavèd,
As the battle at Heorot erstwhile had scathed him;
His body far bounded, a blow when he suffered,
Death having seized him, sword-smiting heavy,
And he cut off his head then. Early this noticed
The clever carles who as comrades of Hrothgar
Gazed on the sea-deeps, that the surging wave-currents
Were mightily mingled, the mere-flood was gory:
Of the good one the gray-haired together held converse,
The hoary of head, that they hoped not to see again
The atheling ever, that exulting in victory
He’d return there to visit the distinguished folk-ruler:
Then many concluded the mere-wolf had killed him.
The ninth hour came then. From the ness-edge departed
The bold-mooded Scyldings; the gold-friend of heroes
Homeward betook him. The strangers sat down then
Soul-sick, sorrowful, the sea-waves regarding:
They wished and yet weened not their well-loved friend-lord
To see any more. The sword-blade began then,
The blood having touched it, contracting and shriveling
With battle-icicles; ’twas a wonderful marvel
That it melted entirely, likest to ice when
The Father unbindeth the bond of the frost and
Unwindeth the wave-bands, He who wieldeth dominion
Of times and of tides: a truth-firm Creator.
Nor took he of jewels more in the dwelling,
Lord of the Weders, though they lay all around him,
Than the head and the handle handsome with jewels;
The brand early melted, burnt was the weapon:
So hot was the blood, the strange-spirit poisonous
That in it did perish. He early swam off then
Who had bided in combat the carnage of haters,
Went up through the ocean; the eddies were cleansèd,
The spacious expanses, when the spirit from farland
His life put aside and this short-lived existence.
The seamen’s defender came swimming to land then
Doughty of spirit, rejoiced in his sea-gift,
The bulky burden which he bore in his keeping.
The excellent vassals advanced then to meet him,
To God they were grateful, were glad in their chieftain,
That to see him safe and sound was granted them.
From the high-minded hero, then, helmet and burnie
Were speedily loosened: the ocean was putrid,
The water ’neath welkin weltered with gore.
Forth did they fare, then, their footsteps retracing,
Merry and mirthful, measured the earth-way,
The highway familiar: men very daring
Bare then the head from the sea-cliff, burdening
Each of the earlmen, excellent-valiant.
Four of them had to carry with labor
The head of Grendel to the high towering gold-hall
Upstuck on the spear, till fourteen most-valiant
And battle-brave Geatmen came there going
Straight to the palace: the prince of the people
Measured the mead-ways, their mood-brave companion.
The atheling of earlmen entered the building,
Deed-valiant man, adorned with distinction,
Doughty shield-warrior, to address King Hrothgar:
Then hung by the hair, the head of Grendel
Was borne to the building, where beer-thanes were drinking,
Loth before earlmen and eke ’fore the lady:
The warriors beheld then a wonderful sight.
Part XXV
Beowulf spake, offspring of Ecgtheow:
“Lo! we blithely have brought thee, bairn of Healfdene,
Prince of the Scyldings, these presents from ocean
Which thine eye looketh on, for an emblem of glory.
I came off alive from this, narrowly ’scaping:
In war ’neath the water the work with great pains I
Performed, and the fight had been finished quite nearly,
Had God not defended me. I failed in the battle
Aught to accomplish, aided by Hrunting,
Though that weapon was worthy, but the Wielder of earth-folk
Gave me willingly to see on the wall a
Heavy old hand-sword hanging in splendor
(He guided most often the lorn and the friendless),
That I swung as a weapon. The wards of the house then
I killed in the conflict (when occasion was given me).
Then the battle-sword burned, the brand that was lifted,
As the blood-current sprang, hottest of war-sweats;
Seizing the hilt, from my foes I offbore it;
I avenged as I ought to their acts of malignity,
The murder of Danemen. I then make thee this promise,
Thou’lt be able in Heorot careless to slumber
With thy throng of heroes and the thanes of thy people
Every and each, of greater and lesser,
And thou needest not fear for them from the selfsame direction
As thou formerly fearedst, oh, folk-lord of Scyldings,
End-day for earlmen.” To the age-hoary man then,
The gray-haired chieftain, the gold-fashioned sword-hilt,
Old-work of giants, was thereupon given;
Since the fall of the fiends, it fell to the keeping
Of the wielder of Danemen, the wonder-smith’s labor,
And the bad-mooded being abandoned this world then,
Opponent of God, victim of murder,
And also his mother; it went to the keeping
Of the best of the world-kings, where waters encircle,
Who the scot divided in Scylding dominion.
Hrothgar discoursed, the hilt he regarded,
The ancient heirloom where an old-time contention’s
Beginning was graven: the gurgling currents,
The flood slew thereafter the race of the giants,
They had proved themselves daring: that people was loth to
The Lord everlasting, through lash of the billows
The Father gave them final requital.
So in letters of rune on the clasp of the handle
Gleaming and golden, ’twas graven exactly,
Set forth and said, whom that sword had been made for,
Finest of irons, who first it was wrought for,
Wreathed at its handle and gleaming with serpents.
The wise one then said (silent they all were)
Son of old Healfdene: “He may say unrefuted
Who performs ’mid the folk-men fairness and truth
(The hoary old ruler remembers the past),
That better by birth is this bairn of the nobles!
Thy fame is extended through far-away countries,
Good friend Beowulf, o’er all of the races,
Thou holdest all firmly, hero-like strength with
Prudence of spirit. I’ll prove myself grateful
As before we agreed on; thou granted for long shalt
Become a great comfort to kinsmen and comrades,
A help unto heroes. Heremod became not
Such to the Scyldings, successors of Ecgwela;
He grew not to please them, but grievous destruction,
And diresome death-woes to Danemen attracted;
He slew in anger his table-companions,
Trustworthy counsellors, till he turned off lonely
From world-joys away, wide-famous ruler:
Though high-ruling heaven in hero-strength raised him,
In might exalted him, o’er men of all nations
Made him supreme, yet a murderous spirit
Grew in his bosom: he gave then no ring-gems
To the Danes after custom; endured he unjoyful
Standing the straits from strife that was raging,
Longsome folk-sorrow. Learn then from this,
Lay hold of virtue! Though laden with winters,
I have sung thee these measures. ’Tis a marvel to tell it,
How all-ruling God from greatness of spirit
Giveth wisdom to children of men,
Manor and earlship: all things He ruleth.
He often permitteth the mood-thought of man of
The illustrious lineage to lean to possessions,
Allows him earthly delights at his manor,
A high-burg of heroes to hold in his keeping,
Maketh portions of earth-folk hear him,
And a wide-reaching kingdom so that, wisdom failing him,
He himself is unable to reckon its boundaries;
He liveth in luxury, little debars him,
Nor sickness nor age, no treachery-sorrow
Becloudeth his spirit, conflict nowhere,
No sword-hate, appeareth, but all of the world doth
Wend as he wisheth; the worse he knoweth not,
Till arrant arrogance inward pervading,
Waxeth and springeth, when the warder is sleeping,
The guard of the soul: with sorrows encompassed,
Too sound is his slumber, the slayer is near him,
Who with bow and arrow aimeth in malice.
Part XXVI
“Then bruised in his bosom he with bitter-toothed missile
Is hurt ’neath his helmet: from harmful pollution
He is powerless to shield him by the wonderful mandates
Of the loath-cursèd spirit; what too long he hath holden
Him seemeth too small, savage he hoardeth,
Nor boastfully giveth gold-plated rings,
The fate of the future flouts and forgetteth
Since God had erst given him greatness no little,
Wielder of Glory. His end-day anear,
It afterward happens that the bodily-dwelling
Fleetingly fadeth, falls into ruins;
Another lays hold who doleth the ornaments,
The nobleman’s jewels, nothing lamenting,
Heedeth no terror. Oh, Beowulf dear,
Best of the heroes, from bale-strife defend thee,
And choose thee the better, counsels eternal;
Beware of arrogance, world-famous champion!
But a little-while lasts thy life-vigor’s fulness;
’Twill after hap early, that illness or sword-edge
Shall part thee from strength, or the grasp of the fire,
Or the wave of the current, or clutch of the edges,
Or flight of the war-spear, or age with its horrors,
Or thine eyes’ bright flashing shall fade into darkness:
’Twill happen full early, excellent hero,
That death shall subdue thee. So the Danes a half-century
I held under heaven, helped them in struggles
’Gainst many a race in middle-earth’s regions,
With ash-wood and edges, that enemies none
On earth molested me. Lo! offsetting change, now,
Came to my manor, grief after joyance,
When Grendel became my constant visitor,
Inveterate hater: I from that malice
Continually travailed with trouble no little.
Thanks be to God that I gained in my lifetime,
To the Lord everlasting, to look on the gory
Head with mine eyes, after long-lasting sorrow!
Go to the bench now, battle-adornèd
Joy in the feasting: of jewels in common
We’ll meet with many when morning appeareth.”
The Geatman was gladsome, ganged he immediately
To go to the bench, as the clever one bade him.
Then again as before were the famous-for-prowess,
Hall-inhabiters, handsomely banqueted,
Feasted anew. The night-veil fell then
Dark o’er the warriors. The courtiers rose then;
The gray-haired was anxious to go to his slumbers,
The hoary old Scylding. Hankered the Geatman,
The champion doughty, greatly, to rest him:
An earlman early outward did lead him,
Fagged from his faring, from far-country springing,
Who for etiquette’s sake all of a liegeman’s
Needs regarded, such as seamen at that time
Were bounden to feel. The big-hearted rested;
The building uptowered, spacious and gilded,
The guest within slumbered, till the sable-clad raven
Blithely foreboded the beacon of heaven.
Then the bright-shining sun o’er the bottoms came going;
The warriors hastened, the heads of the peoples
Were ready to go again to their peoples,
The high-mooded farer would faraway thenceward
Look for his vessel. The valiant one bade then,
Offspring of Ecglaf, off to bear Hrunting,
To take his weapon, his well-beloved iron;
He him thanked for the gift, saying good he accounted
The war-friend and mighty, nor chid he with words then
The blade of the brand: ’twas a brave-mooded hero.
When the warriors were ready, arrayed in their trappings,
The atheling dear to the Danemen advanced then
On to the dais, where the other was sitting,
Grim-mooded hero, greeted King Hrothgar.
Part XXVII
Beowulf spake, Ecgtheow’s offspring:
“We men of the water wish to declare now
Fared from far-lands, we’re firmly determined
To seek King Higelac. Here have we fitly
Been welcomed and feasted, as heart would desire it;
Good was the greeting. If greater affection
I am anywise able ever on earth to
Gain at thy hands, ruler of heroes,
Than yet I have done, I shall quickly be ready
For combat and conflict. O’er the course of the waters
Learn I that neighbors alarm thee with terror,
As haters did whilom, I hither will bring thee
For help unto heroes henchmen by thousands.
I know as to Higelac, the lord of the Geatmen,
Though young in years, he yet will permit me,
By words and by works, ward of the people,
Fully to furnish thee forces and bear thee
My lance to relieve thee, if liegemen shall fail thee,
And help of my hand-strength; if Hrethric be treating,
Bairn of the king, at the court of the Geatmen,
He thereat may find him friends in abundance:
Faraway countries he were better to seek for
Who trusts in himself.” Hrothgar discoursed then,
Making rejoinder: “These words thou hast uttered
All-knowing God hath given thy spirit!
Ne’er heard I an earlman thus early in life
More clever in speaking: thou’rt cautious of spirit,
Mighty of muscle, in mouth-answers prudent.
I count on the hope that, happen it ever
That missile shall rob thee of Hrethel’s descendant,
Edge-horrid battle, and illness or weapon
Deprive thee of prince, of people’s protector,
And life thou yet holdest, the Sea-Geats will never
Find a more fitting folk-lord to choose them,
Gem-ward of heroes, than thou mightest prove thee,
If the kingdom of kinsmen thou carest to govern.
Thy mood-spirit likes me the longer the better,
Beowulf dear: thou hast brought it to pass that
To both these peoples peace shall be common,
To Geat-folk and Danemen, the strife be suspended,
The secret assailings they suffered in yore-days;
And also that jewels be shared while I govern
The wide-stretching kingdom, and that many shall visit
Others o’er the ocean with excellent gift-gems:
The ring-adorned bark shall bring o’er the currents
Presents and love-gifts. This people I know
Tow’rd foeman and friend firmly established,
After ancient etiquette everywise blameless.”
Then the warden of earlmen gave him still farther,
Kinsman of Healfdene, a dozen of jewels,
Bade him safely seek with the presents
His well-beloved people, early returning.
Then the noble-born king kissed the distinguished,
Dear-lovèd liegeman, the Dane-prince saluted him,
And claspèd his neck; tears from him fell,
From the gray-headed man: he two things expected,
Agèd and reverend, but rather the second,
That bold in council they’d meet thereafter.
The man was so dear that he failed to suppress the
Emotions that moved him, but in mood-fetters fastened
The long-famous hero longeth in secret
Deep in his spirit for the dear-beloved man
Though not a blood-kinsman. Beowulf thenceward,
Gold-splendid warrior, walked o’er the meadows
Exulting in treasure: the sea-going vessel
Riding at anchor awaited its owner.
As they pressed on their way then, the present of Hrothgar
Was frequently referred to: a folk-king indeed that
Everyway blameless, till age did debar him
The joys of his might, which hath many oft injured.
Part XXVIII
Then the band of very valiant retainers
Came to the current; they were clad all in armor,
In link-woven burnies. The land-warder noticed
The return of the earlmen, as he erstwhile had seen them;
Nowise with insult he greeted the strangers
From the naze of the cliff, but rode on to meet them;
Said the bright-armored visitors vesselward traveled
Welcome to Weders. The wide-bosomed craft then
Lay on the sand, laden with armor,
With horses and jewels, the ring-stemmèd sailer:
The mast uptowered o’er the treasure of Hrothgar.
To the boat-ward a gold-bound brand he presented,
That he was afterwards honored on the ale-bench more highly
As the heirloom’s owner. Set he out on his vessel,
To drive on the deep, Dane-country left he.
Along by the mast then a sea-garment fluttered,
A rope-fastened sail. The sea-boat resounded,
The wind o’er the waters the wave-floater nowise
Kept from its journey; the sea-goer traveled,
The foamy-necked floated forth o’er the currents,
The well-fashioned vessel o’er the ways of the ocean,
Till they came within sight of the cliffs of the Geatmen,
The well-known headlands. The wave-goer hastened
Driven by breezes, stood on the shore.
Prompt at the ocean, the port-ward was ready,
Who long in the past outlooked in the distance,
At water’s-edge waiting well-lovèd heroes;
He bound to the bank then the broad-bosomed vessel
Fast in its fetters, lest the force of the waters
Should be able to injure the ocean-wood winsome.
Bade he up then take the treasure of princes,
Plate-gold and fretwork; not far was it thence
To go off in search of the giver of jewels:
Hrethel’s son Higelac at home there remaineth,
Himself with his comrades close to the sea-coast.
The building was splendid, the king heroic,
Great in his hall, Hygd very young was,
Fine-mooded, clever, though few were the winters
That the daughter of Hæreth had dwelt in the borough;
But she nowise was cringing nor niggard of presents,
Of ornaments rare, to the race of the Geatmen.
Thrytho nursed anger, excellent folk-queen,
Hot-burning hatred: no hero whatever
’Mong household companions, her husband excepted
Dared to adventure to look at the woman
With eyes in the daytime; but he knew that death-chains
Hand-wreathed were wrought him: early thereafter,
When the hand-strife was over, edges were ready,
That fierce-raging sword-point had to force a decision,
Murder-bale show. Such no womanly custom
For a lady to practise, though lovely her person,
That a weaver-of-peace, on pretence of anger
A belovèd liegeman of life should deprive.
Soothly this hindered Heming’s kinsman;
Other ale-drinking earlmen asserted
That fearful folk-sorrows fewer she wrought them,
Treacherous doings, since first she was given
Adorned with gold to the war-hero youthful,
For her origin honored, when Offa’s great palace
O’er the fallow flood by her father’s instructions
She sought on her journey, where she afterwards fully,
Famed for her virtue, her fate on the king’s-seat
Enjoyed in her lifetime, love did she hold with
The ruler of heroes, the best, it is told me,
Of all of the earthmen that oceans encompass,
Of earl-kindreds endless; hence Offa was famous
Far and widely, by gifts and by battles,
Spear-valiant hero; the home of his fathers
He governed with wisdom, whence Eomær did issue
For help unto heroes, Heming’s kinsman,
Grandson of Garmund, great in encounters.
Part XXIX
Then the brave one departed, his band along with him,
Seeking the sea-shore, the sea-marches treading,
The wide-stretching shores. The world-candle glimmered,
The sun from the southward; they proceeded then onward,
Early arriving where they heard that the troop-lord,
Ongentheow’s slayer, excellent, youthful
Folk-prince and warrior was distributing jewels,
Close in his castle. The coming of Beowulf
Was announced in a message quickly to Higelac,
That the folk-troop’s defender forth to the palace
The linden-companion alive was advancing,
Secure from the combat courtward a-going.
The building was early inward made ready
For the foot-going guests as the good one had ordered.
He sat by the man then who had lived through the struggle,
Kinsman by kinsman, when the king of the people
Had in lordly language saluted the dear one,
In words that were formal. The daughter of Hæreth
Coursed through the building, carrying mead-cups:
She loved the retainers, tendered the beakers
To the high-minded Geatmen. Higelac ’gan then
Pleasantly plying his companion with questions
In the high-towering palace. A curious interest
Tormented his spirit, what meaning to see in
The Sea-Geats’ adventures: “Beowulf worthy,
How throve your journeying, when thou thoughtest suddenly
Far o’er the salt-streams to seek an encounter,
A battle at Heorot? Hast bettered for Hrothgar,
The famous folk-leader, his far-published sorrows
Any at all? In agony-billows
I mused upon torture, distrusted the journey
Of the belovèd liegeman; I long time did pray thee
By no means to seek out the murderous spirit,
To suffer the South-Danes themselves to decide on
Grappling with Grendel. To God I am thankful
To be suffered to see thee safe from thy journey.”
Beowulf answered, bairn of old Ecgtheow:
“’Tis hidden by no means, Higelac chieftain,
From many of men, the meeting so famous,
What mournful moments of me and of Grendel
Were passed in the place where he pressing affliction
On the Victory-Scyldings scathefully brought,
Anguish forever; that all I avengèd,
So that any under heaven of the kinsmen of Grendel
Needeth not boast of that cry-in-the-morning,
Who longest liveth of the loth-going kindred,
Encompassed by moorland. I came in my journey
To the royal ring-hall, Hrothgar to greet there:
Soon did the famous scion of Healfdene,
When he understood fully the spirit that led me,
Assign me a seat with the son of his bosom.
The troop was in joyance; mead-glee greater
’Neath arch of the ether not ever beheld I
’Mid hall-building holders. The highly-famed queen,
Peace-tie of peoples, oft passed through the building,
Cheered the young troopers; she oft tendered a hero
A beautiful ring-band, ere she went to her sitting.
Oft the daughter of Hrothgar in view of the courtiers
To the earls at the end the ale-vessel carried,
Whom Freaware I heard then hall-sitters title,
When nail-adorned jewels she gave to the heroes:
Gold-bedecked, youthful, to the glad son of Froda
Her faith has been plighted; the friend of the Scyldings,
The guard of the kingdom, hath given his sanction,
And counts it a vantage, for a part of the quarrels,
A portion of hatred, to pay with the woman.
Somewhere not rarely, when the ruler has fallen,
The life-taking lance relaxeth its fury
For a brief breathing-spell, though the bride be charming!
Part XXX
“It well may discomfit the prince of the Heathobards
And each of the thanemen of earls that attend him,
When he goes to the building escorting the woman,
That a noble-born Daneman the knights should be feasting:
There gleam on his person the leavings of elders
Hard and ring-bright, Heathobards’ treasure,
While they wielded their arms, till they misled to the battle
Their own dear lives and belovèd companions.
He saith at the banquet who the collar beholdeth,
An ancient ash-warrior who earlmen’s destruction
Clearly recalleth (cruel his spirit),
Sadly beginneth sounding the youthful
Thane-champion’s spirit through the thoughts of his bosom,
War-grief to waken, and this word-answer speaketh:
‘Art thou able, my friend, to know when thou seest it
The brand which thy father bare to the conflict
In his latest adventure, ’neath visor of helmet,
The dearly-loved iron, where Danemen did slay him,
And brave-mooded Scyldings, on the fall of the heroes,
(When vengeance was sleeping) the slaughter-place wielded?
E’en now some man of the murderer’s progeny
Exulting in ornaments enters the building,
Boasts of his blood-shedding, offbeareth the jewel
Which thou shouldst wholly hold in possession!’
So he urgeth and mindeth on every occasion
With woe-bringing words, till waxeth the season
When the woman’s thane for the works of his father,
The bill having bitten, blood-gory sleepeth,
Fated to perish; the other one thenceward
’Scapeth alive, the land knoweth thoroughly.
Then the oaths of the earlmen on each side are broken,
When rancors unresting are raging in Ingeld
And his wife-love waxeth less warm after sorrow.
So the Heathobards’ favor not faithful I reckon,
Their part in the treaty not true to the Danemen,
Their friendship not fast. I further shall tell thee
More about Grendel, that thou fully mayst hear,
Ornament-giver, what afterward came from
The hand-rush of heroes. When heaven’s bright jewel
O’er earthfields had glided, the stranger came r
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_unusual_deaths
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Name of person Image Date of death Details Menes c. 3200 BC According to Manetho, the Egyptian pharaoh and unifier of Upper and Lower Egypt was carried off and then killed by a hippopotamus.[2][3] Teti c. 2323 BC According to Manetho, the first king of the Sixth Dynasty of Egypt was mysteriously killed when he was assassinated by one of his own bodyguards. Other sources say he was killed by Userkare, who would then succeed him. His death is the earliest-known assassination, but his odd death is still under speculation.[4][5] Ado or Lot's wife 1900 BC According to the Bible, during the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah God commanded Lot not to look back on the city as he was destroying it. However, Lot's wife disobeyed this order and was turned into a pillar of salt.[6] Eglon of Moab 1334 BC Eglon was the king of Moab for 18 years. When Ehud stabbed him in the stomach, the obese king was unable to defend himself and died.[6] Sisera 1200 or 1235 BC According to Judges 4-5, Sisera, the commander of the Canaanite Army for King Jabin of Hazor, was killed in his sleep when the Kenite woman Jael stabbed him in the temple with a tent peg.[2] Abimelech Ben Gideon 1126 BC The king of Shechem and son of Gideon was killed in the city of Thebez by a woman who threw a millstone on his head which crushed his skull or mortally wounded him.[6] Eli 1070 BC The 98-year-old priest died when he fell back in his chair and snapped his neck.[6] Goliath 1024 BC The 9 feet 9 inches (2.97 m) tall Philistine soldier was slain by David when he threw a rock at his head which cracked Goliath's skull.[6] Uzzah 1000 or 1010 BC Uzzah, son of Abinadab, was escorting the Ark of the Covenant from the land of the Philistines to Jerusalem. The oxen stumbled causing the Ark to tilt, and when Uzzah touched the Ark to reposition it God became enraged and killed Uzzah instantly.[7] Absalom 972 BC During the Battle of the Wood of Ephraim, the son of King David was killed when he ran away from the battle and his hair was caught in a tree. His cousin Joab found him and killed him.[6] Tiberinus Silvius c. 914 BC It is said that the legendary king of Alba Longa drowned while crossing the Albula river, which became known as the Tiber. This is usually known as the earliest case of someone drowning.[8] Terpander 7th century BC The Greek poet and citharode, considered the father of Greek music and lyric poetry, reportedly choked to death on a fig thrown at him during one of his performances.[9] Draco of Athens c. 620 BC The Athenian lawmaker was reportedly smothered to death by gifts of cloaks and hats showered upon him by appreciative citizens at a theatre in Aegina, Greece.[10][11] Charondas c. 612 BC According to Diodorus Siculus, the Greek lawgiver from Sicily issued a law that anyone who brought weapons into the Assembly must be put to death. One day, he arrived at the Assembly seeking help to defeat some brigands in the countryside, but with a knife still attached to his belt. In order to uphold his own law, he committed suicide.[12][13][14] Duke Jing of Jin 581 BC In 581 BC a shaman warned the ruler that he would not live to see the new wheat harvest. The ruler dismissed him and had the shaman murdered. However, when the Duke was about to eat the wheat, he felt the need to visit the bathroom. Upon arriving in the bathroom, the Duke fell through the hole and drowned.[15] Arrhichion of Phigalia 564 BC The Greek pankratiast caused his own death during the Olympic finals. Held by his unidentified opponent in a stranglehold and unable to free himself, Arrhichion kicked his opponent, causing him so much pain from a foot/ankle injury that the opponent made the sign of defeat to the umpires, but at the same time broke Arrhichion's neck. Since the opponent had conceded defeat, Arrhichion was proclaimed the victor posthumously.[16][17] Milo of Croton 6th century BC The Olympic champion wrestler's hands reportedly became trapped when he tried to split a tree apart; he was then devoured by wolves (or, in later versions, lions).[18][19] Zeuxis 5th century BC The Greek painter died of laughter while painting an elderly woman.[20][21] Pythagoras of Samos c. 495 BC Ancient sources disagree on how the Greek philosopher died,[22][23] but one late and probably apocryphal legend reported by both Diogenes Laërtius, a third-century AD biographer of famous philosophers, and Iamblichus, a Neoplatonist philosopher, states that Pythagoras was murdered by his political enemies. Supposedly, he almost managed to outrun them, but he came to a bean field and refused to run through it, as he had prohibited beans as ritually unclean.[23][24] Since cutting through the field would violate his own teachings, Pythagoras simply stopped running and was killed. This story may have been fabricated by Neanthes of Cyzicus, on whom both Diogenes and Iamblichus rely as a source.[23] Anacreon c. 485 BC The poet, known for works in celebration of wine, choked to death on a grape stone according to Pliny the Elder. The 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica suggests that "the story has an air of mythical adaptation to the poet's habits".[20]: 104 [25][26] Heraclitus of Ephesus c. 475 BC According to one account given by Diogenes Laertius, the Greek philosopher was said to have been devoured by dogs after smearing himself with cow manure in an attempt to cure his dropsy.[27][28] Themistocles c. 459 BC The Athenian general who won the Battle of Salamis actually died of natural causes in exile,[29][30] but was widely rumored to have committed suicide by drinking a solution of crushed minerals known as bull's blood.[29][30][31][32] The legend is widely retold in classical sources. The early twentieth-century English classicist Percy Gardner proposed that the story about him drinking bull's blood may have been based on an ignorant misunderstanding of a statue showing Themistocles in a heroic pose, holding a cup as an offering to the gods. The comedic playwright Aristophanes references Themistocles drinking bull's blood in his comedy The Knights (performed in 424 BC) as the most heroic way for a man to die.[30][33] Aeschylus c. 455 BC According to Valerius Maximus, the eldest of the three great Athenian tragedians was killed by a tortoise dropped by an eagle that had mistaken his bald head for a rock suitable for shattering the shell of the reptile. Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History, adds that Aeschylus had been staying outdoors to avert a prophecy that he would be killed that day "by the fall of a house".[20]: 104 [34][35][36][37] Empedocles of Akragas c. 430 BC According to Diogenes Laertius, the Pre-Socratic philosopher from Sicily, who, in one of his surviving poems, declared himself to have become a "divine being... no longer mortal",[38] tried to prove he was an immortal god by leaping into Mount Etna, an active volcano.[39][40] The Roman poet Horace also alludes to this legend.[41] Sogdianus 423 BC The ruler of the Achaemenid Empire was captured by his half-brother Ochus, who had him executed by being suffocated by ash.[42][43] Polydamas of Skotoussa 5th century BC The Thessalian pankratiast, and victor in the 93rd Olympiad (408 BC), was in a cave with friends when the roof began to crumble down upon them. Believing his immense strength could prevent the cave-in, he held his hands up to the roof, trying to support it as the rocks crashed down around him. This gave enough time for his friends to flee the cave and reach safety, but Polydamas was crushed to death.[44] Sophocles c. 406 BC A number of "remarkable" legends concerning the death of another of the three great Athenian tragedians are recorded in the late antique Life of Sophocles. According to one legend, he choked to death on an unripe grape. Another says that he died of joy after hearing that his last play had been successful. A third account reports that he died of suffocation, after reading aloud a lengthy monologue from the end of his play Antigone, without pausing to take a breath for punctuation.[36] Mithridates 401 BC The Persian soldier who embarrassed his king, Artaxerxes II, by boasting of killing his rival, Cyrus the Younger (who was the brother of Artaxerxes II), was executed by scaphism. The king's physician, Ctesias, reported that Mithridates survived the insect torture for 17 days.[45][46] Democritus of Abdera c. 370 BC According to Diogenes Laertius, the Greek Atomist philosopher died aged 109; as he was on his deathbed, his sister was greatly worried because she needed to fulfill her religious obligations to the goddess Artemis in the approaching three-day Thesmophoria festival. Democritus told her to place a loaf of warm bread under his nose, and was able to survive for the three days of the festival by sniffing it. He died immediately after the festival was over.[47][48] Diogenes of Sinope c. 323 BC According to 3rd century biographer, Diogenes Laërtius, he died by consuming raw octopus. His contemporaries, however, claimed he died by holding his breath.[49] Anaxarchus 320 BC According to Diogenes Laertius, Anaxarchus gained the enmity of the tyrannical ruler of Cyprus, Nicocreon, for an inappropriate joke he made about tyrants at a banquet in 331 BC. When Anaxarchus visited Cyprus, Nicocreon ordered him to be pounded to death in a mortar. During the torture Anaxarchus said to Nicocreon, "Just pound the bag of Anaxarchus, you do not pound Anaxarchus." Nicocreon then threatened to cut his tongue out; Anaxarchus bit it off and spat it at the ruler's face.[50] Antiphanes c. 310 BC According to the Suda, the renowned comic poet of the Middle Attic comedy died after being struck by a pear.[51][52] King Wu of Qin 307 BC The king and member of the Qin dynasty reportedly challenged his friend Meng Yue to a lifting contest. When Wu tried to lift a giant bronze pot believed to have been cast for Yu the Great, it crushed his leg, inflicting fatal injuries. Meng Yue and his family were sentenced to death.[53] Agathocles of Syracuse 289 BC The Greek tyrant of Syracuse was murdered with a poisoned toothpick.[20]: 104 [54] Pyrrhus of Epirus 272 BC During the Battle of Argos, Pyrrhus was fighting a Macedonian soldier in the street when the elderly mother of the soldier dropped a roof tile onto Pyrrhus' head, breaking his spine and rendering him paralyzed. According to a soldier named Zopyrus, they then proceeded to decapitate the king.[55] Philitas of Cos c. 270 BC The Greek intellectual is said by Athenaeus to have studied arguments and erroneous word usage so intensely that he wasted away and starved to death.[56] British classicist Alan Cameron speculates that Philitas died from a wasting disease which his contemporaries joked was caused by his pedantry.[57] Zeno of Citium c. 262 BC The Greek philosopher from Citium (Kition), Cyprus, tripped and fell as he was leaving the school, breaking his toe. Striking the ground with his fist, he quoted the line from the Niobe, "I come, I come, why dost thou call for me?" He died on the spot through holding his breath. Qin Shi Huang August 210 BC The first emperor of China, whose artifacts and treasures include the Terracotta Army, died after ingesting several pills of mercury, in the belief that it would grant him eternal life.[59][60][61] Chrysippus of Soli c. 206 BC One ancient account of the death of the third-century BC Greek Stoic philosopher tells that he died laughing at his own joke[62] after he saw a donkey eating his figs; he told a slave to give the donkey neat wine to drink with which to wash them down, and then, "...having laughed too much, he died" (Diogenes Laërtius 7.185).[37][63] Hannibal c. 183-181 BC According to legend, the Carthaginian general mysteriously died from a wounded finger from his sword while mounting his horse. This event is said to have led to a fever in which he died 3 days later. However, some other stories suggest it was poisoning. The actual cause is still unknown.[64][failed verification] Eleazar Avaran c. 163 BC The brother of Judas Maccabeus; according to 1 Maccabees 6:46, during the Battle of Beth Zechariah, Eleazar spied an armored war elephant which he believed to be carrying the Seleucid emperor Antiochus V Eupator. After thrusting his spear in battle into its belly, it collapsed and fell on top of Eleazar, killing him instantly.[65] Manius Aquillius and Marcus Licinius Crassus 1st century BC The late Roman Republic-era consul was sent as ambassador to Asia Minor in 90 BC to restore Nicomedes IV of Bithynia to his kingdom after the latter was expelled by Mithridates VI of Pontus. But Aquillius encouraged Nicomedes to raid part of Mithridates' territory, which started the First Mithridatic War. Aquillius was captured and brought to Mithridates, who in 88 BC had him executed by pouring molten gold down his throat. According to one story, Marcus Licinius Crassus, a Roman general and statesman, who was very greedy despite being called "the richest man in Rome," was executed in the same manner by the Parthians after they defeated him in the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC, in symbolic mockery of his thirst for wealth. However, it has been disputed as to whether this is how Crassus met his end.[66][67] Porcia Catonis June 43 BC to October 42 BC The daughter of Marcus Porcius Cato Uticensis and second wife of Marcus Junius Brutus, according to ancient historians such as Cassius Dio and Appian, killed herself by swallowing hot coals.[68] Modern historians find this tale implausible.[69] Tiberius Claudius Drusus c. 20 AD According to Suetonius, the eldest son of the future Roman emperor Claudius died while playing with a pear. Having tossed the pear high in the air, he caught it in his mouth when it came back, but he choked on it, dying of asphyxia.[70][71] Tiberius 16 March 37 The Roman emperor died in Misenum aged 78. According to Tacitus, the emperor appeared to have died and Caligula, who was at Tiberius' villa, was being congratulated on his succession to the empire, when news arrived that the emperor had revived and was recovering his faculties. Those who had moments before recognized Caligula as Augustus fled in fear of the emperor's wrath, while Macro, a prefect of the Praetorian Guard, took advantage of the chaos to have Tiberius smothered with his own bedclothes, definitively killing him.[72] Saint Peter Between 64 and 68 AD The apostle of Jesus was crucified upside-down in Rome, based on his claim of being unworthy to die in the same way as his Saviour.[73][74] Bartholomew the Apostle 69 or 71 AD St. Bartholomew, an apostle of Jesus Christ, died after either being knocked out and thrown into the sea or being skinned alive and beheaded in Armenia.[75] Antipas of Pergamum 68 or 92 AD Antipas was burned alive inside the brazen bull for supposedly casting out demons who were worshipped in Pergamum.[76] Simon the Zealot 1st century AD According to an ancient tradition, the apostle of Jesus was sawn in half in Persia.[77] Saint Lawrence 258 The deacon was roasted alive on a giant grill during the persecution of Valerian.[78][79] Prudentius tells that he joked with his tormentors, "Turn me over—I'm done on this side".[80] He is now the patron saint of cooks, chefs, and comedians.[81] Marcus of Arethusa 362 The Christian bishop and martyr was hung up in a honey-smeared basket for bees to sting him to death.[20]: 104 Cassian of Imola 13 August 363 Cassian of Imola was sentenced to death by Julian the Apostate and was handed over to his pupils to carry out the deed, which they did by binding him to a stake and stabbing him with a poisoned stylus.[82] Valentinian I 17 November 375 The Roman emperor suffered a stroke which was provoked by yelling at foreign envoys in anger.[83] Attila c. 453 Attila the Hun reportedly died on his wedding night by choking on his own blood, which flowed into his mouth from a nosebleed.[37][84] Name of person Image Date of death Details Thomas Millwood 3 January 1804 The 32-year-old plasterer was shot and killed by excise officer Francis Smith, who mistook him for the Hammersmith ghost due to his white uniform. Smith was later sentenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to one year's imprisonment with hard labor, and he received a full pardon later in the year.[175] John Cummings March 1809 After seeing a circus knife-swallower, seaman John Cummings began actually swallowing knives. On one occasion, he swallowed four knives, and quickly passed three with no ill-health. He later swallowed 14 knives, and after some days with abdominal pain, he passed all of them. He finally swallowed 20 knives and a clasp knife case, but after a few days, he had only passed the case; he died after four years in pain. On autopsy, a knife blade and spring were found in his intestines, and between 30 and 40 fragments of metal, wood, and horn in his stomach.[176] Victims of the London Beer Flood 17 October 1814 At Meux & Co's Horse Shoe Brewery, a 22-foot-tall (6.7 m) wooden vat of fermenting porter burst, causing chain reactions and destroying several large beer barrels. The beer subsequently flooded the nearby slum and killed eight people. Several people also subsequently died from alcohol poisoning as a result of vaporized liquor.[177][178][179] William Huskisson 15 September 1830 The 60-year-old British statesman, financer, and MP was crushed to death by the Stephenson's Rocket after a failed attempt to put the locomotive in reverse.[180] William Henry Harrison 4 April 1841 The 9th President of the United States died a month after his inauguration from an illness (possibly pneumonia or enteric fever) that developed after he stood in the rain to deliver his 2-hour-long inaugural address, the longest by any U.S. President. Medical treatments Harrison received in the last week of his life included opium, castor oil and leeches. Harrison remains the U.S. President to have served the shortest term in office and was the first President to die in office.[37][181] Jane Goodwin 22 October 1844 The 22-year-old woman died from her tight corset in a church pew in Dundee, Scotland.[182] Unknown male January 1848 A resident of East Germantown, Indiana, a member of the Sons of Temperance, was found dead in the snow. It was reported that he froze to death while intoxicated.[183] Zachary Taylor 9 July 1850 The 12th President of the United States died of diarrhea and dysentry 5 days after consuming raw cherries and iced milk at a 4th of July event at the site of the Washington Monument.[37][184][185] Persistent speculation that Taylor was poisoned would lead to the exhumation of some of his remains in 1991, but scientific testing found no evidence of poison.[184][185] William Snyder 11 January 1854 The 13-year-old died in San Francisco, California, reportedly after a circus clown named Manuel Rays swung him around by his heels.[186] Victims of the 1858 Bradford sweets poisoning 1858 In Bradford, England, a batch of sweets accidentally poisoned with arsenic trioxide were sold by William Hardaker, colloquially referred to as "Humbug Billy". Around five boxes of sweets were delivered and sold. Around 20 people died and 200 people suffered from the effects of the poison.[187][188] George Yugle 16 March 1860 A young charcoal burner sustained a serious hip injury while drunk. He repeatedly stated that he was going to die, which Mr. Schardin, the proprietor of a billiard saloon where Yugle was resting, said that it would be impossible for Yugle to do. In response, Yugle made a bet with Schardin, which Schardin accepted, that he would die in 15 minutes. Schardin and others returned to the room 40 minutes later and found Yugle dead.[189] Jim Creighton 18 October 1862 The 21-year-old American baseball player from Manhattan died from abdominal pain, possibly caused by throwing his own ball which likely gave him a ruptured bladder or a ruptured hernia.[190] Julius Peter Garesché 31 December 1862 The Cuban-born professional soldier was killed on the first day of the Battle of Stones River when a cannon ball decapitated him.[191] John Sedgwick 9 May 1864 In the midst of battle, the Union officer said, "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance," before being shot and killed by a Confederate sniper.[192] Mathilda of Austria 6 June 1867 The daughter of Archduke Albrecht, Duke of Teschen set her dress on fire while trying to hide a cigarette from her father, who had forbidden her to smoke.[193][194] Mary Ward 31 August 1869 The Irish scientist, naturalist, microscopist, author, and artist was killed by a carriage built by William Parsons' sons. While riding in the carriage, it hit a bend which caused Ward to fly out of the carriage where she was cut, bruised, and bleeding from her ears. She is the first known carriage fatality.[195] Two Iranian maids 1870 In Iran a wealthy woman's house was set ablaze while her cats were still inside. The woman sent two maids to retrieve her cats, who proceeded to kill the two maids.[196] Clement Vallandigham 17 June 1871 The American politician and lawyer, who was defending a man accused of murder, accidentally shot himself while demonstrating how the victim might have done so. His client was acquitted.[197][198] Henry Taylor November 1872 The pallbearer at Kensal Green Cemetery, in London, was crushed by the coffin he was helping carry after he tripped on a stone. The widow of the man in it reportedly "nearly went into hysterics".[196] James "Jim" Cullen Spring 1873 The 25-year-old Irish man became the only man ever lynched in Mapleton, Maine,[199] after he committed a robbery and beat two deputy sheriffs to death with an axe.[200][201][202] James Alfred Dagwell 9 July 1874 While in a state of delirium tremens, the 23-year-old member of the Victorian Artillery Corps jumped out of a window and hit a lamp, falling 20 feet (6.1 m). The impact of the fall fractured his skull.[203] Unknown man 1875 A factory worker in Manchester found a mouse on her table and screamed. A man rushed over to her and tried to shoo it away, but it tried to hide in his clothes, and when he gasped in surprise the mouse dove into his mouth and he swallowed it. The mouse tore and bit the man's throat and chest, and he later died "in horrible agony".[204] Victims of the Dublin Whiskey Fire 18 June 1875 At The Liberties, Dublin, Ireland (then part of the United Kingdom), a fire broke out at Laurence Malone's bonded storehouse on the corner of Ardee Street, where 5,000 hogsheads (262,500 imperial gallons or 1,193,000 litres or 315,200 US gallons) of whiskey were being stored. The heat caused the barrels in the storehouse to explode, sending a stream of whiskey flowing through the doors and windows of the burning building. The burning whiskey then flowed along the streets where it quickly demolished a row of small houses. Despite the damage from the fire, all of the resulting 13 fatalities were caused by alcohol poisoning after drinking the undiluted flooded whiskey.[205][206] Queen Sunanda Kumariratana 31 May 1880 The 19-year-old queen consort of King Rama V of Siam died when her boat flipped over. A large crowd formed but none of them could help because touching the queen was a capital offense.[37][207] Hague and another female servant October 1881 A British servant of one Mr. Birchall was instructed by his master to retrieve a four-chambered pistol.[208] Hague did so, but while examining the gun he shot himself in the jaw which caused instant death. He was discovered by another servant who also shot herself.[209] Sir William Payne-Gallwey, 2nd Baronet 19 December 1881 The former British MP died after sustaining severe internal injuries when he fell on a turnip while hunting.[210][211] Joseph Huebner 1882 The Austrian immigrant had been drinking whiskey, and accidentally drank a bottle of kerosene, after which he collapsed. The people who found him could not tell if he had died or just passed out; regardless, he was buried and is now said to haunt the house he collapsed in.[212] Louisa Cruikshank July 1882 The 18-year-old girl in Brooklyn committed suicide by ingesting Paris green paint, which is arsenic-based. Cruikshank "frequently expressed a wish to die" and ultimately bought the paint at a hardware shop, instead of buying arsenic at a pharmacy, which would have raised questions. The next day, Cruikshank was playing the piano when she fell ill because of the paint. Her last words were reportedly, "Mama I may as well tell you. I have taken Paris Green. I have done what I said I would do."[213][214] Mrs. O'Reilly 30 September 1883 The 36-year-old servant from the West Clive Hotel in New Zealand was found on the side of a road by a boy carrying milk. It is said that O'Reilly had been walking in the middle of the night in the rain until she could not go on any longer and decided to wait for a man named Hall. O'Reilly died half an hour later.[215] Allan Pinkerton 1 July 1884 The founder of the Pinkerton Detective Agency tripped on the pavement and severely bit his tongue, which became infected with gangrene.[216] Samuel Wardell 31 December 1885 The lamplighter in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York, had attached a 10-pound (4.5 kg) rock to his alarm clock, which would crash to the floor and awaken him. On Christmas Eve, he rearranged his furniture for a party, but forgot to change his room back afterwards. When the alarm mechanism went off the next morning, the rock fell on his head and killed him.[196][217][218] George Murichson 13 May 1886 The 8-year-old boy from Aroostook County, Maine, died from a hemorrhage after having a live snake pulled out of his mouth. The snake was speculated to have gone down his throat after he had "gone to sleep in some field".[219][220][221] Julian Smith 23 September 1887 The patient at the Kew Asylum died after swallowing a silver dinner fork in February 1887. An autopsy revealed that the fork's handle was in Smith's stomach, with the prongs embedded in his liver; part of a needle was also in the body.[222] Unknown Iraqi male 22 August 1888 At around 8:30 pm, a shower of meteorites fell "like rain" on a village in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq (then part of the Ottoman Empire). One man died and another was paralyzed. His death is considered the only credible case of death-by-meteorite.[223] Isaack Rabbanovitch 1891 In Vilna, Russia (now part of Lithuania), a bear walked into an inn and drank several kegs of vodka. When Rabbanovitch attempted to take the alcohol, he was hugged to death by the intoxicated bear along with his 2 sons and daughter.[196] Three members of the Building family 21 April 1891 The 6-person family was traveling from Tipton, Tennessee, to Texas. While camping in Boone County, Arkansas, the mother and 2 of the children died from drinking coffee made with water that had been contaminated with a large centipede. The father and 2 other children survived.[224] Agnes Harley 7 January 1892 According to a post-mortem examination by a Dr. Mollison, Harley "died from exhaustion consequent upon having been confined [given birth], and in consequence of certain injuries she had received." Harley's child also died. The inquest subsequently considered whether Harley had died from causes of "maltreatment".[225] Walter Cowle 1893 Cowle made a bet with one of his friends that he could fit a whole billiard ball inside his mouth and close his lips around it. However, when he attempted to do so, Cowle choked on the ball. One of his friends tried to hang him upside down and slap him on the back to get it out, but without success. Cowle later died from suffocation.[226] Mary Agnes Lapish April 1893 The Australian woman stumbled into a barbed-wire fence, possibly while intoxicated, and was strangled by her fur collar.[227][228] James Wilson 23 January 1894 The man in Bloemfontein, South Africa, died when he fell off of his horse. He was buried in the same coffin that he had playfully tried out for size the day before.[229] George Howell 7 September 1895 A mechanic from Florida died in a hospital of starvation because he was unable to eat or drink due to an injury caused by a peach pit.[230] Dominick Abbanez November 1895 In Columbus, Ohio, an Italian painter called upon a physician named Dr. J. H. Kistler to examine his arm due to an unnatural growth that had appeared. Dr. Kistler claimed that it was most likely a cancerous tumor, although this could not be confirmed. Abbanez died of his mysterious illness soon afterward. The coroner found that the temperature of Abbanez' corpse was 109 °F (43 °C), and the body turned red soon after death. The coroner believed the cause of death to be uremia, but Abbanez' widow refused an autopsy for him.[231] Jeremiah Haralson 1895 The former United States Congressman from Alabama disappears from the historical record after his 1895 imprisonment for pension fraud in Albany, New York. He was reportedly killed by an unknown animal while coal mining near Denver, Colorado, c. 1916, but there is little or no historical evidence for this.[232][233] Isaac Woods 31 January 1896 The 55-year-old well digger was working inside a 25-foot (7.6 m) deep well in Randolph County, Georgia, when a layer of dirt and sand spilled into the well, burying him alive.[234] Bridget Driscoll 17 August 1896 The 44-year-old, the first recorded case of a pedestrian killed in a collision with a motor car in Great Britain,[235][236] was struck on the grounds of the Crystal Palace in London, by a car belonging to the Anglo-French Motor Carriage Company while giving demonstration rides.[236] Salomon August Andree, Knut Fraenkel, and Nils Strindberg October 1897 The group of men died of exhaustion on the island Kvitoya while trying to reach the North Pole by hot air balloon.[237] Louisa Maria Langridge Spring 1898 The wife of a horse-keeper died when she moved a bottle of ammonia which burned her face. The doctor who treated her, Dr. Edward Fish, claimed that the bottle exploded because of its close proximity to a hot fire. Langridge died of bronchitis due to inhaling the ammonia vapors.[228] Michael Schwab 29 June 1898 The German-American labor organizer and supporter of the Haymarket Square Incident died of starvation induced by tuberculosis in Chicago, Illinois.[238] Empress Elisabeth of Austria 10 September 1898 Stabbed with a thin file by Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni while strolling through Geneva with her lady-in-waiting Irma Sztáray. The wound pierced her pericardium and a lung. Her extremely tight corset held the wound closed, so she did not realize what had happened (believing a passerby had struck her), and walked on for some time before collapsing.[239][240] Joseph Gril 29 July 1899 According to The Anaconda Standard, a saloon keeper named Joseph Gril was electrocuted by 102 volts of electricity and died in his bar in Anaconda, Montana.[241] unknown Pennsylvania farmer October 1899 A unknown man fell from an apple tree and broke 2 of his ribs. A splinter pierced his heart, and he died.[242] Name of person Image Date of death Details Victims of the 1900 English beer poisoning 1900 In the English Midlands, North West England, and Manchester, doctors saw that avid drinkers had numbness in the hands or feet. However, around 41 people succumbed to peripheral neuritis, and people decided to investigate. They discovered the cause to be alcoholic neuropathy caused by non-purified sulphuric acid laced with arsenic. Over 6,000 people died from the poison and most of the victims were paralyzed from the effects.[243][244] Jesse William Lazear 25 September 1900 The 34-year-old American physician was convinced that mosquitoes were carriers for yellow fever. He allowed himself to be bitten by multiple mosquitoes and died days later from the disease.[245][246] Victims of the Thanksgiving Day Disaster 29 November 1900 During the 1900 The Big Game American football match between the California Golden Bears and the Stanford Cardinal in San Francisco, a large crowd of people who did not want to pay the $1 (equivalent to $37 in 2023) admission fee gathered upon the roof of a glass blowing factory to watch for free. The roof collapsed, spilling many spectators onto a furnace. Of the hundreds of people on the roof, at least 100 people fell four stories to the factory floor. 60 to 100 more people fell directly on top of the furnace, the surface temperature of which was estimated to be around 500 °F (260 °C). Fuel pipes were severed as a result of the roof collapse, spraying many victims with scalding hot oil. The fuel also ignited, setting many bodies on fire.[247] Twenty-three people were killed, and over 100 more were injured. The disaster remains the deadliest accident at a sporting event in U.S. history.[248] James Doyle Jr. 30 January 1901 The lineworker in Smartsville, California, was killed by an electric shock through a telephone receiver after a broken power line came in contact with the telephone wire.[249] Adelbert S. Hay 23 June 1901 The 24-year-old American consul and politician died after falling 60 feet (18 m) from a window in the New Haven House in New Haven, Connecticut. The San Francisco Call speculated that Hay had been sitting on the window for air and eventually fell asleep, causing him to fall to his death.[250] Mary Franks 12 July 1902 The woman died from suffocation caused by "matter from her tongue" which went into her throat after a tooth extraction.[251] Jessie Smith August 1902 The elderly woman in Te Aroha was found dead behind her house in a tank. She had come out of an asylum before her disappearance.[252] R. Stanton Walker 25 October 1902 The 20-year-old was watching an amateur baseball game in Morristown, Ohio, with a friend on either side of him. One of the friends borrowed a knife from the other to sharpen his pencil as he was keeping score, and when he was finished passed the knife to Walker to pass to the other friend. As Walker was holding the knife, a foul ball struck him in the hand and drove the knife into his chest next to his heart. His friends asked if he was hurt and he said "not much", but the wound soon began to bleed heavily and he died within minutes. Unknown Hawaiian male May 1903 An unidentified person was beaten to death with a Bible during a healing ceremony gone wrong in Honolulu, Hawai'i.[254][failed verification] He was being treated for malaria when his family summoned a Kahuna, who decided he was possessed by devils and tried to exorcise the demons;[255][failed verification] the Kahuna was charged with manslaughter.[citation needed] Romaine Romania and John Banks 26 May 1903 The 45-year-old native man from Belgium in Norfolk, Virginia took a large amount of calomel, ate several oranges, and drank a considerable amount of beer. That same day, John Banks, part of the Norfolk Railway and Light Company, was electrocuted on a vessel that was being rigged.[256] Ed Delahanty 2 July 1903 The American baseball player for the Phillies died after being removed from a train while drunk, falling off International Bridge, and going over Niagara Falls. Delahanty reportedly downed five shots of whiskey, broke into a fire axe case, attempted to shove over a partition, and allegedly grabbed a woman's ankles and tried to pull her out of her berth. He may also have threatened other passengers with razor blades. The conductor removed him from the train and asked him to calm down because he was still in Canada, to which he allegedly shouted, "I don't care if I'm in Canada or dead!" He later encountered and may have scuffled with Sam Kingston, a local night watchman, after which he went into the river and over the Falls. Kingston's account of the incident was spotty and inconsistent; it is unclear whether Delahanty was intentionally pushed, accidentally fell, or decided to jump.[257] Benjamin Taylor A Bell 1 March 1904 On 18 February 1904, while taking his habitual shortcut to the Canadian Mining Review offices through an adjacent store, the Canadian journalist walked through the wrong door in the store and fell 10 feet (3.0 m) down an elevator shaft. He died of his injuries 12 days later.[258] John Mortensen 1 May 1904 The 19-year-old duck hunter from Wairoa, New Zealand, drowned in about 6 inches (15 cm) of water on the Whare-o-Maraenui reserve in Napier, New Zealand, apparently having fallen while having a seizure.[259] Benjamin and Edwin Coshkey 24 June 1904 Two brothers were picking cherries on their farm in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and were electrocuted to death when they gripped an exposed wire in the branches.[260] John Ericsen 4 July 1904 The 11-year-old boy from Butte, Montana, went missing on 4 July and was found dead 4 days later under a pile of coal in a bin near the North Pacific roundhouse.[261] Melissa M. Tiemann 7 July 1904 The 50-year-old resident of Los Angeles fell from a streetcar and struck the back of her head on the ground, driving the teeth of an aluminum comb she was wearing into her skull.[262] Clarence Madison Dally 2 October 1904 The 39-year-old American glassblower died from radiation on his hands while using a handmade X-ray. Dally is the first person known to have died from X-ray exposure.[263] Jane Stanford 28 February 1905 The founder of Stanford University died mysteriously from strychnine poisoning. The case of her death was rumored as poisoning, but later changed into "natural causes," according to David Starr Jordan. Who or what killed Stanford is still a mystery.[264] Charles Persich March 1905 The baby from Sydney died from intussuspection, meaning that his bowels had "telescoped".[265] Mary Ellen Rumble 19 December 1905 The daughter of a farmer in Watervale near Murrumburrah in New South Wales was killed when one of a group of horses attempting to escape from a paddock knocked her down, causing her neck to snap.[266] L. R. Davis 1906 The 76-year-old inmate of the state insane asylum in Norfolk, Nebraska, was granted a parole. Upon seeing his grandson, who had come to take him home, "he was so filled with joy that he suddenly expired."[267] Archibald Anderson 4 March 1907 The 19-year-old was bathing in the Yarra River when he choked on a tooth plate.[268] Jane Hewitt 1 September 1908 The woman residing in South Melbourne was found dead on the floor in her nighttime attire. It was revealed that she had been dead for several days. It is said she died from erysipelas followed along from blood loss.[269] Thomas Selfridge 17 September 1908 Thomas Selfridge and Orville Wright were presenting the 1908 Wright Military Flyer to the US Army Signal Corps Division at Fort Myer. The plane made 41⁄2 rounds around the Fort before running into problems and crashing. Selfridge fractured his skull and died three hours later.[270][271] Dietrich von Hülsen-Haeseler 14 November 1908 The Chief of the German Imperial Military Cabinet suffered a heart attack and died aged 56 after giving a ballet performance to Kaiser Wilhelm Il and other members of a hunting party staying at Donaueschingen Palace. Shortly after ending his recital with a bow, he collapsed and was pronounced dead at the scene.[272][273] The circumstances of his death were covered up by military officials so as not to further inflame public outrage over the Eulenburg affair, a government scandal dealing with accusations of homosexual behavior against members of the Kaiser's cabinet and entourage.[274] Peter A. Rees January-February 1909 The former ice dealer in Philadelphia was found dead in his home. According to the newspaper, a woman was arrested and brought to questioning, but the later analysis of his body showed that he had died from "cirrhosis of the heart." Other accounts state that Rees was murdered.[275] George Spencer Millet 15 February 1909 The American teenager who worked as an office boy at an insurance company at the Metropolitan Life Building in New York City, was fleeing six young women stenographers at his workplace intent on giving him kisses for his 15th birthday while carrying a metal ink eraser in his breast pocket. As the women moved in for their kisses, he fell forward, and the eraser's point pierced his heart, killing him.[276][277] Doc Powers 26 April 1909 The 38-year-old American Major League Baseball player ran into a wall while chasing a foul ball during a Boston Red Sox-Philadelphia Athletics game at Philadelphia's Shibe Park, on April 12, 1909. He died from internal injuries and gangrene two weeks later.[278] Benjamin S. Kradwell 14 April 1910 A 26-year-old drug store owner from Boscobel, Wisconsin (who lived in Racine at the time), died when he fell off a Chicago and North Western train heading for Mountain Home, Idaho, into a creek in Vail, Iowa, under mysterious circumstances.[279] Ada Gregory 5 June 1910 The 52-year-old widow in Bentleigh, Victoria, who had been suffering from "fits of melancholia", began convulsing after rubbing powder on her teeth and asking her two children to take some medicine, which they did not do. She was believed to have taken strychnine.[280] Patrick Dolan 22 October 1910 In Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, the labor unionist fell asleep, waiting for a train. He woke up as it was starting to leave the station. However, when he attempted to board the train, he fell under its wheels and was killed.[281] Mrs. Samuel E. Allender 23 January 1910 The wife of Samuel E. Allender, a prominent railway official in St. Louis, Missouri, drowned in a bathtub after suffering an attack of vertigo.[282] George Vedder 25 February 1911 The man from Yonkers, New York, killed himself after hallucinating that his dead wife told him to do so. It is said that Vedder broke an "solemn oath" that he would be faithful to his wife. The man was found dead in the Fort Field Reservoir.[283] Jack Daniel 9 October 1911 The American whiskey distiller from Lynchburg, Tennessee, died from blood poisoning six years after he supposedly kicked his safe out of frustration that he could not remember the combination, breaking his left big toe and leading to an infection and gangrene.[284] Franz Reichelt 4 February 1912 The tailor and inventor leaped from the Eiffel Tower and fell to his death wearing a parachute made from cloth, his own invention. He was asked by friends and authorities to use a dummy for the feat, but declined, saying "I intend to prove the worth of my invention". He was known as the Flying Tailor.[285] A Swiss couple December 1912 A couple visited the Handegg Falls near Meiringen, Switzerland. While they were there the bridge they were standing on broke and they fell 240 feet (73 m) into a whirlpool.[286] Mr. & Mrs. Emile Froment-Meurice 25 April 1913 A famed French goldsmith and his wife were killed when their house, in an aristocratic quarter of Paris, collapsed on them.[287] Mrs. Jim Thomason 6 May 1913 According to the Washington Telegraph, the wife of Jim Thomason died shortly after being stung by a bee in Columbus, Arkansas. The woman was directing her husband on hiving a swarm of bees when she was suddenly stung and fled into the house, where she fell unconscious and died three days later.[288] Peter Graham 14 May 1913 A farmer from Stanwood, Iowa, was killed while trying to fix a metal fence. A bolt of lightning struck the fence, electrocuting the man to death.[289] Unknown woman February 1914 The middle-aged woman was found dead leaning over a copper with her "feet sprawled out in a curious manner" by a butchering establishment in North Sydney. The woman, who had been dead for 12 hours, had apparently choked while vomiting.[290] Romain Moll July 1914 The California rancher fell head-first into a posthole 6 feet (1.8 m) deep and 2 feet (0.61 m) wide. Unable to get out, he eventually suffocated.[291] Julian Carlton 7 October 1914 The servant to American architect Frank Lloyd Wright committed a mass murder spree on 15 August 1914, at Wright's Taliesin studio, during which he killed seven people with a hatchet and set the studio ablaze. Carlton then attempted suicide by drinking hydrochloric acid. However, this failed to kill him. After nearly being lynched, Carlton was arrested and brought to a jail in Dodgeville, Wisconsin, where, having severely damaged his esophagus, he starved to death 47 days later.[292][293] Benjamin F. Steward 30 May 1915 The 45-year-old stock buyer attempted to throw part of a horse carcass over a railing into the Iowa River. Part of it caught on him, and he was pulled over as well.[294] Rose Talbot Bullard 22 December 1915 The physician and medical school professor from Birmingham, Iowa, unknowingly died from blood poisoning after complications from a failed dental infection cure.[295][296] George William Edwards 30 June 1915 The fuelman in Junee, New South Wales, was killed by opening a truck door that struck him in the forehead. His body was found under a tub.[297] Martin Fisher 4 February 1916 Fisher, a farmer from Moran Township, Minnesota, was butchering a hog in a shed when the blade slipped and Fisher stabbed his leg, severing an artery. He died shortly thereafter.[298] William/Martin McClelland 25 February 1916 The swagman from Queensland died from inflamed bowels brought on by eating wheat. His cause of death was later identified as a case of acute diarrhea.[299] Grigori Rasputin 30 December [O.S. 17 December] 1916 The Russian mystic died of three gunshot wounds, one of which was a close-range shot to his forehead. Little is certain about his death beyond this, and the circumstances of his death have been the subject of considerable speculation.[300] According to his murderer himself, Prince Felix Yusupov, Grigori Rasputin consumed tea, cakes, and wine which had been laced with cyanide but he did not appear to be affected by it. He was then shot once in the chest and believed to be dead but, after a while, he leapt up and attacked Yusupov, who freed himself and fled. Rasputin followed and made it into the courtyard before being shot again, and collapsing into a snowbank. The conspirators then wrapped his body and dropped it into the Malaya Nevka River.[37][114][301] William John Wallace 9 February 1917 The fisherman was talking to two men, leaning on a clothesline. When he leaned against it, the line split and Wallace fell to his death with his neck dislocated.[302] Arthur Thomas Hunter 12 December 1918 The soldier was found dead with his head stuck through a wooden fire escape and his neck dislocated.[303] Victims of the Great Molasses Flood 15 January 1919 21 people were killed and 150 injured after a large tank of molasses burst in Boston's North End.[304][305][306] Ray Chapman 17 August 1920 On 16 August 1920, while he was up to bat, the 29-year-old Cleveland Indians baseball player was struck in the head by a pitch thrown by New York Yankees' Carl Mays and died 12 hours later.[307] Alexander of Greece 25 October 1920 The 27-year-old Greek king died of sepsis after being bitten by a palace steward's pet Barbary macaque in his garden, while trying to break up a fight between his German shepherd and another monkey.[308] Thomas Lynn Bradford 5 February 1921 In an attempt to ascertain the existence of an afterlife, the spiritualist, committed suicide by sealing his Detroit apartment, blowing out the pilot of his heater, and turning on the gas, dying of carbon monoxide poisoning. Bradford had intended to communicate his findings to fellow spiritualist Ruth Starkweather Doran, but some weeks after his death, The New York Times ran the article "Dead Spiritualist Silent".[citation needed] Mrs. W. C. Eckersley 25 November 1922 The woman from Glen Innes, New South Wales, was found drowned in a cask of water. It was surmised that she was leaning over the cask when she suddenly fainted and fell into it.[309] George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon 5 April 1923 The financier of Howard Carter's search for Tutankhamun died after a mosquito bite, which he had cut while shaving, became infected. Some attributed his death to the so-called curse of the pharaohs.[310][311] Frank Hayes 4 June 1923 The 22-year-old jockey from Elmont, New York, died of a heart attack mid-race and collapsed on the horse, which nonetheless crossed the finish line first, still carrying his body.[312][313][314] Martha Mansfield 30 November 1923 While the 24-year-old American film actress was on location in San Antonio, Texas filming the American Civil War drama The Warrens of Virginia, a lit match was carelessly tossed by a crew member, which ignited the hoop skirts and ruffles of her Civil War costume. Mansfield had just finished filming her scenes and retired to a car when her clothing burst into flames. Co-star Wilfred Lytell and a chauffeur were able to extinguish the flames, and Mansfield was rushed to a hospital, where she died the following day from her injuries.[315][316] Thornton Jones 1924 The lawyer from Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales, woke up to find that he had his throat slit. Motioning for a paper and pencil, he wrote, "I dreamt that I had done it. I awoke to find it true", and died 80 minutes later. He had done it himself while unconscious.[317] An inquest at Bangor delivered a verdict of "suicide while temporarily insane".[318] Calvin Coolidge Jr. 7 July 1924 The 16-year-old younger son of Calvin Coolidge played tennis with his elder brother at the White House tennis courts and neglected to wear socks. A blister on the third toe of his right foot quickly became infected, and he died just over one week later when sepsis set in.[319] Mr. and Mrs. Earl J. Dunn 13 July 1924 While attempting to turn around at Grand View in Yellowstone National Park, the Dunns somehow backed their car over a cliff, despite a tree barrier that would normally have made this impossible. The vehicle fell 800 feet (240 m) and then rolled another 200 feet (61 m).[320][321][322] Cora Stallman 1925 The 45-year-old former schoolteacher, found partially submerged in a cistern on her sister's farm in Humboldt Township, Coles County, Illinois, died from "unknown causes", according to a jury in her court case. It is said she may have committed suicide, been killed by a strange man, or died of fright.[323] Bobby Leach 26 April 1926 The American stunt performer died after a botched amputation of the infected leg which he had broken after slipping on an orange peel. He had gone over Niagara Falls in a barrel fifteen years earlier.[324] Phillip McClean 1926 The 16-year-old and his brother were clubbing a cassowary on the family property in Mossman, Queensland,[325] when it knocked him down, kicked him in the neck, and opened a large cut, leading to death from loss of blood.[326] Harry Houdini 31 October 1926 The 52-year-old Hungarian-American escape artist, illusionist, and stunt performer reportedly died from a punch from college student J. Gordon Whitehead, which gave him "peritonitis, caused by a ruptured appendix."[37][327] However, other stories claim he was murdered. Who or what killed Houdini is still under speculation.[327] Isadora Duncan 14 September 1927 The American dancer broke her neck in Nice, France, when her long scarf became entangled in the open-spoked wheel and rear axle of the Amilcar CGSS automobile in which she was riding.[328] Alfred Loewenstein 4 July 1928 The 3rd-richest man in the world at the time died whilst flying from England to Belgium on his private Fokker F.VII airplane. it is believed he fell out of the aircraft and into the water where he died.[329] Gladys Brockwell 2 July 1929 The 34-year-old film actress died from peritonitis and internal injuries reportedly from an automobile accident in Calabasas, California. While Thomas Stanley Brennan, a friend of Brockwell, was driving the automobile, it went over a 75-foot (23 m) embankment where she was crushed beneath it. She underwent four blood transfusions until peritonitis set in.[330] William Kogut 20 October 1930 The convicted murderer, a death row inmate at San Quentin in California, reportedly committed suicide using a pipe bomb he made with playing cards and a hollow steel leg from his cot.[331][332][note 1] Arnold Bennett 27 March 1931 The British novelist was dining in Paris with his partner, Dorothy. He drank two glasses of tap water during the meal, scoffing at Dorothy's claims that the water in Paris was not properly treated to be safe to drink. Within two days, he contracted typhoid fever and died two months later.[333][334][335] Alfred Green July 1931 The 17-year-old died of convulsions while being tickled "during a friendly wrestling match."[336] James Leo McDermott 26 August 1931 After stepping out of his car at an oil station, the vehicle began to roll forwards, and the 40-year-old Deputy Sheriff attempted to hop onto the car's running board to stop it. It carried him forward and slammed him into a hook used to hold air and water hoses, which impaled him just below the heart.[337][338][339] Eben Byers 31 March 1932 The American socialite and industrialist died after drinking excessive quantities of radium. He had developed persistent pain after a fall in 1927, for which he was prescribed Radithor, a patent medicine that contained 1 microcurie each of isotopes 226Ra and 228Ra. He drank a total of around 1400 doses, which concentrated in his bones, continually irradiating him. By 1931, his bones were reportedly disintegrating and his jaw had been removed; he died the next year.[340] Peg Entwistle 16 September 1932 The 24-year-old film actress committed suicide by jumping off of the "Hollywoodland" sign by jumping off of the letter 'H'. The following day, a letter was written for Entwistle for a role for a movie about a woman on the verge of suicide.[341] Michael Malloy 22 February 1933 Five people, called the "Murder Trust," planned to kill Malloy for life insurance. Over the course of two months, they added antifreeze, turpentine, horse liniment, and finally rat poison in his alcohol, but Malloy drank it with no problems whatsoever. They then tried feeding him wood alcohol, expired oysters, and then a sandwich made of expired sardines and shrapnel, none of which had the desired effect. The group then tried to freeze him to death, and when that failed they ran him over twice with a taxi, from which Malloy recovered. Finally, they connected a hose to a coal gas jet and placed it in his mouth, which caused his death from carbon monoxide poisoning. Malloy was given nicknames such as "Mike the Durable", "Iron Mike", and "The Irish Rasputin".[342][343] Rheta Gardner Wynekoop 21 November 1933 The 23-year-old was found in the basement surgery of her mother-in-law, Dr. Alice Wynekoop. She had been chloroformed, undressed, and shot in the back.[344] Grace Weatherstone 15 December 1933 The wife of Mr. Roy Weatherstone from Mayfield Garden was found dead in the water. Weatherstone was found with male attire on. The cause of her death was found to be caused by falling off some rocks which fractured her skull as she fell into the water.[345] Susan Grace Kelly 16 January 1935 The 80-year-old woman in Armidale, New South Wales was sitting with her daughter when a loud clap of thunder caused her to fall back dead from the loud noise of the thunder. Her last words were, "That was very close."[346] Mary Emma Busch James 2 May 1936 The wife of the Los Angeles barber Robert James died from drowning in a fishing pond after being bound and thrust into a den of rattlesnakes. The Los Angeles Police Department later arrested a 38-year-old night manager of a nearby night club, who said that he was the one who bought the snakes from a Pasadena farm and took them to James's La Crescenta home.[347] Fred Clapp 28 May 1937 A 77-year-old farmer from Clark County, South Dakota, died after being dragged by a bundle of horses while being tied to the harness.[348] Benjamin Taslor June 1937 During a carbuncle removal operation, an electric cautery ignited gases from the patient's lungs. This caused an explosion which killed Taslor and injured two nurses.[349] Vivian Hensley 10 July 1938 The 42-year-old dentist died after accidentally swallowing a razor blade for a "sleight-of-hand" trick.[350] Nicholas Comper 17 June 1939 The aviator and aircraft designer was attempting to light a firework in Hythe, Kent, when a passerby enquired what he was doing; Comper replied that he was an IRA man planning to blow up the town hall. The passerby knocked down Comper, who hit his head on the curb.[351] Leon Trotsky 21 August 1940 The famed Russian socialist and revolutionary was murdered in his villa in Mexico by Spanish-born NKVD agent Ramón Mercader with a ice axe.[37][352] Sherwood Anderson 8 March 1941 The American writer died of peritonitis after accidentally swallowing a toothpick.[37][353] Maj. Kenneth D. McCullar 12 April 1943 The 27-year-old member of the 64th Bombardment Squadron was taking off for a night mission in New Guinea when he struck something with his bomber, referred to in reports as a "brush kangaroo" and later found to be a wallaby. It crashed on takeoff, which exploded its load of bombs, killing McCullar and the rest of the bomber's crew.[354] The wallaby also died. Clarence Stagemyer 29 September 1943 The 32-year-old was watching a Cleveland Indians-Washington Senators doubleheader in Griffith Stadium when an errant throw by Senators' third baseman Sherry Robertson struck him in the forehead. Despite appearing uninjured afterwards, he heeded the Senators' team physician's entreaties to go to the hospital, where he died the next day of a fractured skull. Stagemyer was the first fan in Major League Baseball history killed by a ball leaving the field, and the only such fatality to date to have been struck by a thrown ball. Thomas Midgley Jr. 2 November 1944 In 1940, the 51-year-old contracted polio, which left him severely disabled. He devised an elaborate system of ropes and pulleys to lift himself out of bed. In 1944, he became entangled in the device and died of strangulation.[356][357][358] Mildred Roth 21 May 1945 The 23-year-old from North Braddock, Pennsylvania, died after locking herself inside a cedar chest while attempting to prank her sister. An autopsy later found that she died from suffocation.[359] Thomas Mantell 7 January 1948 The P-51 Mustang fighter pilot crashed while in pursuit of an unidentified flying object near Franklin, Kentucky, thus becoming the first person known to have died as a result of a UFO sighting. Officially, the object remains unidentified, though the most likely explanation is that it was a U.S. Navy Skyhook balloon.[360] Mary Edith Sutton 30 October 1949 The 11-year-old girl from Indianapolis, Indiana, suffered burns to her legs and lower body after a jar of flaming gasoline was tossed from a stalled car in front of the girl while she was roller-skating back to her home. She was taken to a nearby hospital where she died from her injuries a few hours later.[361] Mary Reeser 2 July 1951 The 67-year-old woman was found by the police in her St. Petersburg, Florida, home almost totally cremated where she sat, while her apartment was relatively damage-free. Some speculate that she spontaneously combusted.[362] Margaret Wise Brown 13 November 1952 The 42-year-old author of Goodnight Moon was hospitalized for an ovarian cyst. To prove how healthy she was after treatment, she kicked her foot in the air, dislodging a blood clot in her leg. The blood clot quickly travelled to her brain, and she died in emergency surgery.[363][364] Joseph L. Rauchut 30 November 1957 The 32-year-old Patrolman of the New York City Police Department died during a traffic stop on the Queens side of the Kosciuszko Bridge when a truck struck his parked patrol car, which struck and killed him.[365][366] Gareth Jones 30 November 1958 The British actor died of a heart attack between scenes of a live television play, Underground on the ITV network. Other members of the cast improvised lines, such as, "I'm sure if So‑and‑so were here he would say...", to compensate for his absence. Coincidentally, his character was scripted to die of a heart attack in a later scene of the play.[367][368] Name of person Image Date of death Details Bliss Scott 4 June 2000 The seven-year-old died after touching an African snail, from which she contracted meningoencephalitis caused by Angiostrongylus cantonensis. This is the first reported case of a human fatality linked to the African snail.[486] Jimmy Zámbó 2 January 2001 Famous Hungarian pop-singer Jimmy Zámbó died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. After shooting out of the window twice with his Beretta, he allegedly wanted to prove to his wife that there were no more rounds in the pistol, so he removed the magazine, and put the pistol to his own head. However, one bullet was still in the chamber, causing the singer to shoot himself in the head. He died in the hospital a few hours later.[487] Bernd Brandes 9 March 2001 Voluntarily slaughtered and eaten by Armin Meiwes following an appointment via internet. At Brandes' request, Meiwes first amputated Brandes' penis and they unsuccessfully tried to eat it. Meiwes taped the entire amputation, killing, conserving, and eating Brandes' meat. Meiwes was eventually arrested and sentenced to life in prison.[488][489] Meiwes became a vegetarian during his prison sentence.[490] Unknown male 27 April 2001 An unnamed Canadian man was visiting his mother's house in order to attend his father's funeral when, whilst cleaning the kitchen, he tripped over the open dishwasher door and was impaled on knives sticking up out of the cutlery tray, the wounds eventually proving fatal.[491][492] Michael Colombini 28 July 2001 The six-year-old died during an MRI scan at the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, New York, after an oxygen tank was magnetically pulled into the machine and fractured his skull.[493][494][495] Gilbert Tinoso 22 December 2001 The 38-year-old died in Burbank, California after the spare wheel from an oncoming Mack cement truck in the opposite stretch of the freeway broke loose and struck the cab of his Toyota Tacoma. The other passenger in the Tacoma received minor chest injuries from the crash, and the Mack driver had no injuries.[496][497] Brittanie Cecil 18 March 2002 The 13-year-old died from her injuries at an NHL game after a deflected puck struck her in the left temple. She was the first and only fan fatality in the league's history.[498] Roger Wallace 18 May 2002 The 60-year-old auto parts salesman was flying his 5-foot (1.5 m) wingspan remote-control plane in Tucson, Arizona, when he lost sight of it in the bright sun. It struck him in the chest, killing him.[499][500] Virginia Graeme Baker June 2002 The seven-year-old was entrapped underwater due to the suction from a hot tub drain and drowned.[501] Kyle McGarity 14 December 2002 After a drunken scuffle, the 25-year-old fell about 15 feet (4.6 m) into a manhole flooded with scalding hot water and filled with steam in Lower Manhattan. McGarity survived the fall without major injuries but was steamed alive, with emergency services unable to recover his body for several hours.[502] Jane McDonald 27 May 2003 While visiting a friend, the 31-year-old slipped and fell onto an open dishwasher, landing on an upright knife. She was taken to a hospital, where she died of her injuries.[503] Rebecca Longhoffer 16 August 2003 The 39-year-old tourist, a mother of four, was electrocuted while crossing Las Vegas Boulevard when she stepped on a cast iron plate that covered electrical wiring and was hidden by a deep rain puddle.[504][505][506] Hitoshi Nikaidoh 16 August 2003 The 35-year-old surgical resident from Houston, Texas, was killed after his head was trapped in elevator doors at the hospital where he worked. He was partially decapitated as the elevator ascended, and he also sustained injuries to his ribs and spine.[507][508] Brian Wells 28 August 2003 The pizza delivery man from Erie, Pennsylvania, was killed after a collar bomb around his neck exploded as part of a bank robbery scheme.[509] Phillip Quinn 28 November 2004 The 24-year-old from Kent, Washington, was killed when a lava lamp he was heating on a stove exploded, and a shard pierced his heart.[510][511] Unknown female 2004 In an attempt to protect herself from SARS during the 2002–2004 SARS outbreak, a 45-year-old woman in Taiwan bathed in 40.5% ethanol. She laid down in the fluid at 11. p.m. and was found dead at 11 a.m. by her family the next day. Her BAC was 1.35% and she most likely absorbed the alcohol through the skin.[512][513] Francis Daniel Brohm 2 September 2004 23-year-old Brohm was a passenger in a car driven by a friend, 21-year-old John Hutcherson. Both men had been drinking. Brohm was hanging out the passenger window while vomiting due to carsickness. Hutcherson drove off the road and sideswiped a telephone pole support wire, decapitating Brohm. He continued the final 12 miles (19 km) to his Atlanta home, parked in the driveway, and went to bed. A neighbor found Brohm's headless body in the truck the next morning.[514][515] Kenneth Pinyan 2 July 2005 Died from "acute peritonitis due to perforation of the colon"[516] caused by receiving anal penetration from a horse.[517] Chandler Hugh Jackson 6 July 2005 12-year-old Chandler Jackson was playing at the Dogwood Hill golf club in Cunningham, Kentucky, when he fell on his 9-iron club while retrieving an out of bounds ball. The club broke, with a piece of the shaft piercing his aorta through his chest. He was rushed to hospital in Paducah, Kentucky, but died that night.[469][518] Mildred Bowman and Alice Wardle August 2005 The two sisters, aged 62 and 68 respectively, died in Benidorm, Spain, after becoming trapped for four days when their fold-up Murphy bed collapsed.[519] Steve Irwin 4 September 2006 The Australian wildlife expert and television personality was pierced in the chest by a short-tail stingray's barb while filming in shallow water in the Great Barrier Reef.[520][521] Alexander Litvinenko 23 November 2006 The 44-year-old, a naturalised British citizen, former Russian FSB officer, and defector, was assassinated by poisoning with polonium-210, which caused acute and irreversible radiation sickness.[522][523] One of just a handful of recorded deaths attributed specifically to polonium exposure,[524] Litvinenko was the first-known fatality from malicious polonium poisoning,[525] and remains the only confirmed such case as of 2024.[524][526] Jennifer Strange 12 January 2007 The 28-year-old mother was participating in a contest sponsored by radio station KDND in Sacramento, California, called "Hold Your Wee For A Wii" in which you would have to drink excessive amounts of water without going to the bathroom. During the contest, Strange vomited and she, along with her family, went back home. Strange died from a headache along with water intoxication.[527] Humberto Hernandez 21 June 2007 The 24-year-old Oakland, California, resident was struck in the back of the head by an airborne fire hydrant when a passing car struck it, and the water pressure shot it at him with great force.[528][529][530] Abigail Taylor June 2007 The six-year-old girl from Edina, Minnesota, died from medical complications as a result of her evisceration caused by powerful suction from a pool drain at the Minneapolis Golf Club.[531] Lydia Tsekova 2 February 2008 The Bulgarian teacher, with her husband Georgi and colleague Nadezhda Lyubenova, poured chemical waste into a drain cover in Sofia. The chemicals reacted with the gases in the sewers and caused an explosion. The drain cover decapitated Tsekova, and the blast injured her husband and Lyubenova.[532][533][verification needed] Francis Pete Tovey 18 March 2008 The 81-year-old built a device that consisted of a jigsaw power tool attached to a .22 semi-automatic handgun containing four bullets. He then activated it, which fired multiple shots at his head, killing himself. Tovey built the device after downloading suicide plans on the Internet. Tovey, who originated from England and was living in Burleigh Heads, Australia at the time, left a note stating that he was struggling after pressure from relatives to move from his £450,000 home to a retirement home.[534][535][536][537] Judy Kay Zagorski 20 March 2008 The 57-year-old from Pigeon, Michigan, died of blunt force craniocerebral trauma when a 75-pound (34 kg) spotted eagle ray leaped out of the water and knocked her over off the coast of Marathon Key, Florida. The ray also died.[538][539][540][541] Adelir Antônio de Carli 21 April 2008 The Brazilian Catholic priest and sky diver undertook a cluster balloon flight to raise funds for charity. During the flight, contact was lost and de Carli disappeared. The lower part of his body was found floating in the sea eleven weeks later on 4 July.[542][543][544] Isaiah Otieno 13 May 2008 The student from Cranbrook, British Columbia, was struck and killed by a helicopter that plunged into a residential street he was walking in. The pilot and two other passengers of the helicopter were also instantly killed.[545] David Phyall 5 July 2008 The 50-year-old last resident in a block of flats due to be demolished in Bishopstoke, near Southampton, England, decapitated himself with a chainsaw to highlight the injustice of being forced to move out of it.[546][547] Unknown female 7 October 2008 A 43-year-old Irish woman died of an anaphylactic allergic reaction after sexually abusing a German Shepherd while committing bestiality.[548] Its owner, Seán McDonnell, and the woman met in an Internet chat room for bestiality. McDonnell was prosecuted and added to a sex offender list.[549] The dog was later euthanized.[550] Unknown male 3 March 2009 A 14-year-old boy from Jiaozhou, Shandong, China, was killed when the pneumatic cylinder in his office chair exploded.[551][552] Diane Durre 3 April 2009 The 49-year-old was killed in North Platte, Nebraska, by a falling Taco Bell sign. The sign was knocked over by high winds, and landed on a pickup truck, killing her and injuring her husband, Mark.[553] Mark Fidrych 13 April 2009 The 54-year-old former Major League Baseball pitcher of the Detroit Tigers, died while working underneath his dump truck. His clothes became entangled with the power take-off drive shaft, suffocating him.[554] Taylor Mitchell 28 October 2009 The 19-year-old Canadian folk singer was killed by a pair of coyotes while hiking in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, in the only known fatal coyote attack on an adult.[555][556][557] Vladimir Likhonos 2 December 2009 The 25-year-old student of Kyiv Polytechnic Institute from Konotop was killed when his chewing gum exploded. He had a habit of dipping his chewing gum in citric acid to increase the gum's sour taste. On his work table police found about 100 grams (3.5 oz) of unidentified explosive powder which he used for chemistry studies at home. It resembled citric acid, and it is thought that he confused the two, having accidentally coated his gum in the explosive powder before chewing it. The explosive was found to be four times stronger than TNT, and the explosion was possibly triggered either by reacting with Likhonos's saliva, or the pressure exerted by him chewing on the gum and explosive powder.[558][559][560] Name of person Image Date of death Details Muraka Jenny Vearncombe 3 March 2010 The 42-year-old was struck in the head by a piece of a metal pipe flung by a tractor-pulled lawnmower as she walked to work in Townsville, Australia.[561][562] Gareth Williams 16 August 2010 The 31-year-old Welsh mathematician and GCHQ analyst was found dead and naked in a bag that had been padlocked from the outside, in the bath of his home in Central London.[563] The inquest found his death was likely criminal, although a Metropolitan Police investigation later found that it was likely an accident.[564] The 20 passengers and crew of a plane crash 25 August 2010 20 passengers and crew of a Let L-410 Turbolet were killed in a crash resulting from an escaped crocodile in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to the sole survivor of the crash, the animal was smuggled aboard by a passenger but escaped mid-flight. Panicked passengers surged forward, unbalancing the plane and causing a loss of control.[565] The crocodile survived the crash, but was promptly killed by a blow from a machete.[566] Mike Edwards 3 September 2010 The 62-year-old cellist and founding member of the band Electric Light Orchestra died when a large, round bale of hay rolled down a hill and collided with the van he was driving.[567][568][569] Jimi Heselden 26 September 2010 The 62-year-old owner of Segway Inc. died after apparently riding a Segway Personal Transport System off a cliff in Thorp Arch, England.[570] The coroner came to the conclusion that Heselden had likely fallen from the cliff with the Segway after "getting into difficulty" reversing to allow a man walking his dog to pass him.[571] Jose Luis Ochoa 30 January 2011 The 35-year-old died after being stabbed in the leg at an illegal cockfight in Tulare County, California, by a bird with a knife-like spur strapped to its leg.[572][573] Unknown man and woman 6 June 2011 Two unnamed people were killed in an accident on a rural Quebec road when a "flying bear" collided with their SUV. The 200-kilogram (440 lb) black bear was sent airborne by a car in front of the SUV after it had stepped into the path of traffic on Highway 148. The bear passed through the windshield, hitting the driver and the passenger sitting behind her before passing through the rear window. The driver's boyfriend was in the front passenger seat and received injuries to his upper body which were described as "not life-threatening". The bear also died.[574][575] Brian Depledge 10 September 2011 The 38-year-old was home alone placing wet laundry on a clothes horse, a type of drying rack, when he accidentally tripped over a small stool and fell backwards into the rack, trapping himself. Authorities state it appears he attempted to free himself, but the struggle only caused the rungs to tighten around his chest and neck even more. A coroner remarked his death was "probably rarer than being struck by lightning or struck by a meteorite".[576][577] Erica Marshall 10 February 2012 The 28-year-old British veterinarian in Ocala, Florida, died when the horse she was treating in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber kicked the wall, releasing a spark from its horseshoe, causing a fire and explosion. The horse was also killed and another worker was seriously injured.[578][579] Anthony Hensley 14 April 2012 The 37-year-old was killed by a swan while kayaking across a pond at a residential complex in Des Plaines, Illinois. After getting too close to the bird's nest, the swan attacked him, threw him out of the kayak and prevented him from surfacing; he ultimately drowned.[580][581] Elizabeth Nass and Rose Mayr 21 August 2012 The 19-year-olds died after more than 20 coal cars (out of 90) from a CSX Transportation freight train derailed in Ellicott City, Maryland, while they were walking alongside the train tracks late at night. Reports said that the two women were found buried in a pile of coal. The derailment was possibly caused by a broken rail according to the National Transportation Safety Board.[582] Ilda Vitor Maciel 28 September 2012 The 88-year-old died in a hospital in Barra Mansa, Rio de Janeiro, allegedly as a result of nursing technicians injecting soup through her intravenous drip instead of her feeding tube.[583] Palmerina Pires Ribeiro October 2012 The 80-year-old died in a Rio de Janeiro clinic when an untrained nurse injected coffee in her intravenous drip. The nurse reported the incident had occurred because the blood drip and feed drip were directly next to one another.[584] Kendrick Johnson 10 January 2013 The 17-year-old was discovered trapped upside down in a rolled-up gym mat in his high school gymnasium. Police originally concluded he had climbed in it to retrieve a shoe and became trapped, but the case was later reopened as a possible homicide.[585][586][587][588][589] The homicide case was dismissed, and Kendrick's parents were accused of fabricating evidence. In 2014, they were sentenced to pay more than US$292,000 in legal fees.[590] The case was reopened again in 2021, but closed again in January 2022, with the Lowndes County Sheriff finding his death to be an accident when re-reviewing some 17 boxes of evidence and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's findings.[591][592] James Campbell 14 January 2013 When the 68-year-old man from Cantonment, Florida, left his 1995 Chevrolet Van to open a gate from his driveway, his dog stepped on the van's gas pedal and ran him over.[593][594] Takuya Nagaya 18 January 2013 The 23-year-old from Japan started to slither on the floor and claimed he had become a snake. He died after his father spent the next two days head-butting and biting him "to drive [out] the snake that had possessed him".[595] Elisa Lam February 2013 Lam, from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, was missing for several weeks before being found dead in a large water tank on the roof of the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles, after guests complained about low pressure and foul smell of the water.[596] Jeffery Bush 28 February 2013 The 37-year-old from the Tampa area was killed while he slept when a giant sinkhole measuring 15 feet (4.6 m) wide and 20 feet (6.1 m) deep opened below and swallowed his entire bedroom. His body was never recovered.[597][598] Roger Mirro 30 July 2013 The 56-year-old man in Chicago was crushed by a trash compactor while looking through a dumpster for his phone.[599][600] Unknown Belarusian man 2013 An unnamed 60-year-old Belarusian fisherman bled to death after being bitten by a beaver which he had tried to grab in order to have his picture taken with it.[601][602] João Maria de Souza 2013 The 45-year-old was crushed in his bed by a cow falling through the roof of his home in Caratinga, Minas Gerais, Brazil. It had climbed on top of the house from a steep hillside behind it. Both the cow and his wife (who was in the bed next to him) were unharmed.[603] Noah Barthe, Connor Barthe 5 August 2013 The brothers, aged four and six respectively, were killed by an African rock python during a sleepover at their friend's apartment in New Brunswick, Canada. The snake had escaped from its inadequate enclosure, and moved through ducts that were easily accessible to the reptile, where the snake then fell through the ceiling where the boys slept three meters away. Though the snake suffocated them, it did not attempt to eat them. However, an African rock python would not constrict unless they planned on eating, therefore it is likely that the owners of the python also failed to feed their pet. The python was euthanized.[604][605] Roman Pirozek, Jr. 5 September 2013 The 19-year-old model airplane enthusiast was partially decapitated by the blade of his radio-controlled helicopter while performing aerobatic maneuvers in Calvert Vaux Park in Brooklyn, New York.[606][607] Denver Lee St. Clair 21 December 2013 The 58-year-old was asphyxiated by an "atomic wedgie" administered by his stepson during a fight in Oklahoma. After he had been knocked unconscious, the elastic band from his torn underwear was pulled over his head and stretched around his neck, strangling him. The stepson was sentenced to 30 years in prison.[608][609] J.R.N. 18 January 2014 A 52-year-old Brazilian man, identified only as J.R.N., attempted to commit bestiality with a sow in Tapurah, Mato Grosso, but was attacked by the animals and wounded in the genitals. He died from a cardiac arrest. His arms and face were also mutilated by the animals. Initially police believed that the man had been murdered and disposed of at the farm, but this was disproven as numerous pieces of evidence showed that the man had drunk alcohol, used a condom and had been wearing only underwear. The man had worked at the farm for two years.[610][611][612][613] Heval Yıldırım 3 October 2014 The 13-year-old from Turkey was killed when a sacrificial goat bought for Eid al-Adha jumped off the roof, over a protective fence, and fell onto him. His father had placed it on the roof of the building where he lived because he could not find another suitable place to keep it.[617] Peter Biaksangzuala 19 October 2014 The 23-year-old Indian football player from Mizoram state died after sustaining spinal cord injuries while awkwardly landing a somersault, celebrating a goal.[618] Christophe de Margerie 20 October 2014 The French oil executive was killed when his corporate jet collided during take-off with an airport snowplow reportedly driven by a drunk driver in Moscow.[619][620] Gary Anderson 3 November 2014 The 58-year-old from New Jersey was delivering drywall to a construction site and leaned his head into the car of a co-worker while having a conversation. As he pulled his head out, a worker accidentally dropped a 1-pound (0.45 kg) tape measure which plummeted 50 stories, or approximately 500 feet (150 m), when it ricocheted off a piece of metal 10 feet (3.0 m) off the ground and smashed into Anderson's head. He was rushed to Jersey City Medical Center where he suffered cardiac arrest and was pronounced dead at 9:52 a.m. Hard hats were mandatory at the site, and it is unclear why Anderson was not wearing one when he was killed.[621][622] Phillip Hughes 27 November 2014 The 25-year-old Australian Test and ODI cricketer was killed by a bouncer striking his neck during a cricket match, causing a vertebral artery dissection.[623][624] Stephen Whinfrey January 2015 The 50-year-old became trapped and asphyxiated when rabbiting near Doncaster, England, after his head became stuck down a rabbit hole.[625] Maxee 28 February 2015 The member of American R&B group Brownstone, died after falling backward while holding a wine glass. During the fall, the glass shattered on the ground behind her head, and the shards pierced her neck, causing profuse bleeding.[626] Stephen Woytack 30 March 2015 The 74-year-old was decorating his family's grave plot at St. Joseph's Cemetery in Throop, Pennsylvania, for Easter with his wife when the tombstone of his mother-in-law toppled over, pinning him underneath and crushing him to death. The stone had supposedly been dislodged when the previously frozen ground was thawed by the early spring temperatures. Woytack was buried in a plot directly in front of the tombstone that killed him.[627] Randy Llanes 29 May 2015 The 47-year-old fisherman from Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, was killed by a swordfish. He had harpooned the fish and jumped into the water to retrieve it, but the swordfish impaled him in the chest.[628][629] Jaylon Rippy 2 July 2015 The five-year-old was killed by a leaping sturgeon while she was boating with her family near Fanning Springs, Florida. Her mother and brother were also injured and needed facial reconstruction surgery.[630] Chelsea Ake-Salvacion October 2015 The 24-year-old beauty salon employee in Henderson, Nevada, was suffocated while using a cryotherapy machine set to the wrong level, which eliminated the oxygen in the chamber.[631][632] Ravi Subramanian 5 December 2015 The Air India technician was sucked into an aircraft's jet engine.[633][634] V. Kamaraj 2016 The 40-year-old Indian bus driver was claimed by local newspapers to have been killed by a meteorite which left a two-foot (60 cm) crater, although officials from NASA oppose that view, saying that the most likely explanation was a land-based explosion. According to a preliminary report by the National College Instrumentation Facility (NCIF) in Trichy, a scanning electron microscope (SEM) study on the evidence of the samples retrieved from the campus in Vellore, from where the blast occurred, showed the "presence of carbonaceous chondrites".[635][636][637][638] Irma Bule 4 April 2016 The 29-year-old Indonesian dangdut singer who performed with live snakes died during a concert after being bitten by a king cobra and refusing treatment.[639][640] Lottie Michelle Belk 6 June 2016 The 55-year-old was fatally stabbed in the chest by a beach umbrella blown by a strong wind in Virginia Beach, Virginia.[641] Wind speeds at the time reached 20–25 miles per hour (32–40 km/h).[642][643] Lane Graves 14 June 2016 The two-year-old boy from Nebraska was on vacation and playing on the beach at Seven Seas Lagoon around 9 p.m. at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, just outside of Orlando, Florida. While he was playing, an alligator approached and dragged him under the water. Graves's body was found nearby the next day, intact and apparently drowned.[644][645][646] Anton Yelchin 19 June 2016 The 27-year-old American actor, known for portraying Pavel Chekov in the Star Trek reboot movie series, was found pinned between his car and a brick wall. His driveway was on an incline and his car was found running and in neutral.[647][648] The manufacturer had recalled the car make in April 2016, for concerns about its gearshift design that could cause rollaway incidents, but the software patch to repair the vehicles did not reach dealers until the week of Yelchin's death.[649] Kristopher Moules and Timothy Gilliam Jr. 18 July 2016 Moules, a 25-year-old correctional officer, and Gilliam, a 27-year-old out-of-county inmate being housed at the Luzerne County Correctional Facility in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, fell to their deaths after an altercation between them caused them to slam into the exterior of the fifth-floor elevator doors. Despite the elevator having its up-to-date working credentials, the door popped open on impact, causing the men to fall five flights down the shaft to their deaths. The county declared Moules' death a homicide and declared Gilliam's an accident.[650][651] Unknown girl 26 July 2016 A seven-year-old girl died after being struck by a stone thrown by an elephant from its enclosure at the zoo in Rabat, Morocco.[652][653] Caleb Schwab 7 August 2016 The 10-year-old was decapitated when he was ejected from his raft on Verrückt, a 168-foot-tall (51 m) water slide at Schlitterbahn Kansas City.[654] Julio Macías González 26 August 2016 The 17-year-old from Mexico City died from a cerebrovascular accident caused by embolus formed on a neck hickey.[655][656] Ten people 21 November 2016 A powerful southerly change in Melbourne, Australia, resulted in the death of 10 asthmatic people who died from respiratory failure.[657] This was due to a stark 60-kilometre-per-hour (37 mph) wind that distributed ryegrass pollen into the moist air, rupturing them into very fine specks small enough to enter people's lungs.[658] Charlie Holt 2017 The five-year-old was killed at the Sun Dial, a rotating restaurant at the top of Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia, when his head was caught in a small space between the rotating and non-rotating sections.[659] Akbar Salubiro March 2017 The 25-year-old was killed and swallowed by a reticulated python in West Sulawesi, Indonesia, in the first fully confirmed case of a snake swallowing an adult human.[660] A second case happened there the following year, when another reticulated python killed and swallowed a woman in her garden.[661] Heidi Fay Taylor 6 April 2017 The 40-year-old mother was stabbed and shot to death by her 14-year-old adoptive son Donovan Austin Nicholas,[662] who claimed that he was influenced by Jeff the Killer, saying, "It was Jeff. Jeff is inside me."[663][664] Robert Dreyer 10 May 2017 The Florida resident drowned on his 89th birthday after he crashed his car into a fire hydrant and was then swallowed by the sinkhole created by the broken water line which had fed the hydrant.[665] Debra Bedard 2 June 2017 The 58-year-old died after falling from a golf cart onto shards of wine glasses that had broken in her hands in Calaveras County, California.[666] Rebecca Burger 18 June 2017 The 33-year-old French fitness blogger and model died after a whipped-cream charger exploded and struck her in the chest. The injury caused her to go into cardiac arrest as a result of commotio cordis.[667] Karanbir Cheema July 2017 The 13-year-old from London, England, died after having a severe allergic reaction to cheese at his school on 28 June 2017. Cheema was severely allergic to wheat, gluten, all dairy products, eggs and all nuts. Reportedly, an unnamed student at the school had thrown a piece of cheese at Cheema, causing the fatal reaction.[668] Jasmine Beever 7 September 2017 The 16-year-old from Skegness, England, died of peritonitis brought about by Rapunzel syndrome. She had a long-time habit of chewing and swallowing her own hair (trichophagia) which formed a hairball in her stomach, leading to an infection in her abdomen damaging her vital organs.[669] Elizabeth Isherwood September 2017 The 60-year-old walked naked into an airing cupboard at the villa she was renting and shut the door. When she tried to leave, part of the door handle broke off in her hand. She dug into the wall in an attempt to escape, but struck and burst a pipe, which sprayed water into the cupboard and caused her eventual death by hypothermia. She was found several days later.[670] Raildo Matias Santos 22 October 2017 The 49-year-old drowned in a bucket of water in Jaguaquara, Brazil. Santos, who was intoxicated, attempted to fetch a 20-litre (4.4 imp gal; 5.3 US gal) bucket of water, tripped, and fell in a kneeling position. He was epileptic.[671][672] Hidr Korkmaz 12 November 2017 The 42-year-old Turkish-Dutch drug dealer and informant died when he threw his fishhook into an electrical cable while fishing somewhere in Eastern Europe. Though he was a witness in the case against Dutch criminal Willem Holleeder, he was not considered a crucial asset by authorities, who treated his death as an accident.[673][674] Rajesh Maru 28 January 2018 The 32-year-old died at Nair Hospital in Mumbai after carrying a metal oxygen tank into a room housing an MRI scanner. The magnetic field pulled him in with the tank which pinned his hand and released liquid oxygen. He died of pneumothorax from inhaling liquid oxygen.[675][676][677] Ateef Rafiq 16 March 2018 The 24-year-old died from cardiac arrest in a movie theater in Birmingham, England, while looking for his dropped mobile phone. His head became wedged under the electronic footrest of a seat.[678] Elaine Herzberg 18 March 2018 The 49-year-old from Tempe, Arizona, died after being hit by a self-driving car operated by Uber, as she crossed the road, in what was reported to be the first death of a pedestrian struck by a self-driving car on public roads. In response to the fatal accident, Uber suspended self-driving car tests in all U.S. cities.[679][680] Kyle Plush 10 April 2018 The 16-year-old died from asphyxia after becoming trapped in his Honda Odyssey, which was in his school's parking lot in Cincinnati, Ohio. Attempting to reach his tennis equipment, he leaned over the third row of seats into the trunk. When the seats "squashed his chest", he became pinned and later died. During the incident, he called 9-1-1 twice, by using his smartphone's voice assistant. Responding to the calls, the police were not able to find him; he was eventually discovered dead in the vehicle by his father about six hours later.[681] Jennifer Riordan 17 April 2018 The 43-year-old bank executive and businesswoman aboard Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 died after debris from an engine failure destroyed a window near her seat and she was partially blown out through it.[682][683] Samen Kondorura 15 June 2018 The 40-year-old from the North Toraja Regency of South Sulawesi, Indonesia, was killed after the coffin of his mother fell on him during her funeral. As is tradition, Kondorura and the other pallbearers were carrying the coffin up a bamboo ladder into a temple, when the ladder collapsed beneath them. As everyone fell off, the coffin hit Kondorura in the head. He died on the way to hospital and was buried next to his mother.[684] Hildegard Whiting 27 July 2018 The 77-year-old died of asphyxiation from the carbon dioxide vapors produced by four dry ice coolers in a Dippin' Dots delivery car. The deliveryman's wife had borrowed the car to take Whiting home.[685][686] Richard Russell 10 August 2018 The 29-year-old stole a Bombardier Q400 owned by Horizon Air and operating for Alaska Airlines from Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. After an unauthorized takeoff, he flew the plane for just over an hour and performed aerial maneuvers including a barrel roll before intentionally crashing on Ketron Island, Washington, killing himself. No one else was injured.[687] Linda Goldbloom 29 August 2018 The 79-year-old died four days after being hit by a foul ball at Dodger Stadium. Her death, the second such fatality in Major League Baseball history, was the first in nearly 50 years.[688] Sam Ballard October 2018 The 29-year-old from Sydney, Australia, died from angiostrongyliasis after eating a garden slug as a dare eight years earlier.[689] Unknown man January 2019 An unknown 54-year-old man from Massachusetts died after eating a bag and a half of black liquorice every day for a few weeks, which caused such low potassium levels in his body that his heart stopped.[690][691][692] Liquorice contains glycyrrhizinic acid, which along with its metabolite glycyrrhetinic acid interferes with the body's ability to retain potassium by mimicking the hormone aldosterone,[693] resulting in excessive excretion of the nutrient in cases of overconsumption, a condition referred to as pseudohyperaldosteronism.[694] Salvator Disi 10 January 2019 The 62-year-old was decapitated while using a power cart to jump start a helicopter in Hernando County, Florida. Its unexpected up-and-down motion caused the rotor blades to strike him.[695] Margaret Maurer 5 March 2019 The 21-year-old Tulane University fourth-year student from Forest Lake, Minnesota, died at a highway rest stop in Mississippi when she was struck by a pair of tires that came loose from a passing tractor-trailer.[696][697][698] Patrick McGuire April 2019 The 67-year-old American tourist died from positional asphyxia in Scotland when a 72-kilogram (159 lb) metal garden bench he was sitting on toppled backwards, pinning him against a wall which had knocked him unconscious. It was later found that such benches had a risk of sinking into the grass and becoming unstable and there were no appropriate checks to provide a stable hard surface for the benches.[699] Darren Hickey 5 April 2019 The 51-year-old wedding planner from Horwich, England, died after eating a scalding-hot fishcake at a wedding. The cake had burned his throat, restricting his ability to breathe. The pathologist who performed the autopsy called the case "extremely rare" and likened it to those of victims who have inhaled smoke during house fires.[700] Hickey previously received a set of false teeth following a previous event.[701] Marvin Hajos 12 April 2019 The 75-year-old former car salesman and exotic animal collector living in Florida was attacked and killed by his recently purchased pet cassowary. The large bird repeatedly kicked the man, which punctured the man's skin and severed the brachial artery in his arm. Hajos was declared dead by the time paramedics arrived at the scene, and the cassowary was auctioned off to a different owner.[702][703][704] Paul McDonald 17 April 2019 The 47-year-old was attacked and killed by a pet deer, said to be an elk, on his property in north-east Victoria, Australia.[705][706] Joemar Jungco 22 June 2019 The 18-year-old worker at a meat processing facility in Iloilo City, Philippines, died after half his body from the head down to the waist was pulled into a meat grinder.[707] Elena Struthers-Gardner July 2019 The 60-year-old from Broadstone, Dorset, England, was carrying a mason jar-style drinking glass when she collapsed. Its 10-inch (250 mm) stainless steel straw entered her left eye socket and pierced her brain.[708][709][710] Zafer Kuzu 4 July 2019 The 24-year-old from Erzurum, Turkey, attempted to escape a community service sentence for inflicting injury by getting himself hospitalized. He asked a friend to shoot him in the back with a shotgun through two pillows to reduce the shot's power. He was killed and the friend arrested.[711] Samuela Cirivakayawa 8 September 2019 The 40-year-old Fijian emigrant to Australia was killed while working as an arborist at Lindfield in the north of Sydney. When his two co-workers left briefly to ask a motorist to move their car, Cirivakayawa, then working alone, was sucked through a woodchipper.[712] Although Cirivakayawa's ex-wife in Fiji later suggested the incident may have been a complication of depression,[713] a coronial report has not yet been released to the public. Yulia Sharko 8 September 2019 The 21-year-old from Žabinka, Belarus, was celebrating her birthday with friends when she tried to pull her two-year-old daughter out through the window of her car. Her daughter activated the window control button, closing the window and strangling Sharko.[714] Pamela Kreimeyer 27 October 2019 The 56-year-old from Marion County, Iowa, was killed during an explosion at a gender reveal party. In an attempt to film a gender reveal worthy of posting online, members of her family filled a steel umbrella stand with gunpowder. Instead of emitting a shower of sparks as intended, the metal pipe failed to contain the overpressure, and the device acted as a pipe bomb instead. Kreimeyer was struck in the head by a metal fragment and was killed instantly.[715] Michael Kosanovich 7 December 2019 The 21-year-old was crushed by a 2002 Lexus IS300s, in South Jamaica, Queens, New York City, after its owner started it by remote control. It rolled forward, and he was pinned between two vehicles.[716] Bystanders tried to push them apart but as they did so, the car rolled forward and crushed him again. Kosanovich was taken to hospital with severe trauma to his torso and legs and died of his injuries on 7 December.[717] Name of person Image Date of death Details Sergio Millán 14 January 2020 The 59-year-old was alone in his apartment in Torreforta, Tarragona, Spain, when an explosion in a petrochemical plant 3 kilometres (2 mi) away launched a one-ton iron plate into the apartment above him, causing the ceiling to collapse, killing him.[718] Valentin Didenko, Natalia Monakova and Yuri Alferov 28 February 2020 The trio died while celebrating Didenko's wife's birthday in Moscow. During the party, a guest dumped 25 kilograms (55 lb) of dry ice into the sauna pool, which resulted in a large amount of carbon dioxide being released. Didenko, Monakova and Alferov, along with several others jumped into the pool, only to quickly lose consciousness from hypercapnia.[719] The three deaths came as a result of asphyxia due to lack of oxygen. This was all captured on video.[720][721] Christian Bolok 26 October 2020 The lieutenant, who was the police chief of San Jose, Northern Samar, Philippines, died during an anti-gambling raid. He was trying to grab a cockfighting rooster when the razor-sharp metal blade attached to the rooster's leg to kill its opponent cut a gaping hole in his leg and sliced his femoral artery, causing him to bleed to death.[722] Luke Ramone Harper 2 April 2021 The eight-year-old from Ringsend, Dublin, died after inhaling helium from a balloon that he placed over his head. The balloon had been bought for his birthday a week prior.[723] Unknown man May 2021 The body of a 39-year-old man was found wedged inside the hind leg of a papier-mâché statue of a stegosaurus in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Catalonia, Spain. Initial police reports did not suspect foul play. A police representative hypothesised that the individual may have crawled inside headfirst to retrieve a lost mobile phone before his leg became stuck, trapping him inside. Firefighters had to cut the statue apart to extract the body; police observers believed that he may have been trapped in there for "a couple of days". Local media claimed that the family of the victim had
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Samuel, Kings & Chronicles and Work
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Discover insights for work, leadership and governance in this commentary on 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles.
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Introduction to Samuel, Kings and Chronicles
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The books of 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, and 1&2 Chronicles take a deep interest in work. Their predominant interest is in the work of kings, including political, military, economic, and religious aspects. Governing, in the form of “having dominion”, is one of the tasks God gave human beings at the very beginning (Genesis 1:28), and leadership, or governance, issues take center stage in 1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, and 1&2 Chronicles. How should the Israelites be governed, by whom, and for what purposes? When organizations are governed well, people thrive. When good governance is violated, everyone suffers.
The events in the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles are thoroughly intertwined. Because of this, we will discuss all six together, rather than subdividing book by book. To locate the discussion of a particular passage, use the table of contents and headings.
Kings are the focus, but they are not the only people we see at work in these books. First of all, the work of kings affects the work of many others, such as soldiers, builders, craftspeople, and priests, and the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles pay attention to how the kings’ work affects these other workers. Secondly, kings themselves have work other than ruling, of which parenting is of particular interest in these books. Finally, as histories of Israel, these books take an interest in the people as a whole, and in many cases this means recounting the work of people not connected to the work of kingship.
Following the lead of the books themselves, we will pay greatest attention to the leadership and governance tasks of the kings of Israel, while also exploring the many other kinds of workers depicted. Included among these are soldiers and commanders, judges and civic leaders (often called “elders”), parents, shepherds, farmers, cooks and bakers, perfumers, vineyard keepers, musicians and artists, inventors, entrepreneurs, diplomats (both formal and informal), protestors or activists, political advisers, artisans and craftspeople, architects, supervisors, stonemasons, bricklayers, metal workers, carpenters, armorers, well-keepers, oil dealers, healers, slave girls, messengers, lumberjacks, and accountants. Prophets and priests are also included, although in keeping with the Theology of Work Project’s focus on non-religious work, we will limit ourselves to their role in work outside the religious sphere. They actually play a significant role in political, military, and economic affairs, as we shall see.
Virtually every kind of worker today is either represented in the books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles or can find practical applications to their work in them. Generally speaking, we will discover how good governance and leadership apply to our work, rather than finding instructions about how to do our particular jobs—unless governance or leadership is our job.
The Historical Background of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles
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The overarching interest of the books is the work of the king as Israel becomes a monarchy. They begin at a time when the twelve tribes of Israel had long been violating the rules, ethics, and virtues of leadership that God laid out for them, which can be found in the books of Genesis through Deuteronomy. After almost 200 years of increasingly bad governance by a succession of “judges” (temporary leaders), Israel is in shambles. Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles narrate God’s intervention in Israel’s governance as his people move from a failing tribal confederation to a promising monarchy, which declines into failure as succeeding generations of kings abandon God and his ways. Regrettably, the story ends with destruction of Israel as a nation, never to be restored during the biblical period. This may not seem like a promising backdrop for a study of governance, but God’s guidance is always in evidence in the narrative, whether people choose to follow it or not. Reading the story thousands of years later, we can learn both from their success and their failures.
The books’ fundamental theological position is that if the king is faithful to God, the nation thrives economically, socially and militarily. If the king is faithless, national catastrophe ensues. So the history of God's people is told primarily through the actions of top governmental leaders, to use modern terms. Yet governance is needed in every sort of community or institution, whether political, civic, business, non-profit, academic, or anything else. The lessons of the books apply to governance in all sectors of society today. These books offer a rich study of leadership, demonstrating how the livelihood of many depends on what leaders do and say.
Scholars believe that, originally, each pair of books (1&2 Samuel, 1&2 Kings, 1&2 Chronicles) was a single entity split between two scrolls. The scrolls of Samuel and Kings form an integrated political history of the Israelite monarchies. Chronicles tells the same history as Kings, but with a focus on the priestly or worship aspects of Hebrew history. We will follow the narrative as in three acts: (1) From Tribal Confederation to Monarchy, (2) Monarchy's Golden Age, (3) From Failed Monarchies to Exile.
From Tribal Confederation to Monarchy: 1 Samuel
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The first book of Samuel marks the transition of Israel from a fractious coalition of tribes to a monarchy with a central government in Jerusalem. The story begins with the birth and calling of the prophet Samuel and continues with the call to kingship and the reigns of Saul and David. This is the story of state formation, the centralization of power and of worship, and the establishment of a new political, military, and social order.
The Calling of Samuel (1 Samuel 1-3)
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From the closing words of the book of Judges and the opening chapters of 1 Samuel we know that the Israelites are both leaderless and disconnected from God. The closest thing they have to a national leader is the priest Eli, who with his sons runs the shrine at Shiloh. The Israelites’ political, military, and economic prosperity depends on their faithfulness to God. So the people bring their offerings and sacrifices to God at the shrine, but the priests make a mockery of interaction with God. "Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels...for they treated the offerings of the Lord with contempt" (1 Samuel 2:12, 17). They are untrustworthy as human leaders, and they do not honor God in their hearts. Worshipers find that those who should direct them toward an experience of worship are instead stealing from them.
The Perils of Inherited Authority
Somewhat ominously for a nation about to become a monarchy, the first thing we observe is that inherited authority is inherently dangerous for two reasons. The first is that there is no guarantee that descendants of even the greatest leader will be competent and faithful. The second is that being born to power is often a corrupting influence itself, resulting all too often either in complaisance or—as the case of Eli’s sons—entitlement. Eli performs his work as a sacred charge from God (1 Sam. 2:25), but his sons see it as a personal possession (1 Sam. 2:14). Growing up in an atmosphere somewhat analogous to a family business, they expect from a young age to inherit their father’s privileges. Because this "family business" is God's own shrine—giving the family a claim to divine authority over the populace—his sons' malfeasance is all the more injurious.
Family businesses and political dynasties in today's world have parallels to Eli's situation. The founder of the business or polity may have brought great good into the world, but if the heirs view it as a means for personal gain, those whom they are meant to serve suffer harm. Everyone wins when founders and their successors are faithful to the original, good purpose. The world is a better place, the business and community thrive, and the family is well provisioned. But when the original purpose is neglected or corrupted, the business or community suffers, and the organization and the family are in jeopardy.
The sad history of inherited power in governments, churches, businesses, and other organizations warns us that those who expect to receive power as a right often sense no need to develop the skill, self-discipline, and attitude of service needed to be good leaders. This reality perplexed the Teacher of Ecclesiastes. "I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to those who come after me—and who knows whether they will be wise or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 2:18-19). What was true for him is true for us today. Families that gain wealth and power from the success of an entrepreneur in one generation often lose these gains by the third generation and also suffer devastating family quarrels and personal misfortunes. This is not to say that inherited power or wealth always leads to poor outcomes, but that inheritance is a dangerous policy for governance. Families, organizations, or governments that do pass authority via inheritance will do well to develop a multiplicity of means to counteract the perils that inheritance entails. There are consultancies and organizations that specialize in supporting families and businesses in inheritance situations.
God Calls Samuel to Succeed Eli
If not his scoundrel sons, who would succeed Eli as priest? First Samuel 3:1-4:1 and 1 Samuel 7:3-17 reveal God's plan to raise up young Samuel to succeed Eli. Samuel receives one of the few audible calls from God recorded in the Bible, but notice that this is not a call to a type of work or ministry. (Samuel had been serving in the house of the Lord since he was two or three years old, and the choice of occupation had been made by his mother. See 1 Samuel 1:20-28 and 2:18-21.) Nonetheless it is a call to a task, namely to tell Eli that God has decided to punish him and his sons, who are soon to be removed as God’s priests. After fulfilling this calling, Samuel continues to serve under Eli until he is recognized as a prophet in his own right (1 Sam. 4:1) and succeeds Eli after Eli’s death (1 Sam. 4:18). Samuel becomes the leader of God's people, not because of self-serving ambition or a sense of entitlement, but because God had given him a vision (1 Sam. 3:10-14) and the gifts and skills to lead people to carry out that vision (1 Sam. 3:19-4:1). See Vocation Overview for more on the topic of calling to work.
The Perils of Treating God Like a Good Luck Charm (1 Samuel 4)
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It’s not clear whether the corruption of the leader, Eli, causes the corruption of the people or vice versa, but chapters 4-6 depict the disaster than befalls those who are poorly governed. Israel has been engaged in a centuries-long struggle against the neighboring country of the Philistines. A new attack is made by the Philistines, which routs the Israelites, resulting in 4,000 casualties (1 Sam. 4:1-3). The Israelites recognize the defeat as a sign of God’s disfavor. But instead of examining their fault, repenting, and coming to the Lord for guidance, they try to manipulate God into serving their purposes. They fetch the ark of the covenant of God and charge into battle against the Philistines, assuming that the ark will make them invincible. Eli’s sons lend an aura of authority to the plan. But the Philistines slaughter Israel in the battle, killing 30,000 Israelite soldiers, capturing the ark, slaying Eli’s sons and causing Eli’s own death (1 Sam. 4:4-19).
Eli’s sons, alongside the leaders of the army, made the mistake of thinking that because they bore the name of God’s people and possessed the symbols of God’s presence, they were in command of God’s power. Perhaps those in charge believed they could actually control God’s power by carrying around the ark. Or maybe they had deceived themselves into thinking that because they were God’s people, whatever they wanted for themselves would be what God wanted for them. In any case, they discovered that God’s presence is not a warrant to project God’s power, but an invitation to receive God’s guidance. Ironically, the ark contained the greatest means of God’s guidance—the Ten Commandments (Deuteronomy 10:5)—but Eli’s sons did not bother to seek any kind of guidance from God before attacking the Philistines.
Can it be that we often fall into the same bad habit in our work? When we are faced with opposition or difficulty in our work, do seek God’s guidance in prayer or do we just throw up a quick prayer asking God to do what we want? Do we consider the possible courses of action in the light of scripture, or do we just keep a Bible on our desk? Do we examine our motivations and assess our actions with openness to transformation by God or do we simply decorate ourselves with Christian symbols? If our work seems unfulfilling or our careers are not progressing as we hope, is it possible that we are using God as a good luck charm, rather than following him as the master of our work?
The Opportunities That Arise From Working Faithfully (1 Samuel 5-7)
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The Philistines fare no better with the ark than the Israelites did, and it becomes a dangerous property for both sides until it is retired from military use and Samuel calls Israel to recommit themselves to the Lord himself (1 Sam. 5:1-7:3). The people heed his call and turn back to worshipping the Lord, and Samuel’s career expands rapidly. His role as priest soon grows to “judge” (meaning a military governor) and he leads the successful defense against the Philistines (1 Sam. 7:4-13). His roll soon encompasses holding court for legal matters (1 Sam. 7:16). Behind all his tasks lies his calling to be "a trustworthy prophet of the Lord" (1 Sam. 3:20).
Work is a Holy Calling (Video)
Skilled, dependable workers who are true to God’s ways often find their work overflowing their job descriptions. In the face of ever-expanding responsibilities, Samuel's response is not, "That's not my job." Instead, he sees the crucial needs in front of him, recognizes that he has the capacity to meet them, and steps in to resolve them. As he does so, God increases his authority and effectiveness to match his willingness.
One lesson we might take from this is to respond to God with a willingness to serve as Samuel did. Do you see opportunities in front of you at work that, strictly speaking, don't fit your job description? Do your supervisors or colleagues seem to expect you to take further responsibility in areas that aren't formally part of your job? These are often chances for growth, development, and advancement (unless your supervisors do not appreciate your taking on additional responsibility). What would it take for you to step forward into these opportunities? Similarly, you may see needs around you that you could help meet if you had the trust and courage to respond. What would it take to develop your trust in God and to receive the courage needed to follow his leading?
The final account of Samuel’s governance (1 Sam. 7:15-17) says that he went on a circuit of the cities of Israel year by year to the cities of Israel, governing and administering justice. The chapter closes with, “And he built there an altar to the Lord.” His civic and military services to Israel were founded on his life-long faithfulness and worship of the Lord.
Samuel’s Sons Disappoint (1 Samuel 8:1-3)
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As Samuel ages, he repeats Eli’s error and appoints his own sons to succeed him. Like Eli’s sons, they turn out to be greedy and corrupt (1 Sam. 8:1-3). Disappointing sons of great leaders is a recurrent theme in Samuel and Kings. (The tragedy of David’s son Absalom occupies the bulk of 2 Samuel chapters 13-19, to which we will return. See "David's Dysfunctional handling of family conflict leads to civil war (2 Samuel 13-19)".) It reminds us that the work of parenting is as challenging as every other occupation but far more emotionally intense. No solution is given in the text, but we can observe that Eli, Samuel, and David seem to have given their troubled children many privileges but little paternal involvement. Yet we also know that even the most dedicated parents may face the heartbreak of wayward children. Rather than laying blame or stereotyping causes, let us simply note that parenting children is an occupation requiring as much prayer, skill, community support, good fortune, and love as any other, if not more. Ultimately to be a parent—whether our children bring delight, disappointment, or some of both—is to depend on God’s grace and mercy and to hope for a redemption beyond what we see during our lifetimes. Perhaps our deepest comfort is to remember that God also experienced a parent’s heartbreak for his condemned Son, yet overcame all through the power of love.
The Israelites Ask For a King (1 Samuel 8:4-22)
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Seeing the unsuitability of Samuel’s sons, the Israelites ask him to “appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” This request displeases Samuel (1 Sam. 8:4-6). Samuel warns the people that kings lay heavy burdens on a nation.
These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen to run before his chariots; and he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. (1 Sam. 8:10-17)
In fact, the kings would be so rapacious that eventually the people would cry out to God to save them from the kings (1 Sam. 8:18).
God agrees that asking for a king is a bad idea because it amounts to a rejection of God himself, as king. Nonetheless, the Lord decides to allow the people to choose their form of government, and he tells Samuel, "Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them" (1 Sam. 8:7). As biblical scholar John Goldingay notes, "God starts with his people where they are; if they cannot cope with his highest way, he carves out a lower one. When they do not respond to the spirit of Yahweh or when all sorts of spirits lead them into anarchy, he provides...the institutional safeguard of earthly rulers." Sometimes God permits institutions that are not part of his eternal purpose, and the monarch of Israel is one of the most glaring examples.
Both God and Samuel showed great humility, resilience, and grace in allowing Israel to make choices and mistakes, learning from the consequences. There are many institutional and workplace situations where leadership must adjust to people's poor choices, yet at the same time try to provide opportunities for growth and grace. Samuel's warning to Israel could easily serve as a warning to nations, businesses, churches, schools, and other organizations of today's world. In our fallen world, people abuse power, and we have to adjust while at the same time doing what we can to change things. Our aspiration is to love God and treat other people as God commands in the law given to Moses, which God’s people have had an extremely hard time doing in every age.
The Task of Choosing a King (1 Samuel 9-16)
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Saul Chosen as Israel’s First King
God's first choice to be king is Saul (c. 1050-1010 B.C.), someone who looked the part—he literally stood "head and shoulders above everyone else" (1 Sam. 9:2). Furthermore, he won military victories, the main reason for having a king in the first place (1 Sam. 11:1-11). In the beginning, he served faithfully (1 Sam. 11:13-14), but he quickly became disobedient to God (1 Sam. 13:8-15) and arrogant with his people (1 Sam. 14:24-30). Both Samuel and God became exasperated with him and began to look for his replacement (1 Sam. 16:1). But before we measure Saul's actions against 21st-century leadership expectations, we should note that Saul simply did what kings did in the ancient Near East. The people got what they asked for (and what Samuel had warned against), a militaristic, charismatic, self-aggrandizing tyrant.
How are we to evaluate Israel's first king? Did God make a mistake in leading Samuel to anoint young Saul as king? Or was the choice of Saul an object lesson to the Israelites not to be seduced by outward appearances, handsome on the outside but hollow on the inside? In asking for a king, the Israelites showed their lack of faith in God. The king they received ultimately demonstrated that same lack of faith in God. Saul's primary task as king was to assure security for the Israelites from attack by the neighboring Philistines and other nations. But when faced with Goliath, Saul's fear overcame his faith and he proved unequal to his role (1 Sam. 17:11). Throughout his reign Saul similarly doubted God, seeking counsel in the wrong places, and finally dying a suicide as his army was routed by the enemy (1 Sam. 31:4).
David Chosen to Succeed Saul
As Samuel searches for Saul's replacement, he nearly makes the mistake of judging by appearances a second time (1 Sam. 16:1-4). The boy David seems inconsequential to Samuel, but with God's help, he finally recognizes in David God's choice for Israel's king. On the surface David does not project the image of gravitas people expect in a leader (1 Sam. 16:6-11). A little later in the story, the Philistine giant Goliath is similarly dismissive (1 Sam. 17:42). David is a non-traditional candidate for reasons beyond his youth. He is a last son in a society based on primacy of the first-born. Moreover, he is ethnically mixed, not a pure Israelite because one of his great-grandmothers was Ruth (Ruth 4:21-22), an immigrant from the kingdom of Moab (Ruth 1:1-4). Though David has several strikes against him, God sees great promise in him.
As we think about leadership selection today, it’s valuable to remember God’s word to Samuel: “The Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). In God's upside-down kingdom, the last or the overlooked may end up being the best choice. The best leader may be the one nobody is looking for. It can be tempting to jump at the initially impressive candidate, the one who oozes charisma, the person that other people seem to want to follow. But high self-confidence actually leads to lower performance, according to a 2012 Harvard Business Review article. Charisma is not what God values. Character is. What would it take to learn to see a person’s character through God’s eyes?
It is significant that David was out doing his job as shepherd, conscientiously caring for his father's sheep, when Samuel found him. Faithful performance in the job at hand is good preparation for a bigger job, as in David's case (1 Samuel 17:34-37, see also Luke 16:10; 19:17). Samuel soon discovers that David is the strong, confident, and competent leader the people craved, who would "go out before [us] and fight [our] battles" (1 Sam. 8:20). Throughout his career David keeps in mind that he is serving at God's pleasure to care for God's people (2 Sam. 6:21). God calls him "a man after my own heart" (Acts 13:22).
God has selected David to succeed Saul. Now Samuel must anoint David as king while Saul is still on the throne. Samuel doubts the prospects for success. “How can I go?” Samuel says, “If Saul hears it, he will kill me” (1 Sam. 16:2). God’s response is to Samuel to go under cover. “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me him whom I name to you.” (1 Sam. 16:2-3). In other words, go openly to Jesse’s house (where the new king is to be found), but disguise your purpose in going there. Following God’s guidance, Samuel succeeds in anointing David king.
In our work, we also may face the challenge of dealing with an abusive system or tyrannical leader. Do we speak up clearly, as if with a target on our backs, waiting to be shot down? Or do we navigate subtly, hoping this will give us a chance to more positively affect the final outcome? What does it look like to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves,” as Jesus put it? (Matthew 10:16). For more on the topic of when deception may be morally necessary, see the TOW topical article “When Someone Has No Right to the Truth.”
There is a time to be clear about what we stand for, and there is a time to act more covertly, keeping the end in mind. How do we know the difference? The clue is here in the text, in which Samuel is continually talking with God for guidance. Under pressure, we may find ourselves making this kind of decision on our own, but that is likely to gravitate toward what is most comfortable for ourselves rather than what God wants. Yet we have Jesus’ promise of help from God’s Holy Spirit (John 14:26). Samuel’s habit of talking with God in his workplace led him to navigate the morally ambiguous situation in God’s light to understand God’s purposes correctly. Can we do the same in our own workplaces, bring our questions and uncertainties to God in prayer? For help with this, see the Bible reading plan, “How to Make the Right Decision.”
David's Rise to Power (1 Samuel 17-30)
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Unlike Saul who had begun his reign soon after Samuel anointed him (1 Samuel 11:1), David has a long and difficult apprenticeship before he is acclaimed as king at Hebron. His first public success comes in slaying the giant Goliath, who is threatening Israel's military security. As the army returns home, a throng of women begin singing, “Saul has killed his thousands and David his ten thousands” (1 Sam. 18:7). This enrages Saul (1 Sam. 18:8). Rather than recognizing how both he and the nation can benefit from David's capabilities, he regards David as a threat. He decides to eliminate David at the earliest opportunity (1 Sam. 18:9-13). Thus began a rivalry that eventually forces David to flee for his life, eluding Saul while leading a band of brigands in the wildernesses of Judah for ten years.
When given opportunities to assassinate King Saul, David refuses, knowing that the throne is not his to take. It is God's to give. As the Psalms express it, “It is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another” (Psalm 75:7). David respects the authority God has given Saul even when Saul acts in dishonorable ways. This seems like a lesson for those today who work for difficult bosses or are waiting to be acknowledged for their leadership. Even if we sense we are called by God to a particular task or position, this does not authorize us to grasp power by contravening the existing authorities. If everyone who thought God wanted them to be the boss tried to hasten the process by seizing power on their own, every succession of authority would bring little more than chaos. God is patient, and we are to be patient, too, as David was.
Can we trust God to give us the authority we need, in his time, to do the work that he wants us to do? In the workplace, having more authority is valuable for getting necessary work done. Grasping at that authority prematurely by undercutting a boss or by pushing a colleague out of the way does not build trust with colleagues or demonstrate trust in God. At times it can be frustrating when it seems that it's taking too long for the needed authority to come your way, but true authority cannot be grasped, only granted. David was willing to wait until God placed that authority in his hands.
Abigail Defuses a Crisis Between David and Nabal (1 Samuel 25)
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Will Messenger: Confessions of Fall and Redemption in Work
As David’s power grows, he comes into conflict with a rich landowner named Nabal. As it happens, David’s band of rebels against Saul’s rule has been encamped in Nabal’s area for some time. David’s men have treated Nabal’s shepherds kindly, protecting them from harm or at the very least not stealing anything themselves (1 Sam. 25:15-16). David figures this means Nabal owes him something, and he sends a delegation to ask Nabal to donate some lambs for a feast for David’s army. Perhaps realizing the weakness of his claim, David instructs his delegation to be extra polite to Nabal.
Nabal will have nothing of it. Not only does he refuse to give David anything for the feast, he insults David publicly, denies knowing David, and impugns David’s integrity as a rebel against Saul (1 Sam. 25:10). Nabal’s own servants describe their master as “so ill-natured that no one can speak to him.” David immediately sets out with 400 armed men to slay Nabal and kill every male in his household.
Suddenly David is about to commit mass murder, while Nabal cares more about his pride than about his workers and family. These two arrogant men are unable to resolve an argument about sheep without spilling the blood of hundreds of innocent people. Thank God, Nabal’s wise-hearted wife Abigail steps into the fray. She quickly prepares a feast for David and his men, then rides out to meet David with an apology that sets a new standard for courtesy in the Old Testament (1 Sam. 25:26-31). Yet wrapped in the courteous words are some hard truths David needs to hear. He is on the verge of shedding blood without cause, bringing on himself a guilt he could never escape.
David is moved by her words and abandons his plan to kill Nabal and all his men and boys. He even thanks Abigail for diverting him from his reckless plan. “Blessed be your good sense, and blessed be you, who have kept me today from bloodguilt and from avenging myself by my own hand! For as surely as the Lord the God of Israel lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there would not have been left to Nabal so much as one male” (1 Sam. 25:33–34).
The incident shows that people need to hold their leaders accountable, although doing so may come at the cost of great personal risk. You don’t have to have authority status to be called to exercise influence. But you do need courage, which fortunately is something you can receive from God at any time. Abigail’s intervention also demonstrates that showing respect, even while making a pointed criticism, provides a model for challenging authority. Nabal turned a petty argument into a life threatening situation by wrapping a minor dispute in a personal insult. Abigail resolves a life-threatening crisis by dressing a major rebuke in a respectful dialogue.
In what ways may God be calling you to exercise influence to hold people in positions of higher authority accountable? How can you cultivate a godly attitude of respect along with an unwavering commitment to telling the truth? What courage do you need from God to actually do it?
The Golden Age of the Monarchy: 2 Samuel 1-24, 1 Kings 1-11, 1 Chronicles 13, 21-25
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After Saul's death, David is anointed king over the southern tribe of Judah, but not until much blood has been shed is David finally anointed king over all Israel (2 Sam. 5:1-10). When David finally comes into his own, he invests his talent in developing others. Contrary to Saul's fears of a rival, David surrounds himself with a company whose exploits rival his own (2 Sam. 23:8-39, 1 Chronicles 11:10-47). He honors them (1 Chron. 11:19), encourages their fame and promotes them (1 Chron. 11:25). God uses David’s willingness to sponsor and encourage people to build David’s own success and to bless the people of his realm.
At last, the loose confederacy of Israelite tribes has come together as a nation. For eighty years, under the rule, first of David (c. 1010 - 970 B.C.), then of his son Solomon (c. 970 - 931 B.C.), Israel experiences a golden age of prosperity and renown among all the nations of the ancient Near East. But amidst their successes, these two rulers also violate God's covenant. While this does only limited damage in their own times, it sets a pattern for those who come after them to turn away from the Lord and abandon his covenant.
David's Successes and Failures as King (2 Samuel 1-24)
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The Bible regards David as the model king of Israel, and the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles describe his many successes. Yet even David, "a man after God's own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14), abuses his power and acts faithlessly at times. He tends to succeed when he does not take himself too seriously, but gets into serious trouble when power goes to his head—for example when he takes a census in violation of God's command (2 Sam. 24:10-17) or when he sexually exploits Bathsheba and orders the assassination of her husband, Uriah (2 Sam. 11:2-17). Yet despite David’s failings, God fulfills his covenant with David and treats him with mercy.
David’s Rape of Bathsheba and Murder of Uriah (2 Samuel 11-12)
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People in power have been covering up instances of sexual abuse for millennia, but the Bible boldly exposes examples of abuse against Sarah, Hagar, Dinah, two Tamars, and Bathsheba, the subject of this passage. The abuse of Bathsheba seems the most shocking of all because it comes at the hands of none other than Jesus’ most famous ancestor, King David. The story is ancient, but the issue remains as timely as ever. In recent years a wave of sexual abuse stories spawned a #metoo movement that toppled titans from the realms of entertainment (Harvey Weinstein, Bill O’Reilly, Charlie Rose), politics (Al Franken, Patrick Meehan, John Conyers), business (Steve Wynn, Travis Kalanick), sports (Larry Nassar), music (R. Kelly), and religion (Bill Hybels, Andy Savage, Paige Patterson). These names are from the USA, but the problem is worldwide.
The story is a familiar one. From his rooftop, David notices his attractive neighbor, Bathsheba, washing. He sends his men to take her back to the palace, he has sex with her, and she conceives. In an attempt to cover up the pregnancy, David recalls Bathsheba’s husband Uriah from the siege of Rabbah, but Uriah has too much integrity to sleep with his wife while the rest of the army and the ark are camping in tents. After David orchestrates Uriah’s death in battle, he assumes the disaster has been averted. But David doesn’t take God into account.
Over the course of history, this encounter between David and Bathsheba has often been described as adultery, which implies mutual consent. However, as we examine the details, we see that it is actually sexual abuse of power, in other words, rape. Neither the text nor the context supports the conclusion that it was an affair between two consenting adults. People who think Bathsheba seduced David by bathing outside his window may not realize the Hebrew verb rachats, used for Bathsheba’s action here (2 Samuel 11:2), literally means “wash” which is how it is translated elsewhere in this narrative (2 Sam. 11:8; 12:20). There is no reason to assume that Bathsheba was naked, or that she was aware that the king, who should have been with his army, would have been watching from his rooftop like a peeping Tom (2 Sam. 11:1-2).
People who think that she agreed to come to the palace willingly do not understand that when an ancient ruler summoned a subject to the palace, the subject had no choice but to comply. (See Esther 2:14, 3:12, and 8:9 for example.) And David sends not one, but several messengers, to ensure Bathsheba’s compliance (2 Sam. 11:4). Remember, the only person who refuses to follow David’s directives in this story, Uriah, is killed (2 Sam. 11:14-18). The text does not say that Bathsheba realized she was being brought to the palace for sex with the king. More likely, she would have assumed she was summoned there to be informed of her husband’s death, which is essentially what happened later (2 Sam. 11:26-27).
The text states the action as a one-way perpetration by David. “He lay with her,” not “they lay together” (2 Sam. 11:4). The language used here to describe their encounter suggests rape, not adultery. David “took” (laqach) Bathsheba and “lay” (shakav) with her. The verb shakav can mean merely sexual intercourse, but it is used in most of the rape incidents in the Hebrew Bible. The verbs laqach and shakav only appear together in contexts of rape (Genesis 34:2; 2 Sam. 12:11; 16:22).
We cannot blame Bathsheba for acquiescing when conveyed into the chamber of a man possessing great power and a history of violence. As the narrative continues, every person reproaches David, and none Bathsheba. God blames David. “The thing that David had done displeased the Lord” (2 Sam. 11:27). The prophet Nathan indicts David by telling a parable in which a rich man (representing David) “takes” a precious sheep (Bathsheba) from a poor man (Uriah). After hearing Nathan’s parable, even David blames David. “The man who has done this deserves to die” (2 Sam. 12:5). Just in case it wasn’t already clear, Nathan responds, “You are the man!” (2 Sam. 12:7). According to the rape and adultery laws of Deuteronomy 22:22-29, if only the man deserves to die, what took place was not adultery, but rape.
When we call this incident adultery or impugn Bathsheba’s actions, we are not only ignoring the text, but we are essentially blaming the victim. However, when we call it rape and focus on David’s actions, we not only take the text seriously, but we validate the stories of other victims of sexual abuse. Just as God saw what David did to Bathsheba, so God sees what perpetrators do to sexual abuse victims today.
David’s crime was an abuse of power carried out in the form of sexual violation. As sovereign over Israel’s largest empire, David had arguably more power than any other Israelite in the Old Testament. Before David took the throne, he used his power to serve others, perhaps most notably the defenseless cities of Keilah and Ziklag (1 Samuel 23:1-14; 30:1-31), but with Bathsheba he abused his power first to serve his lust, and then to preserve his reputation.
While few of us have as much authority as David did, many of us have power in smaller spheres in family or work contexts, either as a result of our sex, race, position, wealth or other status markers or simply as we get older, gain experience, and have more responsibility. It is tempting to take advantage of our power and privilege, thinking that we have worked hard for these perks (better offices, special parking spaces, higher salaries), even though people with less power don’t share them.
Conversely, many of us are vulnerable to those in power for the same reasons, although on the opposite side of the power distribution. It may be tempting to think that those in vulnerable positions ought to try to defend themselves, as many have thought with regard to Bathsheba. The text presents no evidence that she attempted to refuse David’s sexual imposition, therefore—as this kind of thinking goes—she must have been a willing participant. As we have seen, the Bible rejects this kind of thinking. The victim of a crime is always the victim of the crime, no matter how much or little resistance he or she may have attempted.
David plunged himself into this crime after he forgot that God gave him his position of power, and that God cared about what he did with it. Shepherds were meant to care for, not eat, the sheep in their herd (Ezekiel 34). Jesus, the good shepherd, used his power to feed, serve, heal, and bless people under his authority, and he commanded his followers to do the same (Mark 9:35; 10:42-45).
David’s sovereign power allowed him to avoid unpleasant aspects of his responsibility, specifically leading his army in war, even though he was a military hero, defeating Goliath and “thousands” in battle (1 Sam. 17; 18:7; 21:11; 29:5). A consequence of his decision to stay home and nap was that he had little accountability, since his closest friends (his “mighty men”) were out fighting. There were many people who know what David was doing, but they were servants, and, not surprisingly, none of them spoke out. People who confront power typically pay costs.
But that hadn't stopped Abigail, wise wife of foolish Nabal, from putting herself in harm’s way to prevent not-yet-ruler David from going on a bloody rampage (1 Sam. 25). If one of David’s servants had spoken an early word of warning like Abigail did, perhaps the rape of Bathsheba and murder of Uriah could have been avoided. After the crimes were committed, the prophet Nathan was prompted by God to confront the king, who fortunately for his soul listened to the message (2 Sam. 12). Notice that Abigail and Nathan were not themselves the intended victims of David’s power abuses. They were in positions of lower power than the perpetrator, yet somehow recognized that they might be in a position to intervene and were willing to take the risk to do so. Do their actions suggest that those of us who are aware of abuse have a responsibility to prevent or report it, even if doing so poses a risk to us or our reputations?
Most of us aren’t in situations where confronting a boss or supervisor involves risking our life, but speaking up in these types of contexts can mean losing status, a promotion, or a job. But as this story, and many others like it in Scripture illustrate, God calls his people to act as prophets in our churches, schools, businesses, and wherever we work and live. The examples of Abigail and Nathan—in addition to Jesus’s instructions in Matthew 18:15-17—suggest that ideally we should speak up face-to-face with the perpetrator. (However, Romans 13:1-7 implies Christians may use other means of due process that don’t require one-on-one confrontation with the abuser.)
For those of us who are conflict avoidant, learning to speak truth to people in authority can be developed gradually over time, like doing physical therapy for a weak or injured muscle. We cultivate the ability to confront by starting with small steps, asking questions or pointing out minor problems. We can then move to more significant issues by offering alternative perspectives that may not be popular. Over time, we can grow to be more courageous so that if we are aware of a significant moral failure like sexual abuse by a colleague or a superior, we can hopefully speak truth in a wise and gracious manner. On the other side of the equation, wise leaders make it easy for their subordinates to hold them accountable and raise issues. When you function as a leader, what do you do to welcome or solicit negative feedback from others?
David accepts Nathan’s severe negative feedback, and he repents. Even so, Nathan points out to David that his individual repentance and forgiveness does not by itself bring an end to the consequences David’s sin will have on others:
David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
Nathan said to David, “Now the Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child that is born to you shall die” (2 Sam. 12:13-14).
David, though personally repentant, does not eradicate the culture of exploitation in place under his leadership. Nathan declares to David that the punishment for his sin will be severe, and the remainder of David’s reign is characterized by turmoil (2 Sam. 13-21, 1 Kings 1). In fact, David’s son Ammon commits the same crime (rape), but in an even more reprehensible manner, against his own sister Tamar (2 Sam. 13:1-19). David himself is complicit, though perhaps unknowingly. Even when it is brought to his attention, David does nothing to bring justice to the situation. Finally, David’s son, Absalom, decides to take action on his own. He kills Ammon and starts a war within David’s own household (2 Sam. 13), which escalates to civil war and a cascade of tragedy throughout Israel.
A culture that tolerates abuse is very hard to eradicate, much harder than its leaders suppose. If David thought that his personal repentance was all it would take to restore his household’s integrity, he was tragically mistaken. Sadly, this kind of complacency and willing disregard in tolerating a culture of abuse continues to the present day. How many churches, corporations, universities, governments and organizations have promised to root out a culture of sexual abuse after an incident is exposed, only to fall back immediately into the same old ways and to perpetrate even further abuses?
This episode does not end in despair, however. Sexual abuse is one of the most grievous of sins, yet even so there is the hope of justice and restoration. Can we let David, Nathan and Bathsheba’s examples embolden us to admit and repent (if we are the perpetrator), to confront (if we are aware of the crime), or to recover (if we are the victim)? In any case the first step is to make the abuse stop. Only when this occurs can we speak of repentance, including accepting guilt, punishment, and if possible, restitution. In the lineage of David’s most famous descendent, Jesus, Matthew reminds us of David’s rape. Matthew includes Bathsheba among the four mothers he mentions, not calling her the wife of David, but the wife of Uriah, the man David murdered (Matthew 1:6). This notice, at the beginning of the gospels, reminds us that God is a God both of justice and of restoration. In this one facet, we may in fact see David as a model worth emulating. This man of power, when faced with evidence of his own wrongdoing, repents and calls for justice, even though he knows it may well lead to his ruin. He does receive mercy, but not through his own power nor the power of his cronies, but by submitting to an authority beyond his power to manipulate.
David’s Dysfunctional Handling of Family Conflict Leads to Civil War (2 Samuel 13-19)
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Most people feel uncomfortable in situations of conflict, so we tend to avoid facing conflict, whether at home or at work. But conflicts are a lot like illnesses. Minor ones may clear up even if we ignore them, but major ones will work their way deeper and more catastrophically into our systems if we do not treat them. This is true for David's family. David allows conflict among some of his sons to plunge his family into tragedy. His oldest son, Amnon, rapes and then shames his half-sister, Tamar (2 Samuel 13:1-19). Tamar's full-brother, Absalom, hates Amnon for that crime, but does not speak to him about it. David knows of the matter but decides to ignore the situation (2 Sam. 13:21). For more on children who disappoint their parents, see "When children disappoint (1 Samuel 8:1-3)."
For two years everything seems fine, but unresolved conflict of this magnitude never fades away. When Amnon and Absalom take a trip into the country together, Absalom plies his half-brother with wine, then has his servants murder him (2 Sam. 13:28-29). The conflict draws in more of David’s family, the nobles, and the army, until the entire nation was engulfed in civil war. The destruction brought about by avoiding the conflict is many times worse than the unpleasantness that might have resulted from dealing with the issues when they first arose.
Harvard professors Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky describe how leaders must "orchestrate conflict," or else it will boil up on its own, thwart their goals, and endanger their organizations. Likewise, Jim Collins gives the example of Alan Iverson, who was CEO of Nucor Steel at a time when there were deep divisions about whether the company should diversify into scrap steel recycling. Iverson brought the divisions in to the open by allowing everyone to speak their opinion, protecting them from reprisal from others who might disagree. The “raging debates” that ensued were uncomfortable for everyone. “People yelled. They waved their arms around and pounded on tables. Faces would get red and veins bulged out.” But acknowledging the conflict and working through it openly prevented it from going underground and exploding later. Moreover, by bringing out a variety of facts and opinions, it led to better decisions by the group. “Colleagues would march into Iverson’s office and yell and scream at each other, but then emerge with a conclusion…. The company’s strategy ‘evolved through many agonizing arguments and fights.’” Conflict well-orchestrated can actually be a source of creativity.
David Learns He Needs God’s Guidance How to Do His Work (1 Chronicles 13)
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In 1 Chronicles 13, David confronts a challenge in his work as king, and gets off to a good start in solving it. He believes that the ark of God should be brought back from Kiriath-jearim where it had been left under Saul’s reign. Nonetheless, rather than strike out on his own, he confers with all his leaders and gains their concurrence. Together they pray to God for wisdom and conclude that they do indeed need to bring back the ark. It is easy for a leader to make the mistake of going out alone, without counsel from God or from others. David does well to recognize the need for both human and divine counsel. He receives a clear “go” for his project.
But disaster strikes. Uzzah, who is helping transport the ark, puts hand on it to steady it, and God strikes him dead (1 Chron. 13:9-10). This makes David both angry at (1 Chron. 13:9-11) and afraid of God (1 Chron. 13:12), which leads David to abandon the project. What begins as a confirmation from God and trusted colleagues to carry out a project suddenly turns into a dramatic failure. The same happens today. Eventually, almost all of us experience a painful setback in our work. It can be deeply discouraging, even tempting us to abandon the work that God has called us to do.
In what seems like a parenthesis, David carries out two successful battles. He inquires of the Lord in each case whether to go ahead, and God sends him out successfully both times. But God’s guidance for the second mission contains a peculiar instruction. God says, “You shall not go up after them; go around and come on them opposite the balsam trees" (1 Chron. 14:14). God wanted David to go, but he wanted him to go in a particular way.
After these successes, David reflects on this experience and orders that no one but the Levites may carry the ark of God, because the Lord had chosen them for the task (1 Chron. 15:2). This was written in the book of the Law (Numbers 4:15), but had been forgotten or neglected. After David assembles the Levites to complete the job of moving the ark, he says of the previous failure “Because you [priests and Levites] did not carry it the first time, the Lord our God burst out against us, because we did not give it proper care”(1 Chronicles 15:13). The second time, because they followed the procedure prescribed by the Law, the ark was successfully moved.
This story is a reminder to us in our own work. It is important to inquire of God and gain counsel from trusted people about what we are to do. But that is not enough. God also cares about how we do the work. As David’s failed campaign when neglecting Numbers 4:15 shows, doing things God’s way requires a working knowledge of Scripture.
David’s Disobedience to God Causes a National Pestilence (1 Chronicles 21:1-17)
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David also suffers another failure that, to us in the 21st century, may seem strange. He takes a census of the people of Israel. Although this seems like a prudent thing to do, the biblical text tells us that Satan incited David to do this against the advice of David’s general Joab. Furthermore, "God was displeased with this thing, and he struck Israel" (1 Chronicles 21:6).
David acknowledges his sin in taking a census against God’s will. He’s given three choices, each of which would harm many in the kingdom: (1) three years of famine, or (2) three months of devastation by the sword of his enemies, or (3) three days of a pestilence on the land. David chooses the third option and seventy thousand people die as an angel of death passes through the land. At this David cries out to God, "Was it not I who gave the command to count the people? It is I who have sinned and done very wickedly. But these sheep, what have they done? Let your hand, I pray, O Lord my God, be against me and against my father's house; but do not let your people be plagued!" (1 Chron. 21:17).
Like David, we probably find it hard to understand why God would punish 70,000 other people for David’s sin. The text does not give an answer. We can observe, however, that the transgressions of leaders inevitably harm their people. If business leaders make poor product development decisions, people in their organization will lose their jobs when revenues plunge. If a restaurant manager doesn’t enforce sanitation rules, diners will get sick. If a teacher gives good grades for poor work, students will fail or fall behind at the next level of education. Those who accept positions of leadership cannot evade responsibility for the effects of their actions on others.
David’s Patronage of the Musical Arts (1 Chronicles 25)
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1 Chronicles adds a detail not found in 2 Samuel and 1 Kings. David creates a corps of musicians “to make music at the house of the Lord.”
They were all under the direction of their father for the music in the house of the Lord with cymbals, harps, and lyres for the service of the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the order of the king. They and their kindred, who were trained in singing to the Lord, all of whom were skillful, numbered two hundred eighty-eight. (1 Chronicles 25:6–7)
Maintaining an ensemble the size of two modern symphony orchestras would be a major undertaking in an emerging nation in the 10th century BC. David does not regard it as a luxury however, but as a necessity. In fact, he orders it in his role as commander in chief of the army, with the consent of the other commanders (1 Chron. 25:1).
Many militaries today maintain bands and choruses, but few other kinds of workplaces do, unless they themselves are musical organizations. Yet there is something about music and the other arts that is essential to work of all kinds. God’s creation—the source of human economic activity—is not only productive, it is beautiful (e.g., Genesis 3:6; Psalm 96:6; Ezekiel 31:7-9), and God loves beautiful handiwork (e.g., Isaiah 60:13). What is the place of beauty in your work? Would you or your organization or the people who make use of your work benefit if your work created more beauty? What does it even mean for work in your occupation to be beautiful?
Assessing David’s Reign (1 Kings)
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How are we to evaluate David and his reign? It is noteworthy that while Solomon gained more wealth, land, and renown than his father David, it is David whom the books of Kings and Chronicles acclaimed as Israel's greatest king, the model against which all other kings were measured.
We may gain hope for ourselves from God’s response to the very positives and negatives we see in David's life and actions. We are impressed by his fundamental piety even as we blanch at his political manipulation, lust, and violence. When we see a similar ambivalence in our own hearts and actions, we take comfort and hope in the God who forgives all our sins. The Lord’s presence with David gives us hope that even in the face of our faithlessness, God stays with us as the relentless Hound of Heaven.
Like Saul, David combined greatness and faithfulness, with sin and error. We may wonder, then, why God preserved David’s reign, but not Saul’s. Partly, it may be because David’s heart remained true to God (1 Kings 11:4, 15:3), however errant his deeds. The same thing is never said of Saul. Or it may be simply because the best way for God to carry out his purposes for his people was to put David on the throne and keep him there. When God calls us to a task or position, it is not necessarily us he is thinking about. He may choose us because of the effect we will have on other people. For example God gave Cyrus of Persia victory over Babylon not to reward or benefit Cyrus, but to free Israel from captivity (2 Chronicles 36:22-23).
David Prepares Solomon to Succeed Him as King (1 Kings 1; 1 Chronicles 22)
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Because David had shed so much blood as king, God determined not to allow him to build a house for the Lord. Instead David’s son, Solomon, was given that task (1 Chronicles 22:7-10). So David accepted that his final task was to train Solomon for the job of king (1 Chron. 22:1-16) and to surround him with a capable team (1 Chron. 22:17-29). David provided the vast stores of materials for the construction of God's temple in Jerusalem, saying, "My son Solomon is young and inexperienced, and the house that is to be built for the Lord must be exceedingly magnificent" (1 Chron. 22:5). He publicly passed authority to Solomon and made sure that the leaders of Israel acknowledged Solomon as the new king and were prepared to help him succeed.
David recognized that leadership is a responsibility that outlasts one's own career. In most cases, your work will continue after you have moved on (whether by promotion, retirement, or taking a different job). You have a duty to create the conditions your successor needs to be successful. In David’s preparation for Solomon, we see three elements of succession planning. First, you need to provide the resources your successor needs to complete the tasks you leave unfinished. If you have been at least moderately successful, you will have learned how to gather the resources needed in your position. Often this depends on relationships that your successor will not immediately inherit. For example, success may depend on assistance from people who do not work in your department, but who have been willing to help you in your work. You need to make sure your successor knows who these people are, and you need to get their commitment to continue helping after you are gone. David arranged for “all kinds of artisans” he had developed relationships with to work for Solomon after he was gone (1 Chron. 22:15).
Second, you need to impart your knowledge and relationships to the person who succeeds you. In many situations this will come by bringing your successor to work alongside you long before you depart. David began including Solomon in the leadership structures and rituals of the kingdom shortly before David’s death, although it appears he could have done a much better job of this if he’d started earlier (1 Kings 1:28-40). In other cases, you may not have any role in designating your successor, and you may not have any overlap with him or her. In that case, you’ll need to pass on information in writing and through those who will remain in the organization. What can you do to prepare the work and your successor to thrive, for God’s glory, after you've gone?
Third, you need to transfer power decisively to the person who takes over the position. Whether you choose your own successor or whether others make that decision without your input, you still have a choice whether or not to publicly acknowledge the transition and definitively pass on the authority you previously had. Your words and actions will confer either a blessing or a curse on your successor. A recent example is the manipulation that Vladimir Putin engaged in to maintain power after term limitations prevented him from seeking a third consecutive term as President of Russia. He arranged for some of the President’s powers to be transferred to the Prime Minister, then used his influence to get a former subordinate elected President, who appointed Putin as Prime Minister immediately afterwards. After one term as Prime Minister, Putin easily stepped in as President again, at the invitation of the incumbent, who stepped aside. As a result, concentration of power in Putin’s hands has continued unabated for decades, just what term limits are intended to prevent, quite possibly to the detriment of Russia and its neighbors. In contrast, David arranged for Solomon to be publicly anointed as king, transferred the symbols of monarchy to him, and presented him publicly as the new king while David himself was still living (1 Kings 1:32-35, 39-40).
Solomon Succeeds David as King (1 Kings 1-11)
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Upon succeeding David as king, Solomon faces the vastness of his duties (1 Kings 3:5-15). He is acutely aware that he is inadequate to the task (1 Chronicles 22:5). The work with which he is entrusted is immense. In addition to the temple project, he has a large, complex nation under his care, "a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted" (1 Kings 3:8). Even as he gains experience on the job, he realizes that it is so complex that he'll never be able to figure out the right course of action in every circumstance. He needs divine help: so he asks God, "Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, able to discern between good and evil, for who can govern this, your great people?" (1 Kings 3:9). God answers his prayer and gives him “very great wisdom, discernment and breadth of understanding as vast as the sand on the seashore” (1 Kings 4:29).
Solomon Builds the Temple of the Lord (1 Kings 5-8)
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Solomon’s first major task is to build the Temple of the Lord. To achieve this architectural feat, Solomon employs professionals from all corners of his kingdom. Three chapters (1 Kings 5-7) are devoted to describing the work of building the Temple, of which we have space only for a small selection:
Solomon also had seventy thousand laborers and eighty thousand stonecutters in the hill country, besides Solomon’s three thousand three hundred supervisors who were over the work, having charge of the people who did the work. At the king’s command, they quarried out great, costly stones in order to lay the foundation of the house with dressed stones. (1 Kings 5:15–17)
He cast two pillars of bronze. Eighteen cubits was the height of the one, and a cord of twelve cubits would encircle it; the second pillar was the same. He also made two capitals of molten bronze, to set on the tops of the pillars; the height of the one capital was five cubits, and the height of the other capital was five cubits. There were nets of checker work with wreaths of chain work for the capitals on the tops of the pillars; seven for the one capital, and seven for the other capital. (1 Kings 7:15–17)
So Solomon made all the vessels that were in the house of the Lord: the golden altar, the golden table for the bread of the Presence, the lampstands of pure gold, five on the south side and five on the north, in front of the inner sanctuary; the flowers, the lamps, and the tongs, of gold; the cups, snuffers, basins, dishes for incense, and firepans, of pure gold; the sockets for the doors of the innermost part of the house, the most holy place, and for the doors of the nave of the temple, of gold. Thus all the work that King Solomon did on the house of the Lord was finished. Solomon brought in the things that his father David had dedicated, the silver, the gold, and the vessels, and stored them in the treasuries of the house of the Lord. (1 Kings 7:48–51)
From accomplished professionals to forced laborers, the people of the kingdom contribute their knowledge and skills to help build the Temple. In so doing, Solomon involves numerous people to help build and sustain his kingdom. Whether or not it is Solomon’s intention, employing so many people from all walks of life ensures that the vast majority of citizens hold personal investment in the political, religious, social, and economic well being of the kingdom.
Solomon Centralizes the Rule of the Kingdom (1 Kings 9-11)
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The massive national effort needed to construct the Temple leaves Solomon the ruler of a powerful kingdom. During his reign Israel's military and economic might reach their peak, and the kingdom covers more territory than at any other time in Israel's history. He completes the centralization of the nation’s government, economic organization, and worship.
To assemble a large enough labor force, King Solomon conscripts workers out of all Israel. The levy numbers thirty thousand men (1 Kings 5:13-14). Solomon seems to have paid Israelites who were conscripted (1 Kings 9:22) in accordance with Leviticus 25:44-46, which forbids making slaves of Israelites. But resident aliens are simply enslaved (1 Kings 9:20-21). In addition, a multitude of workers are brought in from surrounding nations. Whatever their source, a wide variety of highly skilled professionals comes together, including the best artisans practicing at the time. The books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles—primarily interested in the work of kingship—say little about these workers except as relates to the Temple. But they are visible in the background, making all of society possible.
Solomon sees that as the central government expands, it will need food for an increasingly large work force. Soldiers need rations (1 Kings 5:9-11), alongside the workers on all of Solomon's building projects. The growing bureaucracy also needs to be fed. So the king organizes the nation into twelve sectors and appoints a deputy as overseer of each sector. Each deputy is charged with providing all required food rations for one month each year (1 Kings 4:7). As a result, the nation’s daughters are conscripted into labor as "cooks and bakers" (1 Samuel 8:13). Israel becomes like other kingdoms with forced labor, heavy taxation, and a central elite wielding power over the rest of the country.
As Samuel had foretold, kings bring a greatly expanded military (1 Sam. 8:11-12). Militarization comes into full flower during Solomon's reign as the military becomes an essential component of the kingdom's stability. Soldiers of every rank from foot soldiers to generals all need weapons including javelins, spears, lances, bow and arrows, swords, daggers, knives, and slingshots. They need protective gear including shields, helmets, and body armor. To manage such a large scale army, a nationalized military organization must be maintained. In contrast to his father, David, Solomon is called "a man of peace" (1 Chronicles 22:9) but the peace is ensured by the presence of a well organized and well-provisioned military force.
We see in Solomon’s story how society depends on the work of myriad people, coupled with structures and systems to organize large scale production and distribution. The human capacity to organize work is evidence of our creation in the image of a God who brings order out of chaos on a worldwide scale (Genesis 1). How fitting that the Bible portrays this ability through the construction of God’s meeting place with humanity. It takes a God-given ability to organize work on a scale large enough to build God’s house. Few of us would care to return to Solomon’s methods of organization—conscription, forced labor, and militarization—so we can be thankful that God leads us to fairer, more effective methods today. Perhaps what we take away from this episode is that God is intensely interested in the art of coordinating human work and creativity to accomplish God’s purposes in the world.
Assessing Solomon's Golden Age (1 Kings)
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Samuel's prophecy about the dangers of a king is fulfilled in Solomon’s time.
These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons...he will take your daughters...he will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards...he will take one-tenth of your grain and vineyards...he will take your male and female slaves, and the best of your cattle and donkeys... he will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves; but the Lord will not answer you in that day. (1 Sam. 8:11-18)
On the surface, Solomon's administration and building campaigns appear to have been very successful. The people are happy to make the required sacrifices in order to build the Temple (1 Kings 8:65-66), a place where all can go to receive God’s justice (1 Kings 8:12-21), forgiveness (1 Kings 8:33-36), healing (1 Kings 8:37-40), and mercy (1 Kings 8:46-53).
But after the Temple is completed, Solomon builds a palace of the same scale and magnificence as the Temple (1 Kings 9:1, 10). As he becomes accustomed to power and wealth, he becomes self-serving, arrogant, and unfaithful. He appropriates a large portion of the nation's productive capacity for his personal benefit. His already-impressive throne of ivory is overlaid with gold (2 Chronicles 9:17). He entertains lavishly (1 Kings 10:5). He reneges on agreements with allies (1 Kings 9:12), and he keeps a consort of "seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines" (1 Kings 11:3). This last is his ultimate undoing, for "he loved many foreign women" (1 Kings 11:1) with the result that "when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not true to the Lord his God" (1 Kings 11:4). He builds shrines to Astarte, Milcom, Chemosh and Molech (1 Kings 11:5-7). Given the covenant requirement that the faithfulness of the king to the Lord would be the key to the prosperity of the nation, Israel would soon descend rapidly from its peak. God, it seems, cares deeply whether we do our work for his purposes or against them. Amazing feats are possible when we work according to God’s plans, but our work rapidly disintegrates when we don’t.
From Failed Monarchies to Exile (1 Kings 11 - 2 Kings 25; 2 Chronicles 10-36)
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Solomon is only the third king of Israel, but already the kingdom has reached its high point. Over the next four hundred years, one bad king after another leads the nation into decline, disintegration and defeat.
Solomon's Mighty Nation Divided in Two (1 Kings 11:26-12:19)
After Solomon's death it soon becomes clear that unrest had been brewing beneath the veneer of equitable and effective management. Following the great king's death, Jeroboam (earlier the head of forced laborers) and "all the assembly of Israel" approach the king's son and successor, Rehoboam (c. 931 - 914 B.C.), to ask him to "lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke" (1 Kings 12:3-16; 2 Chronicles 10). They are ready to pledge loyalty to the new king in return for a reduction in forced labor and high taxes. But for forty years Rehoboam has known only luxurious palace living, staffed and provisioned by the Israelite people. His sense of entitlement is too strong to allow for compromise. Rather than easing the undue burden placed on the people by his father, Rehoboam chooses to make their yoke even greater.
Further fulfilling Samuel's prediction (1 Samuel 8:18), a rebellion ensues and the monarchy becomes divided forever. As much as the people of Israel had been willing to perform their fair share of labor to support the state, the emergence of unrealistic and unreasonable expectations results in revolt and division. The ten northern tribes secede, anointing Jeroboam (c. 931 - 910 B.C.) as their king. Although he had been a leader in the delegation seeking tax relief from Rehoboam, his dynasty proves no better for its people.
The Northern Kingdom's March Toward Exile (1 Kings 12:25 - 2 Kings 17:18)
For two centuries (910-722 BC) the northern kingdom of Israel is ruled by kings who do great evil in the sight of the Lord. These centuries are marked by constant war, treason, and murder, culminating in a catastrophic defeat by the nation of Assyria. To destroy all sense of national identity, Assyrian conquerors carry off the population, dispersing them in different parts of their empire and bringing in foreigners to populate the conquered land (2 Kings 17:5-24). As discussed under “David’s disobedience to God causes a national pestilence (1 Chronicles 2:1-17),” the failings of leaders often have devastating effect on their people.
Obadiah Saves a Hundred People by Working Within a Corrupt System (1 Kings 18)
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At least two episodes during this period deserve our attention. The first, Obadiah’s saving of a hundred prophets, may be of help to those facing the decision whether to quit a job in an organization that has become unethical, a decision that many face in the world of work.
Obadiah is the chief of staff in King Ahab’s palace. (Ahab is infamous even today as the most wicked of Israel’s kings.) Ahab’s queen, Jezebel, orders the prophets of the Lord to be killed. As a high official in Ahab’s court, Obadiah has advance word of the operation, as well as the means to circumvent it. He hides a hundred prophets in two caves and provides them bread and water until the crises abates. They are saved only because someone “who revered the Lord greatly” (1 Kings 18:3) is in a position of authority to protect them. A similar situation occurs in the Book of Esther, told in much greater detail, see “Working Within a Fallen System (Esther)” at www.theologyofwork.org.
Christians Belong in the Workplace Too (Video)
It is demoralizing to work in a corrupt or evil organization. How much easier it might be to quit and find someplace holier to work. Often quitting is the only way to avoid doing evil ourselves. But no workplace on earth is purely good, and we will face ethical dilemmas wherever we work. Moreover, the more corrupt the workplace, the more it needs godly people. If there is any way to remain in place without adding to the evil ourselves, it may be that God wants us to stay. During World War II a group of officers opposed to Hitler remained in the Abwher (military intelligence) because it gave them a platform for trying to remove Hitler. Their plans failed, and most were executed, including Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the theologian. When explaining why he remained in Hitler’s army, he said, “The ultimate question for a responsible man to ask is not how he is to extricate himself heroically from the affair, but how the coming generation is to live.” Our responsibility to do what we can to help others seems to be more important to God than our desire to think of ourselves as morally pure.
Ahab and Jezebel Murder Naboth to Get His Property (1 Kings 21)
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King Ahab abuses his power further when he begins to covet the vineyard of his neighbor, Naboth. Ahab offers a fair price for the vineyard, but Naboth regards the land as an ancestral inheritance and says he has no interest in selling at any price. Ahab dejectedly accepts this appropriate limitation of his power, but his wife Jezebel spurs him to tyranny. “Do you now govern Israel?” she taunts (1 Kings 21:7). If the king has no appetite for abuse of power, the queen does. She pays two scoundrels to bring a false charge of blasphemy and treason against Naboth, and he is quickly sentenced to death and stoned by the elders of the city. We are left to wonder why the elders acted so quickly, without even conducting a proper trial. Were they complicit with the king? Under his control, afraid of standing up to him? In any case, with Naboth out of the way, Ahab takes possession of the vineyard for himself.
Abuse of power, including land grabs as blatant as Ahab’s, continue today, as a glance at nearly any daily newspaper will confirm. And as in Ahab’s time, abuse of power requires the complicity of others who would rather tolerate injustice, even murder, than risk their own safety for the sake of their neighbors. Only Elijah, the man of God, dares to oppose Ahab (1 Kings 21:17-24). Although his protests can do nothing to help Naboth, Elijah’s opposition does curb Ahab’s abuse of power, and no further abuses are recorded in Kings prior to Ahab’s death. More often than we might expect, principled opposition by a small group or even a single individual can restrain the abuse of power. Otherwise, why would leaders go to so much trouble to hide their misdeeds? What do you estimate is the likelihood that you will become aware of at least one misuse of power in your working life? How are you preparing yourself to respond if you do?
The Prophet Elisha’s Attention to Ordinary Work (2 Kings 2-6)
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As the northern kings slide deeper into apostasy and tyranny, God raises up prophets to oppose them more forcefully than ever. Prophets were figures of immense God-given power coming out of nowhere to speak God's truth in the halls of human power. Elijah and Elisha are by far the most prominent prophets in the books of Kings and Chronicles, and of the two, Elisha is especially notable for the attention he pays to the work of ordinary Israelites. Elisha is called to stand against Israel's rebellious kings throughout a long career (2 Kings 2:13 - 13:20). His actions show that he regards the people’s economic life to be as important as the kingdom’s dynastic struggles, and he tries to protect the people from the disasters brought on by the kings.
Elisha's Restoration of a City's Irrigation System (2 Kings 2:19-22)
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Elisha’s first major act is to cleanse the polluted well of the city of Jericho. The chief concern in the passage is agricultural productivity. Without a wholesome well, “the land is unfruitful" (2 Kings 2:19). By restoring access to clean water, Elisha makes it possible for the people of the city to resume the God-given mission of humanity to be fruitful, multiply and produce food (Genesis 1:28-30).
Elisha’s Restoration of a Household’s Financial Solvency (2 Kings 4:1-7)
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Bonnie Wurzbacher on the Role of Business
After one of the prophets in Elisha’s circle died, his family fell into debt. The fate of a destitute family in ancient Israel was typically to sell some or all of its members into slavery, where at least they would be fed (see “Slavery or Indentured Servitude (Exodus 21:1-11)” at www.theologyofwork.org). The widow is on the verge of selling her two children as slaves and begs Elisha for help (2 Kings 4:1). Elisha comes up with a plan for the family to become economically productive and support themselves. He asks the widow what she has to work with. “Nothing,” she says, “except a jar of oil” (2 Kings 4:2). Apparently this is enough capital for Elisha to begin with. He tells her to borrow empty jars from all her neighbors, and fill them with oil from her jar. She is able to fill every jar with oil before her own jar runs out, and the profit from selling the oil is enough to pay the family’s debts (2 Kings 4:9). In essence, Elisha creates an entrepreneurial community within which the woman is able to start a small business. This is exactly what some of the most effective poverty-fighting methods do today, whether via microfinance, credit societies, agricultural cooperatives, or small-businesses supplier programs on the part of large companies and governments.
Elisha’s actions on behalf of this family reflect God’s love and concern for those in need. How can our work increase the opportunity for people in poverty to work their way toward prosperity? In what ways do we individually and collectively undermine the productive capacity of poor people and economies, and what can we do, with God’s help, to reform?
Elisha’s Restoration of a Military Commander’s Health (2 Kings 5:1-14)
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When Elisha cures the leprosy of Naaman, a commander in the army of Israel’s enemy, Syria, it has important effects in the sphere of work. “It is no little thing that a sick person is made well, especially a leper,” as Jacques Ellul notes in his insightful essay on this passage, because the healing restores the ability to work. In this case the healing restores Naaman to his work of governance, advising his king on dealings with the king of Israel. Interestingly, this healing of a foreigner also leads to the restoration of ethical culture in Elisha’s own organization. Naaman offers to reward Elisha handsomely for the healing. But Elisha will accept nothing for what he regards as simply doing the Lord’s will. However, one of Elisha’s retinue, named Gehazi, sees an opportunity for a little extra remuneration. Gehazi chases after Naaman, and says that Elisha has changed his mind—he will accept a very significant payment after all. After receiving the payment, Gehazi hides his ill-gotten-gain, then lies to Elisha to cover it up. Elisha responds by announcing that Gehazi will be struck with the very leprosy that had left Naaman. Apparently, Elisha recognizes that tolerating corruption in his organization will rapidly undermine all the good that a lifetime of service to God has done.
Naaman’s own actions demonstrate another point in this story. Naaman has a problem—leprosy. He needs to be healed. But his pre-formed notion of what the solution should look like—some kind of dramatic encounter with a prophet, apparently—leads him to refuse the true solution of bathing in the Jordan River when it is offered to him. When he heard this simple remedy delivered by Elisha’s messenger—rather than Elisha himself—“Naaman went away angry.” Neither the solution nor the source seems grand enough for Naaman to pay attention to.
In today’s world, this twofold problem is often repeated. First, a senior leader misses the solution proposed by a lower level employee because they are unwilling to consider insight from someone they regard as unqualified. Jim Collins in his book Good to Great identifies the first sign of what he calls a “level five” leader as humility, a willingness to listen to many sources. Second, the solution is not accepted because it does not match the leader’s imagined approach. Thank God that many leaders today, like Naaman, have subordinates willing to take the risk of talking sense to them. Not only are humble bosses needed in organizations, but courageous subordinates also. Intriguingly, the person who puts the whole episode into motion is the lowest-status person of all, a foreign girl Naaman had captured in a raid and given to his wife as a slave (2 Kings 5:13). This is a wonderful reminder of how arrogance and wrong expectations can block insight, but God’s wisdom keeps trying to break through anyway.
Elisha’s Restoration of a Lumberjack’s Axe (2 Kings 6:1-7)
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Cutting wood along the bank of the Jordan River, one of Elisha’s fellow prophets loses an iron axe head into the river. He had borrowed the axe from a lumberjack. The price of such a substantial piece of iron in the bronze age would have meant financial ruin for the owner, and the prophet who borrowed it is distraught. Elisha takes the economic loss as a matter of immediate, personal concern and causes the iron to float on top of the water, where it can be retrieved and returned to its owner. Once again Elisha intervenes to enable someone to work for a living.
The gift of a prophet is to discern God’s aims in daily life and to work and act accordingly. God calls the prophets to restore God's good creation, in the midst of a fallen world, in ways that point to God’s power and glory. The theological aspect of a prophet’s work—calling people to worship the true God—is inevitably accompanied by a practical aspect, restoring the good workings of the created order. The New Testament tells us that some Christians are called to be prophets as well (1 Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 4:11). Elisha is not only a historical figure who demonstrates God’s concern for his people’s work, but a model for Christians today.
The Southern Kingdom's March Toward Exile (1 Kings 11:41 - 2 Kings 25:26; 2 Chronicles 16 - 36)
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Following in the footsteps of the northern kingdom, the southern kingdom’s rulers soon began to decline into idolatry and evil. Under Rehoboam’s rule the people "built for themselves high places, pillars, and sacred poles on every high hill and under every green tree; there were also male temple prostitutes in the land. They committed all the abominations of the nations" (1 Kings 14:23-24). Rehoboam’s successors oscillated between faithfulness and doing evil in God’s sight. For a while Judah had enough good kings to stave off disaster, but in the final years the kingdom fell to the same state that the northern kingdom had. The nation was conquered, and the kings and elites were captured and deported, by the Babylonians (2 Kings 24, 25). The faithlessness of the kings whom the people had demanded, against God's advice hundreds of years earlier, culminated in a financial meltdown, destruction of the labor force, famine, and the mass murder or deportation of much of the population. The predicted disaster lasts seventy years until King Cyrus of Persia authorizes the return of some of the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem's Temple and walls (2 Chronicles 36:22-23).
Financial Accountability in the Temple (2 Kings 12:1-12)
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One example of the degeneration of the kingdom ironically serves to bring to light a model of good financial practice. Like virtually all of the kingdom’s leaders, the priests had become corrupt. Instead of using worshippers’ donations to maintain the Temple, they pilfered the money and divided it among themselves. Under the direction of Jehoash, one of the few kings “who did what was right in the sight of the Lord” (2 Kings 12:2), the priests devised an effective accounting system. A locked chest with a small hole in the top was installed in the Temple to receive the donations. When it got full, the high priest and the king’s secretary would open the chest together, count the money, and contract with carpenters, builders, masons, and stonecutters to make repairs. This ensured that the money was used for its proper purpose.
The same system is still in use today, for example when the cash deposited in automatic teller machines is counted. The principle that even trusted individuals must be subject to verification and accountability is the foundation of good management. Whenever a person in power—especially the power of handling finances—tries to avoid verification, the organization is in danger. Because Kings includes this episode, we know that God values the work of bank tellers, accountants, auditors, bank regulators, armored car drivers, computer security workers, and others who protect the integrity of finance. It also urges all kinds of leaders to take the lead in setting a personal example of public accountability by inviting others to verify their work.
Arrogance and the End of the Kingdoms (2 Chronicles 26)
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How could king after king fall so easily into evil? The story of Uzziah may give us some insight. He ascends to the throne at age sixteen and at first “he did what was right in the sight of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 26:4). His young age proves to be an advantage, as he recognizes his need for God’s guidance. “He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God; and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper” (2 Chron. 26:5).
Interestingly, much of the success the Lord gives Uzziah is related to ordinary work. “He built towers in the wilderness and hewed out many cisterns, for he had large herds, both in the Shephelah and in the plain, and he had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fertile lands, for he loved the soil” (2 Chron. 26:10). “In Jerusalem he set up machines, invented by skilled workers” (2 Chron. 26:15a).
“He was marvelously helped,” the scripture tells us, “until he became strong” (2 Chron. 26:15b). Then his strength becomes his undoing because he began to serve himself instead of the Lord. "When he had become strong he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was false to the Lord his God” (2 Chron. 26:16). He attempts to usurp the religious authority of the priests, leading to a palace revolt that costs him the throne and leaves him an outcast the rest of his life.
Uzziah’s tale is sobering for people in leadership positions today. The character that leads to success—especially our reliance on God—is easily eroded by the powers and privileges that success brings. How many business, military, and political leaders have come to believe they are invincible and so lose the humility, discipline, and attitude of service needed to remain successful? How many of us at any level of success have paid more attention to ourselves and less to God as our power increases even modestly? Uzziah even had the benefit of subordinates who would oppose him when he did wrong, although he ignored them (2 Chron. 26:18). What, or who, do you have to keep you from drifting into pride and away from God should your success increase?
Hezekiah's Contempt for the Next Generation (2 Kings 20)
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King Hezekiah of Judah presents another example of the arrogance of the kings. The passage begins with Hezekiah sick to the point of death. He begs God to recover, and God, by the word of the prophet Isaiah, grants him 15 more years of life. Meanwhile, the neighboring king of Babylon hears word of Hezekiah’s illness and sends envoys to spy out whether the situation makes Israel ripe for conquest. By the time they arrive Hezekiah is fully recovered. Perhaps the miraculous recovery made him feel invincible, because instead of proving his health and rapidly sending the spies on their way, he decides to show off the riches of his treasury to them. This makes Israel a more tempting target than ever.
God responds to this foolish action by sending Isaiah to prophesy further.
Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: Days are coming when all that is in your house, and that which your ancestors have stored up until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left, says the Lord. Some of your own sons who are born to you shall be taken away; they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” (2 Kings 20:16–18)
This passage can remind us about our own work. At times of great success, it is easy to become proud and reckless. This can lead to great destruction if we forget that we depend on God’s grace for our successes.
Hezekiah compounds his first mistake with a second. Isaiah has just prophesied that after Hezekiah is gone, his sons will be captured and mutilated and the kingdom destroyed. Instead of repenting and begging God again to save his people, he does nothing.
Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” For he thought, “Why not, if there will be peace and security in my days?” (2 Kings 20:19)
It seems he is thinking only of himself. Since this destruction is not going to come during his lifetime, Hezekiah cares nothing about it.
This episode challenges us to think about how our actions affect the next generation, rather than thinking only of our own lifetime. Marion Wade, the founder of ServiceMaster, focused on building a company that would endure, rather than on ensuring his own success. He said,
I was not asking for personal success as an individual or merely material success as a corporation. I do not equate this kind of success with Christianity. Whatever God wants is what I want. But I did try to build a business that would live longer than I would in the marketplace that would witness to Jesus Christ in the way the business was conducted.
Lewis D. Solomon observed that Wade succeeded in establishing a culture of God-directed leadership that lasted long after his tenure. During this extended period, the company was highly successful. Eventually, however, control passed to a CEO who adopted a less overtly God-centered leadership approach, and the company’s performance diminished.
“ServiceMaster, a successful publicly held Fortune 500 corporation, grew from humble roots, led first by a preacher-steward-leader and then by a succession of CEOs, who combined preacher-steward-servant leadership styles. More recently, this transitional firm, now led by a non-evangelical CEO, follows an inclusive, non-sectarian approach. Coincidentally with this transition, the company’s legal difficulties mounted and its financial results stagnated.
Self-Reliance in Place of God’s Guidance (2 Chronicles 16-20)
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Even as the kingdom’s strength declines, the kings remain convinced they are in control of their situation. Confident in their own abilities and trusting human advisors, they often fail to ask God’s guidance, usually with disastrous results.
In one case, King Ahab of Israel is about to go into battle. King Jehoshaphat of Judah reminds him, “Inquire first for the word of the Lord” (2 Chron. 18:4). Ahab consults his court prophets, but Jehoshaphat asks whether there is a genuine prophet of God available. Ahab replies, “There is still one other by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah son of Imlah; but I hate him, for he never prophesies anything favorable about me, but only disaster” (2 Chron. 18:7). Ahab doesn’t want advice from the Lord because it doesn’t align with his intentions. Eventually he does consult Michaiah, who indeed foretells disaster in the battle, for which Ahab has him imprisoned and starved (2 Chron. 18:18-27). Ahab proceeds into battle and is killed (2 Chron. 19:33-34).
Similarly, King Asa decides to form an alliance with the king of Aram instead of relying on God’s protection. Afterwards, he is challenged by a seer who tells him, “Because you relied on the king of Aram, and did not rely on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Aram has escaped you” (2 Chron. 16:7). Likewise, when Asa is stricken with a deadly foot disease, he does not seek the help from the Lord, but only from physicians (2 Chron. 16:12), leading to his early death.
Afterward King Jehoshaphat remembers to depend on God’s guidance. He reminds his judges, “Consider what you are doing, for you judge not on behalf of human beings but on the LORD’s behalf; he is with you in giving judgment. Now, let the fear of the LORD be upon you; take care what you do, for there is no perversion of justice with the LORD our God, or partiality, or taking of bribes.” (2 Chron. 19:6-7). Even so, when Jehoshaphat himself is facing a vast enemy army in battle, the prophet Jahaziel has to remind him, “Do not fear or be dismayed at this great multitude; for the battle is not yours but God’s.” (2 Chron. 20:15).
The kinds of work in these passages–military strategy, medicine, and the legal system—require human skill. Yet skill is not enough—insight from God is also required. Most kinds of modern work also require skill, and we may feel that our insight and training is greater than it was in ancient times. We may think we don’t think we need—or don’t want—God’s guidance, so we rely on our own strengths instead. God has gifted us with wisdom and insight, but God wants us to seek his face even we think we have all the abilities we need. In fact modern abilities and power make our need to rely on God greater, not less, because our ability to do harm in the absence of God’s guidance is greater now than ever. God gives us talents and abilities for a reason, and we need to use them in consultation with him.
Rehoboam’s Failure to Tell Good Advice From Bad (2 Chronicles 10:1-19)
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An example of Israel’s failure of leadership occurs when King Rehoboam finds himself in need of advice on a difficult matter. Jeroboam and all of Israel ask him to lighten the burden of forced labor that his father, King Solomon, had laid on them (2 Chron. 8:8). In return they promise him, “We will serve you.” (2 Chron. 10:5). Rehoboam begins wisely by taking counsel from the elders of his kingdom, who advise him to reduce the burden as the people ask. “If you will be kind to this people and please them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever” (2 Chron. 10:7) Rehoboam, apparently, doesn’t like this answer. So he asks his younger friends’ opinion. They advise him to lord it over the people and boast, “My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. Now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions” (2 Chron. 10:10-11). Rehoboam decides to heed his younger friends’ advice, seemingly because it strokes his ego. He replies to Jeroboam and the people as his young friends suggest, then appoints a new taskmaster over forced labor (2 Chron. 10:18). The people respond by killing the new taskmaster and rebelling against Rehoboam, who never succeeds in quelling the rebellion (2 Chron. 10:19).
Difficult decisions are part of leadership today too, whether we are leading a whole kingdom or simply ourselves. Where do you go for advice, and how do you make good use of advice? Rehoboam began by asking advice from people he recognizes as spiritually mature. Age itself does not make you wise, nor are devout people necessarily wiser than non-believers. But the elders he consults had demonstrated spiritual maturity and wisdom over many years serving King Solomon. One sign of this is their responsiveness to new facts and situations. Although they had been appointed by Solomon, they listen to Jeroboam with an open mind, resulting in their advice to overturn Solomon’s policies. In contrast, Rehoboam’s younger friends seem to have only one claim on his attention—they’re his pals. It’s easy to ask for advice from the people who already think like you do. But do you have access to people who are spiritually mature, who can listen with an open mind, who are not afraid to tell you something you’d rather not hear?
When we are faced with a tough decision, seeking counsel as Rehoboam did is a great first step. The next step is discerning which advice applies the Bible to your situation properly, and which advice merely confirms your own biases. To find the difference requires you to carefully sort through advice, comparing it to God’s word and asking whether it would promote the greater good. In Rehoboam’s situation, the good advice would have required him to exercise patience, kindness, generosity, gentleness, and self-control. These are five of the nine “fruits of the Spirit” listed in Galatians 5:22. These are not merely virtues one may obtain by practice and hard work, but gifts of God’s spirit (Gal. 5:25). Had Rehoboam been willing to receive God’s spirit, this good advi
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Rebels Without A Cause: The Lost History of 1950's Youth Gangs
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] |
[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Michael Quebec"
] |
2020-10-25T13:50:56.722000+00:00
|
"The older generations were especially worried about ‘juvenile delinquency.’ In the 1950’s, this didn’t mean dealing in street drugs or drive-by shootings, but rather chewing gum in class, souping up a hot rod, and talking back to parents.” -
Blog, "The Great Nuclear Society: Curing Juvenile Delinquency In The 1950’s,” 2013, reproduced from “The Life Of A 1950‘s Teenager,” by Richard Powers, 2000.“If I had died then, it would have been for nothing. But if I die now, it will be to clean up the
|
en
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rockinswing
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https://www.rockinswing.com/post/rebels-without-a-cause-the-lost-history-of-1950-s-youth-gangs
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"The older generations were especially worried about ‘juvenile delinquency.’ In the 1950’s, this didn’t mean dealing in street drugs or drive-by shootings, but rather chewing gum in class, souping up a hot rod, and talking back to parents.” -Blog, "The Great Nuclear Society: Curing Juvenile Delinquency In The 1950’s,” 2013, reproduced from “The Life Of A 1950‘s Teenager,” by Richard Powers, 2000.
“If I had died then, it would have been for nothing. But if I die now, it will be to clean up the place, for other people to live in.” -
Roger McShane, 16-years-old, in response to death threats following the murder of his friend, 15-year-old polio survivor Michael Farmer, committed by The Egyptian Kings and Dragons street gangs at Highbridge Park, New York, 1957.
Tuesday, July 30, 1957 was a hot night in New York’s Washington Heights district in the city’s West Side.
It was so hot that even into the late evening, teenagers were out and about, mingling, playing ball in the park, and, for two boys, 16-year-old Roger McShane, and 15-year-old Michael Farmer, it was a chance to cool off at the nearby pool at Highbridge Park.
Aerial view of High Bridge Park. The "x" shows the location of where 15-year-old Michael Farmer, a partially handicapped survivor of polio, was attacked by members of The Dragons and Egyptian Kings street gangs.Source: "The Jury Is Still Out" by Judge Irwin Davidson, 1959.
Farmer, who walked with a limp as a result of childhood polio, had been playing rock n’ roll records in his parent’s apartment with his new friend McShane.
A small apartment can be extremely stifling in the summer heat, and the apartment where Farmer lived with his parents was no exception.
The pool at Highbridge Park was closed by 10:30 p.m, but the boys knew of an opening that the neighborhood kids had frequently used to get an extra swim, after hours.
Perhaps the prospect of breaking a rule by sneaking into the pool seemed like a fun and adventurous idea. Perhaps it was a way to bond, and to share in the not-so-well kept “secret” around the neighborhood, as the hole into the pool’s entrance was well known.
Or maybe the kids just needed to cool off. It was a hot apartment.
A week earlier, however, a local gang, The Jesters, made up of primarily, though not exclusively (as illustrated below) Irish teenage boys, had asserted their dominance in the area. Highbridge Park was their “turf,” their territory, and any gang or “bopping club” that wanted to use the pool had better be ready to fight.
This was especially true if the perceived rivals were Puerto Rican.
Members of The Jesters pose for a 1958 article in Life magazine covering the Michael Farmer case.
The Egyptian Kings and Dragons were primarily Puerto Rican and African-American, though there were also a few white members among them. Still, the pool was “off limits” to “them,” not officially by Parks and Recreation of course, but rather, by the code of the gangs.
Some Puerto Rican boys had been beaten up, at least by their recollections, by The Jesters, for simply wanting to take a swim. Now, on this Tuesday night, the combined Egyptian Kings and Dragons had gathered en masse, to run a raid, a “jap” as they called it, on any Jesters who they assumed would be out this hot night.
Though, as previously mentioned, there were some “white boys” among their number, the assumption was that any “Irish” in the Jester’s “turf” must be members of "that club.”
Armed with knives, chains, and a machete, they took their positions behind some bushes with military precision.
The seven members of the allied Egyptian Kings and Dragons street gangs that were actually charged and arrested for the murder of 15-year-old Michael Farmer.
Source: "The Jury Is Still Out" by Judge Irwin Davidson, 1959.
Roger McShane and Michael Farmer, the two boys who wanted to go for a late night swim to escape the heat of a parent’s apartment, were walking into a war zone.
When it was over, McShane, who ran from the attack even while injured, would end up on the critical list at New York’s Presbyterian Medical Center.
Farmer, the boy who walked with a limp, a reminder of his childhood polio, was unable to run.
Previously, there had been 11 gang killings that summer. Michael Farmer was the twelfth.
Mrs. Thelma Farmer, the mother of slain 15-year-old polio survivor (and as a result, partially handicapped) Michael Farmer, hearing the verdict of the murder case for her slain son.September 3, 1959, United Press International.
Debates rage over the reactions to another New York gang killing, the 4th killing in 8 days, 20 deaths since the beginning of the summer of 1959.
Political and religious leaders attack each other in the press over the handling of "the crisis in the inner cities," concerning youth gang-related fatalities.
A monsignor, Joseph A. McCaffrey, presiding over a 16-year-old stabbing victim’s funeral, launches into a verbal tirade before the packed, crowded, Holy Cross Church in Manhattan.
His verbal assault is not only against the gangs themselves, but also against what he sees to be local government and gang outreach policies that favor “coddling."
Excerpts from two issues of The New York Daily News, as well as national coverage by United Press International, of Monsignor McCaffrey's statements while presiding over the funeral of 16-year-old Anthony Krzesinski.
The articles themselves date from August through September of 1959.
McCaffrey angrily states that the gangs should be met “with force” and “caged like wild animals.”
The New York Civil Liberties Union responds, accusing the monsignor of giving free license to police brutality against all young suspects, whether they actually are confirmed gang members, or not.
The NYCLU also sees a potential racial component to the monsignor’s comments.
As for the two 16-year-old victims, friends Anthony Krzesinski and Robert Young Jr. had been stabbed at a local playground by members of The Vampires street gang.
They managed to stumble to their apartments before bleeding to death.
Both boys were not gang members.
Sources: The San Francisco Chronicle, Life, and The New York Daily News, 1959.
One of the accused, 16-year-old Salvador Agron, dubbed “The Capeman” in the press due to the red lined, black cape that he wore at the time of the murder, told the police, “I killed because I felt like it.”
Following the trial in 1960, Agron became the youngest person to be placed on death row in The State of New York.
At the behest of philanthropist, former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, as well as the father of one of the victims, the sentence was later commuted to life.
Agron was paroled in 1979. He passed away in 1986.
September 7, 1959, Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Another priest, Reverend C. Kilmer Myers, who Monsignor McCaffrey might describe as one of those “coddlers,” had been working to keep the peace between the fighting gangs in the area of Forsyth Street.
The Reverend C. Kilmer Myers during his outreach program, covered in the August 26, 1957 article in Life, "Peacemaking Priest in Gangland."
For three years, the youth activity programs that he oversaw were successful, with athletics and mediation programs that prevented gang conflicts before they started.
But funds were scarce.
According to Myers, The City of New York ignored his requests for more funding to aid in supervised youth activities. The funds would have also enabled Myers to recruit expert social workers to assist in his gang outreach projects.
After three years of peace in the Lower East Side, gang violence exploded again.
Two teenage girls are fatally shot in a drive-by shooting, and a third teen, an altar boy, is wounded.
The Reverend Myers launches into his own tirade, but unlike Monsignor McCaffrey who urged punishment, Myers’ tirade, in the pages of Life, is admittedly, an angry, and frustrated, call for help.
A second photo of Reverend C. Kilmer Myers, from the September 7, 1959 follow up article in Life, "Sportsmen Vs. Forsyths: The Frightful Aftermath."
The article covered the August 23, 1959 drive-by shooting death of 15-year-old Theresa Gee during the gang conflict between The Forsyth Street Boys and The Sportsmen in Manhattan's Lower East Side.
November 2, 1956, San Francisco, California.
The confused, and tearful, parents of a 15-year-old, grant an interview to The San Francisco Chronicle.
Their son, John Alpaugh Jr., had attended a Halloween street party in The Mission District. As the party wound down, he headed home, but was confronted by four boys, ages 18 to 19.
He is stabbed in the chest, the penetrating blade piercing the tip of his heart.
Alpaugh Jr. did not know the boys who attacked him.
In fact, the four boys who would later be charged with "assault with intent to commit murder," were not only unconnected to Alpaugh Jr., they had attacked two other teens that night, 16-year-old Richard Hieber and 17-year-old Benjamin Roybal.
Like Alpaugh Jr., these additional two victims were neither gang-affiliated, nor even acquainted with the the four armed boys.
One of the attackers, 18-year-old Earl Hall, had just been cleared of possession of heroin two days before the attack.
According to court records, then-young Mr. Hall had run-ins with San Francisco law-enforcement since the age of 11, though, according to a San Francisco Examiner story, he hadn’t arrived in San Francisco till the age of 12, after his parent’s divorce in his native Kansas.
That wouldn't be the first inconsistency in the case.
Earl Hall, along with another of the alleged attackers, then 19-year-old Clement Anderson, have surviving “rap sheets” that detail arrests for auto theft and burglary since the age of 10 and 11.Those same rap sheets would cover their “careers” after the 1956 incident, which would include convictions for a drug charge in 1964, as well as additional burglaries and auto theft. (If nothing else, these young men started early, and certainly were ”prolific.”)
Click on each image below for close-ups.
Above are San Francisco news clippings profiling the teen suspects arrested for the 1956 Halloween stabbings.Included in the gallery are surviving documents of arrest, release, and conviction records of two of the alleged attackers, then-18-year-old Earl Hall and then-19-year-old Clement Anderson.
Records date from both prior to the attack, and long after the incident itself.Unfortunately, surviving records for the other two alleged attackers, William Keller and Henry Gorski, both 19-years-of-age at the time of the incident, were unavailable at the time of this writing.Courtesy of The California Archives.
All four, alleged, attackers were on parole from the California Youth Authority, with two, Clement Anderson and William Keller, having spent time at The Whittier Detention Center, and the other two, Earl Hall and Henry Gorksi, at the Preston “Castle.”
"The Castle" was, and still is, a reform school.
The “alumni” includes cowboy actor Rory Calhoun, Beat Generation figure Neal Cassady, and country music legend Merle Haggard. (One thing that could be said of Earl Hall and his criminal record is that, if nothing else, at least he went to the same reform school as the later "Okie From Muskogee.")According to their version of the events, the four (alleged) attackers were “innocent” (aren't they all?) and had been "mistakenly" picked up by arresting officers Dan Driscoll and Henry Pengell, after being identified by eye witnesses.
Anderson and Keller had said that they were performing on stage for the dance that night. (Surviving court records do not state what their alleged “performances” entailed.)
However, in an interview for The San Francisco Examiner, conducted at the Fifth Floor of City Prison, Clement Anderson also stated that he was with his girlfriend at the Century Theater on Market Street at the time of the attack! (In all fairness, theoretically, Mr. Anderson could have been to both events, one after the other, “party hopping.” However, surviving records fail to name a single witness, including his girlfriend, to verify his two alibis.)
All four boys are charged and arraigned at San Francisco Municipal Court, with Judge Charles Peery setting bail for the teenage defendants at $10,000 each. (That would be the equivalent of $95,257.72 for each defendant in 2020 dollars, adjusting the 1956 bail for inflation.)
Alpaugh’s mother tells reporters, “When I saw my son after the knife attack, I thought what a terrible waste. You spend 15 years of your life bringing up a boy, and then you think that life is about to be destroyed.”
Holding back tears, she angrily cries out, “Why do kids do these things to each other?! John is a good boy!”
Looking for an answer, she asks an all-too-familiar question, aware that no answer will come forward.
“Is it our fault?”
Despite the near fatal attack, the young Alpaugh is actually lucky.
Unlike the teen victims of New York gang violence mentioned above, John Alpaugh Jr. survives.
He died of natural causes at the age of 58 on January 6, 2000 in his native San Francisco, the city where, as a teenager leaving a dance party, he was almost killed 44 years earlier.
“The more things change, the more they continue to be the same thing.” -Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, “A Tour Round My Garden,” 1855.
“Perhaps it's good for one to suffer. Can an artist do anything if he's happy? Would he ever want to do anything? What is art, after all, but a protest against the horrible inclemency of life?” -
Aldous Huxley, “Antic Hay” 1923.
"To tell the story of my youth, I like that, it feels good. I feel like I'm sticking up for my generation. It wasn't 'Grease' and it wasn't 'Happy Days.' It was much more complex, and more interesting than that."-
Paul Simon during his interview for his Broadway show "The Capeman."
Why the hell am I writing this thing?!The idea of writing about 1950‘s youth gangs has been in my head for more than 30 years.
While researching gangs at my high school library, I was introduced to a book titled “The Violent Gang.” (That’s a pretty dramatic title, if to my eyes, redundant.)
Weren’t all gangs, at least occasionally, “violent?”
Well, except for gangs of the 1950‘s and early 1960‘s, of course.
That time period was “the good old days." Gangs of that time certainly never seriously hurt each other.
Those “gangs” that were portrayed in the high school production of the comedy “Grease” (and in the movie version) didn’t hurt each other. They were loveable (and inconsequential) oafs.
There were some “gangs” portrayed onscreen in George Lucas’ “American Graffiti.”
That classic film of growing up and “lost innocence” was a staple of summer syndicated movies here in the Bay Area during my high school years of the 1980‘s (courtesy of KICU TV 36.)
Even though they verbally threatened Richard Dreyfus in that movie, the gang in “American Graffiti” (led by Bo Hopkins, and called “The Pharaohs”) weren’t really “serious.” Hell, the most serious things that they did were minor acts of vandalism that were essentially harmless pranks.
Contrast the image of "harmless" street gangs in "American Graffiti" who "were nothing like the violent gangs of today" with a real-life 1950's/early '60's teen gang member, Salvador "The Capeman" Agron, pictured above. Directly below is a newspaper cartoon illustration, which appeared in several papers in 1959. Unfortunately, the cartoon, and the text, is so over-the-top and sensationalized, that it's easy for modern readers to dismiss the reports as being "exaggerated." The language is exaggerated, but certainly not the acts, as the actual New York case documents, provided below, just under the cartoon, illustrate. (Note, along with the documents, I also received a crime scene photo of one of the victims, Anthony Krzesinski. I chose not to include that photo.)
Upon questioning my teachers at Logan High School, the ones who were the “appropriate age” to have been teenagers between 1955 to 1962 (the “Rock n’ Roll Era”), they assured me that, though what I had seen were works of fiction, “their time” was pretty much like what I saw in those “nostalgic” movies.
Nothing bad, at least, not as bad as what kids of my age group were experiencing, happened during “their time.”
The kids of “their” youth, even the “bad” kids, “were nothing like kids today.”
The teachers who I talked to seemed to be emotionally invested in such statements.
Deep down inside, that always made feel just a little suspicious, as if they were deliberately hiding something from me and my classmates. However, being raised to be a good and obedient Filipino Catholic boy, I put my skepticism out of my mind.
Anyway, questions about the “trouble free” 1950‘s might have been mildly enjoyable, but were inconsequential.
They were “unimportant,” because there’s no way that I, as a then-teenager of the “modern” 1980's, could learn anything about the kids of “my time” by studying about the teenagers of my parents’ generation.
They were "too different from us." The kids who grew up to be my parents’ age came from a "quaint time of innocence."
Or so I was told.
No, I was in the library at Logan High School in 1984, because I needed to know about real gangs.
My high school yearbook picture in 1984. Fourteen, a freshman, and trying to look "tough," and failing, miserably! (The glasses certainly didn't help.)
I was a straight-A student.
As a consequence of being a bookish “nerd” who was up for being a member of “The Golden Key Society” upon graduation (about as “up there” on the scale of teenage “rebelliousness” as being a member of the marching band or the chess club), I was also a tutor.
My counselor told me tutoring would look good on my transcripts when I would apply for college.
I assumed that I would be helping out handicapped kids, kids who were like my brother. He had gone for the first years of his schooling undiagnosed with autism. He also went through hell from his teachers for being “lazy” and “unresponsive,” when he really had a learning disability that the teachers, and the school, were ill-prepared to deal with. (Trust me, this particular theme will relate to some members of 1950‘s-era gang members, later in this blog.)
Instead, to my horror(!), I was assigned to help out the tough kids at Logan High with their homework. That certainly wasn’t my idea.
Many of them were gang members.
The gangs of Union City, at that time, a working-class suburb and former farming community, which is a 45-minute drive South-East from San Francisco, had names like “All Brothers Together” (a gang made up of Filipino-American teens) and “Old Alvarado” (Mexican-American teens.)
So I asked the librarian about books on gangs, just so I can study up on what to expect.
She took me to the library card cabinet file (remember those?) and kindly made the time to help me find the one, and only, book on gangs in their possession.
That book was the aforementioned “The Violent Gang” by Lewis Yablonsky, a psychotherapist who treated New York City gang members before becoming a celebrated author.
The book that started my interest in 1950's and early 1960's youth gang history. I had seen the fictional portrayals in movies like "Rebel Without A Cause" and "The Young Savages," but reading this book was an eye-opener.
When I saw the 1962 publication date, I was disappointed. Well, I was both disappointed and interested. (Talk about mixed feelings!)
I probably should explain why I knew about “American Graffiti” and “Grease” at a time when my classmates at Logan High School were watching “more important” movies about teens that they could relate to, such as “Bad Boys” (the gang banging revenge movie with Sean Penn and Esai Morales, and not the much later buddy action movie with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence) or talking about the one-shot hip hop syndicated tv show “Graffiti Rock.”
Unlike my classmates at that time, I was, and still am, a fan of the 1950‘s. (And allow me to sell, here. My fan obsession for that time became a profession. I taught vintage swing dancing and hosted rockabilly events prior to the pandemic. This is actually my main website for my swing dance classes and events.)
Fandom is an obsession for a specific subject, such as a sports team or a science-fiction franchise.
I’ve admittedly been obsessed with all things related to youth culture from the 1950‘s (and early 1960's) since I was a child. I am a fan of a time period.
I’m not alone, either.
Many fellow “fans” of the 1950‘s meet up every April in Las Vegas at The Orleans Hotel for 4 nights of non-stop (and very loud!) ‘50‘s style Rock n’ Roll music.
Choosing what to read over lunch. (Only a fanboy would bring these to the table while eating!)
So I read the book, just because it was published in 1962, the year that “American Graffiti” was supposedly set. “The Violent Gang” was based on studies with New York teenage gangs between the years 1953 to 1958, which piqued my interest even more.
I remember feeling guilty for “wasting” my time, since I was there to learn about the mindset of the fellow Logan students that my mother used to tell me to avoid, before she herself became a tutor, and did a complete 180 in her views.
I wasn’t there to “escape to a simpler time” by reading about a bunch of uptight teachers wearing bowties, who wanted to cure 1950‘s kids of annoying, but harmless pranks, while blaming the kids’ (very mild) forms of “rebellious behavior” on Rock n’ Roll “oldies.”
To my surprise, the kids of the “innocent” 1950‘s described in “The Violent Gang” exhibited behaviors and mindsets that I had seen, from afar, in those then-modern gangs at Logan!
I expected to read about kids who were “better” in a moral sense, but also unrelatable, to the kids that I was about to work with.
Instead, I read about kids, in this book from 1962, who behaved just like the kids that I would work with. The kids in this book were indeed “violent.” They did use guns on occasion. A few even did drugs.
Everyone my parent’s age, who I talked to at that time, told me, with moral conviction(!) that drugs “didn’t exist” until “the hippie” 1960‘s.
So what the hell was I reading? This couldn’t possibly be real.
I ended up helping out one member of the Filipino gang with his English assignment. (And no, I wasn’t assigned to him because I’m Filipino. He was born here, just like me, and spoke English in the hip-hop based manner that was popular, at that time. Besides, Filipinos were actually the majority at Logan High School in the 1980s. I think they still are.)
That 1962 book helped me to understand the mindset of “the subculture” of the student that I was assigned to work with.
I still had to get to know him as an individual, of course. Gang members are human beings, and no two human beings, regardless of who they “hang out” with or come from are exactly the same.
Also, since the book was a study of 1950‘s “juvenile delinquents” (a term that was popular during that time to describe both gang members as well as any teenager who engaged in some kind of “misconduct”), there were some aesthetic differences between that kid at Logan High School and the kids described in that book.
Obviously, this kid from Logan didn’t wear a “duck’s-ass” hairstyle. The slang that he used was based off of hip hop, as opposed to be-bop jazz (both of which, are from the African-American experience, which I’ll get into later.)
The clothing that this kid wore was of the 1980‘s, not the 1950‘s. (He wore Bogarts, a standard “parachute” pants style popular at Logan High in the early 1980‘s. He didn’t wear Chinos with a garrison belt like his 1950‘s predecessors.)
That said, the swagger, the slow walk which simultaneously said “I don’t give a fuck” while moving to an unheard musical “beat” was there.
The constant, slow grinding motion of his teeth that gave the appearance that he was chewing something inedible, even when he wasn’t eating or chewing anything, was also there. (You ever see a camel chew? Now imagine a camel who’s trying to intimidate you by getting in your face, while chewing. If you can imagine a human version of that, then you get the picture.)
Everything this kid did was either meant to intimidate or “size you up.”
He displayed those outward behaviors and traits, just as described in that library book from the “innocent” era of the 1950‘s and early 1960‘s.
Even more telling, his willingness to settle conflicts physically whenever a “brother” gang member was assaulted was there.
His exact words, when describing an African-American student who had beaten up a “brother” member of the “ABTs” in a one-on-one “fair” fight was, “I’m gonna fuuuuck him up!” (I had to elongate the letter “u” to illustrate the phonetic principles of his pronunciation of that one verb.)
If this makes him sound like some sort of romantic “defender of his people,” it should be noted that he was also just as ready to attack that same “brother” if the latter showed even the slightest signs of emotional vulnerability. He called it “being a pussy,” and if any member displayed emotional vulnerability, especially if it was over a girl, he was just as ready to “be his daddy, and slap the shit out of him,” for the brother member’s own “good,” of course.
That “kid” (who was older and bigger than me) got a B+ on his English assignment, thanks to my help.
He did most of the work. I did not do his homework for him. He was actually very intelligent. Most gang leaders are.
He also later went to jail for shooting a member of a rival Filipino gang in nearby Hayward.
As tragic as that was, when I read that in the local papers, I was just glad that he didn’t shoot me. (And I hope he’s not reading this.)
I shouldn’t have been too worried about that, because I was useful to him. I helped him with school, and he actually told some older boys who were shoving me around in the boys’ locker room, “Don’t fuck with him!”
When he talked, other students listened. It turned out, with good reason. He was very capable of killing.
I went on with my teenage life in the 1980‘s. I had my first girlfriend and made some friends within my brainy social circle.
And, they teased me about my love of “old” music and movies. (I’ve since learned to chose my friends more carefully.)
The girl that I was dating at the time tried to “fix” me by telling me that my love of 1950‘s rockabilly and doo wop was “cute,” but also embarrassing.
“Honey, it’s old, and it’s weak.” I kept quiet. After all, she was good looking, and for a 15-year-old with his first girlfriend, I considered myself “lucky” to go out with someone “above” me. (I don’t think that way anymore, by the way.)
“Old music (1950‘s rock n’ roll) is weak, because art is a reflection of the time it comes from.” (Well, she wasn’t just “hot,” she was also very well-spoken, and also a straight-A student. She later graduated from UC Berkeley, and became a lawyer. And if you’re reading this, I didn’t mention your name, so you can’t sue me!)
“The '50‘s was cute, and quaint, and they didn’t deal with the same problems that we deal with now. So there’s no way that what you listen to compares to what someone like Grand Master Flash or Mel E Mel raps about.” (For readers who are unfamiliar, those were rappers in the 1980‘s whose songs were about social injustice and racism.)
I had some rocker/heavy metal friends, as well.
One of them, while puffing away on a joint while listening to Twisted Sister, teased me with “The '50's was lame, dude. The music was fuckin’ weak, because the people back then were goody goody. They didn’t have to deal with all the shit that we do! That’s what my dad told me. Whenever he comes around, that is. Here.” (He passed me a joint while continuing to criticize my musical preferences and harp on his parents’ divorce. I declined with a nervous smile. I didn’t believe that the ‘50‘s was actually “goody goody,” even though, to my “shame,” I was.)
Many years later, when I started teaching swing dancing at the height of the 1990‘s “Swing Dance Revival,” I was interviewed by the local newspaper, The Argus. The reporter let me know that the “novelty” of my teaching a ‘50‘s variation of swing dancing was “cute.”
However, she also let me know that she was assigned to interview me, in spite of her wanting a more “important” assignment.
Her exact words? “The 1950‘s were quaint. People back then didn’t have to deal with anything important, not like the violence we deal with today. So, the art of that time reflects that.” (She didn’t give me any examples of what she was talking about. For her, anything from that time wasn’t “worth” knowing, even if some familiarity would have helped with an interview assignment.)
My interview for a local newspaper back in the 1990's. I'm grateful that I was able to get publicity, since it enabled my teen dance troupe to get much needed funding for vintage clothing to be used in performances, as well as practice space. However, during the interview itself, the reporter made it very clear that she didn't think much of 1950's youth culture, since, in her words, "It was too cute, too clean, too nerdy, and insignificant."
By the way, we're clearly not dressed in 1950's vintage clothing here for rehearsal. Our practice space was my backyard, in the hot, mid day sun!
Even more recently, before the pandemic, some “friends” of mine in the swing dance world tried to get me to go “contemporary.” There is a modern version of swing dancing called “West Coast Swing” that's done to modern music. I do respect it. (I guess.) But, my love is for dancing Smooth-Style Lindy Hop to vintage Rock n’ Roll.
My “friends” (and I use the term loosely), with a very condescending tone, told me, “Mike, you’re a wonderful dancer. But you’re stuck with that old stuff. It’s cute, but you can do so much better.”
"Cute."
I told them that there is indeed a market for vintage ‘40‘s and ‘50‘s dancing, aimed at college age students, but my friends shrugged and said, “Well, it’s cute. But it’s a bit too goody goody.”
Again, the derisive tone.
Since, prior to the pandemic, my classes were packed, I decided that any so-called “friends” who put down my art are friends that I don’t need. I don’t care how “well-meaning” their intentions are.
It’s a funny thing about human nature. We respect things that can kill us. We are attracted to things, or people, that are dangerous.
We certainly like things that are comfortable.
But comfortable things, generally, don’t excite us. Comfortable things, or people, don’t earn our respect.
Pop singers who have a reputation for being too “clean and wholesome” don’t get the same airplay or critical recognition that an artist who’s been through rehab and multiple arrests, do.
Sure, it helps if the musician in question actually has musical talent, but a bit of a “bad boy” aura certainly helps. (Remember Donny Osmond? If you do, it’s probably with a chuckle, and as a butt of a joke.)
Perhaps that’s why we’re fascinated with the mafia gangster, the outlaw biker, or the daredevil stunt artist.
Though they are all different and distinct from one another, they seem to be “free” of the rules of society that we sometimes wish we didn’t have to follow, but do, because it’s physically safe to do so.
That combination of attraction, revulsion, fear, and excitement can also be seen in dating.
We know the archetypes, “the bad boy,” “the femme fatale,” “the hot mess.”
Sure, there are “nice guys” and “good girls,” both of which are simplistic stereotypes that ignore the complexity of human beings, but they are convenient labels to illustrate the point.
The “good” (or responsible and mature) dating prospect isn’t as sexually “exciting” as the dangerous sociopath, at least when the two are compared in the media.
When we mature, we know to “run in the other direction” when encountering “the hot mess,” but that still doesn’t mean we aren’t attracted to that person. It only means that we’re more self-aware. For our own well-being, our mature selves resist our self-destructive instinctual attraction for the sexy sociopath.
“Simple,” “innocent,” and all of the other “wholesome” adjectives that are now currently in use to describe the youth culture of the 1950‘s and early 1960‘s make that time out to be “comfortable,” which is great, and maybe even necessary, as we grow older and both the world around us, and ourselves, change.
But unintentionally, that “simple and innocent” perception also makes that time, it’s art, and it’s history seem insignificant.
Nostalgia is the need to escape from the problems of today, but history is it’s polar opposite.
History is the study of people.
I don’t care if someone doesn’t like what I like. No two people are the same and no two preferences are exactly the same.
But, I am a fan.
Fans of sports teams hate it when “their” team is disrespected. (They’ll even fight for “their” team.)
Fans of certain fantasy or science fiction franchises hate it when “normies” (their term for the mainstream) dismisses “their” art form as unimportant. (As an example, fans of the DC comic book icon “Batman” will often get angry whenever the 1960‘s Adam West tv show is mentioned, because in their view, that show made “their” originally “dark” character an object of ridicule.)
That’s the reason for this blog. I’m a fan of 1950‘s Rock n’ Roll-era youth culture.
I want my obsession to be respected.
I’d rather have it be disliked for the “right” reasons, than "liked" for “the wrong” reasons. (And I know that’s both “anal” and makes no sense whatsoever.)
I’d rather someone tell me that she hates Rock n' Roll music because it’s “loud, noisy, aggressive, and sexually suggestive” (actual criticisms that Rock n' Roll and Rhythm and Blues artists faced during rock music's initial thrust into the mainstream during the mid-1950‘s) rather than tell me that she likes '50's "oldies" music, “because it’s sweet and wholesome, like the rest of that time.” (Where’s the fun in that?!)
If showing that the 1950‘s had just as many potentially violent and dangerous youthful criminals, that made their society look at questions of poverty, race relations, mental health, and street crime (just like we do today) seem “worthy” of being taken “seriously”....then (with a sigh) “so be it.”
If I can show that the issues that they struggled with back then are essentially the same that we still deal with today, and thus, still “relevant,” then let the perception, and myth, of an “innocent simple time” be done away with. (I should add that people my age are mentioning how the 1980s were “innocent and simple” times. That should annoy me too, but I’m not in love with “my time” the way I am with the 1950‘s!)
Fortunately, it doesn’t take a lot of “digging” to make my arguments for this “respect by danger” for the years 1954 to 1962.
I would like to thank the following people and organizations, listed below, who helped me out in my research for this project:
Thanks to David Van Pelt, authorof "Brooklyn Rumble: Mau Maus, Sand Street Angels, and the End of an Era." His website can be accessed at http://newyorkcitygangs.com/.
Stuart King who runs the “Juvenile delinquent vintage paperbacks! ( jd pulp for some )” Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/juveniledelinquentfiction.
The administrators at the “San Francisco Remembered” Facebook group athttps://www.facebook.com/groups/remembered.
The staff at The San Francisco Main Library showed me how to access their various historical archives, for which much of the information in this blog is derived from. So a big thanks to them. Their website is at https://sfpl.org/.
"Sebastian" (for privacy's sake, no last name) at The California State Archives at https://www.sos.ca.gov/archives/ tracked down juvenile court documents and arrest records, dating all the way back to 1951.
The Aces Car Club of Bellflower, California at http://acescarclub.com was kind enough to grant permission to use their vintage photos, to contrast the difference between law-abiding hot rod car clubs of the 1950's, and fighting turf/street gangs of the same time period.
My good friends Dawn Ishisaki and former professional sportscaster and writer Ron Spain took the time to help proofread this blog for errors. There were many on my part, and considering the length of the blog, there might still be some around. We did our best to remove as many typos and inconsistencies, as possible.
And, I especially wish to thank Gary Jensen, Ben Choate, and Bay Area poet laureate and writer Patrick Coonen. All three gentlemen grew up in San Francisco during the late 1950's and early 1960's. As former teenagers of that time, they were also a part of the street subcultures that are the subject of this blog.
As leaders of their respect groups, their interviews were invaluable to this project.
I want to add that, of course, there were “good” kids in the 1950‘s. They indeed were the majority.
There are many law-abiding and considerate young people today, as well.
Since one of my jobs was to teach teenagers how to swing dance, I can say from personal experience that they are the majority, as well.
This blog is to show the diversity of that time. Experiencing both the "bad," as well as the "good," is the totality of the human experience.
It is my firm belief that if we hold on to the myth of the "innocent days" where "there was nothing serious, unlike what we deal with today," not only do we deny ourselves the opportunity to actually learn from the past, we also deny the existence of the victims of gang violence of that time (and there were many.)
We deny the efforts of the good people of that time, who honestly tried to make living in their communities safer and more productive for the residents of those areas. We deny the efforts, and even the existence(!), of the brave kids who stood up to their peers against violence.
And, we also deny the efforts of those gang leaders who actually tried to steer their clubs away from violence, and towards more constructive efforts (there were a number of them, as well, who "went social," as they called it.)
That myth of "innocent care free times" does not "protect" the reputation of that time. It takes away the voices of those who faced issues that we, as human beings, still struggle with today. (It also diminishes the achievements of those who actually succeeded in bettering their lives, since, if gangs were "nothing like today," in relation to the seriousness of their conflicts, then of course, those who successfully left gang life had nothing of significance to struggle against.)
Nostalgia, unintentionally, diminishes the importance of 1950's youth culture. And if that sounds as if I am actually agreeing with the kids who teased me about my '50's passion in high school, I guess I am (damn it!)
I ask, through this blog, if there is anything from our past that can give us insight as to who and where we are today.
Maybe we won’t have all of the answers.
But perhaps, we can start asking the right questions.
A bit of my non-delinquent, vintage rock n' roll and "clean teen" 1950's and early 1960's collection of vintage vinyl LPs and teen magazines.
Of course, there were good kids in the 1950's and early 1960's. (But, even they are inaccurately portrayed by "nostalgia." )
Dressed in appropriately 1950's/early '60's clothing for a dance demo at a senior center in Berkeley, CA in 2013.And no, I'm not dressed in a leather jacket and jeans, but the clothing is 1950's!
The young lady dancing with me was one of my former teenage swing dance students.
There is a subculture of young people who research and express their passion for the popular culture of the 1950's and early 1960's. Many of them collect memorabilia of that time, such as vintage clothing, vinyl LPs, and movies. Many of the girls get into pinup photography and vintage hairdressing, while many of the boys get into custom car restoration.
A good number of these young fans study swing dancing (which is how I became acquainted with them), and some are musicians who play vintage jump blues, jazz, western swing, or rockabilly.However, these modern fans are not into "nostalgic memories," nor the aesthetics that accompany the "Fifties Nostalgia" narrative. (In other words, you'll never see these young fans go to a costume shop to buy either a "Fonzie" or cheap plastic poodle-skirt costume for their '50's clothing.)
These young fans want the actual history, which embraces both the glamour, as well as the tragedy.
They want the complete story of 1950's youth culture, not the partial, incomplete, half-truths of "Fifties Nostalgia" embraced by the mainstream.
A word on the the structure of this "blog:"Most blogs are really online articles. This "blog" (and I deliberately put that term in quotes) is really more like a book, in regards to the amount of information, via text and pictures.
I've tried my best to divide sections into chapters, but unfortunately, Wix does not have the option of sectioning off or selecting individual chapters for blogs.
Therefore, readers who wish to reference or skip various chapters will have to do so by manually scrolling.
Individual chapters are separated by full lines.
Individual sections within chapters are separated by smaller lines.
Photos have their own captions, which are separate from the main text, and are also separated by smaller lines.
The captions underneath the pictures are distinct from the main text. To visually distinguish these captions from the main text, the captions will all be in italics. (Hopefully, this practice won't confuse readers, since, from time to time, some words in the main text, such as the names of periodicals, will also be italicized.)
I've also opted to create collages for some of the photos.
For those collages, the use of italics may not necessarily apply, but hopefully, readers will still be able to distinguish the text captions used in the collages from the main text, as the fonts will be different. Finally, in regards to legalities, I've done my best to ensure that the information is true to historical fact.
One thing that is different from today's news reporting, is that during this time period, the names of minors who were arrested for crimes were often printed. Obviously, we don't do that today. That said, with names printed, it was "easier" to confirm whether or not the articles themselves were reasonably accurate via California, Illinois, and New York archival court and police documents. (And those documents, which are available to the general public, do come with a fee, which I shouldered out of pocket!)
Those articles that did not have exact names listed for the accused will not be included here, since the validity of the articles cannot be verified.
Since this is a FREE read, intended for historical purposes for use by general readers, as well as specifically vintage lifestyle enthusiasts and historians (as well as any high school or college students who have to do a history report assignment), I invoke the "copyright disclaimer fair use" notice below, for the inclusion of historical newspaper and magazine articles:"Copyright Disclaimer under Section 107 of the copyright act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing."
"Diddly Bops and Jive Studs:"
There is confusion as to what defines “a gang” from the 1950‘s.
In the modern narrative, almost any group of 1950‘s-era teenagers that sported leather jackets or embroidered windbreakers belonged to a “gang.” This has added to the confusion, as well as the perpetuation of the “harmless and innocent” (or “quaint”) myth of some of the youth cultures of that time, when mistakenly describing actual 1950‘s street gangs.
Even people who would have been teenagers during the 1950‘s and early 1960‘s often use the term loosely to describe groups of teenagers from that time, that actually were distinct from what a “real” gang actually was.
As previously mentioned, statements such as the following, are quite common. “Gangs back then, at least the ones that I knew, never hurt anyone. They just liked wearing their gang jackets and working on their cars.” (I personally was told this on several occasions. When I showed issues of Life and The San Francisco Chronicle that contradicted that recollection, then the response was, “Oh, well I never heard about that. I didn’t hang around gangs. But, I was there.”)
A social club of teens, who organized dances and athletic events for their fellow teens in their community, and who wore windbreaker jackets with their club name embroidered on the back, are remembered under that term, and yet, this example clearly pertains to a non-violent and non-fighting “social club.”
Often, a person within the 70s to 80s age range, looking back to their pre-teen and teen years, can (and do) remember these “gangs” as “harmless kids.”
They’d be right in remembering them as harmless, but, mistaken in assuming (or “remembering”) that all, or most, “gangs” of “their time” behaved as benignly as these (mislabeled and miscategorized) teen social jacket clubs.
One example of a 1950’s teen social club would be “The Social Lions” (pictured below),a former fighting gang that, as their name obviously states, “went social,” thanks in part to the gang outreach organization The New York City Youth Board.
Prior to the intervention of that organization, “The Social Lions” had been a “real” fighting gang during their early history, under the name “The Knifers.” (That name should tell something about what they used to be like. Subtlety wasn’t exactly high on this particular groups’ list of priorities when they first chose their name.)
Source: Reaching The Fighting Gang, The New York City Youth Board, 1959.
Another type of jacket wearing organization of young people that existed during the 1950‘s were the car clubs, the “hot rod clubs,” that were popular throughout the U.S., but were especially prominent in Southern California, where dry lake beds and abandoned runways helped that subculture to grow.
These car clubs, which were also distinct from the fighting gang or “bopping club” (more on that term in a bit) sometimes dressed in an outwardly similar manner to the Hollywood stereotype of a “juvenile delinquent.”
Car clubs of the 1950‘s often consisted of young members, though, not exclusively teenagers. (Hot rodding had been around for decades, but the specific clubs that flourished in Southern California in the 1950‘s were actually started by returning World War Two veterans in the later half of the 1940‘s.)
Self-identified “hot rodders” also, occasionally, had run-ins with the law, due to the practice of street racing.
Hot rod club organizers however, sought to “clean up” the image of hot rodding in the public mind, and would work with law enforcement to curb illegal street racing. The National Hot Rod Association, for example, cooperated with law enforcement towards that end.
However, hot rodders, whether they were actually members of the car clubs, or not, were often perceived by the general public, at that time, to also be “juvenile delinquents,” due to street racing fatalities and the resulting, unwanted, police attention from rogue members, acting in defiance of the official policies of the clubs.
Unlike the fighting street gangs that existed at the same time, legitimate car clubs (such as The Aces Car Club of Bellflower, California, with their club jacket pictured below, as being one example) were generally benign, generally law abiding, youth hobbyist organizations, at least when compared to the "bopping clubs" (street gangs who fought over turf) of the inner cities.
Source: The Bellflower Aces Car Club website at http://acescarclub.com (Picture is used with permission.)
Adding to the confusion for the mainstream (adult) public of that time, was the younger members’ of the car clubs use of the same, or at least comparable, slang colloquialisms, which were based on the slang of African-American Jazz musicians. (In short, they “talked” like gang members.)
Obviously, car clubs were concerned about the artistic aesthetics of their cars (if they were custom clubs) or how much initial speed they can get out of a specialty car that was worked on (if they were involved in hot rodding and drag racing.)
Was there occasional “crossing over,” as in an individual being a part of both car culture and fighting street gang culture? Yes. I interviewed one gentleman who was a part of both. However, that gentleman made it clear that he was a part of both subcultures, and that the two were distinct.
I’ve yet to find any evidence in my research that a Southern California custom or hot rod club, as a formally organized group, engaged in “rumbles” over “turf,” though I have found evidence of drive-by shootings by actual 1950's Los Angeles gangs who used fast cars. (But of course, their cars weren’t exactly hot rods used for drag racing. They were used for “getting away.”)
That acquaintance who looked back with vague fondness for the Southern California car club that she remembered as “a gang” was (sort of) “correct” in assuming that the “gang” she remembered was “harmless.”
However, this blog is not about “social clubs” nor “car clubs.”
Our specific focus is on the “bopping clubs,” the fighting gangs that formed the real-life basis for the fictional “juvenile-delinquent” of Hollywood movies, such as “West Side Story” or “Blackboard Jungle.” (The latter movie, though a personal favorite, does have a street racing scene where hot rodders knock over another car, nearly injuring Glenn Ford and Ann Francis. The movie itself was about youth gangs terrorizing teachers in an inner-city high school, and the implication was that hot rodders and genuine gang members were practically indistinguishable.)
Before we define what a gang is however, we should briefly touch on why certain kids, in certain areas of the U.S. during the period immediately following the end of World War Two, joined or formed fighting street gangs.
Once we understand that, then it’s easier to define what a gang exactly “is.”
Ratpacking:
“When I look back on the days that I was with the gangs, I remember those young men who cared about how they looked and who had a great deal of honor and ethnic pride.” -
Nestor Llamas, former member of The Simpson Street Boys in an interview for the History Channel documentary “Gangs: A Secret History.”
Source: The San Francisco Examiner, November 21, 1959.
1956 Senate Subcommittee Hearings on Juvenile Delinquency. The hearings from two years earlier are covered later in this blog. However, the 1956 hearing, and it's results, are referenced in a blog from The Center On Juvenile And Criminal Justice's website.
Click on the picture of the hearings' report above to access that blog (after you finish reading mine, of course!)*On a personal note, this 1956 report is much more reasonable and "sobering" than the one from two years earlier. That 1954 report will be covered later.
School has always been hard for certain kids. It was true then, and it’s true now.
A child or teen could be a highly intelligent person, with a genuine desire to learn. But if he or she has a learning disability, it’s difficult to keep up in a group class setting, where learning is often tailored to the group, as opposed to the individual.
If a student is a recent arrival, and struggles with the English language, that student could also be highly intelligent, but still have a hard time keeping up.
In the 1950‘s, recognition of certain learning disabilities in the public school system was non-existent.
If a child or teen had dyslexia, he or she was out of luck, because the condition simply wasn’t recognized at that time. I personally worked with a senior citizen who had dyslexia. Relating his high school years between 1959 to 1962, he stated, “It was hell. They put me in with the retarded kids!”
Bilingual education was not in place until 1958.
Prior to that year, if a student was newly arrived from Puerto Rico, he or she was also out of luck. (I should add that Puerto Rico has been an American commonwealth since 1898. Puerto Ricans are American citizens, and have been since 1917. Arguments about “Go back to your own country if you don’t speak the language,” which were directed at Puerto Rican migrants by some bigoted individuals during this time period, is absurd, in my opinion.)
Teachers in Northern cities were not supposed to act discriminatory towards students based on ethnicity. But often, during the 1950‘s, some teachers behaved in ways that would be referred to today as “culturally insensitive.” (And honestly, some were just outright bigoted.)
One African American youth gang leader, who actually scored high on i.q. tests, related in an interview with Lewis Yablonsky (author of "The Violent Gang") that his home room teacher often singled him out for assignments that were beneath him. This would be an example where individualized attention in a group class setting was actually not wanted. With a feeling of being “talked down to,” he found another outlet for his high intelligence, by becoming a leader or “president” of a youth gang.
Kids who joined inner-city gangs in the 1950‘s came from working class families. Usually, they were the descendants of either immigrants (examples being Irish or Italians, who also faced bigotry upon their arrival a generation before), or the children of migrant, working class families who were recent arrivals from one part of the U.S., into another, and were seeking employment.
Some were the children of the previously mentioned Puerto Rican migrant families. “The Great Migration” of Puerto Rican working class families occurred in the late 1940‘s and early 1950‘s.
Puerto Rican workers sought mainland employment, after the economy on the island switched from agriculture based on sugar production to factory-made exported goods and high-end tourism.
Jobs on the island became severely limited during that shift. A growing population didn’t help. Puerto Rican workers were encouraged to migrate to New York by certain mainland politicians as a “source of cheap labor.”
For close ups, click on each picture.
The August 25, 1947 issue of Life covered the influx of Puerto Rican migrants into New York City, in the wake of "Operation Bootstrap," the shifting of the island's economy from sugar-based agriculture to manufactured exported goods and tourism.
Puerto Rico itself is an unincorporated territory of the United States. So, as noted, Puerto Ricans were, and are, American citizens. The title of the article correctly avoided the use of the word "immigrant," as that would be inaccurate.
Many African-American families, leaving the Jim Crow segregated South, migrated to Northern cities such as New York, Chicago, and Oakland to work in the munitions factories during World War Two.
Of course, they ended up staying in those cities when war production ended. They continued to seek employment, often with frustration, with the hope of a better life than what they previously experienced in the segregated South.
Segregation may not have been “legal” in New York, at least, not in the same way that it was in places like Birmingham, Alabama, but, as pointed out in the June 26, 1956 issue of Look magazine (pictured below), segregation and discrimination were very common in the North in actual practice, if not on paper.
Look magazine covered unofficial segregation in Northern cities with this article, "Jim Crow Northern Style."Segregation in the North may not have expressed itself in the form of signs stating "colored only" or "white only" as displayed in the South, but as shown in the article, in actual practice, many qualified African-American professionals were denied access to jobs and homes that they would have had, if they were of European descent. Denial of service to African-Americans in restaurants, hotels, and other service areas was also common, if technically "illegal," in the North.
* In addition to the story on Northern racial discrimination, this issue of Look, cover dated June 26, 1956, also carried a story on the then-"controversial” teenage fad for rock n’ roll music. (That separate article addressed concerns about the music’s possible “influence” on juvenile delinquency, a subject that will be explored later in this blog.)
Puerto Rican and African-American working class families found themselves “hemmed in” in the inner-cities, and often in competition for jobs, living space, and resources, both with each other and with Irish and Italian-Americans, who themselves had also faced bigotry.
Irish and Italians may have been “white,” but they (generally) were also Catholic, with distinct cultures that often separated “them” from mainstream society.
For close ups, click on each picture.
The marginalized of American society:Separated and excluded from opportunities in the "legitimate" world of the mainstream, their children were susceptible to joining, or forming, street gangs in the years following the end of World War Two, and into the 1950's.Top, left to right:
Anti-Irish propaganda by the Ku Klux Klan, 1926.
Ku Klux Klan Anti-Italian and Anti-Catholic propaganda, circa 1920's.
Americans of Irish and Italian descent may have been European, but they were often treated as second-class citizens, and viewed with suspicion (due to their practice of the Catholic faith) by the American mainstream.Bottom, left to right: 1943 debate over the repealing of the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
1955 coverage of the previous year's (1954) "Operation Wetback," in which approximately 1,074,277 Mexican migrants, many of whom were actually U.S. citizens, were "deported" back to Mexico.
Source: Newspapers.com.
As an example of this “difference,” when John F. Kennedy was elected president in 1960, in addition to his youth, another aspect that many Americans found “unique” or even “novel” (and for some, “offensive”) was that he was an Irish Catholic American president.
On the East Coast, the primary, though certainly not exclusive, ethnic makeup of the teenage street gang was Italian, Puerto Rican, African American, and Irish.
Their ages generally ranged from 14 to 18.
The Fordham Daggers and The East Harlem Red Wings (Italian), The Mau Maus and The Egyptian Kings (Puerto Rican), The Chaplains and The Sportsmen (African-American), and The Jesters and The Norsemen (primarily, though later, not exclusively, Irish) would have been examples of 1950‘s teen gangs from New York.
The violent, and often fatal, conflicts of these specific gangs would garner national attention in the pages of The New York Times, The New York Daily News, and Life magazine. United Press International would also cover their stories, which would be reprinted in various local newspapers around the country.
Sources: UPI/San Francisco Chronicle, August 31, and Life, September 7. Both articles are from 1959.
On the West Coast, along with Italian, Irish, and African American, the ethnic composition of teen gangs also included both the children of Mexican immigrants and the children of Chinese-American working-class families.
Los Bandidos, Los Gavilanes, and The Latin Quarters would have been examples of primarily Mexican-American youth gangs during that time, with the first two from San Francisco, and the last from Los Angeles.
Los Gavilanes, a mixed Mexican-American/Puerto Rican gang of teens, would figure prominently in local headlines in The San Francisco Chronicle, both for “rumbles” with other teens, as well as a December 7, 1958 robbery and assault of a 63-year-old retired army sergeant in the Fillmore District, allegedly committed by four of their members. (And, in all fairness, when Las Gavilanes decided to "go social" and renounce violence, they also explained to both The San Francisco Chronicle, and the youth outreach program "Youth For Service," about the motivations and reasons for the rivalries of the various gangs, including their own.)
The Latin Quarters gained both local, and national, notoriety in the pages of The Los Angeles Times, and The United Press International, in 1957. Their feud with The Florence Gang (also Chicano) resulted in several deaths, including a confirmed, "accidental," drive-by shooting of an 18-year-old girl.
The Lonely Ones were an example of a primarily, though not exclusively, Chinese American gang out of San Francisco, many members coming out of Galileo High School, where they apparently had a skirmish with The Junior Jokers, a mixed working class youth gang, sometime between 1958 and 1959. The Lonely Ones are mentioned in several issues of The San Francisco Chronicle. Like Los Gavilanes, they are featured both for alleged violent crime, as well as for working with Youth For Service.
The Savoys would be an example of a 1950‘s African-American teen gang out of San Francisco, specifically Hunter’s Point, where their confirmed, violent encounters with other youth gangs, such as The War Demons, gained local attention in several issues of The San Francisco Chronicle between 1958 to 1961. Another 1950's-era African-American teen gang out of the Bay Area would include The Sheiks, who's club jacket is pictured below, in the gallery of West Coast youth gangs of the 1950's and early 1960's.
For close ups, click on each picture.
West Coast Mobs...'50's Style:
California, particularly San Francisco, Oakland, and Los Angeles, had it's own teen gang culture that was comparable to, though also distinct from, that of New York. San Francisco street gangs, however, garnered more local, rather than national attention, though the Bay Area had it's own share of shootings, stabbings, beatings, and robberies committed by minors, as reported in The San Francisco Chronicle and The San Francisco Examiner. (And I should add, backed by existing court documents provided by The California Archive.)Los Angeles, however, did receive national coverage in late 1957, with the drive-by shooting death of 18-year-old Emily Guzman (see both the chapter on "Weapons," as well as the end chapter on "Barts and White Shoes" for more in-depth information on both California street gangs, and teen gun violence, in the 1950's, respectively.)
A teenager in an inner city, who generally didn’t do well in school (for a variety of reasons), and came from a working-class family, could be a likely candidate for gang membership.
An inner-city teen whose family was not only financially struggling, but also had to deal with racial discrimination, could also, potentially, consider joining a gang.
A boy who lived in a single parent household in the inner city, because his father had been killed during World War Two or The Korean War, or had abandoned the family due to financial struggles, could also find a sense of “meaning” and “belonging” in a street gang.
And of course, a kid who simply needed protection from bullying by a gang in a crowded and impoverished inner-city neighborhood would find protection by joining a rival gang.
These were rough kids in a rough environment.
If school couldn’t, or wouldn’t, allow these kids to feel a sense of accomplishment, or belonging, the gang could.
The gang also represented a way for these impoverished kids to gain prestige.
In an environment where financial prospects were few and far between, a sense of self-importance by displays of courage during violent conflicts was one way for a young man to prove his “manhood,” to display that he had “heart.”
Nestor Llamas, who had been a member of a 1950's-era Puerto Rican youth gang known as "The Simpson Street Boys," related these feelings for the History Channel’s documentary on gangs.
Llamas stated, “I felt that I was a part of something bigger.”
In the end, a lot of these kids joined gangs because they were poor, and gang fighting, at that specific time in their lives, was a way for them to show that they mattered.
In the introduction, I mentioned the 1962 book, “The Violent Gang,” based on studies with New York youth gangs. I am bringing it up again, because of it's title.
Though an excellent resource, I think a more accurate title could have been “The Prestige Gang.”
Prestige, their “rep,” along with a sense of belonging, were the main reasons why these kids joined the gangs.
“Rep” and proving that they had “heart” (courage and loyalty) for their “brothers” (fellow gang members) were what these kids fought for.And they fought for the protection of their “turf,” the few square blocks of their neighborhood that was “their” territory to “protect” from “invasions” from other gangs. Sometimes, those invasions were real, as when kids from other neighborhoods would come in to physically assault the local kids either for “kicks” (fun) or to steal from them.
They were all poor kids who had to literally fight for what little resources were available.
To them, “turf” and “rep” were all that they had, and they often died in defense of both.
This map, detailing the "turf" of various New York gangs, appeared in the June 15, 1954 issue of The New York Daily News. The map was actually incomplete, as there were many more gangs in the area that were not listed here.
Walking The Walk And Talking The Talk -
(The quote was derived from a line in a June 1921 Ohio newspaper describing a watchmaker who gave the impression of being a brave hero.)
Glossary of New York gang slang, from the 1959handbook"Reaching The Fighting Gang," by The New York City Youth Board, a gang outreach organization.
Youth gangs of the 1950‘s, like any teen subculture, had their own language, style, rituals, and even mindset.
The language of 1950‘s youth gangs was a combination of phrases inspired by African-American based Jazz and Rock n’ Roll music colloquialisms, as illustrated above.
These were mixed in with World War Two-era inspired terminology. (Perhaps “bastardization” or “corruption” might be a more accurate description for the colloquialisms used by these gangs.)
From African-American music culture, the terms “bopping” or “bop,” as well as “swinging,” “swing,” and “jitterbugging,” all terms that originally referred to partnered swing dancing based on the Lindy Hop, became terms used in inner-city gang culture to signify “fighting” (and various forms of fighting, at that.)
One thing that we should get out of the way now is the term “gang.”
During this time period, “gang” or “gangs” was a term used by the adult mainstream (the press, teachers, parents, religious leaders, politicians) as well as “straight” teens who were not a part of gang culture.
The gangs themselves hardly ever used the term “gang.”
They usually referred to themselves, and each other, as “clubs.” (As related earlier, this has led to confusion between these gangs and the similarly attired teen social clubs and car or hot rod clubs.)
To signify their distinction from clubs that had gone “social,” the fighting gangs referred to themselves as “bopping clubs.” For our purposes, and for most of the remainder of this blog, the New York inner city youth gangs that engaged in intergang conflict for the “protection” of their “turf” (area that the gang members claimed as “theirs”) shall now be referred to as “bopping clubs.”
Alternatively, San Francisco-based fighting gangs shall usually be referred to as “jacket clubs.”These distinct terms are locally based.
New York gangs of the 1950's often referred to each other in press interviews as “bopping clubs,” but I have not found that term used in interviews with San Francisco-based youth gangs of the same time period. I have found instances where San Francisco gang members, interviewed by the gang outreach program “Youth For Service,” referred to each other as “jacket clubs," though another term that they often used was "Barts."
That term, along with "White Shoes," both of which referred to distinct sub-cultures of Bay Area 1950's teens, is explored in depth in the chapter on "Barts and White Shoes," near the end of this blog. A third subculture of 1950's teen street culture from San Francisco, "Muns," is also mentioned in interviews, but further information was unavailable at the time of this writing. Pachucos, a sub-culture of Latino teens, left over from the 1940's "Zoot Suit Riots" era, did continue in both Los Angeles and San Francisco into the 1950's, and that is also explored further in the end chapter on San Francisco gangs.
The slang terms sampled above from The New York City Youth Board’s handbook are primarily examples from the influence of African-American music culture.
The military-influenced terms used by the bopping clubs include the notorious (and racially inspired) “jap,” which refers to a surprise raid by a few members of one club into another clubs turf. The idea was to get in quickly, cause as much physical damage to a rival club’s members in ambush fashion, then get out of the turf quickly before getting caught. The term is obviously a reference to the raid by Imperial Japanese air and naval forces upon the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941, which propelled America’s entry into World War Two.
The term is confirmed by Nestor Llamas in a History Channel interview for the documentary “Gangs: A Secret History,” and is included in the excerpt below from Harrison Salisbury's 1957 non-fiction book "The Shook Up Generation" (and to add authenticity, it was later used in Evan Hunter's fictional "A Matter Of Conviction," published in 1959.)
Source: "The Shook Up Generation," Harrison Salisbury, 1957.
Other military influenced terms used by the “bopping clubs” included references to “squads” of different distinctions (“suicide squads,” “garrison belt squads”) and “divisions.”
Structure of the New York-based bopping clubs were along pseudo-militaristic fashion, with grandiose sounding titles that elevated the status of these working class adolescents. “President,” “vice president,” “war lord,” “war counselor,” and “emissaries” were just some of the examples that can be found in the press, court documents, and gang outreach notes. It was very common for these kids to introduce both themselves, and each other, to adult authorities by their titles in the clubs.
These “official” titled introductions would both amuse, and shock, law enforcement, the press, and local officials when these kids’ names were given in official contexts. (Judge Irwin Davidson, presiding over the Michael Farmer murder case in 1957, was taken aback when 16-year-old murder suspect Louis Alvarez, under oath, referred to himself as the “warlord” of the allied Egyptian Kings and Dragons clubs.)
The "Look," Street-Wise "Fashion Sense" in the 1950's Gang World
Click on each photo below for close ups.
Top:
Garrison belt ad, 1957, part of a "Mess Sergeant Play Set."
Bottom, left to right:
Bates shoes ad, 1959.
Chino tapered-style pants ad, 1957.
Boy's hat ad, 1959.Source: Newspapers.com.
The “uniforms” of the gangs gave unity and furthered their sense of belonging, both to the bopping club, and to the street culture.
Of course, there was the Hollywood stereotype of the leather jacket, blue jeans, t-shirt, and motorcycle boots, made famous by Marlon Brando in 1953‘s “The Wild One,” and also worn by the fictional “Wheels” gang led by Corey Allen in the James Dean vehicle “Rebel Without A Cause” (1955.)
Some boppers certainly did dress in that manner.
Angel Luis Velez, the teenage “author” of the threatening letter, sent to the Spanish-language New York newspaper El Diario, promising a gang "war" on the New York Police Department if members of The Egyptian Kings and Dragons were prosecuted (and executed) in the Michael Farmer case, is seen wearing that style in the 1958 photograph pictured below in the gallery.
However, like most “nostalgic” recollections of the 1950‘s, the popular stereotype of the leather jacket and blue jeans overshadows a much more diverse and varied reality. The Marlon Brando Hollywood-inspired look was simply one, of many varied ways that members of bopping clubs dressed.
Some boppers dressed very “stylishly,” with tapered slacks (such as Chinos, pictured below), dress shirts, thin ties, and overcoats. Central Harlem African-American bopping clubs of the mid-1950‘s even took to wearing grey flannel dress suits, in imitation of the similarly dressed “Madison Avenue Mad-Men” (as featured in that AMC historical drama.)
A fedora or stingy brim hat, with sunglasses, finished that “high classed gangster” look.
Bopping clubs who sported a “high class” fashion sense (that was completely the opposite of the Hollywood jeans and leather jacket stereotype) included The Viceroys, The Robins, The Young Stars, The Beavers, The Tiny Tims, and The Brownsville Black Hats.
There actually were two Hollywood movies from this time period that accurately portrayed this alternative “sharp” fashion sense. The first was 1959's "Cry Tough," starring the late John Saxon and Linda Cristal, and the second was 1961‘s “The Young Savages,” both of which will be covered in the later chapter on "JD" movies and novels.
Garrison belts were a popular, and functional, fashion accessory. The buckles were often sharpened and used as weapons when swung. (Hence the term “garrison squad,” which were “units” of club members specifically armed with these belts.)
Chino pants were (and still are) a straight leg trouser that are pegged at the bottom. They were popular with teenage boys of that time, both by members of the bopping clubs, as well as by the "civilian" non-gang teens. Boppers liked the tapered or "pegged" slacks and trousers for their “stylish” look. Other boppers took to the (cheaper) slim Levis for the same reason.
Big Ben trousers were also a favorite brand of pants in the 1950's, particularly in San Francisco. Members of the embroidered jacket wearing gang culture of San Francisco that most resembled the Hollywood stereotype of the "juvenile-delinquent" were referred to as “barts” during this time, and the wearing of Big Ben trousers was one way that they were identified by that term.
Bates floaters also emphasized a fancy “sharp” look, in regards to footwear, which contrasts to the stereotypical motorcycle boots (which some boppers did indeed wear, especially for "stomping," kicking an opponent when he's down.) Bates floaters, on the other hand, were made of soft leather. According to Ed Bielcik, a former member of The Sinners, they were "Lousy for stomping...great for running like hell!"
Bopping fashions served a psychological and a practical function.
As the children of the working class, dressing stylishly announced to the world that they “made it” and that they were important (at least within the context of the gang world.)
Also, in some cases, sharpened articles of clothing, such as the garrison belt, were actually used as weapons.
Even the stereotypical leather jacket served a functional use for the bopping club, a use that was lost on the upper-middle class teens who later, as a fad, imitated and appropriated the look as a mild form of “rebellion” against the adult world.
Apparently, these black leather motorcycle jackets deflected knife cuts.
The Hollywood stereotype of "The Juvenile Delinquent." Marlon Brando popularized the look of the leather jacket, jeans, and motorcycle boots in 1953's "The Wild One." Actually, he played a young adult leader of a biker gang, loosely based on an incident, blown out of proportion in the press, that occurred in Hollister, California in 1947. Though the character of "Johnny" wasn't a teenager, teens quickly adopted the "uniform" of the leather jacket and jeans in imitation of the film as a sign of "rebelliousness." This included both middle class teens who wanted to "look tough" (but weren't really "gang members") as well as, occasionally, members of real "bopping clubs." (From my personal collection.)
The fad by 1950's-era middle-class teens for dressing up like a juvenile delinquent "rebel" in order to "look cool" was nothing new, or even exclusive, to the 1950's. (There are upper-middle class teens today, who both dress up, and affect the speech pattern, of inner-city hip-hop culture.)
However, as we'll see later, this "posing" and appropriation by the youth of the middle class often confused, and even frightened(!), many adults, particularly authority figures, during the 1950's.The black leather jacket and blue jeans worn by Marlon Brando in “The Wild One” and James Dean’s opponents in “Rebel Without A Cause” were also, occasionally, worn by middle class teenagers, as a fad inspired by the movies.
These were teens who never formerly belonged to a true bopping club (i.e., a teen organization that patrolled their “turf” and engaged in “rumbles.”)
However, since these were what mainstream adults, at that time, perceived to be the clothing of the bopping club, many adults in positions of authority were convinced that “juvenile delinquency” was a threat, seeping out of the inner-city, and into their middle-class suburban neighborhoods.
Simultaneously, those upper middle-class, non-gang teens (who appropriated one aspect of clothing worn by bopping clubs) experienced their parents’ or teachers’ “paranoid” fears, and, into their adulthood, “remembered” the “irrational hysteria” of juvenile-delinquency of the 1950‘s, especially in connection to rock music culture.
In other words, boththe adults and teenagers of the upper middle-class mistook, and overestimated, the significance of the surface aesthetics of gang culture, in their own ways.
This is one reason why, if talking to most individuals in their 70‘s or 80‘s today, assuming that they grew up in either affluent neighborhoods, or at least, away from inner city “slum” areas, will often say, with moral authority, that the “juvenile delinquent hysteria” of the 1950‘s was “all hype.” They are essentially remembering the then-adult world’s reaction to their own mild form of “rebellion” in music and clothing.
However, that still doesn’t explain how they can forget the actual inner-city gang tragedies that captured national headlines at that time.
One senior citizen in my fitness class who I spoke to stated that “we didn’t read the news back then.”
However, a quick glance at the letters section of teen magazines of that time period (‘Teen, 16, Hepcats, Seventeen, etc.) show that the middle-class teen readers of those magazines, at least, certainly were familiar with the gang conflicts from New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles that garnered national headlines.
As previously mentioned, boppers took much of their slang from African American jazz and rock n’ roll music culture.
They also took much of that “cool,” “hip,” (or "bad") attitude as well.
That mindset was reflected in "The Bop Walk,” a way of walking that displayed bravado, a “hip” attitude. "The Bop Walk" showed how "bad" a bopper was, while also saying “I don’t give a fuck.” (Exact quote.)
The modern mainstream “nostalgia” approach to the 1950‘s looks back, vaguely, at “cool” with a fond, “innocent” remembrance. That sanitized look at “Fifties cool” forgets, or intentionally leaves out, the cold, aggressive mindset that always implied a threat, a promise of physical assault, without hesitation, at the slightest insult to a gang bopper’s “manhood.”
That threat was not always limited to fists, as some nostalgics assert.
Ramon Serra, a leader in The Egyptian Kings, shot 17-year-old Michael "Pee Wee" Ramos, one of the witnesses called by the state in the Michael Farmer killing.
It was discovered, however, that the killing was based on Ramos’ having given a "disrespectful,“ dirty look to Serra, and had nothing to do with the case.
As for "The Bop Walk” itself, it was an expression of that “cool” mindset that took no disrespect, whether real or imagined (and to the unfortunate and fatal "lesson" for Michael Ramos.)
"The Bop Walk" was done slowly, chest out, hands down and slowly swaying back, with the chin up, eyes in an almost half closed “sleepy” look, and sometimes accompanied with a slow, grinding or chewing action with the teeth.
While walking slowly, the feet moved in a steady, almost musical rhythm.
Some modern day “gang bangers” affect this walk today, though they no longer have a name for it.
In a way, “The Bop Walk” is similar to the “chest puffing” that some young men do when challenging each other. Perhaps, “The Bop Walk” was a way of challenging the entire world inhabited by the bopping club.
He was a "bad dude."
20-year-old Ramon Serra (mistakenly printed in the UPI article above as being a "16-year-old triggerman") is hauled away after shooting 17-year-old gang rival Michael "Pee Wee" Ramos with a shotgun for giving him "a dirty look." Apparently, Serra's 14-year-old girlfriend aided the police in his capture. (Perhaps he was a little too "bad" for her taste!)
One thing that can be said for Serra, he kept his "cool" in front of the cameras as he was being charged. (He even managed to smile for the press.)
Weapons
Source: Newspapers.com.
To say that "juvenile-delinquents" of the 1950‘s did not engage in the types of mass shootings as today’s disturbed and violently criminal among the young would be “correct,” but it should be noted that public access to assault weapons was not yet in existence in the 1950‘s.(For example, the AR-15 was developed in the late 1950‘s, but civilian manufacture and use wouldn’t come until 1964, past the timeline of our focus.)
Bopping clubs of the 1950‘s did engage in shootings, both of the “drive-by” type, as well as “up close and personal.” Ramon Serra's 1958 shooting of Michael Ramos was only one example of a relatively common occurrence.
18-year-old Emily Guzman was shot down during the Quarters/Florence gang war in East Los Angeles in 1957. (That incident is included in the earlier gallery a few chapters before this one, titled "West Coast Mobs...1950's Style.")
Like Guzman, 15-year-old Theresa Gee was also "accidentally" gunned down during the Sportsmen/Forsyth Street Boys gang war that occurred in New York's Lower East Side in the summer of 1959.
17-year-old Raul Baruchi of The Untouchables gang was shot down during a 1959 three-way gang war between The Untouchables, The Latin Gents, and The Viceroys.
An example of a teenage gang shooter who garnered local notoriety in the press of his area would be 14-year-old Clement Macis of Chicago, Illinois. Upon his arrest, he admitted to firing a shotgun at his gang rivals from a speeding car during the summer of 1955.
Clippings and articles of those incidents, via Newsbank, are included in the gallery below (click on each image to enlarge.)
David Van Pelt, author of "Brooklyn Rumble", notes that the article above is in error regarding the weapon used in the shooting. Rather than being an altered toy rifle, it was in fact, a Remington Nylon 66 .22 caliber rifle. These details are according to Assistant D.A. Reynolds, identified by NYPD property clerk voucher No. 59419394.
Visit David's site (and buy his excellent book!) at http://newyorkcitygangs.com/?page_id=2481.
However, the most "famous" (or infamous) of specifically youth gang members who engaged in gun violence would probably be 19-year-old Robert Arthur Ranson, 1952's "San Francisco Civic Center Shooter" (as some headlines dubbed him) for wounding three and killing two members of a rival gang with a .45 Colt automatic, following an annual dance in San Francisco's Civic Center.Sentenced to life at San Quentin after the state initially asked for the death penalty, Mr. Ranson bears the dubious distinction of being the only San Francisco Bay Area "juvenile-delinquent" to gain national "recognition," as he was included in a January 27, 1953 article in Look magazine titled "Teenage Killers...Who's To Blame?"
Below are samples of the articles on Ranson's case. Samples include two local San Francisco Bay Area articles from the summer of 1952, featured in The San Francisco Chronicle and The San Francisco Examiner respectively, as well as the issue of Look magazine, the following year.
"(As a kid) I remember crouching behind the hedges that bordered the plaza at that time. And I think I remember a .45 auto being found about 50 feet from where we were. Several ambulances arrived pretty quick. They only had to go about a half block to Central Emergency. Happened so fast. We got out of there pronto. I always remember those two girls going to the action. Even at our early age, I was scared for them. But....it was typical of them. Not sure either made it to my age." -
The statement above was by Phil Ward, former San Francisco police officer, who, as a teenager, attended the 1952 Butcher's Ball, the scene of the shooting incident committed by Robert Arthur Ranson.
Firearms that were favored by the bopping clubs included shotguns and hunting rifles, .22 caliber pistols (often obtained at nearby military surplus or munitions dumps, either through back alley deals or theft), as well as the infamous “zip gun,” homemade or machine shop-made contraptions which utilized car aerials or door bolts, and were often as deadly to the shooter, as well as to the intended target, due to the inferior materials and lack of rifling. (The picture below is from a 1959 article in The Boston Globe.)
Other improvised weapons that were used included home-made knuckle dusters fashioned from garbage can handles, various sticks and pipes, baseball bats, and chains.
According to Patrick Coonen, president of The Junior Jokers club out of Candlestick Cove in San Francisco, a “Sunday bar” was a popular weapon among Bay Area clubs. It was a round cylinder made of steel, manufactured, like the zip gun, at school machine shops (when the teacher wasn’t looking.) It was an impact weapon that had the same effect as brass knuckles.
As previously mentioned, sharpened Garrison belt buckles, swung from the belt, made for a whip-like, cutting weapon. Garrison belts were also used, in some clubs, as part of the initiation into the clubs. This was related to Lewis Yablonsky in interviews with members, under testimony during the Michael Farmer murder trial, and is separately mentioned in Harlan Ellison’s semi-autobiographical work “Memos From Purgatory.”
Close up on each article below for close ups.
Stylish And Practical (Practically Deadly), The Garrison Belt:
The garrison belt, previously mentioned and pictured in the chapter on gang style, also served as a weapon. The buckles would be sharpened to razor's edge and swung from the belt. The sharpened belts were so effective as weapons, that New York City officials and law enforcement sought to ban them.
Source: The New York Daily News, August 26 and 27, 1957.
One exceptionally frightening weapon that the boppers of New York used was a molotov cocktail, a lighted piece of cloth embedded into the opening of a bottle of vodka or some other alcoholic drink, or a bottle filled with some sort of flammable liquid. Some boppers would throw these and other crude incendiary “devices” at each other, such as during the Assassins/Sinners gang war of late summer 1959.
However, the one weapon that has become identified with 1950's-era street gangs is the switchblade knife.The switchblade became iconic, and it's association with the 1950's "juvenile delinquent" was made famous in Hollywood “JD” films such as 1955‘s “Blackboard Jungle” and “Rebel Without A Cause,” as well as the 1957 Broadway play (and 1961 movie adaptation) “West Side Story."The switchblade, however, was not the only edged weapon utilized by the gang bopper.
Other edged weapons that they used included the gravity knife (the blade coming out with a snapping-down-of-the-wrist motion), bayonets (again, obtained from nearby military surplus and munitions dumps), machetes, and bread knives. (15-year-old Michael Farmer was actually stabbed with a bread knife during that 1957 murder, while being hacked with both sharpened garrison belts and chains.)
Since teenagers who joined or formed 1950's bopping clubs were from impoverished inner-city neighborhoods, their weapons reflected the improvised nature of their arsenals.
Unlike the adult gangster of 1920's Prohibition-era Chicago, who obtained automatic weapons (the Thompon's sub-machine gun) via bribed or blackmailed government contacts, teen gang members of the 1950's, lacking those resources, had to make do with whatever they could get their hands on.
In a lot of ways, their weapons are comparable to what modern day prisoners create while incarcerated.
The Iconic Weapon of The '50's "Juvenile Delinquent," The Switchblade Knife:
Dating back to the 19th Century as a utility knife, it was adopted by inner-city gangs due to the fact that they were relatively cheap to purchase, widely available at the time, and can be easily concealed and drawn quickly.
Newspapers, such as the above excerpt of an article from the March 28, 1954 issue of The Brooklyn Eagle, covered New York state laws that were enacted to prevent the sale and distribution of switchblades.
A “fair one” was an agreed-upon, one-on-one, bare-fisted encounter, with one member from each club specifically chosen to represent each side.
To this end, bopping club members often had some sort of hand-to-hand fight training.
In the 1950‘s, martial-arts instruction books, such as Josh Cosneck’s “American Combat Judo” could be purchased via mail order from comic book ads.
Frank Smith, a 1960‘s American tournament karate champion and contemporary of Chuck Norris, stated in the January 1984 issue of Black Belt magazine that as a teenager in the 1950‘s, he started learning karate to give him an edge during gang fights with rival Los Angeles-area Latino gangs.
Rusty Kanokogi (born Rena Glickman), a pioneer in women’s judo, had been exposed to the martial art and combat sport while leading the debs auxiliary to The Apaches out of Coney Island.However, the favorite combat sport of the 1950's bopping club member who wished to gain proficiency in fighting skill was, undoubtedly, boxing.
Boxing lessons were a popular attraction for boppers who (ironically) participated in “anti-gang” athletic activities provided by YMCA-sponsored outreach programs, which are pictured in the gallery below. Boxing champion Floyd Patterson, who ran with a bopping club in the early 1950‘s, gained his initial training via such a program.
Combat sports were popular in the 1950's and '60's, though the existence of strip mall, chain studios for martial-arts instruction was still in it's infancy.
For close-ups, click on the articles below.
Training For A "Fair One":Various news articles between 1956 and 1957 regarding inner city boxing and general sports programs (with boxing included) for teens. Also included in the gallery is a YMCA inner city judo program for teens, as well as a comic book ad for Josh Cosneck's "American Combat Judo," authored in 1944, but still available for mail-order purchase well into the 1950's. (Martial-arts based book instruction via comic books were aimed specifically at pre-teen and teenage boys.)
Sources: Newspapers.com and comicbookplus.com.
Lewis Yablonsky, author of 1962‘s “The Violent Gang” (as mentioned earlier, a reference source for much of the New York gang information), relates that when he ran his gang outreach program in the mid-1950‘s, one of the major attractions for The Balkans and the rival Villains was the weight lifting program.
Weight lifting as an activity for members of a club was also mentioned by author Harlan Ellison in his semi-biographical work “Memos From Purgatory.”
Boppers often had no compunction about using numbers to take down a victim, but to assume that they were “cowardly” as the main reason for the tactic would be incorrect.
Also, though it would be absurd to assume that all boppers had formal fight training, to assume that they were all “ill trained hoods” is also a mistake, as the training was there, and often free of charge. Though certainly, many of them did not take advantage of the services offered by a qualified boxing or judo coach, a number of them (with Floyd Patterson and Rena Glickman being the most notable) did.
Boppers were “brave” in the physical sense, and often, they had the physicality to “back it up.”
The following definitions of the different types of gang fighting is repeated from an interview with “Duke,” leader of The Balkans, as told to Lewis Yablonsky during an interview conducted sometime between 1954 to 1955, and printed in his 1962 book, "The Violent Gang."
Additional information is outlined from issues of The New York Daily News, The New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, and interviews with former members of individual Bay Area clubs.
Interested readers should also read Eric C. Schenider’s “Vampires, Dragons, and Egyptian Kings (pictured below, next to "The Violent Gang") and David Van Pelt’s “Brooklyn Rumble” (which can be purchased by clicking on the title.)
Stomping: A spontaneous attack by a small group of members, 3 or 4, on one person. What makes this type of attack unsettling (well, all physical attacks by their nature are unsettling to begin with) is that the victim doesn’t have to be from a rival gang. He (or she) could be an innocent bystander, such as 23-year-old Julio Ramos, who was beaten to death in New York’s Jefferson Park by the Red Wings in 1958. Sometimes, the victim of a “stomping” could even be a member of the same gang, presumably, one who was at the bottom of the pecking order.
Japping: As previously mentioned, to “jap” was to launch a quick, surprise, raid into enemy “turf” (territory) conducted by a small number of members, again, either 3 or 4 at most. The idea was to get in and out quickly, and to inflict as much damage, without getting caught. The word itself is a racially derived euphemism, referencing the Pearl Harbor attack by Imperial Japanese air and naval forces on December 7, 1941.
Bopping: A skirmish, or spontaneous clash between two gangs who may not necessarily be “at war” with each other. The numbers can be small or large. An analogy from the mainstream, “straight” world would be an armed military border skirmish between two countries that aren’t necessarily at war with each other. "Bopping" is an example of a slang term appropriated by the gangs from then-contemporaneous music culture, since the term itself was used by mainstream teenagers (the ones who had no connection to street-gangs whatsoever) to signify dancing toRock n' Roll music.
Rumble: The most famous of all 1950‘s-era gang conflicts, made famous in “West Side Story.” This is a formal battle, with as many members of each club present. Prior to the rumble, rules of engagement would be formally outlined and negotiated between leaders of each club, usually by the “warlords,” under supervision of the “presidents” and “vice presidents” or “second in command.” The formal battle could be with or without weapons, and usually took place at parks (Prospect Park in New York was a “popular” site) or any place that was least likely to attract attention by the authorities, such as under highway overpasses or alleys. Summer was when the occurrence of rumbles seemed to increase in New York. (According to Patrick Coonen, Sundays were favored days for rumbles in the San Francisco Bay Area.)
* Additional term, not sourced from Lewis Yablonsky's "The Violent Gang," but rather, sourced from an interview with Percy Pinkney, president of the San Francisco fighting gang The Aces (not to be confused with the Southern California hot rod club from the same time period), as quoted from the November 21, 1959 issue of The San Francisco Chronicle -
Rat Packing: "When a group of youths from one gang 'jump' one or two members from another 'club.'" (Exact quote. That article is included in it's entirety in the chapter on gang motivations and origins, "Ratpacking," earlier in this blog.)
In regards to the terminology listed above, and theslang mentioned throughout the blog, it is important to remember that much of it is regional.
"Rat packing" is a term that was used by 1950's gangs in San Francisco, but in all likelihood, was not used in New York.
Conversely, "japping" was a term used by members of New York "bopping clubs" in the 1950's, but that term would have been unfamiliar to San Francisco "bart" and "white shoe" street teens of the same time period.
"A Matter Of Conviction":
Front and back covers to the 1961 reissue of Evan Hunter's (Salvatore Lombino's) 1959 novel "A Matter Of Conviction." This reissue was a tie-in to the movie adaptation, "The Young Savages," released as a "test" by United Artists to gauge movie audience's interest in teen-crime themes for films, as that company's adaptation of "West Side Story" was due out later in the year.
See the chapter on the Hollywood image of street gangs, later in this blog, for more information. (I will also be doing a retrospective on "The Young Savages" on my You Tube channel. Updates on that upcoming project can be found on that channel, by clicking on the picture of the novel above.)
From my personal collection.
In Evan Hunter’s 1959 crime novel, “A Matter Of Conviction,” when referring to a time before official conflict with a rival Puerto Rican gang, an Italian-American gang leader tells the investigating district attorney, “What, do you think, we fight all the time? Man, don’t you think we got anything better to do?”
Members of bopping clubs certainly didn’t fight all the time.
Lewis Yablonski mentioned one gang member who would come to the club hangout of The Balkans (located in a small abandoned tenement cellar) just to get some sleep. Apparently, this teenager would be “hassled” at home by his abusive father, and would get kicked out of hallways and parks when simply trying to rest. The club hangout actually gave him a chance to lie down, undisturbed.
Bopping club members joined to release anger and to “prove” themselves in high stress, physical confrontations. Gang outreach workers knew this, and attempted to channel the member’s varying degrees of physical prowess into athletics. Baseball, basketball, and (of course) boxing were popular sports activities among bopping club members.
One personal annoyance that I have with the 1978 movie “Grease” (and I have many annoyances with that particular show) is that it implies that bopping clubs were not only opposed to athletics, but were even incompetent at them. (For instance, John Travolta’s “Danny Zucko” is completely unfamiliar with baseball, which is absurd, considering that baseball was a personal favorite sport among inner-city gang members of the 1950's.)
In reality, athletics were generally a very familiar and popular past time among boppers.
Patrick Coonen, who I interviewed for insight into San Francisco jacket clubs, had set the city’s 440 relay track record in 1958 at Kezar Stadium. This was during the time that he was also the acting club president of The Junior Jokers.
David Van Pelt noted that members of The Mau Maus also excelled at both baseball and boxing.
As boppers were often (though not exclusively) run along ethnic lines, athletic superstars of the time period, of specific ethnic backgrounds, were often “heroes” to the boys.
“Sugar” Ray Robinson was an example of a boxing hero to African-American boppers, while Rocky Marciano had the same role model function to Italian-American boppers. The same would have been true of baseball stars of the time, such as Willie Mays and Yogi Berra.
The exploits of all four athletes are pictured and briefly described below, in the gallery.
Sports Heroes Of
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London bombings of 2005, coordinated suicide bomb attacks on the London transit system on the morning of July 7, 2005. At 8:50 AM explosions tore through three trains on the London Underground, killing 39. An hour later 13 people were killed when a bomb detonated on the upper deck of a bus in Tavistock Square.
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Encyclopedia Britannica
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https://www.britannica.com/event/London-bombings-of-2005
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London bombings of 2005, coordinated suicide bomb attacks on the London transit system on the morning of July 7, 2005. At 8:50 am explosions tore through three trains on the London Underground, killing 39. An hour later 13 people were killed when a bomb detonated on the upper deck of a bus in Tavistock Square. More than 700 people were injured in the four attacks.
The four bombers—characterized as “ordinary British citizens” in the subsequent investigation—carried out the attacks by using inexpensive readily available materials. These factors made advance detection of the plot by authorities extremely unlikely and forced a sea change in British counterterrorism policy, which was previously focused on foreign threats. On the morning of the attack, three of the bombers traveled from Leeds, the site of the suspected bomb-making “factory,” to Luton, where they joined the fourth bomber. The group, now carrying backpacks filled with explosives, boarded a train to London’s King’s Cross station. About 8:30 am the attackers entered King’s Cross station and split up, boarding east- and westbound trains on the Circle Line and a southbound train on the Piccadilly Line. Twenty minutes later, simultaneous explosions struck trains at Russell Square (killing 26 and injuring more than 340), Aldgate (killing 7 and injuring more than 170), and Edgware Road (killing 6 and injuring more than 160). The fourth bomber then exited the Underground station and eventually boarded a crowded bus en route to Hackney. He detonated his device, an estimated 10 pounds (4.5 kg) of high explosive, at Tavistock Square, killing 13 and injuring more than 100.
The response to the attacks was immediate. The entire Underground system in central London was closed, and investigators swept the area for forensic evidence. Additionally, some 6,000 hours of closed-circuit television footage were examined in an effort to construct a timeline of the morning’s events. The day after the bombings, Prime Minister Tony Blair declared, “There is no hope in terrorism nor any future in it worth living. And it is hope that is the alternative to this hatred.” By July 16 police had publicly released the names of the four bombers, all of whom were killed in the attacks, and the investigation shifted to uncovering possible accomplices and motives.
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https://www.alexandriava.gov/historic-alexandria/the-history-of-alexandria-discovering-the-decades
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The History of Alexandria: Discovering the Decades
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These historical summaries place Alexandria’s history in a wider perspective.
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City of Alexandria, VA
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https://www.alexandriava.gov/historic-alexandria/the-history-of-alexandria-discovering-the-decades
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Points in Time
1585: First attempt at settlement of a Roanoke Island colony
1603: Elizabeth I dies
1608: John Smith explores the Potomac
1613: First tobacco shipped from Jamestown to England
1616: William Shakespeare dies
1618: Charter of Grants and Liberties establishes self-government in Virginia
1619: First African slaves brought to Jamestown
1622: Indian attacks all along the James River valley
1624: Virginia becomes a royal colony
1647: George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends, begins ministry
1649: King Charles I executed
1653: Oliver Cromwell named “Lord Protector”
1655: Readmission of Jews to England
1660: Restoration of the monarchy
1666: Great Fire of London
1667: John Milton’s Paradise Lost published
1675-76: Virginia war with Susquehannock Indians
1676-77: Bacon’s Rebellion
1678: John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress published
1688: Glorious Revolution
1689-98: King William’s War
1690: John Locke’s Treatises on Civil Government published
1693: College of William and Mary founded
1699: Virginia capital moved to Williamsburg
1703-13: Queen Anne’s War
1727: George I becomes King
As a colony, Virginia's early history was inextricably tied to events in Great Britain. At such a distance on a sparsely settled continent however, its interests and development quickly diverged from those of its mother country.
Politics
Virginia grew increasingly self-governing. Complaints of restrictive rule by the Virginia Company led to the Company's 1618 approval of a Charter of Grants and Liberties, which made the colony's government subject to the popular will as expressed through a representative legislature, the House of Burgesses. It was far from universal suffrage, however, as women, African slaves and landless whites had no say in politics. As a royal colony after 1624, Virginia generally enjoyed benign neglect, except with regard to the collection of the King's revenues. Even the period of the English Civil War and the Commonwealth (1642-1660), which shook England to its foundations, left the Old Dominion relatively unscathed. In fact, most Virginians remained loyal to the monarchy during Cromwell's rule (one reason why so many latter-day Virginians would claim descent from the Cavaliers).
War and Rebellion
Except for occasional scares and the depression of trade, England's numerous wars with France, Spain and Holland did not greatly affect the sparsely populated Virginia colony. Because of its distance from Canada and Florida, however, Virginia remained relatively uninvolved even during the colonial "King William's War" (1689-1697) and "Queen Anne's War" (1702-1713), the first two of the French and Indian Wars.
Virginia faced other threats that were familiar to her neighbor colonies. The colonists' often harsh treatment of the aboriginal inhabitants – not the least of which was the expropriation of their lands--engendered a great deal of resentment. About a third of the colonists were killed in 1622 during a widespread uprising by the Powhatans and their allies directed at the new plantations and towns. The Indians repeated this successful surprise attack strategy in 1644, killing 300 whites. Retaliations by the Susquehannocks for the murder of five of their leaders in 1676 led to a war between them and the Virginians. One response of the Virginia government was the erection of a string of forts on the frontier. One earthen fort was constructed near the Potomac south of Great Hunting Creek in the vicinity of present-day Belle Haven.
The 1676 war had major repercussions for Virginia politics. Expecting no help from faraway England, the colonists looked to Governor Berkeley. Dissatisfied with Berkeley's indecisive policy, however, and having other grievances, frontiersmen under Nathaniel Bacon carried out a successful campaign against the Indians, then turned their eyes to Jamestown. Bacon, a former member of the governor's council, demanded reforms and ultimately burned the capital. His death, however, led to the collapse of the revolt and a series of executions and confiscations and a repeal of reform measures.
Economics
Many Jamestown colonists realized their dreams of wealth, but in a way unexpected by the founders of the Virginia Company. Tobacco became the backbone of the Virginia economy and its main export soon after the first crop was harvested. To the chronically coin and specie poor colonists, tobacco was literally a cash crop; it became the common medium of exchange. An intricate system of credit increasingly pushed the colonists into debt to English merchants. The source of wealth, the land upon which the "weed" was grown, was not a liquid asset; a family might have extensive holdings, but no pocket money. And planters soon discovered that tobacco quickly exhausted the soil. Rather than take the trouble to rotate crops, many simply moved west toward the Piedmont seeking new, cheap, and fertile parcels, and left the old behind.
Settlement
One of few whites to spend time along the Potomac in the decades after John Smith explored the area was Henry Fleet, a trader with the Indians, who met with some Iroquois at the falls of the Potomac in 1634. White settlement only began to occur a decade later because of the prominent Brent family. Margaret Brent became the first female barrister in America in 1640 and, as a substantial landholder, later unsuccessfully demanded the right to vote in the Maryland assembly (making her the first suffragette in the colonies and arguably the first feminist). After quarreling with Lord Baltimore, Margaret and her brother Giles, who had been an important Maryland official, decided that it would be prudent to move to Virginia. Giles settled on the south side of the Potomac near Aquia Creek, becoming the northernmost white resident of Virginia. In 1654, Margaret Brent received a grant of seven hundred acres around Great Hunting Creek, including the future site of Alexandria. While she did not move to this area, she probably "seated" the patent by having a tenant settle on the parcel.
With the chaos of the mid 1600s, conflicting patents were granted by Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, and Charles II – the latter often as a reward to royalists who had helped restore his throne. Mistress Brent's land was included in a six-thousand-acre grant to Welsh sea captain Robert Howson in 1669. Not knowing of Brent's prior claim, John Alexander, a Stafford County planter, bought out Howson the same year. In an ensuing suit, Alexander's heirs kept the land by indemnifying Brent's estate with 10,500 pounds of tobacco.
While there were probably settlers in the Alexandria area at mid-century (and a temporary fort in the 1670s), the first permanent settlement was established by Simon Pearson on Daingerfield Island (current location of the Washington Sailing Marina, north of Alexandria) in 1696. Indians still inhabited the area at the end of the century. Coarse English earthenwares dating to the last quarter of the seventeenth century, however, have been discovered by Alexandria Archaeology under lower Cameron Street.
By about 1715, much of the area had been cleared and was under tobacco cultivation. At that time, John Summers built a house at Lincolnia, just beyond Alexandria's current western boundary. The Summers family cemetery is located near the intersection of Beauregard Street and Barnum Lane. Summers, who died at the age of 104 in 1790, was a hardy and religious farmer who, with his long recollection of local events, was often later called upon to settle land disputes. In 1719 Edward Chubb, a tenant of Robert Alexander, built a grist mill on Four Mile Run, the first known industrial structure in the area and evidence of significant grain cultivation here at the time. By about 1730, at least four tenants of the Alexanders lived below Four Mile Run in what is now Alexandria.
Architecture
Buildings of the seventeenth century were essentially medieval in construction techniques, plan and massing. The British colonists of the Tidewater generally built timber frame houses on a linear, one-room-deep plan. The most common type of house, known as the "hall and parlor" plan, consisted of only two rooms usually with a loft above. Virginians began to build with brick earlier than the New England colonists, possibly because of the wide availability of suitable clay or because wood frame structures (particularly earth-fast ones) were more susceptible to rot and termite damage in the more humid climate.
Disasters
Settlers brought Old World diseases. The Indians were hit the hardest; thousands died before laying eyes on the whites. The year 1686 was a hard one for native and settler alike; a dreadful epidemic of diphtheria spread through the colony. The new land countered with periodically severe outbreaks of malaria, as in 1687. The year 1667 showed how precarious an agrarian life could be on the margins of empire. That growing season began with "a most prodigious storme of haile, many of them as bigg as turkey eggs," which destroyed most of the grain and even killed hogs and cattle," followed by an exceedingly wet summer and a devastating hurricane which tore apart hundreds of homes and much of the fall harvest of corn and tobacco.
Points in Time
1740: Planned slave revolt uncovered in Prince George's County, Maryland
1740: Fire destroys half of Charleston, South Carolina
1740: Ferry established between Alexandria and the Maryland shore
1740-1748: War of the Austrian Succession
1742: Prince William County is divided and Fairfax County is created
1745: Jacobite Rebellion in Scotland under "Bonnie Prince Charlie"
1747: William Stith publishes The History of the First Discovery and Settlement of Virginia
1749: Alexandria is founded
The 1740s: Alexandria is Born
In a Southern landscape dominated by plantations and farms, the mercantilist Crown, Parliament and colonial governments favored the establishment of settled places as progressive and beneficial – beneficial, that is, mainly to British merchants for encouraging the consumption of manufactured goods. The tobacco inspection system established hamlets accessible by river and road. These, in turn, encouraged new roads and ferries, as planters sought the shortest route to inspection and market. So, in the natural progression of things, many of these small settlements grew into something greater, and a marshy Potomac River tobacco depot became the chartered town of Alexandria.
The 1740s saw a great deal of change locally. The Virginia House passed an act in 1740 calling for a permanent ferry to run across the river between the "Hunting Creek" warehouses on Hugh West's land and Frazier's Point in Prince George's County, Maryland. Five years later, the ferry was permitted to land also at the landing of the Addison family at their Oxon Hill plantation. In 1742, Prince William County was divided, and Fairfax County was established with its seat at Springfield. Having split from Prince William, the new county did not have a true port of its own, so in 1748 inhabitants of Fairfax petitioned the House of Burgesses for the charter of a town at the Hunting Creek warehouse site. The organizers of the petition would have a struggle to gain the approval of their preferred site.
As with the siting of the first tobacco warehouse, there was debate over whether the town should be located near Point West or near the mouth of Great Hunting Creek. The earlier decision appears to have been merely a practical one; this time there were "lobbies" for each site. Those landowners adjacent to the Point West site naturally had plenty to gain from increased trade and land values. But their opponents, who had land bordering the creek, had similar dreams.
In the mid-1740s, John Minor and Colonel John Colville each acquired sizeable tracts of land along Great Hunting Creek from its mouth west to Telegraph Road (formerly known as the Back Road and Colchester Road). Near the Back Road ford they established a tavern (later operated by Richard Moxley). They hoped to establish an alternate point for the inspection and loading of tobacco, a site which would be more convenient and lucrative for them. Presumably to garner support for their project, they named their little settlement "Cameron" in honor of Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax, Baron Cameron, the richest man in the Northern Neck and namesake of the county.
Because the sites were so near each other, the alternatives were mutually exclusive. The government would not permit the unnecessary expenditure of effort and money in a fruitless rivalry. So the contest was all or nothing. Hugh West opposed the granting of the license for the Cameron ordinary. The Cameron partisans, in turn, placed their competing petition for a town before the House of Burgesses while the Hunting Creek warehouse site was being considered. The Committee of Propositions and Grievances rejected both petitions on their first reading, perhaps reflecting the negative influence of both parties. On its third reading, however, the warehouse site proposal was forwarded to the entire house and passed, with amendments added by the Governor's Council. Governor William Gooch approved the bill in May 1749. Cameron may have lost because of practical considerations. By 1749, the site at West's Point had been a tobacco inspection station for 17 years, and it was not practical to establish a port town separate from where the inspection of the area's main crop was taking place. Thus was Alexandria born to be "Commodious for Trade and Navigation and tend greatly to the Ease and Advantage of the Frontier Inhabitants." Cameron remained a distinct area of settlement for many years, gaining its own boatyard, racetrack, and flour mill.
Place in Time: Cameron
Today we travel at top speeds (or crawl in traffic jams) along the Beltway between Telegraph Road and the Route 1 exits without realizing that we are driving in what was once Cameron Run. The water ran into Great Hunting Creek, which then emptied into the Potomac River at Jones Point. Drive to the Hoffman Town Center on Eisenhower Avenue and you will be near Cameron, which contained several structures, including the ordinary (tavern), the grist mill, and a bridge. Cameron was near the juncture of two important roads along the Potomac, the "Back Road" or inland road (Telegraph Road) and the River Road (Route 1). Several other major roads ran west and north from Cameron, as well as into Hugh West's landing.
The Town Plan
By the mid-eighteenth century, a number of typical patterns of town planning had been developed in Virginia. For the most part, these were straightforward grid, with streets set at right angles, usually oriented to a riverbank. Alexandria's plan is no exception. In its reliance on the right angle, the plan of Alexandria is virtually indistinguishable from many other early- to mid-eighteenth-century towns in Virginia and Maryland. In many respects it is remarkably similar to the 1721 plan for Fredericksburg.
In both original plans there are seven parallel streets leading to the river and three streets oriented on the perpendicular. In each a portion of the town is depicted as in the river, presaging the filling of the shallows and mud flats. And in each a market square and an important civic building is located in the town's center.
The prevalence of the grid in the eighteenth century was due in large part to a conviction that rational order could be imposed upon nature. This belief is evident also in the ordered system of architecture of the same period. The grid was unimaginative, perhaps, but it served well the commercial life of these seaport towns and was expandable. The same grid plan of two-acre blocks was subsequently extended several times.
Perhaps the most fascinating thing about Alexandria's original plan is the hierarchical naming system of the east-west streets. One cannot walk around Old Town long without noticing that, beginning from the center of the original plan, these streets descend in order from King to Prince to Duke going south, and from Queen to Princess to Oronoco going north. This system begs two questions. First, how did Oronoco take the place of "Duchess Street?" And second, where did Cameron Street come from? We can only speculate that Oronoco reflects the early supremacy of the tobacco trade; Oronoco was a type of the leaf whose name originated from the great river in South America. As for Cameron, it was named for Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax, Baron Cameron. Like the sponsors of the Cameron settlement, the Alexandria partisans apparently thought it wouldn't hurt to flatter the wealthiest and most influential man in the county. In fact, the geographic center of the original town--and its civic center--was the intersection of Cameron Street with Fairfax Street, also named for Lord Fairfax!
Naming the Town
As we have already seen, the naming of things – towns, streets, buildings – was then as now used to honor or curry favor with important individuals. No evidence has been unearthed which points directly to the rationale for naming our city "Alexandria." It is surely more than coincidence, however, that much of the land upon which the town was founded was then still in the hands of the Alexander family. It would appear that the name was chosen to gain the support of the Alexanders in the struggle for the town charter. It would also appear that the ploy failed; Philip Alexander opposed the legislation, perhaps having thrown his support to the Cameron partisans whose settlement also adjoined his tract. To the classically educated elites of the day, of course, the double meaning, i.e., the reference to Alexandria, Egypt, would certainly not be unintentional, coincidental or unappreciated. Given that city's illustrious history as a capital, a major port, and a center of learning, the naming of the new town was hopeful and ambitious, and, perhaps, a little pretentious.
"Belhaven," seems also to have been a contending alternate choice. It probably first appears as the label on the 1749 plat, "A Plan of Alexandria now Belhaven." Although it too, seems an auspicious name for a port, the appellation is said to remember John, Lord Hamilton, Baron Belhaven, an outspoken opponent of the Act of Union between England and Scotland at the beginning of the eighteenth century and a critic of the impositions placed on the Scottish by the Church of England. It was a name that would have resounded with the patriotic Scottish merchants who were then so active along the Potomac, particularly within three or four years after the failed Stuart uprising against the Hanoverian dynasty. Like Baron Belhaven, the local Scots were probably loyal to the English monarchy, but proud of their heritage and jealously protective of their rights.
Despite the fact that Belhaven did not catch on as the name of our town, it appears in several sources, including maps, as late as 1783. One might say it still exists, applied in altered form to a Fairfax County subdivision just south of town. What kept the name alive? Was it stubbornness, defiance, habit, or was flattering the Alexanders just no longer necessary? The reader may judge.
Points in Time
1750: Population of Fairfax County is 5,546
1752: The American Company performs The Merchant of Venice at Williamsburg
1753: Fairfax County courthouse established at Alexandria
1753: Philip Alexander dies
1754: George Washington's soldiers fired the first shots of the French and Indian War in Jumonville Glen in Pennsylvania (also known as the Seven Years' War).
1755: Braddock's army defeated by French in Pennsylvania
1755: George Washington moves to Mount Vernon
1757: British army under Lord Clive defeats French at Battle of Plassey in India
1758: George Mason IV builds Gunston Hall
1759: British capture Québec
The 1750s: "As agreeable a Place as could be expected"
"The town is built upon an arc of this bay; at one extremity of which is a wharf; at the other a dock for building ships, with water sufficiently deep to launch a vessel of any rate or magnitude." [Archdeacon Andrew Burnaby] "Belhaven," as the new town was often called by its residents, experienced a growth spurt in its first years, assisted by commerce and by the removal of the Fairfax County courthouse and jail from Springfield (near Tyson's Corner) to Alexandria in 1753. Still, it would be decades before construction would fill the twenty-one-block area originally chartered. Several of the lots were resold by the town's trustees in 1754, after their purchasers failed to build upon them. Travelers in the mid 1750s could have crossed a bridge over the marshy "gutt" at the north end of town (Oronoco Park today) and seen the tobacco warehouses, kiln, and other buildings at Point West (southeast of the intersection of Lee and Oronoco Streets). Continuing south on Fairfax, they would have seen at least a couple of houses on each block-face, some comfortable and others quite rude. Crossing Queen, one would have noticed a marked change: the wealthy merchants and landowners, who had purchased double lots on the central waterfront, had constructed the first masonry buildings and may have even had ornamental gardens. The finest was John Carlyle's stone mansion south of Cameron Street (now open to the public), which commanded a river view and faced the new courthouse "paled in with Posts and Rails" next to market square. Several homes clustered around King Street, including William Ramsay's (today's Visitors' Center). Several more small houses stood along the way to the town's southern boundary. There were a number of frame structures along Royal Street, the only other north-south road, but not as many as on Fairfax. Near the river, of course, one would find several warehouses, including the new public warehouse at Point Lumley (foot of Duke Street) where the first boat construction began.
Alexandria was still lacking in urbanity and amenities. Mrs. Charlotte Browne, accompanying her brother, a British officer, wrote in March 1755: "Extremely hot but as agreeable a Place as could be expected, it being inhabited but 4 years. Went...to every House in the Place to get a Lodging, and at last was obliged to take a Room but little larger than to hold my Bed, and not so much as a Chair in it ...." Moving to the first floor, her situation improved: "It consisted of a Bed Chamber and Dining Room, not over large. The Furniture was three chairs, a Case to Hold Liquor and a Tea Chest..." The trustees found it necessary to "suppress the keeping & raising of hoggs...and that those already raised be either kept up in inclosure or killed..." And having witnessed several deaths and funerals, Mrs. Browne noted that "It is the Custom of this Place to bury their Relations in their Gardens."
But things were improving. Hugh West operated an "ordinary" or tavern adjacent to his ferry from 1745. Taverns were a growth industry; eighteen ordinary licenses were issued in the 1750s, although no more than six were operating at any one time, plus one at the Cameron settlement. Perhaps the finest was the "George," at the northwest corner of Cameron and Royal. It had six guest rooms, three fireplaces, a bar, a dining room and a billiard room. With all the house and boat construction, carpenters came to town, as did tobacco, grain and dry goods merchants, the first couple of doctors, and even a wig maker. Recreation reflected the very British interest in gaming; horse races were held outside of town, and the first school was financed largely by a lottery in 1760.
The French and Indian War
The major event of the 1750s was the French and Indian War. Virginian participation in the wars between the European powers became significant only after 1739 during the "War of Jenkin's Ear" (1739) and "King George's War" (also known as the War of the Austrian Succession, 1740-1748). By the time these conflicts had ended, Pennsylvanian and Virginian traders were pushing into the Ohio River Valley--territory claimed by France. From 1749 the French took steps to secure the Ohio Valley and, in mid 1752, attacked an outlying trading post. In 1753, Governor Dinwiddie sent the 21-year-old George Washington to protest the French action and to ascertain their intentions. Washington reported that the French were planning to build forts on the Allegheny River as they moved south from Canada into the Ohio River Valley. Convinced of France's hostile intent, in 1754 the Governor sent a small force to build a fort at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers (site of present-day Pittsburgh) and ordered Washington to assemble a larger army to follow and secure the area. However, the French arrived at the river junction with a superior force as the Governor's few soldiers had just begun to build their fort. The French quickly forced the British soldiers to leave and built their own Fort Duquesne. A short time later, on his way to Fort Duquesne, Washington and his men killed and captured a small group of French soldiers camping in a narrow glen. Angered, the French retaliated, defeating Washington at his hastily constructed and badly situated Fort Necessity. Thus began a two-year undeclared colonial war which coalesced into and helped spark a European "Seven Years' War" which reached from Canada to India.
General Edward Braddock arrived in Alexandria in March 1755 to lead an army of 1400 British regulars and 450 colonials to Fort Duquesne. At John Carlyle's house he met with the governors of five colonies--Dinwiddie of Virginia, Sharpe of Maryland, Shirley of Massachusetts, Morris of Pennsylvania and DeLancey of New York – to discuss strategy, finances, and campaigns against other French strongholds. Robert Orme's journal indicates Braddock did not want to stay here long, "as the greatest care and severest punishments could not prevent the Immoderate use of spirituous liquors, and as he was likewise informed the water of that place was very unwholesome...." Part of the army set out on the route we now know as Braddock Road. A cannon, said to be one of Braddock's, can be seen today at the intersection with Russell Road. On July 9, about eight miles from Fort Duquesne, Braddock's army and a smaller force of French and Indians collided head on. In the ensuing battle, Braddock's army was routed, and Braddock himself was killed. George Washington, who served with Braddock as a volunteer aide delivering messages between the General and his officers during the battle, was unharmed, but he had two horses shot out from under him and bullets tore four holes in his coat. Washington retreated to Virginia, burying General Braddock near the site of Fort Necessity.
For the next three years, the British conducted a lackluster and disastrous campaign. However, a new prime minister, William Pitt the Elder, committed England to total war and to reinforcing the colonies. The effects were soon felt. In mid 1758, the British took the fortress at Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island. Then the French were forced to burn Fort Duquesne, whose site was seized by the English and renamed Pittsburgh in honor of the vigorous prime minister. The following year was a nightmare for the French, who lost Fort Niagara, Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga), and Fort Frédéric (Crown Point) along the Great Lakes and Lake Champlain. Finally, Brigadier General James Wolfe's superior army won a crushing victory over the Marquis de Montcalm's forces and captured Québec. The French surrendered Canada the next year, and thus ended the war on the American mainland.
A Place in Time
The crescent-shaped bay upon which Alexandria was founded offered proximity to the Potomac, but consisted largely of shallows and mud flats bounded by thirty-foot bluffs. The first citizens of Alexandria industriously altered the natural landscape to remove these impediments and fit their economic needs and concept of livability. The wealthiest merchants paid a premium for waterfront lots giving them the ability to construct homes between Fairfax Street and the bluff with private wharves and warehouses below. Work place and home were thus combined on the same one-acre "urban plantation" largely built and maintained by African slaves like John Carlyle's servants Jerry, Joe, Cook, Penny, Charles, Sibreia, Kate, Moses, and Nanny.
One of the best places to get a sense of this two-tiered town is the 200 block of Cameron Street and the rear of the Carlyle House. Although the terrace was not original to the house, it gives you a vantage point to appreciate the elevation shift between Fairfax Street on the bluff and Lee Street (formerly Water Street), which was originally literally covered with water midway between Oronoco Street (West's Point) and Duke Street (Point Lumley). Look at the now-exposed coarse stone foundations on the ca. 1777 Wise's Tavern (201 North Fairfax) and you will get an idea of how the bluff and Cameron Street block were cut down and graded. Grading probably first began in the 1750s, but continued in the area until around 1800. The soil was likely used to fill in the eastern part of Cameron and Water Street.
The wharf built by Carlyle and Dalton between Cameron and King Streets is one of the best archaeological sites for documenting the filling process. The Lee/Cameron intersection was just below sea level in 1750, but about eleven feet above in 1891. During the construction of the Torpedo Factory condominium project in 1982, City Archaeologists discovered Carlyle and Dalton's waterlogged, rough, yellow pine wharf logs beneath fill from the nineteenth-century Smoot's lumberyard and the World War I-era Torpedo Factory Building Number 1. Under the sidewalk of the south side of the 100 block of Cameron Street remain the timbers which formed the wharf's northern end.
Architecture and material culture
The eighteenth century was the era of the Enlightenment, a flourishing of faith in the power of human reason. Thinkers of the era "discovered" a rational order to the universe, an order which they claimed was also revealed by the use of reason. The Enlightenment held out the promise of the perfectibility of mankind, of imposing order on nature, and of dispelling superstition and tyranny. The supremacy of reason suggested the autonomy of the individual--or at least of educated and thoughtful individuals, and largely those who happened to be white, male adults with property of the "proper" religious beliefs--and thereby set the stage for the passing away of pre-industrial collectivism.
As seen from Alexandria's map of 1749, our ancestors began to reorder the world around them in a manner which was to them useful, understandable, comfortable and profitable. Georgians had a penchant for categorization, standardization, symmetry, specialization and, to the benefit of manufacturers and merchants, emulation. It is no coincidence that the period produced Samuel Johnson's English dictionary, or multiple-piece, matching sets of dinnerware. Tasteful images of symmetrical and geometric architecture were circulated among gentlemen through the publication of grand and expensive folio editions of pattern books like James Gibbs's A Book of Architecture (1720) and William Adam's Vitruvius Scoticus (1750).
Georgian architecture reached its peak in the mid eighteenth century. Originating in seventeenth-century England and later named for the British kings of the house of Hanover, it was heavily influenced by the classically informed architecture of Italian Renaissance villas and townhouses. The "ideal" Georgian house was a symmetrical, horizontally oriented and, preferably, masonry structure, two stories tall, two rooms deep, with a central entrance in an odd number of bays--preferably five. The prevailing horizontality and an ordered base, body and top were often emphasized by a projecting "water table" above the foundation, belt courses between stories and a prominent cornice. Windows and doors lined up vertically and horizontally. Central front and rear entrances encouraged a center hall plan, particularly useful in Virginia for air circulation during the summer. Masonry buildings often had articulated quoins at the corners, at the edges of projecting pavilions, or surrounding doors, adding to the perception of solidity and handsome workmanship. Windows with multiple small, squarish panes and heavy muntins are also characteristic of this period. Window and door surrounds often included decorative moldings or pediments, but true porches were rare. Practitioners of the high Georgian style also perpetuated the use of the tripartite Renaissance-period Palladian or Venetian window, usually as a central visual focus.
The first local Georgian buildings were probably the Alexander family's residences built in the 1740s at "Abingdon," the site of National Airport parking garages, and at "Preston" south of Four Mile Run on the Potomac River. The ca. 1753 stone Carlyle House (121 North Fairfax Street), home of "merchant prince" John Carlyle, is the oldest high-style Georgian structure in Alexandria. Its design reflects the eighteenth-century taste for highly articulated and symmetrical buildings. The house is strikingly similar to William Adam's 1725 Craigiehall in West Lothian, Scotland, likely because Carlyle copied the design from Adam's recently published pattern book. Despite living in town, Carlyle built essentially a country house. Set well back from the street, unlike his neighbors' homes, it had symmetrically flanking outbuildings, not unlike many a riverside plantation. Did Carlyle simply believe that this was the proper type of home for a gentleman, or did he harbor doubts about the ultimate success of the town?
Additional Reading
Munson, James. Col. John Carlyle, Gent.
Miller, T. Michael. Pen Portraits.
Preisser, Thomas. Eighteenth-Century Alexandria, Virginia Before the Revolution, 1749-1776 (dissertation).
Grim, Ronald. The Origins and Early Development of the Virginia Fall-Line Towns. (dissertation)
Points in Time
1761: William Pitt the Elder resigns as Prime Minister
1761: Sarah Carlyle, wife of John Carlyle and daughter of William Fairfax dies
1763: French and Indian (Seven Years’) War ends
1765: Stamp Act passed
1766: George Washington becomes an Alexandria trustee
1767: Townshend Acts passed
1768: Stamp Act repealed
1768: Royal Academy founded
1768: Captain Cook voyages to Australia and New Zealand
1768: George Washington sworn as a Fairfax County judge
1769: John Wilkes expelled from the House of Commons and imprisoned
1769: Richard Arkwright’s “water frame” (spinning machine) patented
The young town of Alexandria entered a new decade with high expectations; Great Britain had all but won the war against France, the frontier was relatively secure, and local industry and trade was picking up. The merchants of Alexandria were buying primarily tobacco, wheat and corn in the countryside and selling to the farmers and townspeople manufactured goods from England and sugar, rum and molasses from the West Indies. Among the earliest local industries was shipbuilding, driven directly by commerce. Thomas Fleming was the most prominent shipbuilder here at the time, having established a yard at Point Lumley at the foot of Duke Street. More than once, George Washington visited Alexandria to witness the launching of new ships, including Capt. Isaac Littledale's 1200-ton Hero in 1760 and the Jenny in 1768. Perhaps the largest ship built here was the 257-ton, London-registered Recovery. At this time John and Peter Weis established the first tannery in town. John Carlyle built a mill on Four-Mile Run, and the grain and flour trade was beginning to outstrip tobacco. Of course, house joiners were occupied erecting the dozens of new homes, shops and warehouses.
With all this work going on, the demand for labor was tremendous. With a wide open frontier, free white workers could establish their own farms on the edge of the wilderness instead of work for an employer in town. Scarce white labor was supplemented by a truly captive labor force, black slaves and white convict servants. With the slave trade still unrestrained, African slaves were widely available and increasing in numbers in Virginia. By 1762 the number of blacks, all or nearly all slaves, had grown to 264 out of a total of 1,214 Alexandrians. That year the Maryland Gazette advertised the arrival here of a shipment of slaves from Gambia. By the mid eighteenth century, chattel slavery had become fully institutionalized. For employers who had not the means or desire to own slaves, they could rent their services or hire indentured servants for a fixed period of time. Many of those who submitted to indentured servitude did so only as an alternative to jail. While many slaves became superior craftsmen and while slavery and servitude possibly cost employers less on a day-to-day basis, the product of unwilling workers was often less in both quality and quantity than their masters hoped. Another drawback was the stubborn refusal of slaves and servants to blithely give up their freedom. The newspapers of the time were filled with ads seeking the return of runaway slaves and servants. George Washington offered a reward for the capture of three slaves, Jack, Neptune and Cupid who had escaped from his Dogue Run Farm. Robert Adam and Peter Wise lost four convict laborers trained in various crafts. Naturally, the various building contractors also lost laborers, including the Irish-born John Murphy, a joiner, and John Winter, an English housepainter who had worked on George Washington's Alexandria townhouse.
Development and the first annexation
Growth in trade and population invariably led to development of the waterfront. Riverside lots were at a premium, and occupants of those lots built up wharves with fill dirt and timbers. Among these were John and Thomas Kirkpatrick who were granted the right to build wharves and warehouses just north of Queen Street. The town trustees also improved the public facilities at Point Lumley and Point West.
Clearly, the trustees had great expectations for the town. They pressured the owners of the marshy lots on the north end of town to drain and improve the land. They encouraged those on the waterfront to put wharf construction before such quotidian concerns as keeping Water (Lee) Street passable. The trustees also rescinded laws which put deadlines on improvement of lots after their purchase; these laws, passed at the founding of the town, had the unintended consequences of discouraging land acquisition and encouraging makeshift structures.
At the urging of the local elites, the Virginia House of Burgesses passed in November 1762 an act permitting the enlargement of the town. This first annexation created several new streets and scores of additional lots which were auctioned in May 1763.
Alexandria's civic center at the market square was developing around the county courthouse. On the third Monday of each month, when court convened, it was the political, economic and social center of town. Tavern business, in particular, picked up as visitors from the hinterlands arrived for justice-and gossip. The Fairfax court "could try nearly all crimes committed by slaves, assault,...civil suits...for land, debts or damages. It also levied some taxes, registered most legal documents, judged cases of bastardy and public drunkenness, supervised the care of orphans by guardians and issued ordinary licenses, set tavern prices, and controlled the construction of roads and public buildings..." (Diaries of George Washington, Vol. II)
As a necessary adjunct to the courthouse, William Ramsay undertook the construction of a new, brick jail in December 1763. And the first school, paid for largely by a lottery was built in 1761. Its upper room served as a town hall and assembly room. Other institutions important to the Anglo-Americans were budding too. As early as 1753 Rev. Charles Green of Truro Parish preached here every third Sunday. In 1765 Fairfax Parish was created, and local residents sought to build their own Anglican church. An early "chapel of ease" was erected at the northwest corner of Princess and Pitt streets in the 1760s, but it would not be until 1773 that a true church would be completed.
Place in Time
Alexandria was a young settlement in 1760. While some landmarks, such as the Carlyle House, defined the cultural landscape, many of our most precious buildings still had not been constructed. But Market Square had already been developed into the civic and commercial center in the 1750s. The town trustees acted quickly to define the governmental and economic center of the town. While occupying the geographical center of Alexandria, the market block's structures drew core activities and decision-making, which led to the town's ascendancy as the regional hub. Thanks to Penny Morrill's fascinating history of Market Square in the Alexandria Chronicle (Spring 1993), we can imagine the earliest functions on the block:
Stand on Market Square with your back to North Fairfax Street. Rather than a wide open area with the town hall looming in the background, you would have seen a series of wood frame and brick buildings along the perimeter-on Cameron, Fairfax and Market Alley, which bisected the block into a northern and southern half. As John Carlyle built his own house, the public buildings took shape. The Market House was constructed first in 1750 along the center of Cameron Street. In 1752, a jail was probably built just to the west of the Market House, a "necessary" (cesspool) was placed to the east, and a fenced constructed around the square. The Fairfax County Courthouse was added across from the Carlyle House the same year, as well as a pillory and stocks closer to Royal Street. In 1761 the School House and Town Hall was constructed from brick at Cameron and Fairfax streets, as were a watch House, a firewood House, and a prison at Market Alley and Fairfax Street. The Friendship and Sun Fire companies appeared along Market Alley.
Architecture
Excluding the few substantial, brick, Georgian homes, the average abode was probably much simpler and more difficult to classify as a particular style. Mostly constructed of wood, the humblest structures were one-room cabins with a loft. Some of these even had chimneys constructed of sticks and clay (although this was actively discouraged by the town trustees). More typical, perhaps, were those which consisted of one room on the first floor with one above or two rooms over two with a side passage. Based on the most economical pattern of narrow urban lots, this latter form became the most common during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Some very fine, Georgian, Federal and Greek Revival townhomes came to be constructed in this fashion. This was also the predominant pattern in Philadelphia, America's largest city of the time and the urbane model which Alexandria consciously emulated.
Much of the architecture of the era was simple and understated-easy to forget when many surviving examples in the South are veritable mansions. George Washington's 1769 townhouse on Cameron Street was more typical of townhouses. Although finely finished, it was a modest, one-and-one-half-story, frame building without a kitchen. Although it burned in 1855, a twentieth-century replica of the townhouse now stands on the site, 508 Cameron Street.
Social Life
Despite living in a bustling seaport, Alexandrians did not believe in all work and no play. Horse racing was a very popular pastime, and prominent local figures like George Washington, John Carlyle and Robert Adam helped arrange contests at the two nearby tracks. Taverns proliferated and became more respectable, but the young town, called "inconsiderable" by one French visitor, still required some polish. George Washington recounted to his diary his attendance at a ball where "Musick and Dancing was the Chief Entertainment. However in a convenient room detached for the purpose abounded great plenty of bread and Butter, some Biscuets with Tea, and Coffee which the drinkers of could not distinguish from Hot water sweetened. Be it remembered that pocket handkerchiefs served the purposes of Table cloths and Napkins and that no apologies were made for either. I shall therefore distinguish this Ball by the Stile and title of the Bread and Butter Ball."
Politics
In the aftermath of the Seven Years' War, Parliament adopted a series of tax measures to recoup the Crown's expenditures in defending and administering its colonies. The Stamp Act of 1765 required the purchase of tax stamps to be affixed to newspapers, pamphlets, documents, playing cards and licenses. Two years later, the Townshend Acts, mandating import duties on tea, glass, lead, oil and paper, were passed. Taxation was an issue upon which the cash poor colonials could make common cause. Patrick Henry was particularly vocal in the Virginia House of Burgesses, and other colonists instituted boycotts of British products with a cry of "No taxation without representation." The boycotts had their desired effect, as did the sometimes violent protests in New England. Locally, William Ramsay rejoiced at the March 1768 revocation of the Stamp Act. "[It] was repealed at thee clamor the distress and importunity of the manufacturing towns in Great Britain-nothing cou'd have put the importance of the Colonies to their Mother Country, in so clear a light." The Townshend Act continued to be opposed by non-importation movements, but more effectively by epidemic smuggling and evasion. In 1769, Washington carried to the legislature a proposed agreement on non-importation drafted by George Mason, but the Governor dissolved the House of Burgesses before the proposal could be considered.
Locally, politics was in the hands of an elite few. While Americans could complain of inadequate representation in Parliament, only landed white men here could vote. To those who ruled, it was self-evident who should rule, namely the gentlemen: those with the most education, the best upbringing, the most to gain and the most to lose. On the fringes of empire, there was perhaps more upward mobility; successful businessmen of "the middling sort" could sometimes become pillars of the community through wise investments, advantageous marriage or connections. A law degree or aspirations to a political career were not prerequisites for holding a post as a trustee, magistrate, mayor, or representative to the colonial legislature. No, making decisions for the rest of society was the responsibility and prerogative of a fortunate few, the highborn and the very successful. It is almost no surprise that men like George Washington assumed a number of successive responsible positions at a relatively young age. It was expected. In 1761, William Ramsay, one of the affluent founders of the town was invested as "Lord Mayor" of Alexandria – a largely honorary role, but one which suggests the prevailing conservatism and hierarchical social outlook modeled on that of the mother country.
Points in Time
1770: Boston Massacre
1773: Boston Tea Party
1773: first hospital for the insane in the thirteen colonies founded at Williamsburg, Virginia
1774: Rhode Island enacts first slave importation ban in the American colonies
1775: Revolutionary War begins; Washington named chief of Continental forces; first abolition organization founded in Philadelphia
1776: Declaration of Independence
1776: Adam Smith publishes The Wealth of Nations; Edward Gibbon publishes The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire
1776: first Shaker community founded at Watervliet, New York
1777: Articles of Confederation written
1777: Battle of Saratoga; first national day of thanksgiving to celebrate the Saratoga victory
1778: Franco-American alliance
1779: Spain enters war against Britain
The 1770s: A Revolutionary Epoch: Economic and Physical Development
At the beginning of the 1770s, Alexandria's economy was on a sound footing as its merchants were gradually switching from the export of tobacco to wheat, corn, barley and oats, much of which was raised in the Shenandoah Valley. Most of the twenty or so international mercantile large firms in town were trading wheat and flour to the West Indies and Great Britain. Improvements were undertaken at Point West and Point Lumley, but one of the former public tobacco warehouses at Point Lumley (foot of Duke Street) was rented to Andrew Wales, the town's first commercial brewer. In 1774, Philadelphian Daniel Roberdeau constructed a large distillery at the foot of Wolfe Street (where the Harborside development is today). The same year, John Alexander laid out and sold eighteen new lots, also giving to the town the land for Wilkes and St. Asaph Streets.
The 1770s was also the time when the town's religious congregations began to complete permanent homes. As the official church of the colony, naturally the Church of England was at the center of religious and political life in Alexandria and the first to build a proper church. An 1750s Anglican chapel was eventually replaced by the James Wren designed Christ Church. The edifice took more than six years to construct, but was completed in 1773 by John Carlyle. Its location at what was then the upper end of Cameron Street away from the built-up section of town caused it to be referred to as the "Church in the Woods."
A Presbyterian congregation, made up largely of the local Scots, became quite active in this era. In 1775, John Carlyle and William Ramsay advertised for a builder to undertake the construction of a Presbyterian Meeting House on Fairfax Street between Duke and Wolfe Streets.
The Revolutionary Era
As elsewhere in the colonies, the imposition of excise taxes on items such as glass, paper and paint caused furious debate in Virginia over the rights of the colonists and the prerogatives of the king and Parliament. In June 1770, Alexandrians John Carlyle, Robert Adam and Thomas Kirkpatrick met with other members of the Virginia legislature in Williamsburg to respond to the Townshend Act. All the delegates signed a new non-importation agreement. The agreement, a boycott of British products, was not very successful; according to factor Harry Piper, "all the stores on this side [of the Potomac] have imported goods as usual, and hitherto no notice have been taken of them." The other colonies took similar steps, with similar results. Virginia was the last colony to officially abandon nonimportation in 1771.
But events served to gradually radicalize the population of the colonies. Enforcement of the British acts, the levying of military supplies and the stationing of troops in American cities caused violence to break out in New York and Boston in 1770, including the incident known as the Boston Massacre. Then, a temporary relaxation of tension was followed by a series of mob attacks on royal ships enforcing trade regulations. The colonies began to set up "Committees of Correspondence" to regularize communication on the subject of England's actions and the responses of each colony.
Alexandrians formed a local committee of correspondence in 1774 at the time the British closed Boston Harbor. On behalf of the organization, John Carlyle and John Dalton informed the Bostonians that they were "deeply interested in the fate of their city now suffering the scourge of oppression... and make no doubt that the spirit which has distinguished Virginia as the intrepid guardian of American liberty, will shine forth in all its former Lustre." On July 18, 1774, George Washington, George Mason and many other inhabitants of the town and county met at the courthouse on Market Square to approve the Fairfax Resolves. Penned by Mason, these resolutions were an assertion of the colonists' rights under British law and called for actions including a congress of representatives from each colony to prepare a plan for the "Defence and preservation of our Common rights"; a boycott of all English goods to begin September 1. Soon after, the colony also implemented a ban on the export of American commodities to Britain. Visitor Nicholas Cresswell confided in his diary that "Everything [in Alexandria is]...in the utmost confusion. Committees are appointed to inspect into the Character and Conduct of every tradesman, to prevent them selling Tea or buying British Manufactures." When the ship Hope arrived from Belfast with a shipment of Irish linen, the cargo was seized by the Fairfax County Committee and the linen was sold at auction to benefit the poor of Boston.
Preparing for an armed conflict which now seemed likely, the local militia began drilling on Market Square in 1774. There were two companies, one of "Gentlemen" and one of "Mechanics." George Washington came often from Mount Vernon to inspect and drill the troops. A poll tax was levied on the freeholders to purchase uniforms, arms and ammunition. Residents paid reluctantly, except for Quaker William Hartshorne, who, according to George Mason, "flatly refused; his conscience would not I suppose suffer him to be concerned in paying for the instruments of death." Nicholas Cresswell witnessed the Independent Company fire at an effigy of Lord North, the British prime minister, then carry it through the town to finally burn it. Much of Americans' anger was directed at North. The moderates were still not prepared to make the break with the monarchy; the Americans repeatedly pled with the king to rectify wrongs supposedly wrought by his ministers.
In 1774, however, the first Continental Congress met to petition the king as united colonies, more or less. Soon, the closing of the port of Boston and British efforts to seize arms and powder stores brought New England to the brink of war.
"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death"
When hostilities commenced at Lexington, Massachusetts on April 19, 1775, Alexandrians were not long in volunteering for service. George Washington was appointed commander-in-chief of all Continental forces largely on the strength of his French and Indian War experience. He selected Alexandrians Dr. James Craik as chief physician and surgeon to the army and Dr. William Brown as surgeon general of the Hospital Middle Department. Townsmen participated in the 1775-1776 siege of Boston and in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, Brandywine and Monmouth. And the Northern Virginia troops included not only adult white men, but also African Americans, women, and some who were virtually children.
The Alexandria Line was part of General Daniel Morgan's regiment of riflemen, conspicuous for its role in the Battle of Saratoga. The defeated British Brigadier General John Burgoyne is reputed to have told Morgan "My dear sir, you command the finest regiment in the world."
Back home in Alexandria, the residents began to fear attack as early as 1775. Washington wrote William Ramsay urging him to make efforts to obstruct the river and begin constructing shore batteries. While they never successfully blocked the river, two batteries were built, although these had no cannon until at least a year later. A small flotilla was organized from three purchased sloops and two galleys built at the shipyard. The force averted a baptism of fire when Lord Dunmore, the colonial governor, entered the Potomac with nearly ninety ships and boats, but turned back near Dumfries.
The former colonies declared their independence in 1776, making a final break with England and explicitly blaming George. There were still many in America (about one-third of the population, according to John Adams) who sympathized with England and remained loyal. From before the commencement of hostilities, they found themselves in an increasingly dangerous position. Many fled to Canada or Britain, and many joined the British forces. In 1777 a group of Loyalists were charged with trying to set Alexandria aflame. Apprehended and put under guard in the schoolhouse, they nonetheless escaped, probably with the help of friends. As a consequence, the guards were whipped and a group of six suspected Tories was rounded up and sent to Williamsburg for trial. The men were later acquitted, likely for lack of evidence.
Alexandria became the center for the inoculation hospitals of the Southern Department; hundreds of Virginia and Carolina men were given the vaccination against smallpox. The infirmaries here though were reportedly ill-equipped and poorly run. Hardee Murfree attested that one cold night "Dr. Parker said it was not worth while to give them physic when the men were so naked and lying on the cold floor... One of the sick men had no clothing but an old shirt and half an old blanket... that night [some of them] died and I believe it was for want of clothes to keep them warm."
Besides the purging of local Loyalists, the war had other consequences for local politics. The new independent state government of Virginia began to charter and re-charter towns and cities. With the passage of an Act of Incorporation in December 1779, Alexandria’s oligarchical trusteeship government was replaced with an elected mayor/council system.
Slavery
The Revolutionary era was both the first crack in the institution of slavery and perhaps the last real opportunity for its destruction before the Civil War. The slaveholding patriots were not blind to the contradiction inherent in their claims for civil rights. Admirers of Locke and Rousseau, many foresaw the day when slavery would fade away; some even took some strides toward that end. Rather than give up their own slaves, however, Virginians looked first to curtailing the international slave trade. For many years they had been afraid that the continued importation of African slaves would encourage eventual revolt or frighten away white immigrants, particularly skilled craftsmen. And the soil in the Tidewater area was already tired; slaves already in the colony were proving sufficient for agricultural labor. In 1772 the House of Burgesses directed a petition to the Throne, imploring "your majesty's paternal assistance in averting a calamity of a most alarming nature. The importation of slaves into the colonies from the coast of Africa hath long been considered as a trade of great inhumanity, and under its present encouragement we have reason to fear will endanger the very existence of your Majesty's American dominions." The 1774 Fairfax Resolves called for "an entire stop forever put to such a wicked, cruel, and unnatural trade." The first anti-slavery legislation, however, came in the less slave- dependent New England. In 1774, Rhode Island legislated the emancipation of any slaves thereafter brought into the colony. Virginia forbade the importation of slaves from abroad in 1778-following closely Delaware's example-although the domestic trade was unaffected.
Part punitive measure, part practicality, and part humanitarianism, the British made it clear that they had no reservations about freeing, confiscating or accepting slaves into service. Some went to England or other British possessions, others served with the British armies and navy. Lord Dunmore raised a regiment of "Royal Ethiopians" to help put down the rebellion in Virginia.
A Place in Time
Today when we get together with friends or colleagues, we often choose to "go out and eat" or "go get a drink." So too did Alexandrians 225 years ago. Such eating and drinking behavior complemented games and discussion of the momentous events of the period.
In the 1770s, one of the best places to look at the taverns of Alexandria was the 100 block of North Royal Street. Richard Arell's Tavern was located on what is now Market Square. William McKnight's tavern was across the street, while widow Mary Hawkins's tavern (later known as Gadsby's) was near the corner of Cameron and Royal streets. They were only three of the eleven tavern-keepers providing bed, food and drink to travelers and townspeople in predominately two- and three-story frame buildings. In 1777 a new tavern of large proportions was under construction by John Dalton at the northeast corner of Cameron and Fairfax streets, but it was not completed until after his death. We know from an advertisement that this tavern was L-shaped and contained a two-story kitchen with an eight-foot wide fireplace with boilers and oven. A 28-horse stable and carriage house also graced the lot.
Jim Mackay, former Director of Alexandria History Museum at The Lyceum, wrote a fascinating thesis on taverns in Alexandria. He outlines their development and details their roles as cultural crossroads in eighteenth century towns. Individuals, predominately males, congregated in the taverns for social life, gaming, food and often excessive drink. People of all backgrounds and ranks would intermingle, although it is expected that gentlemen would have received some types of different treatment and greater respect. There were gentlemen's clubs in the taverns. We know from George Washington's diaries that he partook at both Arell's and Hawkins's taverns during this time.
While taverns generally had basic meals and beverages, they occasionally hosted fancy balls. In 1775, Nicholas Cresswell witnessed a ball here and reported: "Old Women, Young wives with young children in the lap, widows, maids and girls come promiscuously to these assemblies." Cresswell did not approve of the dances, judging them as "everlasting jigs." Although he left at 2 a.m., "part of the company stayed, got drunk and had a fight."
Artifacts from these taverns are quite different from those in homes. Alexandria Archaeology's tavern collections naturally have a high proportion of beverage related vessels including punchbowls, mugs, tankards, posset pots (for a hot milk-based drink), wine bottles and glasses, tumblers and firing glasses (thick bottomed vessels for toasting), and tea wares. They are made of glass and of the relatively inexpensive English cream and pearlwares, which obviously were broken in high quantities (and left for us to excavate). These artifacts held beverages like chocolate, coffee, tea (except during the Revolutionary period), apple cider, beer, wine, brandy, and rum punch.
Artifacts
Creamware, manufactured in England from the 1760s to ca. 1820, was the first "china" dinnerware which was affordable to a large percentage of Americans. Before the 1770s, it was more common to use wooden or pewter plates than to eat off costly ceramics such as white salt-glazed stoneware, delft, or Chinese porcelain. Creamware was popularized due to the marketing genius of Josiah Wedgwood, who gave a set of it to Queen Charlotte. Marketed thereafter as "Queensware," it satisfied consumer demand for something approximating the prized but expensive porcelain. Most creamware was undecorated, but some was transfer printed or hand- painted over the glaze in bright enamel colors. In the mid-1770s the Staffordshire potters began to add cobalt to the glaze and used cobalt blue Chinoiserie decoration, in imitation of porcelain designs. Once again, Wedgwood is credited with popularizing this ware, which he advertised in 1779 as Pearl White, and is known today as pearlware. When we find creamware on a site but no pearlware, we are likely to be digging a feature dating to the early 1770s.
Points in Time
1781: The Fourth of July is made a state holiday in Massachusetts and is celebrated with fireworks the first time in Newport, Rhode Island
1783: The first true daily newspaper is published in the U.S.; the Purple Heart medal is created
1784: The state of Franklin (western North Carolina) is denied admission to the Union
1785: The dollar-based system of money is adopted (the motto "E Pluribus Unum" was adopted the next year); first U.S. agricultural society founded; a company is established to build the first U.S. turnpike, the Little River Turnpike, from Alexandria to Snicker's Gap, Virginia
1786: The first spinning jenny for cotton is invented
1787: The US Constitution written
1787: James Fitch successfully tests a steamboat on the Delaware River
1788: First water powered wool yarn factory established in the U.S.; first dictionary published in the U.S.
1789: U.S. Constitution is adopted
1789: George Washington is elected first president
1789: First tariff legislation in Congress
The 1780s: The Revolution ends
Alexandrians entered a new decade after five years of war. The town had prospered from sales of grain and foodstuffs to the French and to the Continental Army. Alexandria and its environs were bustling as soldiers dug fortifications, performed commissary duties, hauled sick soldiers, and guarded the Potomac River to prevent the British from plundering the countryside.
Revolutionary War pension papers document that Alexandria served as a prisoner of war camp for Hessian mercenaries hired to fight for the British. Particularly in early 1781, British presence on the Potomac and periodic raids caused the militia to make occasional sorties to Mt. Vernon to protect General Washington's home from privateers and led to the construction of a new battery by the town's citizens. One raiding party actually attempted to cut a Baltimore vessel out of Alexandria harbor, but was driven off. [Donald Shomette, Maritime Alexandria; Ethelyn Cox, “Alexandria, Virginia May 1774—Dec. 1783;" Virginia Calendar of State Papers]
Alexandria's mayor, James Hendricks, a former army officer, was instrumental in encouraging the construction of additional defenses and in cajoling the local merchants and millers to accept the credit or inflated scrip of the Continental Army in exchange for provisions. His efforts were particularly valuable as the allies prepared for what would be the decisive battle of the war.
Failing to achieve a final victory in the northeast or the middle colonies, the British concentrated more of their efforts in the South. In early 1781, a British army led by the turncoat Benedict Arnold took Richmond and Portsmouth and routed the Virginia militia under the Baron von Steuben. Lord Cornwallis arrived with another army in May and insisted that Virginia should be the main theater of war. Major General Sir Henry Clinton refused to send reinforcements to Cornwallis but ordered him to remain to establish a base. As Cornwallis's men dug in at Yorktown, the Americans and French decided to capitalize on their temporary numerical advantage and attack.
The Compte de Grasse's French West Indian fleet bottled up the vaunted British fleet, and the armies of Rochambeau and Washington forced the trapped Cornwallis to surrender his command on October 19. Although the formal peace was more than a year off, all sides recognized that the outcome of the war on the American continent had been settled.
In the spring of 1782, Rochambeau's army marched north to depart for France. On July 19 they encamped on a plain north of Alexandria. During the troops' stay it was reported that:
the most elegant and handsome young ladies of the neighborhood danced with the officers on the turf, in the middle of the camp, to the sound of military music and ... the circle was in great measure composed of soldiers who from the heat off the weather, had disengaged themselves from their clothes, retaining not an article of dress except their shirts which in general were neither extremely long nor in the best condition nor did this occasion the least embarrassment to the ladies many of whom were of highly polished manners....[T. Michael Miller, ed., Pen Portraits]
After eight years of conflict the American colonies had secured their freedom from Great Britain, and Alexandria emerged from the tortuous ordeal virtually unscathed. In September 1783, Alexandria was favored by a visit from the renowned General Nathaniel Greene, hero of the campaigns in New Jersey and the Carolinas. The Marquis de Lafayette appeared the following year. But by the end of the revolutionary struggle, George Washington had emerged as the pre-eminent hero of the conflict. His prestige could not have been any higher than the day he trotted into Alexandria on December 31, 1783, having recently resigned his commission at Annapolis, Maryland. His arrival was announced by the discharge of thirteen cannon after which a reception was tendered by the town's leading citizens at DuVall's tavern, 305 Cameron Street. [Theodore Thayer, Nathaniel Greene, Strategist of the American Revolution; Fireside Sentinel, September 1987; Virginia Journal and Alexandria Advertiser]
Local politics and the Constitution
With the 1779 Act of Incorporation, Alexandria began its first decade of elected government. Each February, white male property holders twenty-one years of age and older who had been residents of the town for at least three months could choose by ballot, twelve "fit and able men...to serve as a mayor, recorder, aldermen and common councilmen...the persons so elected shall within one week after their election, proceed to choose out of their own body, by ballot, one mayor, one recorder, and four aldermen and the remaining six shall be common councilmen..." The mayor, recorder and four aldermen also functioned as a Court of Hustings with authority to try civil and criminal actions whose penalty did not exceed ten pounds or one thousand pounds of tobacco. In addition, they appointed constables, clerks, a town sergeant and a surveyor of the streets; issued tavern licenses; and probated wills and deeds. Robert T. Hooe, a successful merchant, became the first mayor in 1780. [T. Michael Miller, "A Brief History of the Mayoralty and City Council of Alexandria, Virginia"; James R. Caton, Legislative Chronicles of The City of Alexandria; Fireside Sentinel, April 1987]
In November 1785, former Mayor Richard Conway and 74 Alexandria merchants presented a memorial to the Virginia General Assembly containing what is still a familiar complaint:
...the present situation of the United States with regard to their commerce with Foreign nations... is carried on upon very unequal terms and under many disadvantages.... Foreigners of all Nations are freely admitted into the American Ports and to export therefrom any commodities whatsoever, subject to scarcely an other restrictions or duties…. [William & Mary Quarterly, Series II, Vol. I]
To remedy the situation, Alexandria merchants advocated that the "Confederation Government should be modified so that Congress should be vested with certain rights over foreign Trade..." Undoubtedly, this petition gave impetus to the Maryland/Virginia Conferences of 1785. On March 20, George Mason and Alexander Henderson of Virginia met in Alexandria with Daniel Jenifer, Thomas Stone and Samuel Chase of Maryland to discuss navigational and boundary disputes on the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. At the invitation of George Washington, the meeting adjourned to Mount Vernon on March 28th where a compact was signed by the two states guaranteeing free navigation of the Potomac. This conference precipitated the Annapolis Convention of 1786, which in turn led to the Constitutional Convention at Philadelphia in 1787. It was no surprise that Alexandrians, who were Federalists to a man, supported the ratification of the Constitution. In 1789, Alexandrians gathered at Wise's Tavern to drink the first libation to the new government and to give the newly elected President Washington a proper send-off.
A political compromise had determined that a new national capital would be located in the South. Maryland and Virginia offered land bordering the Potomac River for the new federal city, and a committee of ten men from Alexandria and Georgetown, including John Fitzgerald, Robert T. Hooe and George Gilpin, published a broadside extolling the commercial advantages of the Potomac region.
Physical development
The year 1785 was an important one for local proponents of "internal improvements" in transportation. The General Assembly granted a charter for the construction of the "Little River Turnpike" west from Alexandria to Snicker's Gap. It was also in 1785 that the gentry of Virginia and Maryland met in Alexandria at Lomax's Tavern on Princess Street to organize a company to improve navigation of the Potomac. Known as the Potomac Company, it was spearheaded by George Washington who served as its first president. The enterprise was formed to construct a lateral canal around Great Falls and to improve navigation as far northwest as Cumberland, Maryland. By this time Alexandria was connected to Baltimore and Richmond by stage coach lines and packet boats. [William F. Smith & T. Michael Miller, A Seaport Saga]
The sound of the broad ax, saw and hammer were heard throughout Alexandria as many new houses, wharves and warehouses were built. In 1785 traveler Count Luigi Castiglioni described the town as "having 300 houses and a population of about 3,000 persons.... The public buildings included two churches (a Presbyterian and an Anglican), a Quaker Assembly and the municipal building. Alexandria then had various factories for the manufacture of bricks which, as the surrounding land was of soft, strong clay, could be made very cheaply." The first free school was established for orphans on the third floor of the new Alexandria Academy in 1785. [T. Michael Miller, ed., Pen Portraits]
The town again extended its boundaries in 1785 and 1786, largely because of the sales of additional tracts from the Alexander family's adjoining holdings. Unlike the streets laid out in the 1760s and early 1770s, new streets were not named for heroes of the French and Indian War — like Wolfe and Montgomery — but for heroes of the Revolution, Virginian patriots, and Englishmen sympathetic to the American cause, including Nathaniel Greene, LaFayette, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, George Washington, George Wythe, and John Wilkes. [Alexandria Gazette; Virginia Journal and Alexandria Advertiser; Henings Statutes at Large]
Commercial development
In response to a 1779 petition, the Virginia General Assembly made Alexandria an international port of entry with its own customs officer, Charles Lee, and customs house, 305 Cameron Street. From 1781 to 1783, a minimum of 85 vessels annually cleared and entered the harbor of Alexandria. Tobacco and flour exports rose dramatically at the end of the war. By 1783, trade patterns had largely been re-established with Europe with about half of Alexandria's export tonnage being transported there and most of the rest to the West Indies. [Joseph A. Goldenberg, "Virginia Port" in Chesapeake in the American Revolution]
Post-Revolutionary Alexandria witnessed a period of economic growth and development exhibited by the establishment of the town's first newspaper, the Virginia Journal and Alexandria Advertiser, which was primarily a business and commercial paper but carried brief items of the nation and the world.
Alexandria had truly come of age; all manner of items from anywhere in the world could be had here if the price was right. In close proximity one might find Dutch wholesalers, French dry goods dealers, sellers of Barbadian rum and Madeira wine, and exporters of flour and wheat for the European and West Indian markets.
All was not rosy, however. A postwar recession depressed trade late in the decade. The local tobacco trade had also dropped considerably because of soil exhaustion, continuing low prices, and the widespread cultivation of wheat. Some of the towns which had depended on the shipment of tobacco — towns like Colchester, Virginia and Bladensburg, Maryland — nearly disappeared. Alexandria's shipbuilding was also curtailed, possibly by a lack of suitable local timber and because of the existence of more profitable uses to which to put prime waterfront lots.
A Place in Time
Little survives of Alexandria's maritime heritage. Most eighteenth century buildings gave way to termites and industrialization. But more than one building still remains from the town's golden years as an international port. Stand at the intersection of Union and King Streets, and you will immediately notice its distinct character. Now the home of a Thai restaurant and a Starbucks, Fitzgerald's warehouse at 6 King Street is one of few surviving eighteenth-century warehouses in Old Town.
A "dashing" and "agreeable broad-shouldered Irishman," John Fitzgerald served as colonel of the Virginia militia and an aide- de-camp to Washington. He had moved to Alexandria in 1769 and returned after the war, purchasing, with Valentine Peers, the south side of the 200 block of King Street in 1788. The town council also granted him the sunken ground to the east of this lot. He proceeded to bank out 400 feet from the shoreline at King and Water (Lee) Streets, creating Fitzgerald's Wharf. On the wharf he constructed three brick warehouses. The uppermost stories of the buildings were joined to provide a 42 x 73-foot sail loft "all under one roof." [Fireside Sentinel, August 1991; Ethelyn Cox, Historic Alexandria Street by Street].
Colonel Fitzgerald served as mayor and collector of the port, but perhaps his most lasting contribution was his organization of fundraising for Alexandria's first Catholic church. He resolved to raise the necessary money on St. Patrick's Day, 1788 while at his home entertaining George Washington and others, debating the ratification of the Constitution and other matters of the day. Fitzgerald provided his home for Sunday Mass for Alexandria's Catholics until the edifice was finished. Constructed on land donated by Thornton Alexander (near the present Washington Street entrance to t. Mary's Cemetery), the church was not completed until 1795. Fitzgerald passed away at his home about four years later, twelve days before the death of his old friend, George Washington. [St. Mary's Catholic Church, St. Mary's: 200 Years for Christ].
Points in Time
1790: The first U.S. census taken; Alexandria's population is 2748, and nearly 22% are African Americans; Congress passes a naturalization act; first successful water-powered cotton mill erected; first patent granted
1790-1795: Warfare between the U.S. Army and the Indians of the old Northwest
1791: First Bank of the United States founded; Bill of Rights is ratified; first internal revenue tax; Vermont becomes a state
1792: Construction of the White House begins; U.S. mint established at Philadelphia; Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin
1793: First federal fugitive slave law; Neutrality Act; Thomas Jefferson invents the moldboard plow
1794: Whisky Rebellion
1795: First practical industrial steam engine in the U.S.
1797: First U.S. medical journal published
1798-1800: The Quasi-War with France
1799: George Washington dies
At the dawn of a new decade Alexandrians were delighted to fete Ambassador Thomas Jefferson at Wise's Tavern (201 North Fairfax Street) upon his return from France in March 1790. During the ceremony Mayor William Hunter delivered these welcoming remarks: "As a commercial town, we feel ourselves particularly indebted to you for the indulgences which your enlightened representations to the Court of France have secured to our trade. You have freed commerce from its shackles..." Jefferson's reply acknowledged his guests' hospitality: "Accept my sincere thanks for yourself and the worthy citizens of Alexandria, for their kind congratulations on my return to my native country. I am happy to learn that they have felt benefit from the encouragements to our commerce which have been given by an allied nation...."
Jefferson's sentiments presaged the economic revitalization of the 1790s. This surge was fueled in part by the lucrative grain trade as thousands of wagons wended their way to the port of Alexandria from Fauquier, Loudoun, Prince William Counties to off-load their cargoes of wheat, flour, rye and corn. Enormous quantities of grain were transshipped to the Caribbean, Iberian Peninsula and Europe. The total exports from Alexandria amounted to $381,000 in 1791 and to $948,000 in 1795.
By 1790, Alexandria had become the principal port on the Potomac. In 1796, it ranked as the third largest exporter of flour and the seventh largest port in the United States. This growth is suggested by the myriad goods and services available in town. No more was the town a provincial depot. Alexandria in the 1790s was a grand cornucopia from which almost any item from ostrich feathers to pianofortes could be acquired. The town's streets and byways were dotted with silversmiths, saddlers, blacksmiths, furniture makers, bakers, whitesmiths, tanners, brewers, seamstresses and tobacconists to name a few.
The town's bustling "wharves could accommodate the storage of large quantities of materials and the erection of large structures." Ships from Spain, Britain, Portugal, the West Indies and the Caribbean unloaded their precious cargoes of imported china, rum and molasses. On April 28, 1792, Lund Washington, in a letter to George Washington wrote that the port of Alexandria "has seldom less than twenty square-rigged vessels in it and often more. The streets are crowded with wagons and the people all seem to be busy." Indeed by 1795, "Alexandria's exports placed it second behind Norfolk among Virginia's custom houses... Alexandria's share of Virginia's exports rose from 12% of the total value in 1791 to 29% in 1795." By the end of the decade nearly 1,000 vessels docked annually at the city wharves. And, by annexation, the town had been increased in size to incorporate all of the area we know today as "Old Town."
In November 1792, the General Assembly incorporated the first bank established in Virginia. Known as the Bank of Alexandria, it was first situated at 305 Cameron Street until a new structure (133 North Fairfax Street) was erected for its headquarters. It provided needed capital for investment and regional development.
Visitors were generally very positive about Alexandria's progress. According to Thomas Twinning, "What most struck me was the vast number of houses which I saw building... The hammer and the trowel were at work every where, a cheering sight." The Duc de la Rochefoucault noted: "Alexandria is beyond all comparison the handsomest town in Virginia and indeed is among the finest in the United States.
Some were more ambivalent: "[T]he situation of the town will soon make it a very important post... there are about 3,200 inhabitants; the houses are principally brick; the streets are not paved and being of clay, after rain they are slippery, it is almost impossible to walk in them." But the City Council was actively trying to remedy such problems. In 1794 Council passed an act to pave the principal streets with cobbles. But there was no pleasing everyone. A European emigrant wrote to his friend in London, rather unappreciative of Virginia culture. "Alexandria is one of the most wicked places I ever beheld in my life; cockfighting, horse racing, with every species of gambling and cheating, being apparently the principal business going forward. As a proof of this you may judge of the extent of this dissipation when I inform you, this little place contains no less than between forty and fifty billiard tables...."
In truth, many Alexandrians favored more refined pursuits. In 1799, impresario Thomas Wade West built the town's first permanent theater at 406 Cameron Street. It was a "large three-story structure decorated with handsome pediments and deep cornices, the window frames, tresses and rustic work of stone." For many years it was the scene of plays by Shakespeare, Moliere and other notable bards. To promote literary and cultural awareness, a Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge was formed in 1790. It served as a precursor to the private organization which, in 1794, established the Alexandria Subscription Library, the first private library company in Virginia.
As a seaport town Alexandria was vulnerable to epidemics including yellow fever and malaria. To contain these contagions, in 1793 Dr. Elisha Cullen Dick was appointed health office with authority to set up a quarantine station at Jones Point for the inspection of ships. "By January 1, 1794, Dick had entered a total of 55 vessels in quarantine and the contagion did not reach Alexandria." [Shomette, Maritime Alexandria]
The year 1790 was the time of the first national census, a time when the town's demographics were changing rapidly. The population was growing very quickly in this prosperous era; between 1790 and 1798, the town's population grew by about 2000 individuals or 41%. Some of these new residents were members of the Society of Friends, who increasingly migrated here from Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the 1780s. Many Quakers became prominent businessmen and civic leaders. As early as 1796, Quakers had founded an early abolition organization in Alexandria known as the "Society for the Relief and Protection of Persons Illegally Held in Bondage."
Alexandria's African American population was also increasing, particularly in the numbers of free blacks or former slaves. These people had been manumitted by their masters or had purchased their freedom through hard work and careful savings. Many of the artisans who built Alexandria were skilled African Americans, including free blacks. Skilled laborers were in a better position to earn a little money toward the purchase of their freedom. Being more valuable to their owners, however, the price of their freedom was usually dear. One noteworthy individual who never gained his freedom was "Negro Tom," a slave of Elizabeth Cox of Fairfax County. A true prodigy, Tom was referred to in a newspaper obituary as a "human calculator" for his prodigious mathematical abilities. Illiterate from the denial of education, he nonetheless could perform amazing feats of memory and calculation. An undeniable although qualified admiration is apparent in the account despite the pervasive racism of the time.
National and international events
In 1789, Virginia and Maryland had joined in donating territory to establish a new federal capital city on the banks of the Potomac River. Expecting a bright future as part of a booming metropolis, Alexandrians rejoiced when surveyor Andrew Ellicott and his assistant, African American Benjamin Banneker, arrived in town in the spring of 1791 to lay out the new district. In a public display, Mayor Philip Marsteller, the Commonality and free masons marched to Jones Point on April 15, 1791 to lay the first cornerstone of the District.
The Federal government's internal revenue legislation of 1791 instituted an excise tax on whiskey-the only form in which grain grown west of the Allegheny Mountains could be transported and sold in the east. The western settlers, otherwise largely ignored by the Federal and state governments, irately and not unjustifiably charged the government with enforcing "taxation without representation," the rallying cry of the patriots of a generation earlier. With mob violence directed against Federal officials in western Pennsylvania, the government concluded that the insurrection was a real threat to the nation's security. President Washington took personal command of an army mustered by the states to pacify the affected area by force. Like forty years earlier, hundreds of Virginia militia marched toward the Monongahela to secure the frontier. This time, however, with the approach of the army, the "enemy" melted away into the countryside, and only a handful were arrested and tried.
Franco-American cooperation dissolved after Louis XVI was deposed. True, many Americans were still strongly pro-French, but others were just as staunchly mistrustful of the radical Jacobins and the consulate and the empire which followed. The rivalry between Britain and France continued unabated. The French were highly critical and suspicious of the Jay Treaty which was concluded between England and the U.S. in 1794. Congress passed an Act of Neutrality with respect to these great powers- over the objections of the French and a minority of Americans who considered it a violation of the Franco-American military alliance that had been signed in 1778 and which was largely responsible for winning the Revolution. Relations deteriorated rapidly with a series of high-handed French diplomatic moves. Soon the French began to intercept American shipping and, in the fall of 1798, the United States found itself in an undeclared naval war. U.S. Naval personnel were recruited at Alexandria and soon the town's shipyards were bustling as privateers were being constructed for service against the enemy. The fledgling American Navy acquitted itself well, but many commercial vessels were seized. At least twenty Alexandria registered ships were captured; the National Archives has several boxes of invoices of cargoes seized. American ground forces (including the "Alexandria Blues") and military installations (including the earth fort constructed at Jones Point by French engineer Jean de Vermonnet) saw no action. The Adams administration finally smoothed over differences with the French and signed a new commercial treaty.
The century ended on a sad note with the death of George Washington December 14, 1799. His funeral was virtually an Alexandria affair; perhaps a quarter of the townspeople participated in some fashion, and many streamed to Mount Vernon to pay homage their hero and beloved friend and neighbor. Washington's death appropriately marked the end of the Revolutionary era and the beginning of the passing of the generation which had triumphed in that struggle.
Place in Time
We walk through Jones Point Park today enjoying the pastoral scene within the city and under the shadow of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge. As dogs romp and children play soccer, it is incredible to imagine how this boot of land became the starting point for America's capital, the District of Columbia. The Residence Act was passed on July 15, 1790, authorizing President Washington to locate the ten-mile-square capital on the Potomac River between the Eastern Branch (Anacostia River) and the Connogochegue, near Williamsport, Maryland. On the advice of Andrew Ellicott, the director of the D.C. survey, Washington altered his initial plan to include the thriving port of Alexandria the southeastern and southwestern sides of the District would "Begin...at Jones Point, being the upper cape of Hunting Creek."
The survey team crossed the marshy western end of Jones Point and set up camp near shore. Mathematician Benjamin Banneker maintained the high-tech astronomical and surveying instruments and did the calculations to assure proper alignment of the boundaries. The team indicated the precise spot where the first of forty stones would be put to demarcate the boundaries of the District.
The stones marking the boundary are unbelievably still extant in today's urban environment. Walk to the seawall near the lighthouse and look down into the opening to see what remains of the southern cornerstone. Although the original stone was erected with grand ceremony on April 15, 1791, it is possible that it was replaced in 1794. Other boundary markers can be viewed along the southwestern line of the District of Columbia that cuts across Alexandria: Southwest Mile Marker 1 at the southeast corner of Wilkes and Payne streets; Southwest Mile Marker 2 at the east side of Russell Road north of King Street; Southwest Mile Marker 3 at the north end of the First Baptist Church parking lot, 2900 King Street. They are protected by fences placed by the Daughters of the American Revolution. Southwest Mile Marker is just north of Alexandria near Fairlington Village at Wakefield and King streets, but is broken and partly covered by the pavement.
Artifacts: Piercy Pottery
In 1974, a five-foot deep privy was excavated at 406 King Street. In 1795-1796, this was the rear of Piercy and Graham's china and glass shop. The privy produced more than 80 vessels of Piercy's coarse red earthenware, including several large dishes and pans decorated yellow slip. Also found were a large assortment of English ceramics and glass, lead bale seals, a watch fob, buttons, eyeglass frames, and a folding rule.
Henry Piercy, Alexandria's best known earthenware potter, came to Alexandria from Philadelphia in 1792. His pottery was located on South Washington Street, beneath what is now Lloyd's Row. He advertised his redware pottery as "equal to any work in Philadelphia or elsewhere." It is indeed very similar to forms and styles produced in Philadelphia.
Architecture
With the close of the Revolution and the adoption of the Constitution, Americans sought to establish their own national identity apart from their primarily British roots. As in politics, architectural taste at once reflected both English precedents and an independent streak. The "Federal period" called for a new, "Federal style" of architecture.
Sharing many of the elements of its predecessor, the Georgian style, Federal architecture was more chaste, refined and attenuated. The two buildings of Gadsby's Tavern, 134 North Royal Street, provide a side-by-side comparison of the styles (see below). The smaller, south building, built ca. 1785 is clearly Georgian, with its center hall, horizontality, heavy cornice, prominent jack arches and water table. The large 1792 building has a much plainer (and more "planar") facade; it too has jack arches, but of rubbed, gauged brick and not Renaissance-inspired stone voussoirs. There is no stone belt course between stories. While symmetry is still very important, it is not as rigid as the Georgian; the entry has now been put off-center in a four-bay facade. The cornice and door surround are somewhat simpler and lighter. The door is flanked by fluted neoclassical columns.
Points in Time
1800: Presidential campaign which leads to an electoral tie --Thomas Jefferson is finally elected the next year, marking the effective end of the Federalist Party and leading to the Twelfth Amendment
1801-1805: War between the U.S. and the Barbary pirates
1802: Martha Washington dies
1803: Louisiana Purchase
1803: Supreme Court decision in Marbury v. Madison
1803-1806: Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific
1804: Alexander Hamilton mortally wounded in duel with Aaron Burr
1806-1812: Various U.S. efforts to embargo European goods in response to French and British abuses of American commerce
1807-1808: Robert Fulton and John Stevens introduce first successful steamboats
1808: Federal ban on importation of slaves goes into effect
The Eighteen-Oughts: Alexandria, District of Columbia
The Alexandria of 1800 basked in the sunshine of economic prosperity as the premier port on the Potomac River. Its harbor bristled with activity as ships unloaded their cargoes of Antigua rum, Puerto Rico coffee and Lisbon wines, as well as an assortment of manufactured goods from Great Britain. The population was said to be 4,971 in 1800, but grew to 6,543 by 1808 and to 7,143 in 1810.
Included within the boundaries of the District of Columbia in 1791, Alexandria did not legally become a component of the federal district until 1801. The Fairfax County Court, which had met on Market Square since 1752, relocated to the town of Providence, now Fairfax City, in April 1800.
By June 1800, the federal government began its move from Philadelphia to the planned Washington City, where Congress convened its first session on November 17. Secretary of the Treasury Oliver Wolcott suggested in a letter that Alexandria would have been established as the seat of the government, if George Washington had not been confined to a choice on the east side of the Potomac. Washington, sensitive to charges of financial impropriety, had been reluctant to openly lobby for his hometown since he was the owner of adjacent real estate. [Stoessel, The Port of Alexandria in the Eighteenth Century]
Commerce and trade
Although Alexandria's shipping interests had been harmed by the undeclared naval war with France, trade soon rebounded. The Alexandria Advertiser editorialized in 1802, that "Not more than two years since it was a rare thing to see a square rigged vessel in our harbour; we now have our wharves lined with vessels destined for foreign ports. Our merchants have generally received their fall goods, and we sincerely hope they will reap the reward of their labors..." From 1801 to 1810, Alexandria shipped to foreign countries 613,895 barrels of flour and 233,139 bushels of wheat. The town's major markets were Portugal and Spain. The West Indies remained the best market for flour, taking nearly one- third of Alexandria's exports in addition to 35% of its corn. A large percentage of Alexandria's commerce also centered around its coastwise trade with New England. Tobacco, preserved meats, grain and forest products account for the majority of commodities exchanged. [Peterson, "The Alexandria Market Prior to the Civil War," William & Mary Quarterly (Vol. 11, Series 2)] By 1810, Alexandria also ranked third in the nation in the production of refined sugar (see Place in Time, below). Crude sugar was imported from the West Indies and New Orleans in exchange for cargoes of flour and tobacco.
But sometimes trade brought tragedy. As a seaport community Alexandria was continually exposed to plagues, epidemics and other serious diseases. The venerable Dr. Elisha Cullen Dick estimated that nearly 3,000 inhabitants left town during the yellow fever epidemic of 1803, and of those who remained, 200 or more became permanent residents of Penny Hill Cemetery. [Smith and Miller, Seaport Saga]
After 1805 Alexandria's trade was somewhat disrupted by the construction of a causeway from the Virginia shore to Mason's Island. This structure not only obstructed the river passage between Alexandria and Georgetown but it blocked the flow of commercial traffic down the Potomac Canal from the western hinterlands to the port of Alexandria. As a result, Alexandrians began to agitate for the construction of a canal paralleling the river.
At the same time there were more serious challenges to Alexandria's commerce. One of the weapons in the war between Great Britain and France were paper blockades of their enemy's ports. Should any neutrals violate the blockades, each of the combatants was more than willing to seize their ships and cargoes. The British also turned to the forced impressment of sailors from American ships to replenish the Royal Navy. The Jefferson Administration responded to the situation by passing a series of Non-importation Acts. Finally in December 1807, Jefferson declared a complete trade embargo with foreign countries. As an instrument of diplomatic policy, the embargo was ineffectual and only served to devastate American ports. Those who obeyed suffered grave damage and ships still abroad were prey to the French. Some enterprising traders nonetheless carried on a brisk smuggling trade. Faced with widespread opposition, President Jefferson signed the Non-Intercourse Act in 1809, which repealed the Embargo Acts and re-opened American shipping to other countries, excepting that of France and Great Britain.
Alexandria ended the first decade of the nineteenth century with a spectacular fire which ravaged the waterfront. "It commenced in a cooper's shop near the wharves adjoining Union Street on September 24, 1810 and consumed nearly every building from Prince to Duke Street." [Seaport Saga]
Land Transportation
By any standard, land travel in early Virginia was cumbersome and slow. Hogsheads of tobacco were rolled over mere paths while stagecoaches and carriages crept along roads filled with ruts and stones. With access to a deep water port, Alexandrians initially neglected the importance of a transportation system to the transmontane region. Alexandria's lifeblood, however, depended on the transport of wheat
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Out beyond the shore of the Western Sea, a great abbey towers above the waves. Tall as any castle, Isola Sombra’s treasures are the envy of princes. Its six colossal spires, armoured in stone walls impervious to the buffeting winds and pelting rains, rise up as if to taunt the gods to which they were once consecrated. The relentless fury of the storms which lately assail the abbey suggests such impertinence has not gone unnoticed. Given those same gods were murdered two years ago, an inquisitive traveller to this once holy site might wonder whose outrage now summons the tempest?
The tiny islet upon which the abbey was built centuries ago is tethered to the mainland by a half-mile-long causeway barely wide enough for two carts to pass each other without one being shoved off the slippery cobbles and into the sea. During the winter months, thick fogs often blanket the causeway, blinding travellers to the unpredictable currents. Anyone foolish enough to attempt the crossing during a squall is likely to find themselves swept away beneath the ocean swells, horses, wagons and all.
Estevar Borros had neither wagon nor horse. He slumped heavily in the saddle somewhat precariously strapped to the mule he’d purchased six months ago at the start of his judicial circuit. He’d named the beast Imperious, though the ostentatious sobriquet wasn’t due to any regal bearing evinced by the mule, but rather for the way its rain-drenched muzzle would turn every few plodding steps so it could glare at its rider and remind him precisely who was to blame for their soggy predicament.
‘The fault isn’t mine,’ Estevar grumbled, his words drowned out by the sleet and rain currently hampering their approach to the causeway. ‘Bring suit against the First Cantor if you’re so aggrieved. It was she who assigned us this gods-be-damned judicial circuit that never ends.’
Imperious offered his own grunt in reply, which Estevar took as agreement that the responsibility did indeed lie some two hundred miles to the northeast with a woman barely nineteen years of age whom fate – and the execrable former First Cantor of the Greatcoats – had placed in charge of the King’s Travelling Magistrates.
Estevar’s ice-cold fingers reached beneath the dripping black braids of his beard to pull up the collar of his muddy crimson greatcoat in a hopeless attempt to protect his neck from the beating rain. Even this small movement drew a groan from him. That damned wound . . . The seven-inch gash just above the bottom rib on his left side showed no sign of healing. This particular ache could not, alas, be blamed on the new First Cantor, but rather on Estevar’s own temper.
Staring into the thick fog ahead of them, he could almost picture that suave, conceited duellist standing there: long and lean, his blade swift as a devil’s tail, his spirit unburdened by conscience. His employer, a wealthy lord caravanner charged with the murder of his own wife, had demanded an appeal by combat after Estevar had rendered his verdict. There had been no necessity to accept the challenge; the evidence had been incontrovertible, and King’s magistrates aren’t bound to cross swords with every belligerent who disagrees with the outcome of a trial. And yet . . . there was that smirk on the too-handsome face of the merchant’s champion, as if no one so wide of girth as Estevar could possibly score a touch against him.
In fact, Estevar had won first blood. His use of an unusual Gitabrian sword bind – rather clever, he’d thought at the time – had sent his smug opponent hurtling to the courtroom floor. A single clean thrust to the forearm with the tip of Estevar’s rapier – hardly more than a scratch – had been precisely the sort merciful and honourable declaration of victory expected of a Greatcoat. When the clerk of the court struck the bell to end the duel in Estevar's favour, he had even extended a hand to assist the man back to his feet.
Arrogance. Sheer, wanton arrogance.
His enraged opponent had pushed himself off the floor with one hand and delivered a vicious rapier cut with the other. Worse, at the instant of full extension, he’d added injury to insult by turning his wrist to add a vicious puncture to an already deep laceration, the sort of wound that invariably leads to infection and rarely heals properly.
The King’s Third Law of Judicial Duelling was unequivocal on the matter: Estevar was the victor. Unfortunately, the local viscount, no admirer of the king’s meddling magistrates, had taken advantage of Estevar’s public humiliation to overrule his verdict. The lord caravanner had ridden away unpunished. His murdered wife was buried in an unmarked grave the next morning, denied both justice and priestly blessings.
Estevar pressed a hand over the nagging wound. There wasn’t so much as a scratch on the leather. The bone plates sewn into the lining would have protected him, had he not been so vain that he’d consented to the duellist’s demand that he fight without it.
‘Surely so redoubtable a physique, one so voluminous in vigour, needs no armour to protect the many, many layers of valorous flesh beneath?’ the tall, sleek fellow had shouted mockingly before the entire court. ‘What use those silly bone plates sewn into the lining of that preposterous garment you “Greatcoats”’ – he’d imbued the word with such irony! – ‘insist on wearing when compared to the blubber straining its seams?’
Fool of a fool of a fool, Estevar’s mother would have chided him – which was nothing compared to the lashing he could expect to receive from the preposterously young First Cantor when this last stop on his judicial circuit was dealt with and he returned to Castle Aramor.
Voluminous, he thought bitterly, pressing even harder against the wound, but failing to ease the sting. Six days and a hundred miles since he’d cleaned and sewn up the cut, but the pain hadn’t abated one jot. Worse, it now felt hot to the touch, suggesting infection. Perhaps if I survive the fever I’ll name the scar ‘Voluminous’ as a reminder to have a thicker skin in future.
‘And now what shall we do, Imperious?’ he asked the mule. ‘We’re under no obligation to heed the abbot’s request for judicial arbitration between his unruly monks. As Venia so reliably reminded us in his letter, Isola Sombra does not consider itself subject to the King’s Laws. Why should we tarry here when we could already be on our way home?’
Despite his optimistic words, Estevar had no illusions about the welcome awaiting him at Aramor once the First Cantor learned that one of her magistrates had lost a judicial appeal he’d been under no obligation to grant in the first place, only to then take a grievous injury due entirely to his inexcusable pride rather than any skill of his opponent. He would be lucky if she didn’t immediately demand he relinquish his coat of office.
Imperious swivelled his sorrel head once again, this time in an attempt to bite his rider’s hand as punishment for bringing him to this hellish place. Evidently, it wasn’t only the First Cantor to whom Estevar owed profuse apologies.
‘Let us away home then,’ he declared, tugging gently on the reins to circle his mount back towards the mainland road. ‘We’ll leave the monks to their quarrels.’
He was about to give the mule’s flanks an encouraging nudge when a voice shouted out from the mists, ‘Hold where you are!’
Man and mule both turned. The grey haze between the mainland and the causeway had thickened, distorting the voice and making it difficult to locate its source. A less experienced traveller might have heard the command of an angry ghost come to exact revenge for some long-forgotten crime. Estevar, however, had investigated many supposed supernatural apparitions during his tenure as a Greatcoat, and quickly decided this one sounded more man than spectre. He patted Imperious’ neck to calm him, but the mule lowered his head and hunched his shoulders, as if determined to leap into battle against their unknown assailant.
‘Who approaches the cursed Abbey of Isola Sombra?’ the hidden figure demanded.
Estevar closed his eyes a moment, allowing the eerie echoes to surround him. The voice was deep, confident, but that gravitas was trained rather than natural. The accent – most notably the rising inflection on the last vowel of the abbey’s name, almost as if he were saying ‘Som–brae’ – suggested a commoner raised in this duchy, not highborn himself, but accustomed to being in the presence of nobles.
He reached back for the oilcloth bag strapped behind the cantle. He’d wanted to protect his rapier from the rain and hadn’t anticipated having to fight his way into an abbey famed almost as much for its hospitality as its wealth. With his fingers chilled to the bone, the knots were proving perniciously difficult to untie. His mind, however, was moving more nimbly, envisioning the unfolding scene from the perspective of the fellow who now sought to block his passage.
He sees only a fat man in a leather greatcoat slouched wearily upon a mule, Estevar thought, someone too slow to present a genuine threat. Someone he can bully as he pleases.
This was, regrettably, a common enough conclusion on meeting Estevar Borros. A magistrate’s first duty being to the truth, he decided it was incumbent upon him to cure this new acquaintance of a potentially fatal ignorance. He coughed briefly before allowing his own deep baritone to rumble across the sandy shore.
‘To you, stranger, is the privilege of greeting Estevar Valejan Duerisi Borros, often called the King’s Crucible. As one of His Majesty’s Travelling Magistrates, the duty of hearing appeals to the King’s Justice throughout the Seventh Circuit of Tristia falls to me. Any fool who stands in the way of that endeavour will soon find himself flat on his back, gazing up at the sky and asking the gods why they cursed him with such poor judgement as to challenge me.’
Not bad, Estevar mused, all thoughts of abandoning the monks to their own devices banished as he drew his rapier. The cadence was a little off, but melodious eloquence is surely too much to ask of a fellow in my feverish state.
At last, a tall figure emerged from the mists. First came the glint of steel, the position and angle suggesting a longsword held in a high guard. Next came the shimmer of a chainmail surcoat partly covered by a hooded cloak of pure white trimmed in silver and emblazoned with three azure eyes across the front.
A Knight of the March of Someil, Estevar reasoned, which explained both the accent and commanding tone.
The chainmail was going to be a problem. Estevar’s rapier was a duelling weapon meant for courtroom trials and back-alley ambushes, not squaring off on the battlefield against armoured knights. Tristian steel came in varying qualities, however, and a Greatcoat’s rapier was as fine a weapon as was ever forged in this benighted little country. Wielded with force and precision, the point could shatter the links of a mail surcoat to find the fragile flesh beneath. That was, of course, assuming its wielder was not already wounded and exhausted.
The wise move would be to fight from atop the mule. The added height afforded a superior position, and Imperious was no shy pony to cower in the face of danger. Should the need arise to flee, being already in the saddle would increase the odds of escape.
But my opponent is a man of war, Estevar reminded himself, trained to slash the throat of his enemy’s mount first to counter his advantage.
He dismounted, hiding his unsteadiness beneath a show of nonchalance. He patted his mule’s reddish-brown mane and whispered into one long, twitching ear, ‘No heroics, my friend. When the first blow is struck, turn tail and run. Find yourself a mare and – well, as I don’t suppose mules can reproduce, just enjoy yourself and think fondly of your old friend Estevar.’
Imperious ignored him, instead issuing a braying warning to the approaching knight. Running away clearly wasn’t the beast’s style.
‘Damned good mule,’ Estevar murmured, bringing his rapier up to a centreline guard suitable for initiating a deceptive flick at the eyes followed by a more powerful – and desperate – thrust to the narrow gap between helm and gorget, which would be his best hope of evading the mail surcoat.
‘Borros?’ the knight called out, coming into full view at last. A handsome devil, you had to give him that. The very portrait of a young chevalier: broad in the shoulder, narrow in the hips, square-jawed and golden-haired beneath a steel half-helm. Even the broken nose lent his otherwise smooth features a determined dignity. No doubt many a lad and lass had swooned over this one. At his side dangled a curved ivory horn. Estevar had known the blare of such instruments to carry for miles across flat terrain. ‘You are truly Estevar Borros, the King’s Crucible?’ the knight asked.
‘The storm is not so deafening that you failed to hear me the first time,’ he replied, widening his stance and raising the blade of his rapier. ‘Now, stop where you are. Inclement weather and poor soil make for arduous grave-digging, and I have more pressing business at the abbey.’
Without warning, the knight rushed Estevar. The fool might well have impaled himself, had not the combination of a magistrate’s quick judgement and a duellist’s quick instincts enabled Estevar to tilt his rapier blade off-line in time to stop the point sliding over the steel gorget and into the knight’s exposed throat.
‘My name is Sir Daven Colraig,’ the young knight declared, hugging Estevar with frantic relief. ‘I am Sheriff Outrider to His Lordship, Margrave Someil. It was he who commanded me to await you here these past seven days.’
‘Seven days?’ Estevar had to suppress a groan when the young man’s exuberant squeezing aggravated his wound. He shoved the fellow away, not quite as gently as he’d intended. ‘You expect me to believe you’ve been out in this storm for an entire week?’
Sir Daven nodded, water dripping from his helm onto the golden locks plastered to his forehead. ‘Indeed, Eminence. The margrave had hoped you would arrive sooner.’
‘My pace was perhaps more leisurely than anticipated,’ Estevar admitted.
Yet why would the Margrave of Someil be keeping abreast of a magistrate’s travels? And why would he make one of his knights camp out in the cold and wet until my arrival?
‘The Abbey of Isola Sombra is less than half a mile across the causeway,’ Estevar observed. ‘The monks are known for their gracious hospitality to all who arrive at their gates. Why await me here? Unless it was to prevent me from reaching them myself?’
Sir Daven slid a gauntleted hand into his cloak and withdrew a cylinder of black leather roughly eight inches long and barely an inch in diameter. The message sheath was banded in azure and bore a silver wax seal of a wasp shattering a shield: the hereditary insignia of the Margraves of Someil. ‘I know the Greatcoats have oft been at odds with the nobles of this duchy, Eminence, but my lord is no enemy to the new king, nor to his magistrates.’
Estevar eyed the black leather tube warily. Bribing magistrates was a common tactic for those with a vested interest in the outcome of a case. The lord caravanner had offered him a small fortune to avoid a trial. Was this some attempt by the Margrave of Someil to secure a ruling against the Abbey of Isola Sombra, whose legendary obstinance in refusing to pay taxes – either to the king or to the local nobility – rested upon the dubious claim that their tiny island was by tradition a sovereign nation unto itself?
‘Please,’ Sir Daven said, jabbing the message sheath at Estevar’s chest, ‘read my lord’s words and heed them, I beg you.’
Imperious attempted to bite off the knight’s hand. When that failed, he snatched the leather cylinder away from him.
‘Cease, you avaricious beast,’ Estevar growled, yanking the crushed tube from between the mule’s teeth. ‘Save your appetite for the abbey, where we shall shortly be feasted as befits visiting dignitaries.’
He undid the azure ties, unfurled the parchment and read quickly, before the rain smudged the ink, rendering the missive illegible. He checked the half-seal at the bottom of the parchment, comparing it with its mate on the other side, a security device. The rich purple-black ink he recognised as a rare mixture made of the iron-gall from an oak tree and the crushed seeds of a berry found only in this duchy: a concoction so carefully guarded by the margraves that even the finest forgers found it near-impossible to reproduce. All of which suggested the document was authentic, which made the five lines scrawled upon it all the more troubling.
From his Lordship Alaire, Margrave of Someil,
Warden of the March, Defender of the Faith,
To you, my friend, in earnest warning,
As you love life and value your soul,
you will not set foot on Isola Sombra.
A blaze ignited in Estevar’s belly, chasing away the cold and wet, even the ache of his wound. When bribery was deemed unlikely to succeed, the nobility all too often resorted to blackmail and bullying.
‘A threat?’ he demanded, crushing the parchment in his fist as the rain poured down even harder, the thunder in the sky above punctuating his outburst. ‘Your precious margrave would seek to intimidate a Greatcoat into abandoning his lawful mission? Does he so fear what the Abbot of Isola Sombra might reveal to me of his activities that he’d stoop to—?’
‘Abbot Venia no longer rules Isola Sombra,’ the knight said icily, his countenance darkening. ‘He who once defied kings now cowers beneath the covers inside his tower while madness and devilry reigns over that holiest of islands!’
Estevar could barely restrain his laughter. ‘Has the cold and damp frozen that helmet to your head, Sir Knight? You speak of two hundred pampered, petulant monks as if they were an army of invading soldiers!’
Sir Daven shook his head, sending splatters of rain onto Estevar’s face and beard. ‘Not soldiers, sir, but warlocks – heretics who dabble in curses and necromancy, perverting their bodies in unholy orgies—’
Estevar cut him off. ‘Enough. I am a Greatcoat, not some backwoods constable to be frightened off with childish tales of witchcraft. As the King’s Crucible, it falls to me to investigate cases suspected of supernatural intervention. I have witnessed hundreds of occult rituals all across this country – some genuine, most elaborate trickery, but none the preposterous pantomime you’re ascribing to the brethren of Isola Sombra.’ He handed the black leather cylinder to Sir Daven. ‘You call yourself a sheriff outrider? If the Margrave of Someil truly believes some nefarious demon worship to have taken hold of the abbey, surely he would have sent a contingent of his finest knights to investigate, rather than have you wait out here in the rain like an unwanted pup?’
The knight refused to take back the sheath, saying instead, ‘Look inside the cylinder, Eminence; a second document awaits your perusal.’
Estevar cursed himself for failing to notice the smaller piece of parchment tight against the inside of the case. He had to dig it out with his fingernail before unfolding what turned out to be an elaborate sketch of a naked man such as one might find in a medical text. What made it unusual were the strange markings covering the body: esoteric sigils in designs unrecognisable to Estevar despite his years of research into the esoteric traditions of Tristia.
‘My Lord did send a dozen of my fellow knights to investigate,’ Sir Daven said defiantly. ‘When they emerged the next morning . . .’ He paused, visibly shaken by whatever memories plagued him. ‘Twelve braver, steadier men and women I have never known, yet not one of them has uttered a word since their return. They sit in separate chambers within the margrave’s fortress, attended to by his personal physicians – not clerics, mind you, trained physicians – who claim their souls have fled their bodies.’
‘There has to be a logical explanation,’ Estevar murmured, returning the picture and the margrave’s message to the cylinder before placing it in a pocket of his greatcoat. ‘There is always an explanation.’
Steel returned to the younger man’s eyes as they locked on Estevar’s. ‘Theories and conjectures do not fall within my purview, Eminence, nor was I sent here merely to await your displeasure.’ He lifted the ivory horn strapped to his side and jabbed his other hand towards the six stone towers rising from the dense greyness. ‘Should anyone or anything come back across that causeway, my orders are to first raise the alarm, then fend off whatever chaos has been spawned in the cloisters of Isola Sombra until help arrives or death takes me!’
Holding the knight’s gaze, Estevar sifted through what clues he could discern in the younger man’s determined expression. Were the clenched jaw and stiff posture signs of the unyielding devotion to duty so often espoused by Tristian knights, or mere melodrama meant to frighten away one of the King’s Magistrates before he could interfere in whatever schemes were unfolding on Isola Sombra?
Estevar’s fever-addled brain rebelled against him, alerting him instead to the flush in his cheeks and the burning ache in his side. What business did he have setting foot upon the ill-fated isle at the end of that storm-drenched causeway armed with nothing but a rapier, his arrogance and a cantankerous mule?
‘Heed my liege’s warning, Eminence, I beg you,’ Sir Daven said, no doubt sensing Estevar’s wavering intentions.
How strange that only moments before, he’d been ready to abandon this place and ignore Abbot Venia’s plea for him to arbitrate the dispute between his contentious monks. Now that this same dispute had exploded into something far more unsettling, Estevar found himself unable to walk away.
He knew himself to be a ludicrous figure in the eyes of many: a foreigner to these shores who dared demand a place among the legendary Greatcoats; a fat, pompous buffoon who insisted on fighting his own duels when younger and fitter men would have refused; an eccentric who alone among the King’s Travelling Magistrates investigated crimes attributed to witches, demons and sundry other supernatural forces. In short, Estevar Borros was a silly fool, driven by his innate stubbornness as much as his affinity for the law. But there was yet one more failing to which he was ever subservient – the one that, even more than his arrogance, had led him to accept the most recent duel: the persistent, impossible-to-quiet voice that had brought him from his homeland across the sea to this strange, troubled nation. The addiction was more potent than any drug, a nagging need that could overpower even the pain of a festering wound in his side.
Looking towards the abbey in the sea, contemplating what chaos awaited, he murmured, ‘I am curious.’
‘What?’ asked Sir Daven, grabbing his arm.
Gently, he loosened the younger man’s fingers. ‘I thank you, Sir Knight. You have delivered your message, fulfilling this part of your mission. No one could fault your courage or your loyalty to your liege.’ He slid his rapier into the sheath ingeniously designed into the leather panel on the left side of his greatcoat, wincing at the sudden sting that was surely his stitches coming apart.
Sir Daven gaped at him as he if were mad. ‘Look at yourself,’ he cried, his frantic voice bubbling over with scorn and unease. ‘You can barely stand – yes, I see you, attempting to hide whatever injury ails you. But even after what I’ve told you, still you insist on crossing the most perilous causeway in the country during a raging storm while the tide rises? I have told you that death and worse await you on the other side – do you presume the rest of us to be gullible dolts deluded by some petty parlour trick?’
‘I think nothing of the kind,’ Estevar replied, taking the reins and tugging his reluctant mule towards the narrow cobblestone road ahead. ‘You claim the monks of Isola Sombra commit unspeakable crimes, dabbling in forbidden occult rituals and desecrating the oldest holy site in the country. Surely that calls for the intervention of a King’s Magistrate, no?’
‘You’re a fool,’ Sir Daven spat, no longer pretending at admiration, or even sympathy. ‘A mad fool! What will be left of you once the monsters prowling that cursed abbey have peeled away the last layers of your arrogance from your flesh?’
Estevar placed a hand on the mule’s neck to steady himself as the two of them began their crossing. Shouting over the wind and rain he replied, ‘According to my sainted mother? Only more arrogance.’
The second knock was louder than the first, a reprehensible criminal act so far as Mer’esan was concerned. Her meditations now fatally interrupted, she reached up a shaking hand to wipe at the undignified spittle at the corner of her mouth.
You were asleep, old woman. No sense pretending otherwise.
But was it really the second knock that had woken her? Or had this been the third? The fourth? How long had this trespasser been banging at her cottage door?
She waited, wondering now if perhaps it had been a dream – a memory of someone from years past: her husband, the new clan prince, slamming his fist against the door, the force of his magic tearing apart spell after spell that she’d so carefully woven upon the cottage.
‘Open up, ya old bag, you’re not dead yet!’
What a strange, incongruous voice . . . female, yet lacking the grace and precision nurtured by Jan’Tep women. Each syllable suffused with a distinctive – and annoying – frontier drawl, as though designed specially to offend the ears.
Certainly it was no way to speak to a dowager magus.
’Touch my door once more and your life is forfeit,’ Mer’esan warned, cursing the feeble wheezing of her own voice that undermined her threat.
A pause – not long enough to account for reflection or reconsideration – just long enough for theatricality. Then, another knock.
Oh, whoever you are, you have signed your own death warrant now.
Mer’esan drew herself up from her chair only to stumble, her legs too old and stiff to hold her steady. She grabbed onto one of the rough wooden posts that held up the cottage roof, the effort sending jarring pains through the joints in her hand, her wrist, her elbow and finally her shoulder.
Old. Too old to strike fear into anyone.
The dowager magus regained her balance and raised her arms. Even through the wrappings of black cloth, six tattooed bands on her forearms shimmered, the metallic inks still gleaming bright after three hundred years, an odd contrast to the withered skin beneath.
The interloper will not see me thus, she promised herself.
The glyphs of the second band on her left arm, those of sand magic, began to glow and swirl, each shape flowing into one of its many variations as she drew forth the source of power to manipulate time. Those of the third band on her right arm did likewise, igniting the magic of blood, and thus the manipulation of flesh.
Again the intruder banged on the door, brazenly, without any sign of contrition. ‘Come on, you crazy old bird,’ she called out. ‘Time you and me had a chat.’
Time. That was precisely what Mer’esan needed. Before facing this invader she must bring back the body that had been hers decades – no, centuries – ago. But to erase the ravages of time from her outward flesh she must first remove the years from muscle and sinew, and to do that, vitality had to be brought back to her bones; to the very marrow of her being.
With trembling fingers she formed the somatic shape of the first restoration spell. Her throat was dry, and the sound that came past her lips was like a faltering breeze across the arid desert. So be it. Such a voice suited sand spells. Her mind held firm to the spell’s mystical geometry, her will lent her dominion over the raw magic, and only then did she speak the seven-word incantation. Oh, how she wished that youth spells needn’t be so intolerably long. ‘An’heda ki’reth sula be’enath men’er inati pha’sha.’
Pain.
Deep inside her body, wasted bone and marrow shattered. The spell transformed the base elements and knit them anew, like an army of ants tearing her apart and remaking her. Relentless. Merciless.
Quickly now, she thought, the next one, before the torment saps your will.
The second spell brought life back to muscle and sinew. The discomfort subsided as aches that had been her constant companions departed, unresisting, knowing that they would soon enough return to their comfortable home.
At last Mer’esan cast the third spell, this one upon her skin. Wrinkles fled, banished by a youthful glow that spread across the canvas of her body. Her hair thickened, a deep chestnut colour flowing from the roots of her scalp to the very tips. Idly her hand came up to twirl a lock around one finger. She’d always loved playing with her hair – a girlish affectation that even power and rank had never seemed to extinguish.
With her youth restored, the dowager shifted her attention to the tattooed band for iron – so that she might bind the trespasser – and to ember, in case she decided to destroy her entirely.
Which she probably would.
‘Come in,’ Mer’esan said, the lightness and clarity of her own voice surprising her – as it always did when she performed these temporary restorations. With a flick of her hand, the seals upon her cottage door came away, giving entry to the woman on the other side.
Into the darkness of the cottage came a puff of smoke, soon followed by a tiny red glow like that of an autumn emberfly. A smoking reed? Mer’esan wondered. This foreigner dares to smoke in my presence as if my home were some travellers’saloon. What will she do next? Demand I serve her a drink and bring out comfort boys for her selection?
‘You always sit by yourself in the dark?’ the imprudent visitor asked.
Mer’esan sent a fraction of her will into the single glow-glass lantern hanging from the centre of the cottage’s ceiling. The light flared like a white-hot sun, forcing the intruder to cover her eyes as she struggled to adjust to the sudden brightness . A petty retaliation perhaps, but it gave the dowager magus time to examine this woman who’d somehow snuck into the palace grounds, entered the gardens and slipped past the guard, all to disturb the sanctity of Mer’esan’s cottage.
The girl . . . No, not a girl – she only seemed so because, well, everyone looked like a child nowadays. The woman wore a broad-brimmed frontier hat, as though she was some Daroman cow herder. Unruly red curls tumbled beneath it down to her jaw, framing a face that wasn’t displeasing, certainly, but whose beauty was subverted by the sharp lines of her features and, most of all, by a wide, self-satisfied smile. Damn the Argosi and their smugness.
‘Well, take a look at you,’ the intruder said, stamping her riding boots on the mat and straightening the black leather waistcoat she wore over a travel-stained linen shirt. She tilted her head as she peered at Mer’esan. ’Did you go and get yourself all made up just for little old me? Why, you look as pretty as a flower and younger than new rain falling on a mountaintop!’
The glib words might have been a compliment, had they been spoken by someone with less mischief in their eyes. ‘Better to say that I am the mountain,’ Mer’esan countered. ‘And you, Ferius Parfax, are in avalanche country now.’
The other’s smile softened, derision becoming something more respectful, though still without a trace of fear. She gave a slight bow of her head. ‘And what a remarkable country it is, ma’am.’
‘A dangerous one. I hope your reason for coming is worthy of the risk.’
’I’m here about the kid.’
‘A Jan’Tep matter.’
The humour in the Argosi’s eyes vanished. ‘Not any more.’
The dowager allowed more of her will to flow into the ember band on her forearm. Let this swaggering gambler see just how easily I could turn her to ash. But the Argosi’s face showed no concern.
‘A simple thought from me will bring my guard,’ Mer’esan warned. The instant the words were passed her lips, she regretted them. The threat was an admission of her own fear. With no way to back away from it, she added, ‘He is a mage of no small power himself – a tribulator, in fact. That is to say he—‘
Ferius Parfax waved a hand negligently. ‘He casts spells that hurt people. I get it.’
Mer’esan found the subtle contempt in the woman’s tone irksome. Few foreigners, even enemies, spoke so dismissively of Jan’Tep magic. So was this self-assurance, or bluff? ‘I wonder, how did you evade his awareness? His sentry spells are rather potent.’
The Argosi took a puff from her smoking reed, which Mer’esan recognized as a means of delaying an answer. Did she, perhaps, not want to reveal her secrets? A good sign then, for it signalled uncertainty. ‘Silk magic,’ the Argosi replied.
‘Silk magic? You mean to say that you—‘
‘Jan’Tep spells for detecting intruders are built on silk magic, ain’t they? What do y’all call it? “Dominion over the minds of others”?’
Mer’esan nodded, her eyes narrowing.
The Argosi put out her smoking reed with a pinch of her finger and thumb, then put it inside her waistcoat before leaning back against the cottage wall. ‘Try it on me.’ She put her hands up in submission. ‘I won’t resist.’
A daring gambit, and a foolish one. If Mer’esan chose, she could use silk spells to do whatever she liked to the Argosi: strip her thoughts bare, fill her with visions of unspeakable horrors, even combine it with iron magic to create a mind chain that would . . . No, never that.
Mer’esan closed her eyes and brought the fingertips of her left hand together as she envisioned the geometry of the spell. She sent her will sliding into the silk band on her right forearm, then uttered the invocation as she opened her fingers wide. A simple unlocking spell would suffice, enabling her to witness the surface thoughts of this woman who’d so brazenly challenged her.
Like a key turning in a well-oiled lock, the Argosi’s mind opened to her – far more easily than Mer’esan had expected. She played about Ferius Parfax’s thoughts as effortlessly as she might rifle through the pages of a book. Since the Argosi had mentioned the boy – what was his name again? He had been here only hours ago and yet already the memory had faded. Ke . . . Kellen? That was it: Kellen of the House of Ke. Mer’esan began there, drawing forth images from Ferius’s memories of him: seeing the boy duelling that little wretch of the House of Ra, defeating him without magic, being nearly killed by his younger sister – Mer’esan would have to keep an eye on that girl – and then Ferius herself, struggling to save Kellen. Other images came, too, but prudence called for focusing on more vital questions: what was Ferius Parfax’s purpose in coming to the Jan’Tep lands so soon after the death of Mer’esan’s husband, the clan prince? What was her mission?
Suddenly the Argosi woman’s thoughts disappeared, her mind completely gone. Somehow, while Mer’esan had been distracted, she had slipped away from the cottage.
The dowager magus opened her eyes, expecting to see an empty room, only to find the Argosi still standing there. ‘How . . .?’
Ferius shrugged, taking out her smoking reed and lighting it once again. ‘Your fancy silk magic is all about the mind, but it needs an ego to bind itself to, a sense of individuality.’ She took a puff from the reed, exhaling a ring of smoke that floated in the air between them. ‘Sometimes it’s healthy to forget yourself a little.’
‘Impossible,’ Mer’esan declared, a sudden tightness in her chest at the very thought of it. ‘No one can lose themselves so utterly as to evade the power of silk magic.’
Another puff of smoke, and another self-satisfied smirk. ‘Impossible for you Jan’Tep, maybe, on account of how you’re all obsessed with being in control of yourselves and everything around you.’
The dowager magus prepared a retort. The Argosi were known to love debate and philosophizing. Well, Mer’esan had lived three hundred years and knew more about rhetoric and philosophy than any wandering gambler could ever imagine. But before she could reply, Ferius Parfax added, ‘Kind of like the way you’re trying to control the kid.’
Ah. At last a weakness, or at least an admission. ‘So your reason for having saved his life is more than passing altruism.’
The Argosi shook her head. ‘See, that’s the problem with you Jan’Tep: you can only see one possibility at a time. I saved Kellen because I saw a boy about to die for no better reason than that he was born into a country so crazy they make children fight each other with magic to impress their parents. If saving his life makes him useful to me in other ways, well, that’s just the way the path twists and turns.’
‘And that path has led you to my door?’
The Argosi shrugged. ’You ordered the kid to spy on me. Just figured we could save time by talking face to face.’
‘The boy confessed to you.’ Mer’esan felt a stab of disappointment. She’d had such high hopes for him.
‘He didn’t say a word. Kellen’s a good kid, trying his best to figure out what’s right.’
The implied slight troubled Mer’esan more than she liked. ‘As are we all. So then, have you come to demand that I desist? Or is it something else? Why do the Argosi seek to meddle in Jan’Tep affairs, now of all times? When our great houses are divided over who will take the seat of the clan prince now that my husband is dead? Is that why you’re here? Because the wanderers sense weakness in us now that our most powerful mage is gone?’
‘Your husband was an idiot.’
The declaration was like a slap to Mer’esan’s face, and despite her own feelings, despite what he had . . . The memory wouldn’t even allow itself to form in her mind. ‘You would not dare to speak so of the clan prince if he was alive.’
Ferius Parfax took a step towards Mer’esan. ‘I know what he did to you.’
Mer’esan opened her mouth, but the words died. Even such a small, unintentional utterance triggered the spell, and the chains tightened themselves around her mind.
The Argosi was staring at her, anger, no . . . fury in her gaze. But tempered with other things too. Determination. Resignation. And one other thing: sympathy. ‘I know the secret you keep,’ Ferius Parfax said. ‘I would break the chain for you if I could.’
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ Please, please, show me some new Argosi trick, unwrap this thing from my soul and prove how clever you are, I beg you!
But there was nothing the other woman could do for her, nothing that Mer’esan herself hadn’t tried hundreds of times. Nothing save look upon her with pity. It was that last that hurt the most. To be pitied by a wandering gambler with no more magic than a half-witted goatherd. How Mer’esan wanted to rage at her, to scream the frustration of almost three hundred years of binding! An atrocity committed by her own—
Even here, even this fleeting thought – not even a word spoken but merely the feeling behind it – and the iron and silk magics clamped down around her throat.
Ferius Parfax spoke softly, barely a whisper, as if in doing so her words might go unnoticed by the spell. ‘I would reveal the secret for you, Dowager Magus. I’d shout it to the world, but it wouldn’t help, would it? The only way around the chain is for the truth to come out through happenstance. That’s the real reason why you want the boy. You’re betting that Kellen will work out the truth on his own and break the binding that way.’
‘You seem confused,’ Mer’esan said. ‘There is no . . .’ She couldn’t even speak its name. Instead, after a gurgling gasp, the spell forced her to say, ‘. . . no point in idle speculation.’
The Argosi nodded. ‘Then we will speak of it no more.’
The constricting pressure around her throat faded, and it was as if Mer’esan was a free woman once again. Free so long as she never thought of it, never tried to speak it aloud. Free so long as the truth burned away at her insides forever.
Ferius Parfax produced a small leather bundle and proceeded to unroll it on Mer’esan’s small rickety table. Inside was a small quantity of blank playing cards, along with brushes and inks. ‘You wish to paint my card?’ Mer’esan asked. ‘That is why you’ve gone to all this trouble to sneak into my cottage?’
‘Why not?’ the Argosi asked, her sly grin back on her face. ‘It’s not like you’re gonna get any prettier with time.’
Suddenly Mer’esan understood. ‘You believe my days are numbered, that I will die soon.’
The Argosi nodded.
‘Then am I . . .’ Mer’esan reached for the word. She’d spoken it only hours before to the boy, Kellen. ‘Am I one of your so-called “Discordances”? Does my life change the course of history?’
The other woman looked up at her, hesitating before answering. ‘Every life has meaning, Dowager. Every life changes the world around it.’
‘Do not patronize me! Am I a Discordance or –‘
‘No, you’re not. I . . . think you would have been, if you hadn’t been . . .’ The Argosi stopped, thankfully, because already the chain was rattling warningly inside Mer’esan’s mind.
Despite the strength and vigour her magics had brought her, she suddenly found it difficult to stand. She made her way to her chair and sank down into it. A wetness on her cheeks surprised her, and Mer’esan realized she was crying. ‘Then why did you come, damn you? Why waste time painting a card of a foolish old woman who means nothing to her own people, never mind to history?’
The Argosi looked stricken, uncertain for the first time since her arrival. ‘It’s the only thing I can think of that I can do for you, Mer’esan of the Jan’Tep.’
And suddenly that was the most important thing in the world: to not pass unremembered, to not have suffered for so long without anyone—
Again the damned chain snapped tight, strangling her, forcing her to forget even the torment that keeping her people’s darkest secret inflicted upon her. Mer’esan had to force herself to push as hard as she could against the binding just to whisper, ‘I don’t want to be forgotten.’
She felt two hands wrapping around her own, and opened her eyes to see Ferius Parfax kneeling before her. ‘I’m going to paint your card, Mer’esan, and the world will remember you. Know why?’
‘Why?’ she asked.
There was steel behind the softness in the Argosi’s eyes. ’Because I will not let them forget.’
Like a thunderclap signalling rain to one who’d only known the desert, Mer’esan suddenly understood how important this was to her, how much fear had lain in the certainty of going unremembered. ‘You would do that for me? A stranger? An enemy?’
Ferius Parfax took her hands away from Mer’esan’s and used them to wipe the tears away before going back to open up the first bottle of ink and dip one of the brushes inside. ‘I will, and I promise to do one thing more for you, Mer’esan of the Jan’Tep.’
‘What is that?’ she asked.
The other woman looked up from her painting, the mischievous smile firmly back in place. ‘I’m going to miss you, you crazy old bird.’
Letter To Falcio
Dear Falcio,
A few hours ago a cleric came to my cell – a proper Venerati Magni, no less – asking whether I wished to make final confession to the Gods. The longer we spoke, the more apparent it became that what he mostwished me to confess was the location of any treasures I might have secreted away from the Dukes prior to their taking the castle. He assured me that unburdening myself would ease my passage into the arms of the Gods.
Having nothing else to divert me whilst waiting for the headman’s axe, I promptly broke down in tears and proceeded to reveal, in precise and exhaustive detail, the wondrously inventive places where I had hidden various jewels and caches of gold spirited away from the castle treasury . . . the list of hiding places includes dung heaps, dead bodies and roughly half the privies in the country. Should you ever meet the smelliest priest in all of Tristia, do, I beg you, apologise on my behalf.
It’s too much to hope that you’ll be allowed in to my cell before I am executed, so I have used what little gold I had squirrelled away to secure three blank casebooks from the library, in the hope that they will reach at least one of you three. Inside, you will find my last ruminations about this sad country that you and I have tried so hard to redeem. May they bring you more insight than they brought me.
And if, by some great chance, the Generals should let you see me one last time, know that I am sorry for the final service I will have asked of you.
Paelis
who was once called King of Tristia,
but was never more nor less than
your friend.
Letter To Kest
Dear Kest,
Were you here with me in this cell, I have no doubt that you would be informing me of the precise odds of these three little books ever reaching their intended readers. No doubt you would also find it necessary to remind me that the odds are only worsened by trying to get the books to you, Brasti and Falcio individually, rather than just sending them out via any other Greatcoats, who will surely have a lower price on their heads than you three will by this point. Please know that I always found your keen intellect in these matters to be at once astute and annoying.
There was something I always wanted to tell you but never seemed to find the right way to do so: there is no shame in love, no matter what others may tell you – and no matter what you may tell yourself. I write this because I am uniquely aware of the unfairness of my final command to you. Forgive me, if you can; there is simply no one else I can trust with such a burden.
Yours with admiration,
Paelis, King of Tristia
Letter To Brasti
Dear Brasti,
Should this book reach you, which is optimistic at best, you will find in its pages my last notes regarding the country and what forces the Greatcoats might encounter after my death. I doubt you will be any more interested in affairs of state after my death than the times when I had to literally command you to pay attention – but there is always some chance that this little book will slip out of whatever pocket you’ve lost it in and Falcio will notice it. Should the copy I’ve sent him not reach him, then perhaps he’ll find yours.
If you do happen to open the book, do try not to rip out the pages to wipe your arse with. I’ve coated them with something that will make that a most memorable experience.
You always were an annoying bastard, but I thank you for having forced me to laugh on occasion, especially now.
Yours in amity,
Paelis, King of Tristia (for a few more hours, anyway)
Old Man Tristia
Tristia is an old man, so starved for hope he has lost even the ability to feel its hunger and now forgets who he once was; he tries to climb one last hill where his feeble eyes can just make out a small, withered fruit tree at the top. He stumbles up that hill, driven by an urge, maybe some last vestige of a better humanity, that’s telling him if he can just get to that tree and taste its fruit, he will remember his name, who he was, for what purpose he had lived. But no matter how hard he climbs, he keeps sliding back down, tearing the skin of his fingers and knees as he struggles to find purchase on the loose shale of the hillside.
He can never make it to the top because he is weighed down by a pack full of useless things he should have shed long ago – things which outlived their purpose ages – centuries– ago. His burden cannot feed him when he hungers; it will not warm him when he is cold; it does not help him find his way when the light grows dim.
What is in that pack? you ask; what burden does the old man carry that keeps him from the tree at the top of the hill?
It is us.
It is the nobility: the Dukes and Lords, the burden of a crushing and brutal system of rule as unjust as it is ingrained.
It is all of us, even me.
The Trattari
When I first discovered that the word Trattariwas, in fact, not an insult but the name used centuries ago by the first order of Greatcoats, I nearly fell over laughing. The word that so torments Falcio that whenever he hears it I can almost see the blood boiling in his veins and smoke emerging from his ears was, in fact, proudly borne by those very men and women we now choose to emulate. I can’t count the number of times I considered revealing this choice little fact to Falcio, only to force the words back down, saving that revelation for another day. I suspect he must have thought me quite mad at times.
The earliest reference to the name comes from the dedication atop a crumbling scroll listing one of Tristia’s first set of laws: Et ellis solé trattari ven armé infirmi contris iniquita.
To save you the effort of looking up the words, that means: And with tattered cloaks will they shield the weakest from injustice.
It was as if, even then, those who made the laws understood the price that would have to be paid by those who enforced them.
Et ellis solé trattari ven armé infirmi contris iniquita.
I take strength in those words. They allow me to believe that the hundred and forty-four commands I have issued to my Greatcoats, these terrible and unfair demands I have made of you men and women who deserved so much better than the weak and foolish King you got, are somehow necessary, perhaps even justified.
Trattari. Tattered Cloaks.
It gives me hope.
The Honori
I have never quite been able to decide whether the word Knighthood is meant to refer to the ancient military orders or whether it’s the name of a rather severe mental disease. How did we ever manage to produce such a high number of men with the same perverse ideas of honour and loyalty? How does one get from, ‘My honour is my life’ to ‘Well, my Lord ordered me to beat that old man to death for his amusement so, here goes’?
To make it worse, most of my subjects appear to actively admire the Knights – or the Honori, as they were once known. I can’t help but think this has something to do with the fine shiny armour and the lovely embroidered tabards. Perhaps I should have asked my mother to sew little gold patches into the greatcoats.
However, as obscene as the Knights are now, the thought that terrifies me more is this: What happens when all these powerful men in armour decide to stop following the orders of their nobles?
The Dashini
I have lost twelve good men trying to root out the lair of those execrable bastards. How is a King supposed to establish any kind of order in his nation when anyone with enough money and influence can simply purchase the death of those they despise? What kind of country breeds such perfect dedication to the art of murder?
Ours.
I always believed the Dashini must have come from somewhere else – somewhere in the East, where it would be comfortable to believe such atrocities are welcomed. But I was wrong: the word Dashinicomes from the archaic Tristian: da, meaning final, and shini, meaning breath. The order of assassins started here, in our very own country.
I believe now that one of my predecessors set his armies the task of rooting out the Dashini; if the scant evidence I have found is correct, the Dashini fled, disgraced at being found. They retreated east, where they added to their already formidable skills the arts of the desert monks in their hidden monasteries: patience; silence; clarity; abandonment of the self. These all sound like fine virtues – until they are adopted by trained killers.
When the Dashini returned to Tristia to continue their Gods-forsaken mission, they were, quite simply, unbeatable in their arts.
There are a few scholars who believe that the Dashini serve a vital function, ensuring that those in power can never rest easy, never be completely assured of their invulnerability, which is, these scholars tell me, as necessary a force as justice itself in protecting a nation from tyranny.
All I know is that the bastards terrify me.
Twelve Greatcoats I lost in my vain quest to remove my fear of the Dashini. Perhaps it is hopeless to try. Twelve. You’d think I had learned my lesson.
Then I sent one more.
The Bardatti
The Bardatti confound me. Why would our ancestors have chosen singers and musicians to be the threads that tie the country together? Why should wandering troubadours be entrusted with carrying the land’s most secret and vital information?
I suppose it makes sense: that in a country like ours, where every nobleman is perfectly happy to murder the King’s messengers and spies if he thinks he can get away with it, there would need to be subtler ways of getting information and evidence safely from one end of the country to the other.
I have spent countless hours in the royal library trying to trace the origins and training of the Bardatti, to uncover their secrets, but of course, there is nothing: the Bardatti have made sure of that. They keep their ways hidden from others and though they swear to me up and down that they serve the monarchy, nonetheless they are not under my command.
It is a hard thing to be King of such an unruly country.
The Rangieri
Trattari, Dashini, Bardatti . . . they are all connected somehow, though we had thought them separate and distinct – after all, what connection could there possibly be between the Greatcoats, travelling judges enforcing the law, with the Dashini, who unleash such murder and mayhem upon the country? But you just have to listen: Trattari, Dashini, Bardatti . . . these words all trace their roots back to archaic Tristian. But there is more: students of such things will recognise the names share not just a time but a place too, placing them all within the same region and century. Does this not suggest more than just a connection but a relationship? And if such a connection did exist, is it also possible that these different orders shared a greater purpose?
When I first recognised this pattern, I began searching for more names in the ancient texts, expecting to find that the Cogneri, the Venerati and the other religious orders were part of it too – but they are not. At some point in ancient times there was a distinct moment when the religious and the secular split apart. The Trattari, the Dashini and the Bardatti have no connection to the churches. Somewhere in our distant past, we began creating orders of men and women whose purpose was to protect the country in ways both varied and baffling to me.
Recently, I found one more name to add to our ranks: the Rangieri.
As best I can tell, the word means ’far walkers’, or perhaps, ‘lost walkers’. However I have never met a Rangieri, nor do I know where to find them.
Perhaps they are indeed lost.
The Religious Orders
It would be easy to think that religion was dying out in Tristia these days – oh, sure, we make our prayers to the Gods and venerate the Saints. We hand out alms to roadside clerics and sit through interminable sermons when we can’t think of a good reason to be somewhere more interesting. But the churches are so fractured, so disorganised, that I wonder how they ever had such rigid and exacting orders defending them. Those few we encounter nowadays are generally old has-beens clinging to the tattered remnants of past glories.
There are two branches of the Venerati: the Venerati Magni, who preach to the wealthy and powerful, and the Venerati Ignobli, who tend to the poor. When I first took power I made some tentative moves to have the two combined – you will remember how well this went over with both the nobles and the Venerati Magni.
I met a Deator once. The man claimed that he could speak for the God War through his ecstatic trances; certainly his pronouncements regarding both the fate of the country and my own fate in particular were as dire as they were certain. I let him finish his speech before I replied, ‘Now tell me something I didn’t already know.’ It was worth it just to see his face.
The Quaestiappear to be the lowest of the low in the clerical ranks: monks clad in plain grey robes who travel our fair land waiting to be chosen by one of the Gods, who will call them to their colours. I wonder that they have such patience.
I might have backed down on the issue of the Venerati, but I did at least stay firm on the issue of the Admorteo. I refused to condone torture in the churches of Tristia; there would be no more mortification of the flesh under the guise of bringing a soul closer to the Gods. I suspect that despite my decree, a few of these remain – should you happen to encounter any Admorteo in your travels, I would be grateful if you would give them a sound beating and see if their souls get any closer to the Gods that way.
I don’t often pray, but Gods help us if the Fidericome back. The damned Honori create enough problems with their skewed notions of loyalty; how much worse are the Church Knights, believing that their violence is doing the work of the Gods themselves?
I had a lovely debate with an old Cogneri one evening in Hervor: over a very fine wine we argued over the question of precedence between religious and secular law, our fascinating discussions lasting into the early hours of the morning. At the end, I thanked the old Inquisitor for his patience, and he kindly informed me that the Gods would likely flay my soul once they finally got their hands on me.
The Sancti
he oddest thing about the Saints is that they do not appear to be connected to the religious orders in any way. Oh, the clerics refer to them often enough in their sermons, and some of their churches are actually dedicated to various of the Saints, but that seems to be the end of it.
The oldest religious texts don’t refer to the Saints, and the Saints themselves – those few I have had the pleasure (or not) of meeting – appear to be completely uninterested in religious affairs. They see themselves as serving some loftier purpose, though they would not reveal it to me for love or money. One of them (who I am almost positive was Saint Anlas-who-remembers-the-world) tried to kill me for having the temerity to ask.
The others I met were no more forthcoming, although undoubtedly friendlier. Saint Laina, in particular, was most accommodating . . .
The Nobli
In theory, the title given to all nobles in Tristia is Magni; however, given that those of lesser birth are called Ignobli, I always felt it more appropriate to think of the nobility as the Nobli. I rather like the word – it sounds small, and just close enough to ‘knobbly’ to give me a laugh as I think about those Dukes and Duchesses, Margraves and Margravinas, Viscounts and Viscountesses, Lords and Daminas, all of them drinking my wine as they await my execution.
I suppose I could have done a better job of explaining to you why simply fighting the Dukes’ army, or even killing the Dukes themselves would have done nothing to win our cause. The truth is, as powerful as they appear to be, the Dukes’ lives are as precarious as that of any ruler: beneath them there’s always a lesser noble eager and willing to take his throne away from him. As venal as they are, I do believe the Dukes are only half as bad as the minor nobles biting at the heels of our country and trying to drain every drop of blood they can from it. I would say they were like rats, but I don’t believe rats reproduce half as fast as nobles do.
As to the Dukes, here are a few final thoughts about them:
Erris, Duke of Pulnam: How that man hasn’t died yet is beyond me. Perhaps it’s because he spends so much time declaring his love for the Gods that they have decided it best to keep their distance from him?
Pulnam is a poor Duchy, but it has just enough farming to make both Hervor and Orison interested in annexing it. You will be able to secure Erris’ support for precisely as long as he believes it will keep dear Patriana off his back.
Hadiermo, Duke of Domaris: The self-styled ‘Iron Duke’ will betray you twice a day if he can, and three times on feast days. It’s odd, given that his Duchy is known for the sturdiness of its wood and iron mines, that its ruler should be so inconstant. Remember this about Hadiermo: his utter untrustworthiness makes him predictable. Once you understand this, despite his own efforts he may well serve as a useful ally in future.
Meillard, Duke of Pertine: I have never shared more than two words with Meillard. He is, by all accounts, a sensible and practical man. Coming from a poor and hard-to-defend Duchy, I suspect this explains why he’s never bothered to curry my favour: he guessed long ago that my rule would end in untimely and bloody fashion. I can’t say that endears him to me.
Ossia, Duchess of Baern: She is the closest thing you will have to an ally in the years to come. Trust her counsel, should she offer any. If things get rough, make for Chevor and from there get word to her. Ossia will help you as far as she can, and when she can no longer, she will, I believe, do you the courtesy of giving you a head-start before she betrays you to the others.
Roset, Duke of Luth: Roset wishes nothing more than for the world to leave him and his little Duchy alone. He likes women, plain food and reading old romances. I sent him a few books from the library once and he was genuinely touched. Mind you, that didn’t stop him from being the very first one to demand my execution at the highly theatrical little trial the Dukes held for me yesterday.
Perault, Duke of Orison: Ah, if only all my enemies were like Perault: handsome, well-spoken, powerful, and utterly stupid. Other than Brasti, I have never met a man who so clearly wanted to soundintelligent without ever intending to do any of the work required to become so. Stay out of Perault’s way, if you can, although I cannot imagine him being long for this world.
Orison is a dull place whose historic function has been primarily to provide the wall between Avares and Tristia. The people there have little love for the south and even less for me, but generally they have no desire to get involved in affairs outside their borders.
Isault, Duke of Aramor: I’ve always thought that being Duke of Aramor is a pretty unpleasant job. Given that the Duchy is home to Castle Aramor and the seat of the Kings of Tristia, being Duke is rather a poor second place. Of all the Dukes, I think I know Isault best. He often comes to swear at me and make demands, always knowing the answers ahead of time – it’s entirely possible he makes these trips simply because he likes the food here better than at home.
I worry that one of the other Dukes will see his Duchy as the easiest to take – and the most valuable. I have made some efforts to protect him and his young family. I hope they do some good.
Jillard, Duke of Rijou: It’s hard to convey my confusion and disappointment in Andreas Jillard. As a young man he was both wise and inquisitive. He travelled in the east for years specifically to expand his knowledge of the world beyond our borders. I remember him coming to Aramor, and my father giving him permission to sleep in the library so he could study old texts on government and the social order. My father thought him mad; I thought him perhaps the best of the next generation of Ducal rulers.
But when his own father died and Jillard took his seat in Rijou, it took very little time before he emerged as every bit as brutal and unscrupulous as his parent. What does it tell you about this country that a young man as promising as Andreas Jillard can become who he is today?
I can only hope that somewhere in there the idealistic young man who wanted so badly to be a great ruler still hides. Redeem him if you can.
Patriana, Duchess of Hervor: My darling Patriana. It will come as no surprise to you to learn that she is, without doubt, the most brilliant and daring of all the Dukes. I know Falcio would probably use different words to describe her. She once came to me with an offer of marriage. I asked her how long after the wedding I would remain alive. ‘Not long,’ she replied, ‘but better a brief and glorious honeymoon than what will await you if you refuse me.’
Beware Patriana. She is not like the others. She plots in years and decades, not in simple gambits, as the other Dukes do. She has known defeat, and she has overcome it, time and again. Every time you unwind one of her conspiracies, you will find another slowly wrapping itself around you.
Perhaps I should have agreed to marry her.
The Inlaudati
Inlaudati: a single word that appears to be almost devoid of meaning. Like so many of the other orders I have described, this one too can be traced back to archaic Tristian – but it is older, and it doesn’t actually appear to be connected to the Trattari and Bardatti.
No, this is something different and altogether terrifying to me.
Inlaudati, as best I can discern, means ‘the unrecognised’. Those few references I can find to it suggest that, unlike the orders of Honori or Cogneri or any of the rest, there have only ever been one or two Inlaudati at a time. In all the histories I have read, they appear almost as poetic devices: ‘Thus did the painter, with her brush most subtle, upon the world her colours place.’ Rubbish both as history and as poetry, if you ask me.
But there are other references too, which imply that there are those who can pull at the strings of the world at a far deeper level, much as I have tried to do. As a student of strategy I have worked to pull strings whose effects I believe will ripple through the next century – but I am no Inlaudati, so I shudder as I think on what actual long-term influence my meddling might have upon the future of this country.
As to the origin of the Inlaudati, I have no real clues. I am almost positive that the Tailor is one, but I know she was born a normal woman. She married a rather terrible man when she was young, and she paid a dreadful price for that. Now she is something utterly different – something her own son has trouble at times recognising.
Maybe that’s the point.
The Tailor's Name
It occurs to me, sitting here, waiting for the headsman, that this is the one time in my life when my mother is unable to cajole me with her usual exhortations about ‘where every thread began and where every thread will end.’
Ever since she began calling herself ‘The Tailor’, she has refused to use the name by which she was known before, nor will she abide having it spoken in her presence. So determined is she in this that, to my knowledge, there is no one now left who remembers her true name. But I do.
You were never a very conventional mother, but you were mine, and you never failed to astonish.
I love you, Margrit Denezia.
Nothing stinks like a capital city in the summer. Streets already crowded with courtiers, craftspeople, lords and labourers begin to burst as endless caravans of merchants, diplomats, and those impoverished by bad harvests or foreign raiders roll through the gates in search of profit or protection. Upon a gleaming white arch at the city’s entrance an inscription bearing the Daroman capital’s motto beckons visitors with a promise: ‘Emni Urbana Omna Vitaris’.
From The Imperial City Flows Prosperity.
Also, sewage.
That’s the thing about great cities: they can solve hunger with more food, security with more soldiers, and almost everything else with more money. But there’s only so much shit you can swirl around before the flagstones begin to reek.
‘This place stinks,’ Reichis chittered above me.
The soft flutter of fur-covered gliding flaps heralded a light thump against my shoulder as the squirrel cat made his landing. My two-foot-tall, thieving, murderous business partner sniffed at my face. ‘Funny, you don’t smell dead.’
‘I’m fine,’ I said, not eager to resume the lengthy argument begun in the early hours before dawn when I went off alone to face the mage who’d been sent to kill me. All I wanted now was a bath, some quiet, and maybe a few restful hours without any attempts on my life.
Reichis sniffed at me a second time. ‘You smell worse than dead, actually. Is that whisky?’ he asked, poking his muzzle in my hair and sounding more than a little intrigued.
A year of living in the capital city of Darome had afforded Reichis the opportunity to expand his list of unhealthy addictions, which currently consisted of butter biscuits, overpriced amber pazione liqueur, several vintages of Gitabrian wines – the expensive ones, naturally – and, of course, human flesh.
‘Did you remember to bring me the mage’s eyeballs?’ he inquired.
‘He wasn’t dead.’
‘That’s not what I asked.’
This is where having a squirrel cat perched on your shoulder perilously close to your soft, tasty human ears, gets dangerous. See, squirrel cats, with their tubby feline bodies, big bushy tails, coats that change colour depending on their mood and furry flaps that stretch between their front and back limbs enabling them to glide from the treetops (or “fly as well as any gods-damned falcon” as Reichis would insist), can – if you stare at them, squinty-eyed, from a distance and preferably through a drunken haze – look almost cute. They’re not, though. Puppy dogs are cute. Bunny rabbits are cute. Poisonous Berabesq sand rattlers are cute to somebody. Squirrel cats, though? Not cute. Evil.
‘Reichis . . .’ I began.
His breath is surprisingly warn when it’s less than an inch from your earlobe. ‘Go on, say it.’
Ancestors, I thought, noting in the periphery of my vision that Reichis’s shadowblack markings were swirling. A year ago he’d wound up with the same twisting black lines around his left eye as I had around mine. Unlike me, though, the possibility of one day becoming a rampaging demon terrorizing the entire continent didn’t trouble him in the least. The idea frankly delighted him.
Rescue from possibly fatal squirrel cat gnawing came in the form of a half-dozen pairs of heavy boots clomping up behind me, followed soon thereafter by the tell-tale click of a crossbow’s safety catch being released. ‘Kellen Argos, by order of Lieutenant Libri of the Queen’s Marshals Service, you are under arrest.’
I sighed. ‘This again?’
The first tentative rasp of the crossbow’s trigger grinding against its iron housing. ‘Get those hands up high, spellslinger.’
I hadn’t even noticed that my fingers had drifted to the powder holsters at my sides. Reflex, I guess, though by now you’d figure I’d’ve gotten used to being arrested on a weekly basis.
I raised my arms and slowly turned to find a half-dozen marshals wearing their customary broad hats and long grey coats armed with the usual assortment of short-hafted maces and crossbows – all trained on me. ‘Would you like me to read the warrant?’ Sergeant Faustus Cobb asked. Short, scrawny, narrow-shouldered and years past his prime, you’d think he’d appear comical next to his younger and more vigorous subordinates. But my experience with the Queen’s Marshals had taught me that age does nothing to diminish how dangerous they are – only how ornery they become when you resist.
Me? I was eighteen, wearier than my years ought to allow. My shirt was still soaked from the booze I’d used to disguise myself as a drunk back at the saloon, and I was feeling a little crabby myself. ‘What’s the charge this time?’
Cobb made a show of reading out the warrant. ‘Conspiracy to commit assault upon the person of a foreign emissary enjoying the protections afforded diplomatic representatives.’
Yep, that’s right: the old man who’d come to kill me, being a Jan’Tep lord magus, held ambassadorial status in Darome.
Cobb went on. ‘Grievous physical abuse.’
Not nearly grievous enough.
‘Theft.’
Knew I shouldn’t have kept any of the coins.
‘Acting against the vital interests of the Daroman Crown and the people it serves.’
That one they throw into almost every warrant. Spit on the sidewalk and you’ve technically ‘acted against the interests’ of the crown.
Cobb paused. ‘There’s something here about “unlawfully being an irritating, half-witted spellslinging card sharp who doesn’t do what he’s told”, but I’m not sure that’s an actual crime.’
And yet, I was pretty sure it was the only crime Torian was concerned about. ‘Funny how she had that warrant already drawn up before anyone found the mage,’ I pointed out.
Cobb grinned. ‘Guess the lieutenant’s got you pegged pretty good by now, Kellen.’
I was really starting to dislike Lieutenant Torian Libri. While there were no end of people in the Daroman capital intent on making my life hell, few displayed her raw determination and consistently lousy sense of humour. ‘You do realize that under Imperial law my rank as Queen’s Tutor prevents you from prosecuting me for any crime without four-fifths of the court first revoking my status, don’t you?’
One of the younger deputies gave an amiable chuckle. I’d let him win at cards with me last week in the vain hope I might win over some of the marshals to my side. ‘Don’t say nothin’ about you bein’ arrested, though.’
‘Let’s go, spellslinger,’ Cobb ordered, motioning for me to walk ahead of him.
Reichis gave a low growl. ‘You gonna take this crap, Kellen? Again? Let’s murder these skinbags. You owe me three eyeballs and this here’s an opportunity for you to pay up.’
‘Three? How many eyeballs did you think that mage had?’ I asked.
One of the marshals stared at me quizzically. She must’ve been new – the others were accustomed to hearing me talk to Reichis.
‘Who can tell with humans?’ the squirrel cat grumbled. ‘Your faces are all so ugly that every time I start counting, I lose track on account of needing to puke. Besides, two eyeballs was what you owed me an hour ago. The third is interest.’
Perfect. Because in addition to being a thief, a blackmailer, and a murderer, Reichis now wanted to add loan shark to his list of criminal enterprises.
‘Let’s pick up the pace,’ Cobb said. ‘You know how the lieutenant gets when you keep her waiting.’
Several of the deputies laughed at that – not that any of them would dare cross her. Reluctantly, I trudged along the wide flagstone street en route to my thirteenth jailing since becoming the queen’s tutor of cards.
‘Hey, what’s that?’ Reichis asked, his nose nodding in the direction of something small and flat floating on the breeze towards us, low to the ground. A playing card settled at my feet.
‘Keep walking,’ Cobb ordered.
I stayed where I was, staring down at the elaborate image on the card depicting a magnificent city on the top half. The bottom was a sort of mirror image, distorted as if reflected by a dark, shifting pool of black water.
‘You drop that?’ he asked, finally noticing the card.
‘Sergeant Cobb,’ I began. ‘Before this goes any further, I need to clarify a couple of things.’
‘Yeah? Like what?’
‘First, I had nothing to do with this card suddenly turning up.’
‘So what? It’s a playing card. Not like you’re the only gambler in the capital.’
As if to contest his banal explanation, a second card drifted down to land next to the first one. Then another and another, each one rotated a little more the the previous, gradually encircling me.
‘What are you playing at, spellslinger?’ Cobb asked, stepping back. I heard the safety catches on several crossbows unlock.
I was now standing in a ring of elaborately painted cards, their rich metallic hues of copper, silver and gold so vibrant they made the street look drab and lifeless by comparison. I turned to the half dozen well-armed men and women charged with escorting me to jail. ‘Marshals, allow me to offer my sincere apologies.’
‘For what?’ asked one as she raised her crossbow to train it on me.
The cards on the ground shimmered ever brighter, blinding me to everything but the coruscating play of colours that drained the light from the world around me.
‘For the inconvenience of my rescue,’ I replied.
I doubt anyone heard me. The city around me faded to a flat, colourless expanse; the buildings, the streets, even the marshals themselves looked as if they’d been carved out of thin sheets of pale ivory. Reichis slumped on my shoulder and began snoring. A figure walked towards me, a lone source of dazzling colour wrapped in the twisting golds of sand magic, the pale blues of breath, and the glistening purple of a silk spell.
A grandiose entrance like this is usually accompanied by the disappointed sigh of my sister Shalla, soon followed by an extensive commentary regarding my dishevelled condition and the annoyances my recent behaviour has caused our noble and much-admired family. Occasionally, though, it’s my father who appears to inform me of the latest crime I’ve committed against our people. That latter possibility was why my hands were now deep inside the powder holsters at my sides.
Ever since I’d left my people more than two years ago, I’d known the day would come when my father’s grand destiny could no longer tolerate my miserable existence. I’d been asked on many occasions by friends and foes alike if I had a trick – some devious ruse – saved up that could outsmart the mighty Ke’heops before he could kill me.
I did. I just wasn’t sure if it would work.
‘Kellen.’
The voice didn’t belong to my sister or father. In fact, I hadn’t heard it in such a long time that I didn’t recognize her. The bands of magical force began to settle, their brilliance diminishing enough that I could finally identify the apparition before me, and found myself standing there, the twin red and black powders I’d normally be using to cast a fiery explosion slipping through my fingers, with absolutely no idea what was going to happen next.
‘Mother?’
The figure gestured at the cards surrounding me. ‘Pick a card, Kellen,’ she said. ‘Any card.’
What is it with people and card tricks lately?
Chapter 2 - The Deck
As a child, I’d firmly believed Bene’maat was the finest mother any Jan’Tep boy could hope for. She had been an island of patience and calm in the otherwise stormy sea of my father’s unyielding ambitions and my sister’s pugnacious temper tantrums. My mother’s prowess as a mage was widely respected in our clan, yet her fascination with astronomy and healing revealed an inquisitive nature not solely consumed with the pursuit of magic as Ke’heops or Shalla were. Or me, for that matter.
If a parent’s second duty is to love their children equally, then Bene’maat had done so admirably in a society that valued Shalla’s raw talent for magic a thousand times more than my aptitude for clever tricks. And if a mother’s first duty is to protect her children, well, then Bene’maat done that pretty well, too – right up until the day she’d drugged me and then helped my father strap me down to a table, inscribing counter-sigils on the metallic tattooed bands around my forearms to forever deny me access to the magic that defined our people as I screamed over and over again for her to stop.
Now the woman I hadn’t seen for nearly three years was standing before me, placidly repeating, ‘Pick a card, Kellen. Any card.’
I considered telling my beloved mother to bugger off, but my family is nothing if not persistent, so I gently settled the slumbering Reichis down on the ground and considered the thirteen cards forming a spell circle around me. I reached for the first one, which depicted architecture in the style of the Daroman capital in which we stood and was titled “City of Glories”.
‘Not that one,’ she said.
‘Why not?’
I heard the answer inside my mind a fraction of a second before her lips moved. ‘That is the keystone. Picking it up would break the spell and end our meeting.’
I’d always been a belligerent child. Life as an outcast had done nothing to cure me of that fault. I reached for the City of Glories again.
‘Please,’ the voice in my mind said just before the apparition did. ‘Forgive the awkward fashion in which our conversation must take place, but I’ve been unable to properly recreate Shalla’s wondrous spell for long distance communication. I’ve had to rely on a much older spell your grandmother invented before you were born.’
For the third time she repeated the same instruction, exactly as she had before: ‘Pick a card, Kellen. Any card.’
She’s not really here, not even in spirit, I realized. Bene’maat must have used silk, sand, and breath magic to record her thoughts and convey them to me within the cards as a series of individual messages, like a bundle of letters tied together with string, the spell encoded with specific responses based on my actions.
The remaining twelve cards fell into four suits unfamiliar to me – which is saying something considering how many decks I’ve encountered. In an Argosi deck, each suit corresponds to a particular civilization on our continent. In more common sets of playing cards created for entertainment, the suits tend to represent symbols meaningful to the culture that created them. The standard Daroman deck, for example, like it’s people, embodies their obsession with military emblems: chariots, arrows, trebuchets, and blades. However the four suits of this new deck before me were unlike any I’d seen before: scrolls, quills, lutes, and masks.
Had my mother devised these suits herself? And if so, what did each one mean?
I selected the Seven of Lutes, reasoning that no one had ever been blasted out of existence by a lute.
The figure of Bene’maat smiled and an instrument appeared in her hands. She began to play a melody that pulled at my heart so unexpectedly I gasped out loud.
‘You always loved this song as a child,’ she murmured. ‘You used to make me play it for hours and hours whenever you were scared or sad.’
I dropped the card as if it were a spider crawling on my hand.
The figure of my mother nodded, somewhat sorrowfully, as if she’d known I would respond this way.
‘Pick a card, Kellen,’ she repeated. ‘Any card.’
I found one that depicted a man carefully arranging quills on a scale. The caption read “Enumerator of Quills”.
My mother’s apparition was now seated at a desk composing a letter. ‘My dearest Kellen. It’s close to two years since last I touched your face. I had never thought such a thing possible. I always assumed you would come ba—’
‘What is this?’ I demanded. ‘Nostalgia? Have you forgotten what you did to me, mother?’ I pulled back my sleeves to show the foul counter-sigils desecrating the tattooed bands on my forearms. ‘You destroyed any hope I had of becoming a mage like you and father and Shalla.’
I hadn’t expected a reply, but I felt an itch in the back of my mind and a moment later, she spoke again. ‘I know you’re angry with us, Kellen. You have every right.’
I was beginning to understand how the magic worked. I wasn’t communicating directly with my mother, but these messages were more than just words scrawled on a page. The spell was made from a more complete collection of her thoughts, capturing a single moment in time during which my mother had bound up all her contemplations on a particular topic and infused them into the card.
A spectral tear slid down my mother’s cheek. ‘It broke my heart, what we did. We believed we were protecting you, protecting the world from what you might become. We had no idea how wrong our actions were.’
You should’ve known, I thought bitterly. A mother is supposed to protect her child, not ruin him.
I didn’t say any it out loud, though. I knew it wasn’t really Bene’maat standing there in front of me, yet still I couldn’t bear to say such hurtful things to my mother.
‘I thank you for your gracious missive,’ I said finally. ‘Are we done now? I have an important appointment in a jail cell. So unless you have some miracle cure for—’
Bene’maat’s arm extended, pointing now to a different card.
I dropped the one I was holding and picked up the Nine of Quills. The expression on my mother’s face changed to a look of determination, and arranged all around her were sketches and diagrams and pages upon pages of esoteric formulae. ‘Every day since you left, I’ve tried to find a way to undo the counter-banding. I’ve searched every book of lore in our sanctums, consulted with spellmasters across the territories. I read every scrap of parchment your father brought back from the Ebony Abbey, hoping to find amidst their knowledge of the shadowblack’s etheric planes the means to repair your connection to the high magics. At times I thought I might be close . . .’
She stopped, squeezing her fists in frustration. The image of her fluttered and faded.
The spell must require perfect focus to imprint the message on the card, I thought. Every time she lost her concentration, she’d had to stop and start a new one.
‘What do you mean, “close”?’ I asked. ‘Are you saying there might be a cure?’
A different card began to glow brighter than the others. The Peddler of Masks. I picked it up.
‘So much of what I’ve been told has turned out to be lies, Kellen. False promises. Supposed secret methods for inscribing new sigils that resulted in nothing more than temporary illusions.’
‘Then it’s hopeless?’
I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised. Of all the things I lost when I left my people, the one I knew I could never get back was my magic. I’d learned to live with that fact. With my one breath band, my blast powders, my castradazi coins, and all the other tricks I’d learned along the way, I sometimes even prided myself that I could outsmart my enemies without spells. But I still woke up in the middle of the night sometimes with every inch of my skin glistening with sweat, my fingers twitching through dozens of somatic forms I’d practiced thousands of times for spells I would never cast, so desperate for the taste of magic that no food or drink could satisfy me.
Like all my people, I was an addict. My addiction was inscribed in tattooed metallic inks around my forearms. I could never sate that desire. I doubted it would ever leave me.
The apparition of my mother gestured behind me, and I turned to see the Thief of Masks rising from the other cards, beckoning me to take it. When I did, her voice became a whisper.
‘There might be a way.’
I spun back around to see her, still standing where she’d been before. There was an uncertainty in her gaze, though, as if she were afraid someone else might burst into wherever she’d been when she’d created these messages for me.
‘What do you mean?’ I asked.
She looked as if she were struggling to get out the words without losing the concentration required to continue imprinting her thoughts onto the card. ‘Our people have been . . . Wrong about magic, Kellen. Wrong in so many ways and at costs we’re only now discovering. The fundamental forces are vastly more complex than we assumed and can be fashioned in ways we never imagined. There are traditions as old as our own, spread out across the cultures of this continent. Much of the knowledge has been lost even to their own people, but I’ve found traces of it within old songs and stories.’
No wonder she was having so much trouble holding the spell. To hear a Jan’Tep mage admit our people weren’t the only ones who could perform the true high magics was a kind of sacrilege that even I found troubling.
‘There is a place far from here where I believe I might acquire the means to rectify the crime your father and I committed against you, to give you back the chance to become a true mage of the Jan’Tep.’ The look of determination I’d seen in her so often as a child appeared in her features. ‘I swear to you, my son, there is no price I will not pay to buy back your future.’
I swallowed. My breathing was quick, my heart beat faster than it should. The prospect of what my mother was suggesting . . . But I’d travelled the long roads of this continent, seen and heard just about every kind of con game there was, performed half of them myself. Not everything is fake in this world, but nothing of value comes free.
I reached for the card depicting two figures exchanging goods as they stood beneath an open scroll. My people don’t use scrolls for spells or messages. We use them for contracts.
‘Come home,’ my mother said, her voice more a plea than an opening bid. ‘Come back to us. Your father is Mage Sovereign now. He has lifted the spell warrant against you.’
‘Too bad he didn’t mention that to the lord magus who just tried to kill me.’
The apparition of my mother gave no reply. She couldn’t, of course. She would’ve had no knowledge of this latest attempt on my life. Besides, it was a fair bet this guy had been hired by Daroman conspirators rather than my own people.
‘Return to us,’ Bene’maat went on. ‘And even if I fail to return your magic to you, still I can give you a home.’
Home. Such a strange word. I wasn’t sure I knew what it meant anymore.
‘I’ve been scrying you when I could, though you’re very difficult to track,’ Bene’maat said. ‘Not spying on you, I promise, but I needed to see you sometimes, through a mother’s eyes and not through the recounting of your sister and others.’ In the haze behind her, pictures formed and faded, images of events in my life since I’d left my homeland. Scenes of violence, of pursuit, of me sitting alone after the fight looking far more miserable than even I remembered. ‘The brave face you put on for those around you, this trickster’s guise you’ve taken on, it’s not you, Kellen. You weren’t meant for this life. You aren’t happy.’
Happy? I’d spent the past three years facing every mage, mercenary, or monster this continent had to offer. I’d survived them all. Saved a few decent people along the way. Wasn’t that enough? Was I supposed to be happy now, too?
My mother’s fingers were outstretched now, reaching towards me, a desperate hope in her eyes. ‘Come home, son.’
The card in my hand felt heavy. Clammy against my skin. I dropped to the ground and before another could glow or rise or otherwise demand my attention, I shuffled them all together, fully breaking the circle and ending the spell. The cards became dull and flat once again, and the world around me came back to life.
Goodbye, mother.
‘Move real slow now, spellslinger,’ Cobb said.
I heard the marshals shuffling behind me, fingers on the triggers of their crossbows. They seemed neither concerned nor even aware of the cards that had floated here and that I now held in my hand. Probably barely a second had passed for them and this whole event had taken place solely in my mind.
‘Hey,’ Reichis growled from where he was curled up on the ground. ‘Why’d you dump me down here?’
‘Sorry,’ I said to both him and the marshals, stuffing my mother’s strange herald cards into my pocket. I picked up the squirrel cat and settled him back on my shoulder. ‘Let’s get a move on. Time for Torian Libri to lock us up again.’
The marshals chuckled at that, and we all resumed our march to the palace.
‘You know where you went wrong with that Torian female?’ Reichis asked.
‘Don’t start,’ I warned.
There are only three solutions his species have to offer regarding the resolution of conflicts between humans: kill them, rob them blind, or – and this is the one where Reichis derives the most pleasure from devising elaborate and intensely nauseating suggestions – bed them.
‘Should’a mated with the lieutenant the day you met her,’ the squirrel cat said earnestly.
‘Mating works better when the other person doesn’t hate you,’ I said.
A couple of the marshals following behind me broke out laughing. Reichis took their mirth as encouragement – not that he needed any. ‘Nah, that Torian female wants you, see?’ He tapped a paw against his fuzzy muzzle. ‘Smelled it on her the day the queen introduced you two. I swear on all twenty-six squirrel cat gods, Kellen, the marshal’s in heat for you.’
It was, most assuredly, not true. Also, it’s highly doubtful that there are twenty-six squirrel cat gods. Times like these, though? It’s best not to contradict the little monster.
‘Now, here’s what you oughta do . . .’ Reichis tried – and failed staggeringly – to stifle his chittering laughter. ‘First, you’re gonna take off your trousers and perform a ceremonial dance. Human females love that. Next, you turn around and wiggle your bottom at her. Then all you have to do is drop to your knees and start making this sound . . .’
I’m not going to describe the noise he made. Suffice it to say that it was exactly as disgusting than you might imagine and he kept making it all the way to the palace.
Prologue – Tyrant’s Throne, Act 1
Author’s Note: These were the first words I wrote at 3am the night I came up with the central dilemma of the final novel in the series: the discovery of another heir.
Deleted because, while this might be a dramatic (and even enigmatic) introduction to the book, it didn’t fit with the style of the series, which usually opens with a second-person philosophical flourish rather than dark and sinister foreshadowing.
***
All the boy said was, “Oh, Falcio, I am so very sorry.”
The sound of my rapier clattering to the floor was followed by the sensation of falling and then a sudden pain in my knees as they struck the hard stone floor. My arms hung useless at my sides like withered vines from a dying tree.
Brasti was shouting behind me. “What’s wrong with him?”
The creek of his ironwood bow bending under the tension of its string was answered by the whisper of Kest’s blade leaving its sheath. An instant later, the sword’s tip nestled against the neck of the boy who had spoken.
“If this is magic,” Kest said, “I would suggest you stop it now.”
The boy said nothing. He didn’t need to.
“Maybe it’s not magic,” Brasti said, one eye on me even as he kept his arrow aimed at the child. “It’s probably poison. Falcio’s always getting poisoned.”
In fact, it was neither of those things.
It was the blood.
It’s always the blood.
Rhetan’s Statuary – Tyrant’s Throne, Act 1
Author’s Note: After making a deal with Falcio, Margrave Rhetan brings him to see his prized collection of statues, including one of a certain Greatcoat undergoing the infamous Lament.
Deleted for several reasons, first being that I’d originally thought of having this sequence in Saint’s Blood (which is set shortly after the Greatcoat’s Lament) and it didn’t make as much sense in Tyrant’s Throne. Also, it took Rhetan down a darker path and ultimately didn’t serve the story – it would have only made Morn’s argument about the need for a new regime more credible.
***
“I must say, Falcio, that was all rather clever of you,” Rhetan said, winding his way down a circular staircase down through floor after floor of the keep’s main tower.
Kest, Brasti and I followed along behind. “What is it exactly that you wish to show us?” I asked.
“You’ll see. It’s not far now.”
I stopped. “Forgive me, Margrave Rhetan, but if you’re about to take us on a tour of your dungeon so as to impress upon us just how powerful and dangerous you are, I’d just as soon skip the tour and go straight to the threats.”
“Dungeon? Goodness, no. There’s no dungeon here. We have an old one in the east tower which I’m sure you could go visit if that’s your interest.” When we reached a large iron door, he pulled a key from inside his coat. “I suspect you’ll find this much more impressive.”
Beyond the door awaited a great hall, laid out much like the ballroom of a palace with twenty-foot high ceilings and light coming from thick glass windows set in the upper sections of the outer wall. The floors were marble, which was wildly expensive and was odd to find here given how plain Rhetan’s own throne room had been in comparison. But it was the contents of the room that took our breath away. “Saint Gan-who-laughs-with-dice,” I said, lacking anything more sensible to say.
“Welcome to my statuary,” Rhetan said, and extended an arm to show us his collection.
What looked to be two dozen statues, some in stone, some marble, and a few in bronze, were on display throughout the room. The first one we encountered showed two men in battle, one a near-giant in armour holding an oversized battle-axe while the other was a young man with nothing in but a small rock in his hands and a look of determination on his face. I recognized the scene as the legendary fight between King Teorre and his uncle, the usurper Sen Varran.
The next statue showed a woman, her arms laden with food, feeding starving peasants. “That’s the Lady Phan,” Kest said. “Whose new methods of agriculture saved the former duchy of Bijalle and gave it its current name.”
“Imagine what it must have been like,” Rhetan mused, “to see this simple peasant girl coming with that first harvest? To realize that this young woman, uneducated and illiterate, had devised the means to save an entire people? It’s no wonder they changed the name of the duchy to honour her, is it?”
I looked around at the rest of the statues. Each was similarly impressive both in design and in what it represented. “It’s like walking through the history of Tristia’s legends.”
“Wouldn’t a decent book be cheaper?” Brasti asked.
Rhetan laughed. “I suppose, but this isn’t about history, really.”
“Then what is it about?” Kest asked.
Rhetan led us down the centre of the room. “It’s about what I call the Great Acts. Those moments where a man or woman has done something that was simply inconceivable before.”
“Impressive,” Kest said, “but Brasti’s right. It seems a rather expensive hobby.”
Rhetan didn’t answer but rather walked to the end of the room. There, beneath the light of a circular window set in the wall, was what I presumed was another statue, this one obscured in a large grey cloth.
“It’s more than a hobby,” Rhetan said. “To be honest, it’s something of an obsession with me. I come here sometimes and look at these statues and imagine myself being there, in that moment, bearing witness to these magnificent acts…you have to understand, I’m an old man now, and old men rarely get to see anything that truly impresses them anymore.”
“I take it you have a new statue to add to your collection?” I said, pointing to the object covered in the grey cloth.
“Ah, yes. This is quite new. It’s the pride of my collection, really. Cost me an absolute fortune.”
Kest tilted his head as he examined the shape underneath the cloth. “It’s not any larger than the others.”
“Smaller, in fact,” Brasti added.
“Ah, it wasn’t the stone that cost the money, nor even the sculptor’s services, though that wasn’t cheap. No, the expense went into the fate scribes I had to pay.”
“Fate scribes?”
“From the monastery of Saint Anlas-who-remembers-the-world,” Rhetan replied. “I paid them to work with an artist who drew hundreds of sketches from their description. You see, only a few people are still alive who saw the event, and none of them were likely to provide me with the detail required such that the sculptor could do the scene justice.”
“And you’re only unveiling it now?” I asked.
Rhetan smiled. “I’ve viewed it, of course, but you are the first people outside of myself and the sculptor to see it.”
“I would have thought you’d prefer a more august assembly for the unveiling.”
“Ah,” Rhetan said, “there could be no more appropriate audience for this particular statue.”
“Well, what is it supposed to show then?” Brasti asked.
Rhetan’s face took on a look of almost religious awe. “A moment that should have been impossible. An act of unparalleled valour.” He walked behind the statue and picked up a length of rope which was attached to the cloth. “Do you believe that some things are simply beyond the realm of men, and even to tread lightly risks our souls? That for them to occur is a kind of miracle?” He held onto the rope as if waiting for a signal from us.
“I’m bored,” Brasti said. “Is this supposed to be a history lesson? Because if so, it’s working because I feel myself falling asleep.
In one swift motion Rhetan pulled on the rope, and the covering came away, revealing the statue underneath. To me he said, “I was hoping you could tell me if the work is accurate to the original event.”
“Gods…” Brasti whispered.
I said nothing, having lost the use of my wits.
The statue showed a man bound to a tree with branches ru
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https://www.ncpedia.org/anchor/spain-and-america-reconquest
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In 1491, no European knew that North and South America existed. By 1550, Spain -- a small kingdom that had not even existed a century earlier -- controlled the better part of two continents and had become the most powerful nation in Europe. In half a century of brave exploration and brutal conquest, both Europe and America were changed forever.
The Reconquista and the origins of Spain
In the 1400s, "Spain" as we think of it today did not exist. The Iberian peninsula, the piece of land that juts out of southwestern Europe into the Atlantic Ocean, included three kingdoms: Aragon, a small kingdom bordering France on the Mediterranean Sea and focused on trade with Italy and Africa; Portugal on the Atlantic coast; and Castile, a large rural kingdom in the middle. The southern part of Iberia, meanwhile, was under Muslim rule, as it had been for centuries.
In the early 700s, Berbera name given by the Arabs to the North African people living in settled or nomadic tribes from Morocco to Egypt.. Muslims from North Africa, often called Moors, had conquered nearly all of the Iberian Peninsula. Over the following seven and a half centuries, the Christian kingdoms to the north gradually retook control of the peninsula, and by 1300, Muslims controlled only Granada, a small region in the south of present-day Spain. But the Reconquista, or Reconquest, was not complete until 1492. In 1479, King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile married, uniting their kingdoms, and thirteen years later their armies expelled the Muslims from Granada.
The Reconquista was a brutal conflict fueled in part by devotion to Christianity -- not just a war between kingdoms but a crusade against infidels. In al-Andalus -- the Arabic name for Muslim-controlled Iberia -- Christians and Jews had significant religious freedom. The Christian rulers to the north did not return the favor. The rulers of Spain's kingdoms found that their shared Christianity could unite them and set them apart from the Muslims to the south. The men who fought in the Reconquista were convinced of their superiority to their enemies who had rejected Christianity, and they developed rules of war based on that superiority -- including the right to enslave the people they conquered. Once Spain was reconquered, Muslims and Jews were forced to convert to Christianity or be expelled from Spain.
The long Reconquista tended to make the Spanish, and especially Castilians, not only strongly devoted to Christianity but militaristic and romantic. Castile was an agricultural society based on personal relationships, in which a person's reputation and honor were tremendously important. One historian writes that -
Castilian men were tough, arrogant, quick to take offense, undaunted by danger and hardship, and extravagant in their actions. They would suffer hunger, hardship, extremes of climate, and still fight savagely against great odds....Sixteenth-century Spaniards were fascinated with herioc stories, the adventures of perfect knights, ceremonious and courtly behavior, and strange and magical happenings.
Finally, the Reconquista was driven by a desire for land and profit. Because kings in the Middle Ages were not as strong or as wealthy as they would later become, most military actions against the Moors were privately financed. Leaders of armies, since they had risked their own money, won rights to conquered land and a share of conquered peoples' wealth.
The reconquerers, in short, were the perfect men to cross a dangerous ocean and conquer a "New World" of dense uncharted forests, tropical diseases, and hostile heathens. They were devoted to God, king, and queen; they were tough; and they were eager for wealth and glory. And after 1492, with the Reconquista complete, they were in the market for a new crusade. Conveniently enough, Christopher Columbus gave them one.
Into the "New World"
In the late Middle Ages, Europeans were fascinated with the idea of Asia and its wealth. Europeans and East Asians had long known of each other -- Alexander the Great's empire had connected Greece and India in the fourth century BCE, and later, the Han Dynasty of China and the Roman Empire traded regularly and exchanged a few diplomats. During the Middle Ages, though, trade and travel between Europe and Asia stopped almost entirely.
The Crusades, in which Europeans fought to retake the Holy Land from Muslims, brought them into contact with eastern cultures for the first time in centuries. They wanted spices, silks, jewels, gold, and other luxury goods from China, India, and the East Indies -- the islands southeast of the Asian continent, including the modern nation of Indonesia. But east Asia lay thousands of miles away, across vast deserts and the Himalaya Mountains, and the road from Europe to China was controlled by foreign rulers and by middlemen who charged money to pass the goods along. As a result, by the time spices and other goods reached Europe, they were extremely expensive.
Portugal, which had completed its own Reconquest in the thirteenth century, was the first European nation to try to trade directly with Asia. Under Prince Henry "the Navigator," the Portuguese began to explore the west coast of Africa. In 1488 Bartolomeu Dias sailed all the way around the southern tip of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope, proving that there was an ocean route around the continent. In 1497, Vasco da Gama followed Dias' route, then sailed north and east to India -- opening up the riches of Asia to Portugal.
Columbus' great mistake
In 1492, Christopher Columbus, a sailor from Genoa (then an independent city-state in northern Italy), convinced Isabella and Ferdinand to finance a voyage across the Atlantic to Asia. Although it was widely accepted in Europe by this time that the earth was round, scholars disagreed about the size of the globe. Columbus argued that the riches of China and the East Indies lay only 2,400 miles to the west of Spain -- making the Atlantic Ocean about the width of the Mediterranean Sea -- but most others said it was much farther.
For years, Columbus failed to persuade England, Portugal, Spain, Genoa, and Venice to give him ships and men. Finally, the new monarchs of reconquered Spain, eager for new sources of wealth and opportunities to spread Christianity, decided to give him a chance. They named him governor of any new lands he discovered and promised him a ten percent share in their wealth, sent him to sea -- and, quite possibly, expected never to see him again.
Columbus was wrong, of course -- bold enough to sail thousands of miles into uncharted waters, but completely mistaken in his geography. Asia lies more than 12,000 miles west of Europe, and had the Americas not been waiting in the middle, Columbus would never have reached land. He reached the Bahamas instead, more or less where he thought the East Indies should have been, and after three more voyages to the Caribbean and the coast of South America he died in 1506 still believing he had been exploring mainland Asia. But Columbus' incredible (and lucky) mistake turned out to be one of the most important events in the history of human civilization.
The "Columbian exchange"
The world's two great land masses -- North and South America in the western hemisphere and Europe, Asia, and Africa in the eastern hemisphere -- had been isolated from each other for 10,000 years. When the land bridge across the Bering Strait closed after the last Ice Age, the Paleoindians of the Americas and their Stone Age counterparts in Asia were cut off. In the hundreds of thousands of years before that, the two halves of the world had evolved different animals, plants, and microbes.
Over the millenia, the human inhabitants of the "old" and "new" worlds developed vastly different cultures, languages, and religions; they found different ways of adapting to their different envinronments; and their bodies over hundreds of generations became resistant to the diseases of their different worlds. When the two great land masses were rejoined by European exploration, the resulting exchange of people, crops, animals, ideas, and diseases -- called the "Columbian exchange" -- changed both worlds forever.
The Vikings briefly settled Greenland and parts of eastern Canada in about 1000 CE. But they didn't stay long, and they didn't spread word of their discovery in Europe. There are also theories that Chinese explorers found the west coast of North America sometime before Columbus' journey, but if the stories are true, the Chinese, like the Vikings, returned home without making an impact on either continent.
Conquest by sword and germs
Immediately, the Spanish set about conquering the world they had discovered. Within a hundred years this small European nation had claimed the better part of two continents. They relied on a combination of military superiority, occasional diplomacy, luck -- and their greatest ally, disease. Then, convinced that the peoples of the Americas were uncivilized heathens, they set about destroying much of what they found.
The Caribbean
Columbus easily dominated the peoples of the Caribbean, who were for the most part friendly and peaceful. They practiced advanced agriculture, traded extensively among the islands, and had a great deal of leisure time. Columbus, believing he was off the coast of India, called them "Indians" and hoped they would be faithful subjects of Ferdinand and Isabella. But faithful subjects, to Columbus, would convert to Christianity and grow crops that would make money for Europeans. In his journal, he wrote,
It seemed to me that they were a people who were very poor in everything. They go as naked as their mothers bore them, even the women, though I only saw one girl, and she was very young. All those I did see were young men, none of them more than thirty years old.... They do not carry arms and do not know of them, because I showed them some swords and they grasped them by the blade and cut themselves out of ignorance.... They ought to make good slaves for they are of quick intelligence, since I notice that they are quick to repeat what is said to them, and I believe that they could very easily become Chirstians, for it seemed to me that they had no religion of their own. God willing, when I come to leave I will bring six of them to Your Highnesses so that they may learn to speak...
To a European, a "civilized" person was someone who lived in a house, ate his meals at a table -- and, certainly, wore full clothes! These nearly naked people with no understanding of metal weapons must have seemed incredibly primitive to Columbus and his men -- like something, perhaps, out of the Garden of Eden. If the people of the "Indies" were so poor and uncivilized, Columbus believed he had every right to take their land and make them into "servants."
Slavery and smallpox
On Hispañola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Columbus tried to enslave the indigenous Taino people to grow plant sugar cane, but an epidemic of smallpox and other diseases wiped out the entire native population of the island -- as many as two million people.
Smallpox was endemic to Europe and Asia -- it was common there, and over thousands of generations people had built up a resistance to it. Even so, it was a fast-spreading, deadly disease. As late as the eighteenth century, hundreds of thousands of Europeans died of smallpox each year. But smallpox had never existed in the Americas, and Native Americans had no immunity to it at all.
With the native population gone, the Spanish began to import slaves from Africa to grow their sugar cane -- beginning an institution that would create misery and profit in the Americas for almost 400 years.
Mexico
In 1519 Hernán Cortés arrived in Mexico from Cuba with 11 galleons, 550 men, and 16 horses -- the first horses on the American continent. Within two years his conquistadores, conquerors, had won control of the Aztec kingdom that spanned most of present-day Mexico and Central America.
The Aztec empire, unlike the small tribes that dotted the Caribbean -- and more than a little like Spain -- was a complex state built on military conquest. Its emperor Moctezuma ruled with an iron fist from the great Aztec capital at Tenochtitlán. It seems incredible that so few men could conquer so great an empire, but its centralized authority -- its vast territory was ruled by one man from a single city -- actually made it easier to conquer. Once the capital was taken and the emperor captured, the entire empire fell under Spanish control.
Of course, the conquistadores had other advantages -- some of them accidental. One of Cortés' soldiers had smallpox, and he started an epidemic that killed a third of the population of the Aztec empire.
The Aztecs may also have mistaken Cortés for the deity Quetzalcoátl, or Plumed Serpent, who according to prophesy would return from the east to reclaim his kingdom -- perhaps in 1519. When Cortés arrived -- from the east, with fair skin, riding four-legged creatures never before seen in Mexico, wearing shining armor and looking for all the world like someone who wanted to reclaim a kingdom -- Moctezuma feared that he might be Quetzalcoátl and did not immediately meet him in battle. The delay gave Cortés the time he needed to get a foothold.
South America
Like the Aztecs of Mexico, the Incas of Peru controlled a vast empire with great riches, including the gold and silver the Spanish desperately wanted. The Incas maintained their power by forcing conquered peoples to adopt their language and religion. To manage their empire, they built a network of roads through the Andes mountains.
Also like the Aztecs, the Incas fell quickly to the Spanish. Francisco Pizarro landed in Peru in 1530, and his small army with their steel weapons, armor, and horses dominated the Incas in battle. Disease had already spread south from Mexico and weakened the Inca people. Pizarro captured the Inca emperor, Atahualpa, and quickly took control of the empire. Within a few decades, the Spanish controlled most of South America.
Blood and gold
What Cortés and his men saw in Tenochtitlán horrified them. The many Aztec gods demanded human sacrifice -- to ensure that the sun would coninue to rise in the morning, to grant fertility, or to guarantee a good harvest. The Aztecs fought wars with neighboring peoples to capture victims for sacrifice. In the most famous ritual, the victim was spread-eagled on a round stone atop a great pyramid while a priest cut out his heart and offered it, still beating, to the god Huitzilopochtli.
The Spanish, more convinced than ever of their superiority, forced most of the people of Mexico to convert to Christianity. Priests burned Aztec books and destroyed idols and temples. Indigenous people were enslaved to work in gold mines. Disease reduced the population of Mexico from more than 20 million when Cortés arrived in 1519 to about 2 million by 1600.
Meanwhile, the gold and other riches sent home to Spain financed one of the most powerful empires in the history of the world. Spanish monarchs used this wealth to fight a series of religious wars in Europe, including the attempted invasion of England by the Spanish Armada. By the 1600s, Spain was easily the most powerful kingdom in Europe.
Bartoleme de Las Casas, a Spanish priest who witnessed the worst of Spanish cruelty, had this to say in 1542 about the conquest of Mexico and the Caribbean:
Into this sheepfold, into this land of meek outcasts there came some Spaniards who immediately behaved like ravening wild beasts, wolves, tigers, or lions that had been starved for many days. And Spaniards have behaved in no other way during the past forty years, down to the present time, for they are still acting like ravening beasts, killing, terrorizing, afflicting, torturing, and destroying the native peoples, doing all this with the strangest and most varied new methods of cruelty, never seen or heard of before, and to such a degree that this Island of Hispaniola once so populous (having a population that I estimated to be more than three million), has now a population of barely two hundred persons....
As for the vast mainland [Mexico]... We can estimate very surely and truthfully that in the forty years that have passed, with the infernal actions of the Christians, there have been unjustly slain more than twelve million men, women, and children. In truth, I believe without trying to deceive myself that the number of the slain is more like fifteen million....
Their reason for killing and destroying such an infinite number of souls is that the Christians have an ultimate aim, which is to acquire gold, and to swell themselves with riches in a very brief time and thus rise to a high estate disproportionate to their merits. It should be kept in mind that their insatiable greed and ambition, the greatest ever seen in the world, is the cause of their villainies. And also, those lands are so rich and felicitous, the native peoples so meek and patient, so easy to subject, that our Spaniards have no more consideration for them than beasts. And I say this from my own knowledge of the acts I witnessed. But I should not say "than beasts" for, thanks be to God, they have treated beasts with some respect; I should say instead like excrement on the public squares....
The Indians began to seek ways to throw the Christians out of their lands.... And the Christians, with their horses and swords and pikes began to carry out massacres and strange cruelties against them. They attacked the towns and spared neither the children nor the aged nor pregnant women nor women in childbed, not only stabbing them and dismembering them but cutting them to pieces as if dealing with sheep in the slaughter house. They laid bets as to who, with one stroke of the sword, could split a man in two or could cut off his head or spill out his entrails with a single stroke of the pike. They took infants from their mothers' breasts, snatching them by the legs and pitching them headfirst against the crags or snatched them by the arms and threw them into the rivers, roaring with laughter and saying as the babies fell into the water, "Boil there, you offspring of the devil!" Other infants they put to the sword along with their mothers and anyone else who happened to be nearby. They made some low wide gallows on which the hanged victim's feet almost touched the ground, stringing up their victims in lots of thirteen, in memory of Our Redeemer and His twelve Apostles, then set burning wood at their feet and thus burned them alive. To others they attached straw or wrapped their whole bodies in straw and set them afire. With still others, all those they wanted to capture alive, they cut off their hands and hung them round the victim's neck, saying, "Go now, carry the message," meaning, Take the news to the Indians who have fled to the mountains. They usually dealt with the chieftains and nobles in the following way: they made a grid of rods which they placed on forked sticks, then lashed the victims to the grid and lighted a smoldering fire underneath, so that little by little, as those captives screamed in despair and torment, their souls would leave them.
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Burke, Williams & Sorensen, LLP
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Lee Burdick provides legal representation for cities, counties and other public agencies as Assistant City Attorney, County Counsel, and special counsel. Lee
|
https://www.bwslaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/burke_favicon.ico
|
https://www.bwslaw.com/meet-our-people/lee-burdick/
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Lee Burdick provides legal representation for cities, counties and other public agencies as Assistant City Attorney, County Counsel, and special counsel. Lee currently serves as Assistant City Attorney for the cities of Rohnert Park and Pacifica. She previously has served as County Counsel for the County of Kings, Deputy County Counsel for the County of Madera, and Assistant City Attorney for many cities, including Clovis, Lemoore, Salinas, Greenfield, Parlier, and Firebaugh. Her practice includes advising city councils, boards of supervisors, and staff in all areas of municipal law issues, such as board governance, employment and personnel matters, CEQA, code enforcement, conflicts of interest laws, contract review, elections, Government Tort Claims Act, initiatives, referenda, land use and planning, workplace investigations, and open meeting laws. Lee’s other areas of specialty include various kinds of litigation and appellate advocacy. She is experienced in both state and federal trial and appellate courts, including written appearances in the U.S. Supreme Court.
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https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/mckechnie-magna-carta-a-commentary
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Magna Carta: A Commentary
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This is a detailed and meticulous edition of Magna Carta with each clause in the original Latin, followed by an English translation and heavily annotated by the editor.
|
https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/mckechnie-magna-carta-a-commentary
|
John Lackland (King John) (author)
William Sharp McKechnie (editor)
This is a detailed and meticulous edition of Magna Carta with each clause in the original Latin, followed by an English translation and heavily annotated by the editor.
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https://medium.com/%40elitaylor/objective-subjectivity-album-list-e7c6b84625cc
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Objective Subjectivity Album List
|
https://miro.medium.com/v2/5d8de952517e8160e40ef9841c781cdc14a5db313057fa3c3de41c6f5b494b19
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2019-07-01T12:03:53.003000+00:00
|
*if you see an album that you think should be considered for a Top 100 Contender slot, let me know and I’ll toss it back in the mix. A.M. — Wilco
Abandon Your Friends — From Autumn to Ashes
Abbey…
|
en
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https://miro.medium.com/v2/5d8de952517e8160e40ef9841c781cdc14a5db313057fa3c3de41c6f5b494b19
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Medium
|
https://medium.com/@elitaylor/objective-subjectivity-album-list-e7c6b84625cc
|
Albums in bold are Top 100 Contenders. Albums in italics are “On Second Thought…” or “Surprise Non-Contenders” and will be given another chance at earning a spot on the list. Albums in bold and italics are “challenges*” from others.
*if you see an album that you think should be considered for a Top 100 Contender slot, let me know and I’ll toss it back in the mix.
A
A.M. — Wilco
Abandon Your Friends — From Autumn to Ashes
Abbey Road — The Beatles
Absolution — Muse
Accelerate — R.E.M.
Accidental Gentleman — Piebald
Achilles Heel — Pedro the Lion
Achtung Baby — U2
Acid Tongue — Jenny Lewis
Acid Westerns — Acid Westerns
Act I: The Lake South, The River North — The Dear Hunter
Act IV: Rebirth in Reprise — The Dear Hunter
Act Your Age — Home Grown
Action — Punchline
Ænima — Tool
After Laughter — Paramore
After the Eulogy — Boysetsfire
After the Gold Rush — Neil Young
After the War — Sleep Station
The Afterman: Ascension — Coheed and Cambria
The Afterman: Descension — Coheed and Cambria
Aftertaste — Helmet
Ágætis Byrjun — Sigur Ros
The Age of Adz — Sufjan Stevens
The Age of Octeen — Braid
Agony & Irony — Alkaline Trio
Aha Shake Heartbreak — Kings of Leon
Aijuswanaseing — Musiq Soulchild
Aim and Ignite — fun.
Ain’t Ain’t Ain’t — Tim Fite
Ain’t Too Bright — Electric Owls
Aja — Steely Dan
Album of the Year — The Good Life
The Alchemy Index Vols. I & II: Fire & Water — Thrice
Alice — Tom Waits
Alice In Chains — Alice In Chains
All Ears, All Eyes, All the Time — Piebald
All Hell — Vanna
All Killer No Filler — Sum 41
All Systems Go! — All Systems Go!
All That We Needed — Plain White T’s
All the Kids Agree — Animal Chin
All the Nation’s Airports — Archers of Loaf
All the Pain Money Can Buy — Fastball
All the Stars and Boulevards — Augustana
All This Useless Beauty — Elvis Costello & The Attractions
All We Got Iz Us — Onyx
Alligator — The National
Allroy’s Revenge — All
Almost Here — The Academy Is…
Almost Killed Me — The Hold Steady
Alone in a Crowd — Catch 22
Alright, Still — Lily Allen
Alter the Ending — Dashboard Confessional
The Alternative To Love — Brendan Benson
Always Foreign — The World is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die
Always Strive and Propser — A$AP Ferg
The Amazing Jeckal Brothers — Insane Clown Posse
America Must Be Destroyed — Gwar
(America’s) Dirty Little Secret — Schleprock
American Beauty — Grateful Dead
American Football (1999) — American Football
American Football (2016) — American Football
American Football (2019) — American Football
American Gangster — Jay-Z
American Hi-Fi — American Hi-Fi
American Idiot — Green Day
American IV: The Man Comes Around — Johnny Cash
American Nervoso — Botch
American Slang — The Gaslight Anthem
American Standard — Seven Mary Three
American Teen — Khalid
American Thighs — Veruca Salt
Amnesiac — Radiohead
Amputechture — The Mars Volta
Anarchy, My Dear — Say Anything
The Anatomy of Tongue and Cheek — Relient K
Anchors Away — The Bouncing Souls
Ancient Open Allegory Oratorio — Post Provost
And — Jonah Matranga
…And Justice For All — Metallica
And Now… — Asamov
…And Out Come the Wolves — Rancid
…and take it with a grain of salt — An Angle
…And the Battle Begun — RX Bandits
…And the Ever Expanding Universe — The Most Serene Republic
…and the sadness prevails — No Motiv
And We Are Bled of Color — Stutterfly
Angel Dust — Faith No More
Angel Youth — Last Days of April
Anhedonia — The Graduate
Anodyne — Uncle Tupelo
Another Intervention — Down to Earth Approach
Antenna — Cave In
anthem. — Less Than Jake
ANThology — Alien Ant Farm
Antichrist Superstar — Marilyn Manson
Antics — Interpol
Antifogmatic — Punch Brothers
Anything Else But The Truth — The Honorary Title
…Anywhere But Here — The Ataris
Aoxomoxoa — Grateful Dead
Apathy and Exhaustion — The Lawrence Arms
Apollo 18 — They Might Be Giants
Appeal to Reason — Rise Against
Appetite For Destruction — Guns N’ Roses
Aquemini — Outkast
The Archandroid — Janelle Monáe
…are coming! — The Chinkees
are we really happy with who we are right now? — .moneen.
Are You a Dreamer? — Denison Witmer
Are You Experienced — The Jimi Hendrix Experience
Are You Gonna Go My Way — Lenny Kravitz
Are You Nervous? — Rock Kills Kid
Around the Fur — Deftones
Around the Sun — R.E.M.
Around the World in a Day — Prince and the Revolution
Arrivals & Departures — Silverstein
The Art of Disappointment — Benjamins
The Art of Losing — American Hi — Fi
Art Official Intelligence: Mosaic Thump — De La Soul
The Artist in the Ambulance — Thrice
Arular — M.I.A.
As Cruel as School Children — Gym Class Heroes
As Good As Dead — Local H
As the Eternal Cowboy — Against Me!
Ashes & Fire — Ryan Adams
Astral Weeks — Van Morrison
Astray — Samiam
Astro Lounge — Smash Mouth
ASTROWORLD — Travis Scott
At Ease — The Gadjits
At Funeral Speed — Automatic 7
At Home We Are Tourists — Settle
At Home With Owen — Owen
At Night We Live — Far
At the Foot of My Rival — The New Amsterdams
At. Long. Last. A$AP — A$AP Rocky
ATLiens — Outkast
Atomic — Lit
Attack & Release — The Black Keys
Attention! Blah Blah Blah. — Atom & His Package
August — The Standard
August and Everything After — Counting Crows
Augustana — Augustana
Australia — Howie Day
Autobiography of Mistachuck — Chuck D
Automatic City — Controlling the Famous
Automatic for the People — R.E.M.
B
B Room — Dr. Dog
B.O.A.T.S. II#METIME — 2 Chainz
B.O.B. presents The Adventures of Bobby Ray — B.O.B.
B’Day — Beyonce
B4.DA.$$ — Joey Bada$$
Babel — Mumford & Sons
Bacdafucup — Onyx
Bachelor №2 or, the last remains of the dodo — Aimee Mann
Back For the First Time — Ludacris
Back to Black — Amy Winehouse
Background — Lifetime
Backsides — Riverboat Gambler
Bad — Michael Jackson
Bad As Me — Tom Waits
Bad Books — Bad Books
Baduizm — Erykah Badu
bakesale — Sebadoh
Ballads — John Coltrane Quartet
The Band — The Band
The Band Geek Mafia — Voodoo Glow Skulls
A Band In Hope — The Matches
Bandwagonesque — Teenage Fanclub
Bargainville — Moxy Fruvous
Based On A True Story — The Starting Line
Batee L’ganee “I’ve Entered My Garden.” — Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield
Bayside — Bayside
Bazooka Tooth — Aesop Rock
Be — Common
Be Here Now — Oasis
Be My Thrill — The Weepies
Be Your Own Pet — Be Your Own Pet
The Beatles — The Beatles
Beats, Rhymes and Life — A Tribe Called Quest
Beaucoup Fish — Underworld
Beautiful Charade — Camber
Beautiful Freak — eels
Beautiful Midnight — Matthew Good Band
The Beautiful Struggle, — Talib Kweli
Becoming All Things — Zookeeper
The Bedside Drama: A Petite Tragedy — of Montreal
Before Everything & After — MxPx
Before the Blackout — Allister
Before the Robots — Better Than Ezra
Before These Crowded Streets — Dave Matthews Band
Beggar’s Life — Automatic 7
Beggars Banquet — The Rolling Stones
Begin to Hope — Regina Spektor
Behind the Front — Black Eyed Peas
Being There — Wilco
The Believer — Rhett Miller
Belle and Sebastian Write About Love — Belle and Sebastian
The Belle Brigade — The Belle Brigade
Ben Folds Five — Ben Folds Five
The Bends — Radiohead
Beneath Medicine Tree — Copeland
Beneath the Surface — GZA
The Best in Town — The Blackout
Better Oblivion Community Center — Better Oblivion Community Center
Better Than Knowing Where You Are — Spitalfield
a better version of me — Rainer Maria
Betty — Helmet
Between The Concrete & Clouds — Kevin Devine
Between the Heart and the Synapse — The Receiving End of Sirens
Between The Never And The Now — Vendetta Red
Between Two Shore — Glen Hansard
Beware and Be Grateful — Maps & Atlases
Beyoncé — Beyoncé
Big City Sin and Small Town Redemption — Roy
[big red letter day] — Buffalo Tom
Billy — Samiam
bitter tongues — Ann Beretta
Bivouac — Jawbreaker
The Black Album — Jay-Z
Black Cherry — Goldfrapp
Black City — Division of Laura Lee
Black Earth Tiger — Emanuel
Black Holes and Revelations — Muse
Black Listed — Neko Case
Black Love — The Afghan Whigs
Black Market Music — Placebo
Black Messiah — D’Angelo and the Vanguard
Black on Both Sides — Mos Def
Black Out — The Good Life
The Black Parade — My Chemical Romance
Black Sails in the Sunset — AFI
Black Sheep Boy — Okkervil River
Blackberry Belle — The Twilight Singers
Blackenedwhite — MellowHype
Blackhawks Over Los Angeles — Strung Out
Blackout! — Method Man and Redman
(blank wave arcade) — The Faint
Blanket Warm — Lullaby for the Working Class
Blazing Arrow — Blackalicious
Bleach — Nirvana
Bleed American — Jimmy Eat World
Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child — Norma Jean
Blind — The Sundays
Blind Faith — Blind Faith
Blind Melon — Blind Melon
blink-182 — blink-182
blinking lights and other revelations — eels
Blonde — Frank Ocean
Blonde On Blonde — Bob Dylan
Blood Money — Tom Waits
Blood Mountain — Mastodon
Blood on the Tracks — Bob Dylan
Blood Sugar Sex Magik — Red Hot Chili Peppers
Blood, Sweat & Tears — Blood, Sweat & Tears
Bloodflowers — The Cure
Blowback — Tricky
Blue — Joni Mitchell
Blue — Third Eye Blind
Blue Collar — Rhymefest
Blue Earth — The Jayhawks
Blue Room — Unwritten Law
Blue Scholars — Blue Scholars
Blue Skies, Broken Hearts…Next 12 Exits — The Ataris
Blue Sky Noise — Circa Survive
The Blueprint — Jay-Z
The Blues and the Abstract Truth — Oliver Nelson
Blunderbuss — Jack White
Blur — Blur
Blurred in Six — Friction
Bon Iver — Bon Iver
Bone Palace Ballet — Chiodos
Book of Thugs: Chapter A.K., Verse 47 — Trick Daddy
Borders and Boundaries — Less Than Jake
Born Sinner — J. Cole
Born to Quit — Smoking Popes
Born to Run — Bruce Springsteen
Bossanova — Pixies
Boxcar Racer — Boxcar Racer
Boxer — The National
Boy — U2
A Boy Named Goo— Goo Goo Dolls
The Boy with the Arab Strap — Belle & Sebastian
Boys and Girls in America — The Hold Steady
Boys Life — Boys Life
The BQE — Sufjan Stevens
Brain Salt — Brain Salt
The Brave and The Bold — Tortoise & Bonnie “Prince” Billy
(Breach) — The Wallflowers
Bread & Circus — Toad the Wet Sprocket
Break of Day — Roark
Break the Cycle — Staind
Brian Vander Ark — Brian Vander Ark
Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE — Brian Wilson
Bridges to Babylon — The Rolling Stones
Brighten the Corners — Pavement
Bring It On — Gomez
Bring Your Own Stereo — Jimmie’s Chicken Shack
Bringing Down the Horse — The Wallflowers
Broadcaster — Divit
Broadcaster — Tripl3fastaction
Broadway Calls — Broadway Calls
Broken Bells — Broken Bells
Broken Boy Soldiers — The Raconteurs
Broken Social Scene — Broken Social Scene
Broken Star — The Broadways
brother, sister — mewithoutYou
Brother’s Blood — Kevin Devin
Brotherhood — New Order
Brothers and Sisters — The Allman Brothers Band
Brown Sugar — D’Angelo
The Bruce Lee Band — The Bruce Lee Band
Brushfire Fairytales — Jack Johnson
BTNHRessurection — Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
Bubblegum — Kevin Devin and The Goddamn Band
Build and Structure — Safety in Numbers
Building — Sense Field
Building a Better ___________ — Park
The Bull, The Balloon, and The Family — Reubens Accomplice
Bulletproof — Hush
Burn Burn — Our Lady Peace
…Burn Piano Island, Burn — The Blood Brothers
Burritos, Inspiration Point, Fork Balloon Sports, Cards in the Spokes, Automatic Biographies, Kites, Kung Fu, Trophies, Banana Peels We’ve Slipped On and Egg Shells We’ve Tippy Toed Over — Cap’n Jazz
Bury the Hatchet — The Cranberries
Business as Usual — EPMD
Business Casual — Beep Beep
Butch — The Geraldine Fibbers
…buy our intention; we’ll buy you a unicorn — Kaddisfly
Buying the Lie — Death on Wednesday
By The Way — Red Hot Chili Peppers
C
Calculating Infinity — The Dillinger Escape Plan
Calendar Days — The Rocket Summer
The Californian — Sunday’s Best
Californication — Red Hot Chili Peppers
Calling Albany — Vermont
Camp — Childish Gambino
Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt — Augustana
Can’t Slow Down — Saves the Day
Candy Apple Grey — Hüsker Dü
Cannon to a Whisper — Breaking Pangaea
Capital Punishment — Big Pun
Car Button Cloth — The Lemonheads
Car Wheels On A Gravel Road — Lucinda Williams
Cardinology — Ryan Adams
Carnavas — Silversun Pickups
The Carnival — Wyclef Jean
Carnival Vol. II, Memoirs of an Immigrant — Wyclef Jean
Carpal Tunnel Syndrome — Kid Koala
Carrie & Lowell — Sufjan Stevens
Cassadaga — Bright Eyes
Castaways and Cutouts — The Decemberists
Casting For Funerals — Farewell My Enemy
Catalyst — A New Found Glory
Catastrophe Keeps Up Together — Rainer Maria
Catch A Fire — Bob Marley
Catch For Us The Foxes — mewithoutYou
Catch Without Arms — dredg
Catherine Avenue — Biirdie
Cattlemen Don’t — Triple Fast Action
Caution — Hot Water Music
The Cautionary Tales of Mark Oliver Everett — Eels
Cee-Lo Green And His Perfect Imperfections — Cee-Lo
Cee-Lo Green…Is the Soul Machine — Cee-Lo
Celebration Rock — Japandroids
Cellar Door — John Vanderslice
Ceo — Princess Superstar
Ceremonials — Florence + The Machine
Cerulean Salt — Waxahatchee
Challengers — The New Pornographers
Change — The Dismemberment Plan
Change of Heart — Tim Fite
Change of Living — The Only Children
Changes — A Cursive Memory
channel ORANGE — Frank Ocean
Charmer — Aimee Mann
Chase This Light — Jimmy Eat World
Cheap Thrills — Big Brother & The Holding Company
Cheer Up — Reel Big Fish
Cheshire Cat — Blink 182
Chicken & Beer — Ludacris
Child is Father to the Man — Blood, Sweat and Tears
Chixdiggit — Chixdiggit
Chocolate and Cheese — Ween
Chopstick Bridge — Avoid One Thing
Chroma — Cartel
Chuck — Sum 41
Chutes Too Narrow — The Shins
Circa: Now! — Rocket From the Crypt
A City By The Light Divided — Thursday
C I V I L W A R — Dillinger Four
Clarity — Jimmy Eat World
The Clash — The Clash
Clean Your Room — Engine 88
The Closer I Get — Hayden
Closing Time — Tom Waits
CLPPNG — clipping.
Clumsy — Our Lady Peace
Clumsy — Samiam
Coast to Coast Motel — G. Love & Special Sauce
Cody — Joyce Manor
Coil — Toad the Wet Sprocket
Cold Roses — Ryan Adams & The Cardinals
Collapse Into Now — R.E.M.
Collection — Mr. Moo
A Collection of Short Stories — Houston Calls
A Collection of Songs Written & Recorded 1995–1997 — Bright Eyes
Collective Soul — Collective Soul
The College Dropout — Kanye West
The Color Before the Sun — Coheed & Cambria
Color (N.) Inside the Lines — Schematic
Coloring Book — Chance the Rapper
Colors — Beck
Colors of Home — Kill Creek
Colossal Head — Los Lobos
The Colour and the Shape — Foo Fighters
Combat Rock — The Clash
Come — Prince
Come Around Sundown — Kings of Leon
Come Away With Me — Norah Jones
Come Back to You — Down To Earth Approach
Come Clean — Puddle of Mudd
Come Feel Me Tremble — Paul Westerberg
Come Find Yourself — Fun Lovin’ Criminals
Come On Feel the Illinoise — Sufjan Stevens
Come On Feel The Lemonheads — The Lemonheads
Come On Now Social — Indigo Girls
Come Pick Me Up — Superchunk
Come Tomorrow — Dave Matthews Band
Comfort Eagle — Cake
The Comfort of Home — Rufio
Coming Home — A New Found Glory
Commit This To Memory — Motion City Soundtrack
Commitment — Lucky Boys Confusion
Common Existence — Thursday
Common Market — Common Market
The Composition of Ending and Phrasing — My Hotel Year
Computer World — Kraftwerk
Conditions — The Temper Trap
Conductor — The Comas
Confidence Man — Matt Pryor
Congratulations I’m Sorry — Gin Blossoms
Connected — The Foreign Exchange
Conor Oberst — Conor Oberst
Contender — Forever Came Calling
Control — Pedro the Lion
Control — Janet Jackson
Controversy Loves Company — The Audition
Conversations — Roses Are Red
Cop and Speeder — Heatmiser
Cope — Manchester Orchestra
Copper Blue — Sugar
Core — Stone Temple Pilots
Country Grammer — Nelly
Country Life — Roxy Music
Court and Spark — Joni Mitchell
Crack the Skye — Mastodon
Crash — Dave Matthews Band
Crazysexycool — TLC
Creator — The Lemonheads
The Creek Drank The Cradle — Iron & Wine
Crimes — The Blood Brothers
Criminal Minded — Boogie Down Productions
Crimson — Alkaline Trio
Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain — Pavement
Crosby, Stills & Nash — Crosby, Stills & Nash
Ctrl — SZA
The Curtain Hits The Cast — Low
Curve — Our Lady Peace
CVA — Paint It Black
D
Daily Operation — Gang Star
Daisies of the Galaxy — Eels
Daisy — Brand New
Daisy — Dog’s Eye View
Damage — Jimmy Eat World
Damaged — Lambchop
DAMN. — Kendrick Lamar
DAMN. COLLECTORS EDITION — Kendrick Lamar
Damn the Torpedoes — Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Damnesia — Alkaline Trio
Dancehall Apocalypse — Firescape
Dangerously in Love — Beyonce
Danse Macabre — The Faint
Dap-Dippin’ With Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings — Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings
Dare Iz A Darkside — Redman
Dark Light Daybreak — Now It’s Overhead
Dark Side of the Moon — Pink Floyd
Das Not Compute — Division of Laura Lee
David Comes To Life — Fucked Up
The Day the Sun Went Out — Boysetsfire
Day Three of My New Life — Knapsack
Daydream Nation — Sonic Youth
Daylight Breaking — No Motiv
Days Are Gone — HAIM
Daytona — Pusha T
De-loused in the Comatorium— The Mars Volta
De La Soul is Dead — De La Soul
De Stijl — The White Stripes
Dead Ends and Girlfriends — Allister
Dead FM — Strike Anywhere
Dead Man’s Party — Oingo Boingo
Dead Man’s Shake — Grandpaboy
Dead Reckoning — Small Brown Bike
Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has a Bodycount — From First to Last
Dear Science — TV on the Radio
Debut — Björk
Decadence — Head Automatica
Decomposer — The Matches
The Deconstruction — Eels
A Deeper Understanding — The War on Drugs
Define the Great Line — Underoath
Definitely Maybe — Oasis
Deja Entendu — Brand New
Deliverance — Bubba Sparxxx
The Delivery Man — Elvis Costello & The Imposters
Deltron 3030 — Deltron 3030
Deluxe — Better Than Ezra
Demolition — Ryan Adams
Demure — Engine Down
Denali — Denali
Departures and Landfalls — Boys Life
Deserter’s Songs — Mercury Rev
Designing for a Nervous Breakdown — The Anniversary
Desire — Bob Dylan
Desire — Pharoahe Monch
Desperate Glow — Wedding Dress
Destination Failure — Smoking Popes
Destination: Beautiful — Mae
The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me — Brand New
Devil’s Night Out — The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Devils and Angels — Melee
Diagram for Healing — No Motiv
Diamonds and Pearls — Prince & The New Power Generation
Diary — Sunny Day Real Estate
The Diary of the Madmen — Len
The Difference Between Me and You is That I’m Not On Fire — Mclusky
Different Damage — Q and Not U
Dig Your Own Hole — The Chemical Brothers
Digital Ash in a Digital Urn — Bright Eyes
Direction — The Starting Line
Dirt — Alice In Chains
Dirty — Sonic Youth
Dirty Computer — Janelle Monáe
The Dismemberment Plan is Terrified — The Dismemberment Plan
Distortion — The Magnetic Fields
The Division Bell — Pink Floyd
Dizzy Up The Girl — Goo Goo Dolls
DNA — Backstreet Boys
Do You Feel — The Rocket Summer
Do You Know Who You Are? — Texas Is The Reason
Do You Want More?!!!??! — The Roots
Doc’s Da Name 2000 — Redman
Document — R.E.M.
Dog Problems — The Format
Doggystyle — Snoop Doggy Dogg
Domestica — Cursive
Don’t Believe the Truth — Oasis
Don’t Cut Your Fabric To This Year’s Fashion — Action Action
Don’t Know How To Party — The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Don’t Panic — All Time Low
Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Piano Player — Elton John
Don’t Try This at Home — Billy Bragg
Donny Hathaway — Donny Hathaway
Doo-Wops & Hooligans — Bruno Mars
Dookie — Green Day
Doolittle — The Pixies
The Doors — The Doors
Doppelgänger — The Fall of Troy
Doris — Earl Sweatshirt
Double Plaidinum — Lagwagon
Down on the Upside — Soundgarden
Downward is Heavenward — Hum
The Downward Spiral — Nine Inch Nails
Dr. Octagonecologyst — Dr. Octagon
The Drama of Alienation — J. Church
Dream To Make Believe — Armor For Sleep
Dreaming Out Loud — OneRepublic
Drop Out of Life — This Time Next Year
Drops of Jupiter — Train
Drums and Wires — XTC
Drunk Enough To Dance — Bowling For Soup
Drunk Like Bible Times — Dear And The Headlights
Dry — PJ Harvey
Duck and Cover — Mad Caddies
Dude Ranch — Blink-182
Dulcinea — Toad the Wet Sprocket
Dummy — Portishead
Dusk and Summer — Dashboard Confessional
Dysfunction — Staind
E
E. Von Dahl Killed the Locals — The Matches
E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event): The Final World Front — Busta Rhymes
Eager Seas — Watashi Wa
Eardrum — Talib Kweli
The Earth Sings Mi Fa Mi — The Receiving End of Sirens
Easy Tiger — Ryan Adams
Eat, Sleep, Repeat — Copeland
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace — Foo Fighters
The Ecleftic: 2 Sides II a Book — Wyclef Jean
Eight Arms to Hold You — Veruca Salt
El Camino — The Black Keys
El Che — Rhymefest
El Oso — Soul Coughing
Electric Circus — Common
The Electric Lady — Janelle Monáe
Electric Version — The New Pornographers
Electro-Shock Blues — Eels
Elevator — Hot Hot Heat
Elva — Unwritten Law
Embrace — Embrace
Emergency & I — The Dismemberment Plan
Emotion is Dead — The Juliana Theory
Emphasizing Function Over Design — Christiansen
Empty Bottles Broken Hearts — The Murder City Devils
End is Forever — The Ataris
End of Amnesia — M. Ward
The End of an Error — Houston Calls
The End of the Ring Wars — The Appleseed Cast
End on End — Rites of Spring
End Times — Eels
EndSerenading — Mineral
Enema of the State — Blink-182
Energy — Operation Ivy
Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) — Wu-Tang Clan
Entroducing….. — DJ Shadow
Envy — Eve’s Plum
Erotica — Madonna
Errortype:11 — Errortype:11
Euphemystic — Son, Ambulance
Eve 6 — Eve 6
Even If It Kills Me — Motion City Soundtrack
The Ever Passing Moment — MxPx
The Everglow — Mae
Every Famous Last Word — Miracle of 86
Every Solution Has Its Problem — Start Trouble
Everybody Else is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? — The Cranberries
Everybody Knows — Trisha Yearwood
Everyday Behavior — Melee
Everynight Fire Works — Hey Mercedes
everything I ever wanted to say… — Eleventeen
Everything I Long For — Hayden
Everything in Transit — Jack’s Mannequin
Everything Sucks — Descendents
Everything Sucks — Reel Big Fish
Everything Will Be Alright in the End — Weezer
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence — Glassjaw
Everything You Thought You Knew — Orange Island
Everything You Want — Vertical Horizon
Everywhere At Once — Lyrics Born
Evil Empire — Rage Against the Machine
Evolver — John Legend
Evolver — 311
Example — For Squirrels
The Execution of All Things — Rilo Kiley
An Exercise in Humility— Canterbury Effect
Exile in Guyville — Liz Phair
Exile on Main St. — The Rolling Stones
Exister — Hot Water Music
Expansion Team — Dilated Peoples
Extraordinary Machine — Fiona Apple
Eyes Open — Snow Patrol
Eyewitness — Shades Apart
F
Fables of the Reconstruction — R.E.M.
Factory Showroom — They Might Be Giants
Fail You Again — Can’t Swim
Fair Ain’t Fair — Tim Fite
Faith — George Michael
Faithless Street — Whiskeytown
Fall Back Open — Now It’s Overhead
Fallen Star Collection — Brandtson
Fallow — The Weakerthans
False Cathedrals — Elliot
Familiar, Forgotten — Walleye
The Family Sign — Atmosphere
Famous — Super Deluxe
Fantastic Damage — El — P
Far — Regina Spektor
Fashion Nugget — Cake
Faso Latido — A Static Lullaby
The Fat of the Land — The Prodigy
Fear — Toad the Wet Sprocket
Fear of a Black Planet — Public Enemy
Feedback — Jurassic 5
Feel Good — The Internet
Feelin’ Sorry…For all the Hearts We’ve Broken — Jeffries Fan Club
Feeling Strangely Fine — Semisonic
Feelings — David Byrne
Feels — Animal Collective
Feels Like Home — Norah Jones
Fellow Workers — Ani DiFranco & Utah Philips
Felt Mountain — Goldfrapp
Fenix TX — Fenix TX
Ferociously Stoned — Cherry Poppin’ Daddies
Fever To Tell — Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Fever You Can’t Sweat Out, A — Panic! At the Disco
Fevers and Mirrors — Bright Eyes
The Fiction We Live — From Autumn to Ashes
Field Manual — Chris Walla
Fielding — Fielding
Fifty Reason to Explode— Schatzi
Fight Songs — Old 97′s
Final Straw — Snow Patrol
Finders Keepers — Dynamite Boy
Finding Forever — Common
The Fire Theft — The Fire Theft
Fireworks and Alcohol — August Premier
First Impressions of Earth — The Strokes
FishScale — Ghostface Killah
Flashlights — So Many Dynamos
Fleet Foxes — Fleet Foxes
A Flight and a Crash — Hot Water Music
Float — Flogging Molly
Flood — They Might Be Giants
Floored — Sugar Ray
Fly — Dixie Chicks
Flyer — Nanci Griffith
The Flying Club Cup — Beirut
Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant — Belle & Sebastian
Follow the Leader — Korn
Fome is Dape — Little-T & One Track Mike
Foo Fighters — Foo Fighters
Food & Liquor II: The Great American Rap Album Pt. 1 — Lupe Fiasco
Foolish — Superchunk
Foot in Mouth Disease — Gob
For Emma, Forever Ago — Bon Iver
For Monkeys — Millencolin
For the Love of Music — Mike Park
For Your Own Special Sweetheart — Jawbox
Forever and Counting — Hot Water Music
Forever Broken — Dexter Danger
Forget the World — The Hippos
Forget What You Know — Midtown
The Forgotten Arm — Aimee Mann
Forty Hour Train Back to Penn — The Movielife
Found in the Flood — The Bled
Four Cornered Night — Jets to Brazil
Four Minute Mile — The Get Up Kids
Fox Confessor Brings the Flood — Neko Case
The Fragile — Nine Inch Nails
Frame & Canvas — Braid
Francis the Mute — The Mars Volta
Frankie Welfare Boy Age Five — Braid
Freak Show — The Residents
Freedom — Neil Young
Freewheelin’ — Tuesday
Friction Baby — Better Than Ezra
Friend and Foe — Menomena
Friend or FOE? — The Forces of Evil
Friendship Often Fade Away — Audio Learning Center
Frigid Forms Sell — Milemarker
Frogstomp — Silverchair
From Beale St. to Oblivion — Clutch
From First To Last — From First To Last
From Here to Infirmary — Alkaline Trio
From the Hut, To the Projects, To the Mansion — Wyclef Jean Aka Toussant St. Jean
Fuck with Fire — Planes Mistaken for Stars
Fuel for the Hate Game — Hot Water Music
Full Collapse — Thursday
Full Moon Fever— Tom Petty
The Full-Custom Gospel Sounds of The Reverend Horton Heat — The Reverend Horton Heat
Funeral — Arcade Fire
Funeral at the Movies — Shudder to Think
Funeral Car — Desert City Soundtrack
Funky Kingston — Toots & The Maytals
Furnace Room Lullaby — Neko Case & Her Boyfriends
The Fury of the Aquabats!— The Aquabats!
Fush Yu Mang — Smash Mouth
Futures — Jimmy Eat World
FutureSex/LoveSounds — Justin Timberlake
G
G. Love & Special Sauce — G. Love & Special Sauce
Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga — Spoon
The Game of Monogamy — Tim Kasher
Game Theory — The Roots
Ganging Up on the Sun — Guster
Garbage — Garbage
Garth Brooks — Garth Brooks
The Gentle Art of Making Enemies — Near Miss
A Gentle Reminder — The Jealous Sound
Gentlemen — The Afghan Whigs
Get a Taste — Sprung Monkey
Get Away From Me — Nellie McKay
Get Behind Me Satan — The White Stripes
Get Born — JET
Getting Into Sinking — amfm
Ghetto Music: The Blueprint of Hip Hop — Boogie Down Productions
Ghost in the Machine — The Police
A Ghost is Born — Wilco
Giant Step/De Ole Folks At Home — Taj Mahal
Gimmie Fiction — Spoon
Girlfriend — Matthew Sweet
Give Blood — Bane
Give Up — The Postal Service
Glass Floor — Maritime
Glass House — Dropa
Glass Houses — Billy Joel
The Glass Passenger — Jack’s Mannequin
Glitter Lung — Jesse R. Berlin
Gnarwolves — Gnarwolves
GNV FLA — Less Than Jake
Go — Motion City Soundtrack
Go Girl Crazy! — The Dictators
Go Slow Down — BoDeans
God Bless Satan — Mephiskapheles
God Doesn’t Care — Instruction
Goddamnit! — Alkaline Trio
Gold — Ryan Adams
The Gold Record — The Bouncing Souls
Golden Delicious — Mike Doughty
Goldfinger — Goldfinger
Goldfly — Guster
Gone Ain’t Gone — Tim Fite
Gone Quite Mad — Gone Quite Mad
Goo — Sonic Youth
Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: Fear Through the Eyes of Madness — Coheed and Cambria
Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World For Tomorrow — Coheed and Cambria
Good Bad Not Evil — The Black Keys
Good Girl Gone Bad — Rihanna
good kid, m.A.A.d city — Kendrick Lamar
{Good-Luck} — Big D & The Kids Table
Good Morning Aztlán — Los Lobos
Good Mourning — Alkaline Trio
Good News For People Who Love Bad News — Modest Mouse
The Good Son — Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
The Good, The Bad & The Queen — The Good, The Bad & The Queen
Goodbye Yellow Brick Road — Elton John
Gossamer — Passion Pit
GP — Gram Parsons
Grace — Jeff Buckley
Graceland — Paul Simon
Graduation — Kanye West
A Grand Don’t Come For Free — The Streets
The Grand Theatre Volume One — Old 97′s
Grassroots — 311
Gratitude — Gratitude
Grave Dancers Union — Soul Asylum
Gravity — Our Lady Peace
The Great Adventures of Slick Rick — Slick Rick
Great Danger — The Audition
The Great Depression — DMX
The Great Destroyer — Low
The Great Escape — Blur
Greatest Hits 84’ — 87' — Reggie & The Full Effect
The Greatest Story Ever Told — David Banner
The Greatest — Cat Power
Green — R.E.M.
The Green World — Dar Williams
Greetings from Michigan: The Great Lakes State — Sufjan Stevens
Grievous Angel — Gram Parsons
Grippe — Jawbox
Guero — Beck
The Guest — Phantom Planet
Guilt Show — The Get Up Kids
Gulag Orkestar — Beruit
Gutterflower — Goo Goo Dolls
H
Hadestown — Anais Mitchell
Half the Time — Pablo
Halfway Between Here and There — RX Bandits
Hall of Fame — Big Sean
Halos and Lassos — Half-Handed Cloud
Ham Fisted — Local H
Hand Me Down — Falling Forward
Handshakes and Heartbreaks — Roses are Red
Hang-Ups — Goldfinger
Happiness Is — Taking Back Sunday
Happiness is Not a Fish You Can Catch — Our Lady Peace
Happy First — Kill Me Tomorrow
Happy Hollow — Cursive
Happy Nowhere — Dog’s Eye View
Hard Candy — Counting Crows
A Hard Day’s Night — The Beatles
Hard Rock Bottom — No Use For A Name
Hard Times are in Fashion — Koufax
The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living — The Streets
Harmlessness — The World is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die
The Harsh Light of Day — Fastball
The Hate Yourself Change — Neva Dinova
Haughty Melodic — Mike Doughty
Have A Ball — Me First & The Gimme Gimmes
The Hazards of Love — The Decemberists
Head First — Goldfrapp
The Head on the Door — The Cure
The Headphone Masterpiece — Cody Chesnutt
Headphones — Headphones
Heads are Gonna Roll — The Hippos
A Healthy Distrust — Sage Francis
Healthy in Paranoid Times — Our Lady Peace
Heartbreaker — Ryan Adams
Hearts on Parade — American Hi — Fi
Heathen — David Bowie
Heaven is Whenever — The Hold Steady
Hee Saw Dhuh Kaet — Rye Coalition
Height— John Nolan
The Heist— Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
Hell Among the Yearlings — Gillian Welch
Hell Hath No Fury — Clipse
Hell on Earth — Mobb Deep
Hellbilly Deluxe: 13 Tales of Cadaverous Cavorting Inside the Spookshow International — Rob Zombie
Hello — Poe
Hello Bastards — Lifetime
Hello Echo — Maxeen
Hello Nasty — Beastie Boys
Hello Rockview — Less Than Jake
Hello, Control — Brandtson
Help Wanted Nights — The Good Life
Help! — The Beatles
Helplessness Blues — Fleet Foxes
Her Majesty The Decemberists — The Decemberists
Here Comes the Zoo — Local H
Here’s to Shutting Up — Superchunk
Here’s Where the Strings Come In — Superchunk
Heresy and the Hotel Choir — Maritime
Heroine — From First to Last
Hi-Teknology 2 — Hi-Tek
Hi, Everything’s Great — Limbeck
Hide Nothing — Further Seems Forever
High As Hope — Florence + The Machine
High Contrast Comedown — Fluorescein
High Violet — The National
High/Low — Nada Surf
Highly Evolved — The Vines
Highly Refined Pirates — Minus the Bear
Highway 61 Revisited — Bob Dylan
His Band and the Street Choir — Van Morrison
Hit Man Dreams — No Knife
Hitting the Ground — Gordon Gano
Hold On Love — Azure Ray
Holding a Wolf by the Ears — From Autumn to Ashes
Hollywood Town Hall — The Jayhawks
Hombre Lobo: 12 Songs of Desire — Eels
Hometowns — The Rural Alberta Advantage
Homogenic — Björk
Honest — Future
Honest Racket — Sandpeople
Honey I’m Homely! — Dance Hall Crashers
Honeycomb — Frank Black
Hootenanny — The Replacements
Hope — Manchester Orchestra
Hopeless Romantic — The Bouncing Souls
Horehound — The Dead Weather
Horrorscope — Eve 6
Horses — Patti Smith
Hospital Blossoms — The Wailing Wall
Hostage and the Meaning of Life, A — Brazil
Hot Fuss — The Killers
Hot Mess — Cobra Starship
The Hot Rock — Sleater-Kinney
Hot Sauce Committee Part Two — Beastie Boys
The Hour of the Bewilderbeast — Badly Drawn Boy
House of GVSB — Girls Against Boys
Houses of the Holy — Led Zeppelin
How Does Your Garden Grow? — Better Than Ezra
How Far Shallow Takes You — Gob
How I Got Over — The Roots
How It Feels To Be Something On — Sunny Day Real Estate
How It Works — Bodyjar
How Memory Works — Joan of Arc
How To Clean Everything — Propaghandi
How To Meet Girls — Nerf Herder
How To Start A Fire — Further Seems Forever
Human Being — Seal
Human the Death Dance — Sage Francis
A Hundred Million Suns — Snow Patrol
The Hunter’s Lullaby — Raine Maida
Hurley — Weezer
The Hurt Process — Boxer
I
i — The Magnetic Fields
I Am A Bird Now — Antony & The Johnsons
I Am An Elastic Firecracker — Tripping Daisy
I Am The Avalanche — I Am The Avalanche
I Am The Movie — Motion City Soundtrack
I Am… — Nas
I Am… Sasha Fierce — Beyoncé
I and Love and You — The Avett Brothers
I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody’s Business — I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody’s Business
…I Care Because You Do — Aphex Twin
I Do Perceive — Owen
I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside: An Album By Earl Sweatshirt — Earl Sweatshirt
I Hate Music — Superchunk
I Know Your Troubles Been Long — Mayday
I Learned the Hard Way — Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
I Wish My Brother George Was Here — Del the Funky Homosapien
I’ll Be Your Girl — The Decemberists
I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead — El-P
I’m Like A Virgin Losing A Child — Manchester Orchestra
I’m Wide Awake It’s Morning — Bright Eyes
I’m With Stupid — Aimee Mann
I’m Your Man — Leonard Cohen
Identikit — Burning Airlines
Identity Crisis — Thrice
The Idiot— Iggy Pop
Idler Wheel Is Wiser Than The Driver Of The Screw And Whipping Cords Will Serve You More Than Ropes Will Ever Do, The — Fiona Apple
Idlewild — Outlast
If Arsenic Fails, Try Algebra — Pop Unknown
If I Knew Now What I Knew Then — Hot Rod Circuit
If It Weren’t For Venetian Blinds It Would Be Curtain For Us All — Piebald
If It’s Cool With You, It’s Cool With Me — Hot Rod Circuit
If They Move… Kill Them — Fairweather
If You Speak Any Faster — June
If You’re Feeling Sinister — Belle and Sebastian
If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late — Drake
Ill Communication — Beastie Boys
Illadelph Halflife — The Roots
Illmatic — Nas
Illumination Ritual — The Appleseed Cast
Imbue — The Early November
The Impossibles — The Impossibles
In A Million Pieces — The Draft
In Casino Out — At the Drive-In
In Currents — The Early November
In Defense of the Genre — Say Anything
In Formal Introduction — The City on Film
In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 — Coheed and Cambria
In My Lifetime: Vol. 1 — Jay-Z
In On The Kill Taker — Fugazi
In Rainbows — Radiohead
In Reverie — Saves the Day
In Search Of… — N.E.R.D.
In the Aeroplane Over the Sea — Neutral Milk Hotel
In the Dark — Toots & The Maytals
In The Drink — Justin Courtney Pierre
In the Foul Key of V — Flu Thirteen
In the Shadow of Two Gunmen — The Forecast
In Through the Out Door — Led Zeppelin
In Utero — Nirvana
In With the Out Crowd — Less Than Jake
In Your Honor — Foo Fighters
in•ter a•li•a — At the Drive-In
The Incredible Sinking Feeling — Still Life
Indigo Girls — Indigo Girls
Indoor Living — Superchunk
The Inevitability of a Strange World— Halifax
Infiltration — Assassin
The Information — Beck
The Inhuman Ordeal of Special Agent Gas Huffer — Gas Huffer
Innervisions — Stevie Wonder
Insomniac — Green Day
The Instigator — Rhett Miller
Internal Affairs — Pharoahe Monch
Interpol — Interpol
Interventions and Lullabies — The Format
Invented — Jimmy Eat World
Ire Works — The Dillinger Escape Plan
Ironman — Ghostface Killah
Irresistible Bliss — Soul Coughing
Is — Princess Superstar
…is a Real Boy — Say Anything
Is This It? — The Strokes
Is This Thing Cursed? — Alkaline Trio
Isn’t This Supposed to be Fun!? — Farewell
It Had to do with Love — Koufax
It Means Everything — Save Ferris
It Still Moves — My Morning Jacket
It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back — Public Enemy
It Was Written — Nas
It Won’t Snow Where You’re Going — Park
It’s a Calling — The Plus Ones
It’s a Shame About Ray — The Lemonheads
it’s all crazy! it’s all false! it’s all a dream! it’s alright — mewithoutYou
It’s All In Your Head — Eve 6
It’s Always Darkest…Before the Dawn — Turning Point
It’s Dark and Hell is Hot — DMX
It’s Hard to Find a Friend — Pedro the Lion
J
A Jackknife to a Swan — The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Jacksonville City Nights — Ryan Adams & The Cardinals
Jagged Little Pill — Alanis Morissette
Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814 — Janet Jackson
Jawbox — Jawbox
Jealous Me was Killed by Curiosity — Moros Eros
Jersey’s Best Dancers — Lifetime
“Joan of Arc, Dick Cheney, Mark Twain…” — Joan of Arc
John Wesley Harding — Bob Dylan
The Joshua Tree — U2
Jubilee — Grant Lee Buffalo
Junior High Anthems — Smoochknob
Jupiter — Cave In
Juslisen — Musiq
Just Because — The Belle Brigade
Just Enough Bright — Time Spent Driving
Justified — Justin Timberlake
K
The K.G.B. — The K.G.B.
Keasbey Nights — Catch-22
Keep It Going — Mad Caddies
Keep It Like A Secret — Built To Spill
Keep Your Heart — The Loved Ones
Keeper of Youth — The Only Children
Kerplunk! — Green Day
ΚΕΦΑΛΗΞΘ — Ministry
Kick — INXS
Kid A — Radiohead
Kids on the Street — Cherry Poppin’ Daddies
Kill ’Em All — Metallica
Kill Them With Kindness — The Jealous Sound
Kill Your Television — The Reunion Show
Killed For Less — Sense Field
Killed or Cured — The New Amsterdams
Killingtons, The — The Killingtons
Kind of Blue — Miles Davis
The King is Dead — The Decemberists
Kings of Pop — Home Grown
Kiss Each Other Clean — Iron and Wine
Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me — The Cure
Kiss Your Ass Goodbye — The Blue Meanies
Kneebody — Kneebody
KOD — J. Cole
Korea Girl — Korea Girl
L
L’ Homme Robotik — Spark Lights The Friction
La Cucaracha — Ween
The Lady Killer — Cee Lo Green
Lady Melody — Audio Karate
Land Air Sea — The Special Goodness
Lasers — Lupe Fiasco
Last Days of August — Last Days of August
Last Night On Earth — Noah And The Whale
Last of the Sharpshooters — Down By Law
Last Splash — The Breeders
Last Stop Suburbia — Allister
Last Stop: Crappy Town — Reggie & The Full Effect
Late Night Conversations — The Forecast
Late Registration — Kanye West
Lateralus — Tool
Laughing Gallery — Ruth Ruth
LAX — The Game
Lazaretto — Jack White
LCD Soundsystem — LCD Soundsystem
Leave Your Name — Statistics
Leave Your Sleep — Natalie Merchant
Leaving Through The Window — Something Corporate
Leche Con Carne — No Use For A Name
Lechuza — Fenix TX
Led Zeppelin — Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin II — Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin III — Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin IV — Led Zeppelin
Left And Leaving — The Weakerthans
Leisure — Blur
Leitmotif — dredg
The Lemon of Pink — The Books
The Lemonheads — The Lemonheads
Let England Shake — PJ Harvey
Let It Be — The Replacements
Let it Bleed — The Rolling Stones
Let It Enfold You — Senses Fail
Let It Rest — Sorry About Dresden
Let Love In — Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Let Me Come Home — Limbeck
Let’s Face It — The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Let’s Get It On — Marvin Gaye
Let’s Get Ready — Mystikal
Let’s Go — Rancid
Letterbox — Brandtson
Letters Home — Defeater
Letting Off The Happiness — Bright Eyes
Lex Hives — The Hives
Libido — Buck-O-Nine
Licensed To Ill — Beastie Boys
Lies For The Liars — The Used
Life After Death — The Notorious B.I.G.
Life and Death of an American Fourtracker — John Vanderslice
Life as a Spectator — Crosstide
Life Gone Wrong — Landscapes
Life in 1472 — Jermaine Dupri
Life in Cartoon Motion — Mika
Life in Dreaming — Hidden in Plain View
Life in General — MxPx
Life Lessons — Handguns
The Life of Pablo — Kanye West
Life Won’t Wait — Rancid
Life’s Rich Pageant — R.E.M.
Lifetime — Lifetime
Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground — Bright Eyes
Light Music for Dying People — Sordid Humor
Lightweight Holiday — Lightweight Holiday
Like the Exorcist but More Breakdancing — Murder by Death
Like Water for Chocolate — Common
Like You Like An Arsonist — Paris, Texas
Limbeck — Limbeck
Limblifter — Limblifter
Lincoln — They Might Be Giants
Lines in my Face — Chronic Future
Liquid Skin — Gomez
Liquid Swords — GZA
Liquor in the Front — The Reverend Horton Heat
Little Daggers — Val Emmich
Little Hell — City and Colour
Live and Learn — House of Fools
Live Fast Diarrhea — The Vandals
Live Through This — Hole
Living Together — Vermont
Living Well is the Best Revenge — Midtown
Lock-Sport-Krock — Nikola Sarcevic
Lockjaw — Dance Hall Crashers
Logic and Loss — Pushover
London Calling — The Clash
Lonely Avenue — Ben Folds and Nick Hornby
Lonely Runs Both Ways — Alison Krause & Union Station
The Lonesome Crowded West — Modest Mouse
Long Knives Drawn — Rainer Maria
Long Live A$AP — A$AP Rocky
Look Back and Laugh — Sissies
Look Now Look Again — Rainer Maria
Lookit! — Slapstick
Lord Willin’ — Clipse
Loses Control — Hey Mercedes
Losing Streak — Less Than Jake
Lost a Few Battles…Won the War — Watashi Wa
Lost and Gone Forever — Guster
Lost and Safe — The Books
Lost Dogs + Mixed Blessings — John Prine
Lost in America — The Gathering Field
Lost in Space — Aimee Mann
Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home — The Geraldine Fibbers
A Loud Bash of Teenage Feelings — Beach Slang
The Loud Wars — So Many Dynamos
Louder Now — Taking Back Sunday
Love in the Fascist Brothel — The Plot to Blow Up the Eiffel Towel
Love is Hell — Ryan Adams
The Love Movement — A Tribe Called Quest
The Love of Life — Watashi Wa
Love. Angel. Music. Baby. — Gwen Stefani
Loveless — My Bloody Valentine
The Low End Theory — A Tribe Called Quest
The Low Hanging Fruit — The Wailing Wall
Low Level Owl: Vol 1 — The Appleseed Cast
Low Level Owl: Vol 2 — The Appleseed Cast
Lucero — Lucero
The Luck of the Draw — Bonnie Raitt
Lucky — Fifteen
Lucky Thumbs — Brandon Butler
Lullabies to Paralyze — Queens of the Stone Age
Lunch for the Sky — Socratic
Lungs — Florence + The Machine
Lupe Fiasco’s Food and Liquor — Lupe Fiasco
Lupe Fiasco’s The Cool — Lupe Fiasco
Lust For Life — Iggy Pop
M
Made in the Dark — Hot Chip
Madvillainy — Madvillain
The Maggot — Melvins
Magic — Bruce Springsteen
Magnetic Bodies/Maps of Bones — Maritime
Magnetic North — Hopesfall
Majesty Shredding — Superchunk
Make Up the Breakdown — Hot Hot Heat
Making Moves — Biology
Maladroit — Weezer
Mama Said — Lenny Kravitz
Mama, I’m Swollen — Cursive
A Man Called (E) — E
Man on the Moon: The End of Day — KiD CuDi
Mandala — Rx Bandits
Mantra — Shelter
March 16–20 1992 — Uncle Tupelo
March on Electric Children — The Blood Brothers
Mare Vitalis — The Appleseed Cast
Marquee Moon — Television
Marshall Mathers LP — Martha Wainwright
Mary’s Voice — The Music Tapes
Maryland Mansions — Cex
Mass Romantic — The New Pornographers
The Massacre — 50 Cent
Master of Puppets — Metallica
Matters — Pulley
Maxeen — Maxeen
Maxinquaye — Tricky
Maxwell’s Urban Hang Suite — Maxwell
Maybe I’ll Catch Fire — Alkaline Trio
Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too — The New Radicals
McLusky Do Dallas — McLusky
MCMLXXXV — Rufio
The Meadowlands — The Wrens
Mean Everything to Nothing — Manchester Orchestra
Meantime — Helmet
Meat Puppets II — Meat Puppets
Mechanical Animals — Marilyn Manson
Media — The Faint
Meditations — John Coltrane
Medusa — Annie Lennox
Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness — The Smashing Pumpkins
Memories…Do Not Open — The Chainsmokers
Mermaid Avenue — Billy Bragg & Wilco
Message for Albert — Five For Fighting
Metallica — Metallica
Metals — Feist
Mezmerize — System of a Down
Mic City Sons — Heatmiser
Middle Cyclone — Neko Case
Midnight Marauders — A Tribe Called Quest
Midnight Vultures — Beck
Midwestern Songs of the Americas — Dillinger Four
The Milk-Eyed Monster — Joanna Newsom
Mind, Body & Soul — Joss Stone
Minnesota Hotel — Pinehurst Kids
Minority of One — Day Nasty
The Minstrel Show — Little Brother
The Miracle of 86 — The Miracle of 86
Mirrored — Battles
The Miseducation of Lauren Hill — Lauren Hill
Miss Machine — The Dillinger Escape Plan
The Missing Link — Jeremy Enigk
The Missing Years — John Prine
A Mission, A Mark, A Brand, A Scar — Dashboard Confessional
Mission: Control! — Burning Airlines
Mmhmm — Relient K
Modern Guilt — Beck
Modern Life is Rubbish — Blur
The Moldy Peaches — The Moldy Peaches
The Monitor — Titus Andronicus
Monkeys for Nothin’ and the Chimps for Free — Reel Big Fish
Mono — Grandpaboy
Monster — Killer Mike
Monster — R.E.M.
Monsters of Folk — Monsters of Folk
Monte Carlo — Digger
The Moon and Antartica — Modest Mouse
The Moon is Down — Further Seems Forever
Moondance — Van Morrison
Moonlight Revival — Ponderosa
More Adventurous — Rilo Kiley
More Betterness! — No Use For A Name
More Noise and Other Disturbances — The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
More Talk, Less Rock — Propagandhi
More Than You Thought You Knew — Matchbox Twenty
The Morning Light — The Morning Light
Morning Phase — Beck
Mos Def & Talib Kweli Are Black Star — Black Star
The Mother, The Mechanic, and The Path — The Early November
Mother’s Milk — Red Hot Chili Peppers
Motorcade of Generosity — Cake
The Mouse & The Mask — Danger Doom
Moving Pictures — Rush
Mr. Bungle — Mr. Bungle
Mr. Funny Face — Sprung Monkey
Mule Variations — Tom Waits
Murmur — R.E.M.
Murs 3:16: The 9th Edition — Murs & 9th Wonder
Muse Sick — N — Hour Mess Age — Public Enemy
Music From Big Pink — The Band
Music Tapes for Clouds and Tornados — The Music Tapes
musicforthemorningafter — Pete Yorn
Musicology — Prince
Must We Call Them Rad Trads? — The Rad Trads
Mutations — Beck
Mute Print — A Wilhelm Scream
MUTEMATH — MUTEMATH
Mutilate Us — amfm
My Aim is True — Elvis Costello
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy — Kanye West
My Brother’s Blood Machine — The Prize Fighter Inferno
My Dinosaur Life — Motion City Soundtrack
My Shame is True — Alkaline Trio
N
Narrow Stairs — Death Cab For Cutie
Nashville Skyline — Bob Dylan
Nasty Little Thoughts — Stroke 9
Naturally — Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings
Naveed — Our Lady Peace
Nebraska — Bruce Springsteen
Needle Bed — John Ralston
The Needles The Space— Straylight Run
Neighborhood Watch — Dilated Peoples
The Neighborhood — Los Lobos
Neighborhoods — Blink-182
Nellyville — Nelly
Neon Bible — Arcade Fire
Nerf Herder — Nerf Herder
Never Mind the Bollocks Here’s the Sex Pistols — Sex Pistols
Never You Mind — The New Amsterdams
Nevermind — Nirvana
New Adventures in Hi — Fi — R.E.M.
New Beginning — Tracy Chapman
The New Danger — Mos Def
New Found Glory — New Found Glory
New Miserable Experience — Gin Blossoms
New Multitudes — Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker, & Yim Yames
New Old Friends — Dolour
New Parade — The Sheila Divine
A New Tide — Gomez
New Wave — Against Me!
The New What’s Next — Hot Water Music
Nimrod — Green Day
No Coast — Braid
No Code — Pearl Jam
No Country for Old Musicians — Reggie & The Full Effect
No Depression — Uncle Tupelo
No Devolución — Thursday
No Division — Hot Water Music
No Good, No Time, No Pride — River City Rebels
No Joke! — Meat Puppets
No Kill No Beep Beep — Q And Not U
No Need to Argue — The Cranberries
No News is Good News — Liars Academy
No Pocky For Kitty — Superchunk
No Really, I’m Fine — The Spill Canvas
No Signal — Park
No Traffic — The Stereo
Nobody’s Darlings — Lucero
North — Something Corporate
Not Without A Fight — New Found Glory
Notes From Underground — 1997
Nothing Feels Good — The Promise Ring
Nothing Gold Can Stay — A New Found Glory
Nothing Was The Same — Drake
Nothing’s Shocking — Jane’s Addiction
Novelty — Jawbox
Novena on a Nocturn — The Good Life
Now It’s Overhead — Now It’s Overhead
Now You See Inside — SR — 71
Now’s the Time — Charlie Parker
Nowhere Fast — Link 80
NYC Ghosts and Flowers — Sonic Youth
O
O — Damien Rice
Observatories — Blue Cranes
The Ocean and the Sun — The Sounds of Animals Fighting
Ocean Avenue — Yellowcard
The Odd Couple — Gnarls Barkley
Odelay — Beck
Of Someday Shambles — Jebediah
Off The Wall — Michael Jackson
Often Lie — Statistics
Oh Mercy — Bob Dylan
Oh, Inverted World — The Shins
Oh! Calcutta! — The Lawrence Arms
OK Computer — Radiohead
Old — Danny Brown
Old Blood — Mayday
On — Imperial Teen
On A Wire — The Get Up Kids
On How Life Is — Macy Gray
On My Way — Ben Kweller
On The Impossible Past — The Menzingers
On The Mouth — Superchunk
on the Strength of all Convinced — Daphne Loves Derby
Once Fierce Beer Coaster — The Bloodhound Gang
One Beat — Sleater-Kinney
One Cell in the Sea — A Fine Frenzy
One Foot in the Grave — Beck
One For The Kids — Yellowcard
One Hot Minute — Red Hot Chili Peppers
One Wrench — Avail
The One — Elton John
Only Built 4 Cuban Linx — Raekwon
Oracular Spectacular — MGMT
Orange Rhyming Dictionary — Jets To Brazil
Original Pirate Material — The Streets
Our Endless Numbered Days — Iron & Wine
Our Own Wars — Small Brown Bike
Our Time in Eden — 10,000 Maniacs
Out of Business — EPMD
Out of Exile — Audioslave
Out of the Shadow — Rogue Wave
Out of the Vein — Third Eye Blind
Out of Time — R.E.M.
Outer South — Conor Oberst & The Mystic Valley Band
Outlandos d’Amour — The Police
Owen — Owen
Owls — Owls
Oxymoron — ScHoolboy Q
Oz Factor — Unwritten Law
P
Pack Up the Cats — Local H
Page Avenue — Story of the Year
Paging Mr. Proust — The Jayhawks
Paid in Full — Eric B. & Rakim
Painted Shut — Hop Along
Pallelujah! — MC Paul Barman
Palm Trees and Power Lines — Sugarcult
Palomino — Trampled by Turtles
Pandora — Somerset
Panic Stations — Motion City Soundtrack
Paper Trail — T.I.
Para Toda Vida — The New Amsterdams
Parachutes — Coldplay
Paradise in Me — K’s Choice
Parallel Lives — Gates
Paranoid — Black Sabbath
Parklife — Blur
Parts of Speech — Dessa
Party Music — The Coup
The Party’s Over — Smoking Popes
Pass the Flask — The Bled
Patent Pending — Heavens
Paul’s Boutique — Beastie Boys
Pay Attention — The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
Payola — Desaparecidos
Pearl — Janis Joplin
Pedals — Rival Schools
Pedestrian Life — Jay Leibowitz
Penny Black — Further Seems Forever
Pennybridge Pioneers — Millencolin
People and Things — Jack’s Mannequin
People’s Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm — A Tribe Called Quest
The People’s Key — Bright Eyes
Peregrine — The Appleseed Cast
Perfecting Loneliness — Jets To Brazil
perhaps, i suppose… — Rufio
Personal Journals — Sage Francis
Pessimism & Satire — Logan Square
Pet Sounds — The Beach Boys
Pet Your Friends — Dishwalla
Pete Yorn — Pete Yorn
Peter Gabriel — Peter Gabriel
Pezcore — Less Than Jake
Phantom Planet — Phantom Planet
Philadelphia Songs — Denison Witmer
The Photo Album — Death Cab for Cutie
Photographs — Mest
Phrenology — The Roots
Physical Graffiti — Led Zeppelin
Picaresque — The Decemberists
Pieces of You — Jewel
The Pillage — Cappadonna
Pinkterton — Weezer
Pixel Revolt — John Vanderslice
A Place in the Sun — Lit
Places Like This — Architecture in Helsinki
The Places You Have Come to Fear the Most — Dashboard Confessional
Planet of Ice — Minus the Bear
Plans — Death Cab For Cutie
The Platform — Dilated Peoples
Play — Moby
Pneumonia — Whiskeytown
Poised to Break — Sunday’s Best
Poison I Drank From — Bryan Free
Pokinatcha — MxPx
Poly Sci — John Forté
Pony Express Records — Shudder To Think
Popaganda — Head Automatica
Porcelain — Sparta
Pork Soda — Primus
Poses — Rufus Wainwright
Post — Björk
Post-Nothing — Japandroids
Power — Q and Not U
The Power of Failing — Mineral
The Pre-Fix For Death — Necro
The Predator — Ice Cube
Presence — Led Zeppelin
The Presidents of the United States of America — The Presidents of the United States of America
Press — Mu330
Pretty Hate Machine — Nine Inch Nails
The Pretty Toney Album — Ghostface Killah
Pretty. Odd. — Panic! At the Disco
Pretzel Logic — Steely Dan
The Pride of Chester James — Sleep Station
Prince — Prince
A Prince Among Thieves — Prince Paul
Pro Tools — GZA
Progress — Clowns For Progress
Progress — RX Bandits
Progression Through Unlearning — Snapcase
Prolonging the Magic — Cake
Promotional Copy — Reggie And the Full Effect
Protection — Face To Face
Provincial — John K. Samson
Provisions, Fictions and Gear — Moth
Pull Me Up…Drag Me Down — Silver Jet
Pull the Thorns From Your Heart — Senses Fail
Punk In Drublic — NoFX
Purple — Stone Temple Pilots
Purple Rain — Prince & The Revolution
Pushing the Salmanilla Envelope — Jimmie’s Chicken Shack
Put Your Ghost to Rest — Kevin Devine
Putting the Days to Bed — The Long Winters
Puzzle — Biffy Clyro
Q
Quality — Talib Kweli
Quality Control — Jurassic 5
Question the Answers — The Mighty Mighty Bosstones
The Question — Emery
The Quickening — The Vandals
The Quilt — Gym Class Heroes
R
Rabbit Fur Coat — Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins
Radio Music Society — Esperanza Spalding
Radiosurgery — New Found Glory
Rage Against The Machine — Rage Against The Machine
Rainy Day Music — The Jayhawks
Raising Sand — Robert Plant & Alison Kraus
Ramones — Ramones
Rapid City Muscle Car — Cherry Poppin’ Daddies
Rave Un2 the Joy Fantastic — Prince
Ray of Light — Madonna
RE: Dereliction — Acrobat Down
reachin’ (a new refutation of time and space) — Digable Planets
Read Music / Speak Spanish — Desaparecidos
Reading, Writing and Arithmetic — The Sundays
Ready To Die — The Notorious B.I.G.
Ready… Break — Something Corporate
Readymades — Chumbawamba
Real Gone — Tom Waits
Realism — The Magnetic Fields
Reality vs. The Optimist — Kiss Kiss
Reality’s Coming Through — Hot Rod Circuit
Rebel, Sweetheart — The Wallflowers
Rebels, Rogues & Sworn Brothers — Lucero
Reckoning — R.E.M.
Reconstruction Site — The Weakerthans
Recovering The Satellites — Counting Crows
Recovery — Loudon Wainwright III
Red House Painters — Red House Painters
The Red Sea — The Shondes
The Red Tree — .moneen.
Redefining Music — Atom & His Package
Redemption — Useless I.D.
Reggatta De Blanc — The Police
Regretfully Yours — Superdrag
Rei Momo — David Byrne
Relapse — Eminem
Relationship of Command — At The Drive-In
Release the Stars — Rufus Wainwright
Relief — Vacationer
Relief — My Iron Lung
Remember Right Now — Spitalfield
The Reminder — Feist
Repeater — Fugazi
Repetition — Unwound
The Resignation — RX Bandits
Resolution — Hidden in Plain View
Resurrection — Brian Vander Ark
Resurrection — A New Found Glory
Return — The Impossibles
Return of Saturn — No Doubt
Return of the Boom Bap — KRS-ONE
Return of the Frog Queen — Jeremy Enigk
Return To Cookie Mountain — TV On The Radio
Return To The 36 Chambers: The Dirty Version — Ol’ Dirty Bastard
Return to the Sea — Islands
Reunion Tour — The Weakerthans
Rev — Ten Foot Poll
Reveal — R.E.M.
Revolutions Per Minute — Reflection Eternal
Revolver — The Beatles
Rewind+Record — The Stereo
Rewiring the Electric Forest — Darla Farmer
Rhythm of the Saints — Paul Simon
Richard D. James Album — Aphex Twin
Rid Of Me — PJ Harvey
Ride The Lightning — Metallica
Right Now, You’re in the Best of Hands. And If Something Isn’t Quite Right, Your Doctor Will Know in a Hurry — Bear Vs. Shark
Ringing in the Dawn — Trial By Fire
Ringside — Ringside
Rio — Duran Duran
Riot! — Paramore
Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars, The — David Bowie
Rise and Run — The Honor System
Rise or Die Trying — Four Year Strong
Rising Down — The Roots
The Rising Tide — Sunny Day Real Estate
The Rising — Bruce Springsteen
Ritual de lo Habitual — Jane’s Addition
The River Bed — Small Brown Bike
Riverfenix — Riverfenix
Roadkill Overcoat — Busdriver
Robyn — Robyn
Robyn is Here — Robyn
Rock N Roll — Ryan Adams
Rock Steady — No Doubt
Rocket — Primitive Radio Gods
Rockin’ the Suburbs — Ben Folds
The Rocking Chair Years — Day At The Fair
…rocks your lame ass — Hagfish
Rodeo and Picasso — Recover
Romance is a Slowdance — Crumb
Room For Squares — John Mayer
Room Noises — Eisley
Room on Fire — The Strokes
The Room’s Too Cold — The Early November
Rooney — Rooney
Rubber Factory — The Black Keys
Rubberneck — The Toadies
Ruby Vroom — Soul Coughing
Rufus Wainwright — Rufus Wainwright
Ruiner — A Wilhelm Scream
Rumors and Headlines — One Man Army
Rumours — Fleetwood Mac
Rump Shaker — Suburban Legends
Run It Up the Flagpole — Farewell
Run the Jewels — Run the Jewels
Run the Jewels 2 — Run the Jewels
Run the Jewels 3 — Run the Jewels
Run To Be Born — Walking Concert
The Runners Four — Deerhoof
Rush — Rush
S
S/T — Rainer Maria
Sad Sappy Sucker — Modest Mouse
Sagarmatha — The Appleseed Cast
Sailing the Sea of Cheese — Primus
Sam’s Town — The Killers
Samiam — Samiam
Santi — The Academy Is…
Satanic Panic in the Attic — of Montreal
The Satellite Years — Hopesfall
Saturday Nights and Sunday Mornings — Counting Crows
Saturnalia — The Gutter Twins
Save It — Shades Apart
Save the World, Lose the Girl — Midtown
Say Anything — Say Anything
Say Hello To Sunshine — Finch
Say It Like You Mean It — The Starting Line
Scenic — Denver Harbor
Science Fiction — Brand New
The Score — The Fugees
Sea Change — Beck
Seal — Seal
Seal — Seal
Seasick — Imperial Teen
The Sebadoh — Sebadoh
Second Stage Turbine Blade — Coheed and Cambria
Secret Name — Low
Secrets and Lies — The Æffect
Section.80 — Kendrick Lamar
Security — Mind Over Matter
See the Light — Less Than Jake
See You Around — I’m With Her
Seeing Sounds — N*E*R*D
Separation Sunday — The Hold Steady
Set Sail the Prairie — Kaddisfly
Set Your Goals — CIV
Seven Swans — Sufjan Stevens
Seven’s Travels — Atmosphere
Seventeen Seconds — The Cure
Seventh Tree — Goldfrapp
Severed — Severed
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band — The Beatles
Sha Sha — Ben Kweller
The Shade of Poison Trees — Dashboard Confessional
Shake the Sheets — Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
The Shape of Punk to Come: A Chimerical Bombation in 12 Bursts — Refused
She Loves You — The Twilight Singers
Shed Some Skin — Slow Gherkin
The Shepherd’s Dog — Iron & Wine
Shh, Just Go With It — Every Avenue
Shhh — Chumbawamba
Shine A Light — Constantines
Shootenanny! — Eels
Short Bus — Filter
Show Off — Show Off
Siamese Dream — Smashing Pumpkins
Sigh No More — Mumford & Sons
The Sign — Ace of Base
The Silence Party — When Walls Are Built
Silent Alarm — Bloc Party
silent sober and sound — Outsmarting Simon
The Silver Gymnasium — Okkervil River
Silver Sweepstakes — Knapsack
Sing the Sorrow — AFI
Single File — The Honor System
Singularity — Mae
Sir Lucious Left Foot…The Son of Chico Dusty — Big Boi
Siren Song of the Counter Culture — Rise Against
Sister — Sonic Youth
Sisters of the Red Death — Vendetta Red
Situationist Comedy — Dillinger Four
Sixteen Stone — Bush
Skankin’ Pickle Fever — Skankin’ Pickle
Skittish — Mike Doughty
Sky Blue Sky — Wilco
Sleepwalker — JamisonParker
Sleepy Eyed — Buffalo Tom
Slim Shady LP, The — Eminem
Slip — Quicksand
Slippery When Wet — Bon Jovi
Slow Down Kid — Val Emmich
Slow Motion Daydream — Everclear
Slowly Going the Way of the Buffalo — MxPx
Slowreader — Slowreader
Small Change — Tom Waits
Small Steps, Heavy Hooves — Dear and the Headlights
Smash — The Offspring
Smile — The Jayhawks
The Sneak Attack — KRS-ONE
Snowman — Engine 88
So — Peter Gabriel
So Beautiful or So What — Paul Simon
So Divided — …And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead
So Far From Home — Reach the Sky
So Long, Astoria — The Ataris
So Much For the Afterglow — Everclear
So So Glos, The — The So So Glos
So, You Think it’s Hot in Here? — Paris, Texas
So…How’s Your Girl? — Handsome Boy Modeling School
Soar — Samiam
Social Life — Koufax
The Soft Bulletin — The Flaming Lips
Solea — Solea
Solid State 14 — My Superhero
Some Are Lakes — Land of Talk
Some Nights — fun.
Some of You Will Like This, Some of You Won’t — Four Year Strong
Something About Airplanes — Death Cab For Cutie
Something To Write Home About — The Get Up Kids
Sometimes — City and Colour
Somewhere in America — Dynamite Boy
Somewhere Under Wonderland — Counting Crows
Song — Lullaby for the Working Class
Songs About Jane — Maroon 5
Songs about Polarbears — Snow Patrol
Songs For Silverman — Ben Folds
Songs from an American Movie Vol. 1: Learning How To Smile — Everclear
Songs from an American Movie Vol. 2: Good Time for a Bad Attitude — Everclear
Songs in A Minor — Alicia Keys
Songs in the Key of Life — Stevie Wonder
Songs of Leonard Cohen — Leonard Cohen
Songs of Love and Hate — Leonard Cohen
Songs to Not Get Married to — Reggie and the Full Effect
The Sophtware Slump — Grandaddy
Sorry About Tomorrow — Hot Rod Circuit
Sorry Vampire — John Ralston
Soul Caddy — Cherry Poppin’ Daddies
Soul Food — Goodie Mob
Souljacker — Eels
The Sound and the Fury — Mothermania
Sound of Lies — The Jayhawks
Sound of Silver — LCD Soundsystem
The Sound of the Life in the Mind — Ben Folds Five
Sound the Alarm — Saves the Day
Soundsystem: — 311
Soundtrack for a Generation — Student Rick
Soundtrack to a Headrush — Emanuel
Source Tags & Codes — …and you will know us by the trail of dead
Southern Rock Opera — Drive By Truckers
Southern Weather — The Almost
Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik — OutKast
Soviet Kitsch — Regina Spektor
Space Camp — Audio Karate
Sparkle and Fade — Everclear
Speak in Code — Eve 6
Speakerboxxx / The Love Below — OutKast
Speaking in Tongues — Talking Heads
Speedin’ Bullet 2 Heaven — Kid Cudi
Spiritual Machines — Our Lady Peace
Split the Country, Split the Street — Kevin Devine
Spoke — Spoke
Sporting Life — The Muckruckers
Spread the Rumors — Socratic
St. Elsewhere — Gnarls Barkley
Stadium Arcadium — Red Hot Chili Peppers
The Stand Ins — Okkervil River
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants — Oasis
Stankonia — OutKast
Stars and Satellites — Trampled by Turtles
Start Here — The Gloria Record
Start Static — Sugarcult
Start Today — Gorilla Biscuits
A Static Lullaby — A Static Lullaby
Static Prevails — Jimmy Eat World
Stay Positive — The Hold Steady
Stay What You Are — Saves the Day
Steal This Album — The Suicide Machines
Steal This Album! — System of a Down
Steel Train — Steel Train
Stereo — Paul Westerberg
Sticks and Stones — New Found Glory
Sticky Fingers — The Rolling Stones
Still Crazy After All These Years — Paul Simon
Still Feel Gone — Uncle Tupelo
Still Life — Strike.Fire.Fall
Still Searching — Senses Fail
Stillmatic — NaS
Stop Doing Bad Things — Spitalfield
Stop, Drop, and Roll — Foxboro Hot Tubs
Stories and Alibis — Matchbook Romance
Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea — PJ Harvey
The Storms of Early Summer: Semantics of Song — Cursive
Story Like A Scar — The New Amsterdams
The Story So Far — The Story So Far
Straightaways — Son Volt
Strange Clouds — B.o.B
Strange Distress Calls — Tourmaline
Strange We Should Meet Here — Idiot Pilot
Stranger to Stranger — Paul Simon
Strangers Almanac — Whiskeytown
Strangeways, Here We Come — The Smiths
Straylight Run — Straylight Run
Strays — Jane’s Addiction
Street’s Disciple — NaS
Streetcore — Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros
The Streets of San Francisco — Swingin’ Utters
Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. — 2Pac
Stripped — Christina Aguilera
Strugglers — Koufax
Sublime — Sublime
Subliminal Plastic Motives — Self
Suburban Hymns — The Life and Times
Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues — Strung Out
Suburbiac — Dolour
Such Blinding Stars For Starving Eyes — Cursive
Suffer — Bad Religion
The Sufferer and the Witness, The — Rise Against
The Suicide Machines — The Suicide Machines
Suicide Medicine — Rocky Votolato
Suicide Season — Bring Me the Horizon
Sumday — Grandaddy
Summer Bones — Hit The Lights
Summer in Abaddon — Pinback
summerteeth — Wilco
The Sunlandic Twins — of Montreal
Sunny Day Real Estate — Sunny Day Real Estate
Supa Dupa Fly — Missy “Misdemeanor” Elliot
Superchunk — Superchunk
Superfast — Dynamite Hack
Supergrass — Supergrass
¡$Uper! Mercado! — 2 Skinnee J’s
Supernature — Goldfrapp
Superunknown — Soundgarden
Supply and Depend — Warship
Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie — Alanis Morrisette
Surf — Donnie Trumpet & The Social Experience
Surfer Rosa — Pixies
Surprise — Paul Simon
Surrealistic Pillow — Jefferson Airplane
Survival is for Cowards — The Casket Lottery
Survivor — Fifteen
Sweet Baby James — James Taylor
Sweet Oblivion — Screaming Trees
Sweet Water — Sweet Water
Sweetheart of the Rodeo — The Byrds
Swingin’ with Raymond — Chumbawamba
Swirl — Sprung Monkey
The Swiss Army Romance — Dashboard Confessional
Swoon — Silversun Pickups
Symptoms of a Leveling Spirit — Good Riddance
System of a Down — System of a Down
T
Take Care — Drake
Take Off Your Pants and Jacket — Blink-182
Taken In — Pave The Rocket
Takeoffs and Landings — Rilo Kiley
Taking Back Sunday — Taking Back Sunday
Tales from the Punchbowl — Primus
Talking Heads: 77 — Talking Heads
Talking is Hard — Walk the Moon
Tallahassee — The Mountain Goats
Taller Children — Elizabeth & The Catapult
Tapestry — Carole King
Taste of Chocolate — Big Daddy Kane
Tattoo You — The Rolling Stones
The Teaches of Peaches — Peaches
Teen Idols — Teen Idols
Tej Leo(?), Rx/Pharmacists — Ted Leo & The Pharmacists
Tell All Your Friends — Taking Back Sunday
Telling Secrets to Strangers — Self Against City
Tempest — Bob Dylan
Temple of the Dog — Temple of the Dog
Ten — Pearl Jam
Ten Spot — Shudder to Think
Terrible Things — Terrible Things
Terror Twilight — Pavement
Tetsuo & Youth — Lupe Fiasco
TEXT_BOMB — Blueline Medic
Tha Carter — Lil Wayne
Tha Doggfather — Snoop Dogg
that dog. — that dog.
That Much Further West — Lucero
That Within Blood Ill-Tempered — Shai Hulud
The Theory of Harmonial Value — .moneen.
There Are Rules — The Get Up Kids
There is Nothing Left To Lose — Foo Fighters
There’s Nothing Wrong With Love — Built to Spill
They Might Be Giants — They Might Be Giants
They’re Only Chasing Safety — Underoath
Things Fall Apart — The Roots
The Things We Do To Find People Like Us — Beach Slang
Think Tank — Blur
Third Eye Blind — Third Eye Blind
Third/Sister Lovers — Big Star
This Addiction — Alkaline Trio
This Afternoon’s Malady — Jejune
This Chapter Is Called Titles — Limbeck
This Conversation is Ending Starting Right Now — Knapsack
This Desert Life — Counting Crows
This is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About — Modest Mouse
This is Who You Are — The Beautiful Mistake
This May Be the Year I Disappear — Recover
This Night — Destroyer
This Side — Nickel Creek
This Time Next Year — The Movielife
This Time — Los Lobos
This Town’s Disaster — Blackpool Lights
This Unknown Science — Joy Kills Sorrow
This Vicious Cycle — Junction 18
This Will Be Laughing Week — Ultimate Facebook
This=Everything — National Skyline
Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever — Explosions in the Sky
Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge — My Chemical Romance
Three Hundred — The Stereo
Threes — Sparta
Thriller — Michael Jackson
Thriller — New End Original
Through Being Cool — Saves the Day
Throwing Copper — Live
Throwing the Game — Lucky Boys Confusion
Thunder, Lighting, Strike — The Go! Team
Tical — Method Man
Tical 2000: Judgement Day — Method Man
Tidal — Fiona Apple
Tigerlily — Natalie Merchant
Till We Have Faces — Noise Ratchet
Tim — The Replacements
Time to Discover — Robert Bradley’s Blackwater Surprise
The Times They Are A-Chagin’ — Bob Dylan
Tin Cans with Strings to You — Far
Tiny Music…Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop — Stone Temple Pilots
The Tipping Point — The Roots
Title of Record — Filter
To All Our Fallen Heroes — Ann Beretta
To All We Stretch the Open Arm — Mirah & The Black Cat Orchestra
To Bring You My Love — PJ Harvey
To Pimp A Butterfly — Kendrick Lamar
To the 5 Boroughs — Beastie Boys
Today’s Empires, Tomorrow’s Ashes — Propaghandi
Together — The New Pornographers
Tomorrow Morning — Eels
Tomorrow the Green Grass — The Jayhawks
Tonight and Forever — Sense Field
Too Bad You’re Beautiful — From Autumn to Ashes
Too High to Die — Meat Puppets
Too Late…No Friends — Gob
Toxicity — System of a Down
Trace — Son Volt
Tracy Chapman — Tracy Chapman
Tragedy — The Vehicle Birth
Tragic Kingdom — No Doubt
Train of Thought — Reflection Eternal
Train — Train
Trainwreck — Boys Night Out
Trampoline — Steel Train
Trans-Continental Hustle — Gogol Bordello
Transatlanticism — Death Cab for Cutie
Transistor — 311
Traveling Without Moving — Jamiroqui
Travistan — Travis Morrison
Trips — Samiam
Trompe Le Monde — The Pixies
Trouble — Ray LaMontagne
Trouble Will Find Me — The National
The Trouble With the Truth — Patty Loveless
Truth and Soul — Fishbone
The Truth is That You Are Alive — An Angle
Tubthumping — Chumbawamba
Tuesday Night Music Club — Sheryl Crow
Tumbleweed Connection — Elton John
Turbulent Indigo — Joni Mitchell
Turn Off the Bright Lights — Interpol
Turn the Radio Off — Reel Big Fish
Twelve — Patti Smith
Twenty-Eight Teeth — Buck-O-Nine
Twentysomething — Jamie Cullum
Twilight as Performed by The Twilight Singers — The Twilight Singers
Twilight Songs from the Prairies of the Sun — Steel Train
Twin Cinema — The New Pornographers
Twin Forks — Twin Forks
TWO — Owls
Two Gallants — Two Gallants
Two Tongues — Two Tongues
U
U.S. Crush — U.S. Crush
U.S. Songs — Elliott
The Ugly Organ — Cursive
Uh Huh Her — PJ Harvey
Un — Chumbawamba
The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner — Ben Folds Five
Uncanny Valley — The Dismemberment Plan
Uncle Bob — 22 Jacks
Under A Dying Sun — Under A Dying Sun
Under A Killer Blue Sky — Jupiter Sunrise
Under Soil and Dirt — The Story So Far
Under the Blacklight — Rilo Kiley
Under the Radar — Grade
Under the Table and Dreaming — Dave Matthews Band
Under the Tray — Reggie and the Full Effect
Under the Western Freeway — Grandaddy
Underground is a Dying Breed, The — Hot Rod Circuit
Underneath — The Verve Pipe
Understand This is a Dream — The Juliana Theory
Underwater Cinematographer — The Most Serene Republic
Underwater Sunshine (or what we did on our summer vacation) — Counting Crows
undun — The Roots
The Uneventful Vacation — Commander Venus
Unfun — Jawbreaker
Unicornography — The Falcon
United by Fate — Rival Schools
Universal Mind Control — Common
Unleashed — Ten Foot Pole
Unrequited — Loudon Wainwright III
Untitled — NaS
Unwritten Law — Unwritten Law
Uomini D’onore — Fireside
Up — R.E.M.
Up for the Down Stroke — Parliament
Us — Brother Ali
The Used — The Used
V
Vagabond Ways — Marianne Faithful
Van Halen — Van Halen
Vaxis — Coheed and Cambria
Veckatimest — Grizzly Bear
Vee Vee — Archers of Loaf
The Velvet Underground & Nico — The Velvet Underground
Veni Vidi Vicious — The Hives
Verse — People Like You
Version — Mark Ronson
Versus God — Dillinger Four
The Verve Pipe — The Verve Pipe
Very Emergency — The Promise Ring
Vheissu — Thrice
Vices & Virtues — Panic! At The Disco
Viewmaster — Pinehurst Kids
Villains — The Verve Pipe
Violator — Depeche Mode
Violent Femmes — Violent Femmes
The Virginian — Neko Case & Her Boyfriends
Visitor — Onelinedrawing
Vitalogy — Pearl Jam
Viva Death — Viva Death
Viva La Vida or Death and All of His Friends — Coldplay
Vivid — Living Colour
Voices — Matchbook Romance
Vol. 2: Hard Knock Life: I don’t get it. — Jay-Z
Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses — Slipknot
Vol. 3…Life and Times of S. Carter: I still don’t get it. — Jay-Z
Volcano — Gatsby’s American Dream
Volcano, I’m Still Excited!! — Volcano, I’m Still Excited!!
Volume 1 — cky
Volume 1 — She & Him
Volume 2 — She & Him
Voodoo — D’Angelo
Vs — Pearl Jam
W
The W — Wu-Tang Clan
The Wait — ZOX
Waiting For A World War — Dolour
Waking Up — OneRepublic
Walking Into Clarksdale — Jimmy Page & Robert Plant
The Walking Wounded — Bayside
The Wall — Pink Floyd
Want One — Rufus Wainwright
Want Two — Rufus Wainwright
War — U2
War All the Time — Thursday
Warning — Green Day
The Warrior’s Code — Dropkick Murphys
Wasting Light — Foo Fighters
Watch the Throne — Kanye West and Jay-Z
Water and Solutions — Far
The Waterfall — My Morning Jacket
Way to Normal — Ben Folds
We Are the Only Friends We Have — Piebald
We Are Undone — Two Gallants
We Can Breathe Under Alcohol — An Angle
We Got It From Here…Thank You 4 Your Service — A Tribe Called Quest
We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes — Death Cab For Cutie
We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Session — Bruce Springsteen
We Sing. We Dance. We Steal Things. — Jason Mraz
We the People — Flipsyde
We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank — Modest Mouse
We, The Vehicles — Maritime
We’re Not Happy ’Til You’re Not Happy — Reel Big Fish
We’ve Been Had Again — Huffamoose
We’ve Met An Impasse (By Midnight We’ll Be Naked) — Inventing Edward
Weezer (Blue) — Weezer
Weezer (Green) — Weezer
Weezer (Red) — Weezer
Welcome the Night — The Ataris
Welcome the Problems — Colossal
West Texas — Sleepercar
Wet From Birth — The Faint
What A Time to Be Alive — Superchunk
What is Not To Love — Imperial Teen
What It Is To Burn — Finch
What Matters Most — Forever Came Calling
What To Do When You Are Dead — Armor For Sleep
What You Don’t See — The Story So Far
What You Thought You Knew — Say No More
What’s Going On — Marvin Gaye
What’s In the Way — Watashi Wa
(What’s the Story) Morning Glory — Oasis
Whatever — Aimee Mann
Whatever & Ever Amen — Ben Folds Five
Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not — Arctic Monkeys
Whatever’s Got You Down — Samiam
When At Last — Russ Barenberg
When Disaster Strikes… — Busta Rhymes
When I Explode — So Many Dynamos
When I Hit the Ground — Ace Enders & A Million Different People
When I Pretend to Fall — The Long Winters
When I Was Cruel — Elvis Costello
When Your Heart Stops Beating — Plus 44
Where have all the merrymakers gone? — Harvey Danger
Where Have My Countrymen Gone — The Sheila Divine
Where You Been — Dinosaur Jr.
Where You Want To Be — Taking Back Sunday
While the City Sleeps, We Rule the Streets — Cobra Starship
Whip-Smart — Liz Phair
White Blood Cells — The White Stripes
White People — Handsome Boy Modeling School
White Trash, Two Heebs and a Bean — NoFX
whitechocolatespaceegg — Liz Phair
Whitney — Whitney Houston
Who’s Feeling Young Now? — Punch Brothers
The Whole Love, The — Wilco
Whut? Thee Album — Redman
Why Do They Rock So Hard? — Reel Big Fish
Why Should the Fire Die? — Nickel Creek
Wide Swing Tremolo — Son Volt
Wild and Reckless — Blitzen Trapper
Wild Like Children — Tilly & The Wall
The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle — Bruce Springsteen
Wildflowers — Tom Petty
Will Work For Diapers — Jeff Ott
Willis — The Pietasters
Wincing the Night Away — The Shins
Wings of Peace — Rabbi Aryeh Hirschfield
Winners Never Quit — Pedro the Lion
Wiretap Scars — Sparta
Wish You Were Here — Pink Floyd
Wish — The Cure
With A Cape and A Cane — The Joggers
With Love and Squalor — We Are Scientists
With Our Thoughts We Make the World — JANE EYRE
Within A Mile From Home — Flogging Molly
Without A Sound — Dinosaur Jr.
Wolfmother — Wolfmother
Wolves — Idiot Pilot
Women + Country — Jakob Dylan
Women In Technology — White Town
Won’t Turn Down — River City High
Wonderful Defense Mechanisms — The New Transit Direction
Wonderful Wonderful — The Killers
Wonderful, Glorious — Eels
Wood/Water — The Promise Ring
The Woods — Sleater-Kinney
Word of Mouf — Ludacris
Word of Mouth — Jaco Pastorius
Words — The Tony Rich Project
Working on a Dream — Bruce Springsteen
Workingman’s Dead — Grateful Dead
The World According to Gob — Gob
The World I Want To Leave Behind — .moneen.
World of Noise — Everclear
World Waits — Jeremy Enigk
World Without Tears — Lucinda Williams
World’s Apart — …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead
Worse for the Wear — The New Amsterdams
Worship and Tribute — Glassjaw
Worst You Can Do is Harm, The — The Long Winters
Would It Kill You? — Hellogoodbye
Wowee Zowee — Pavement
Wrist Slitter — Matt Pryor
Wu-Tang Forever — Wu-Tang Clan
WYSIWYG — Chumbawamba
X
XO — Elliott Smith
Y
Yank Crime — Drive Like Jehu
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot — Wilco
Yeah, It’s That Easy — G. Love & Special Sauce
Year of the Black Rainbow — Coheed and Cambria
Years of Refusal — Morrissey
Yeezus — Kanye West
Yellow House — Grizzly Bear
Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots — The Flaming Lips
You Are Freaking Me Out — Samiam
You Can Hold Me Down — William Tell
You Can’t Stop the Bum Rush — Len
You Could Have It So Much Better — Franz Ferdinand
You Forgot It In People — Broken Social Scene
You Get What You Give — Eli Young Band
You In Reverse — Built To Spill
You May Already Be Dreaming — Neva Dinova
You Think It’s Like This But Really It’s Like This — Mirah
You’d Prefer An Astronaut — Hum
You’re Living All Over Me — Dinosaur Jr.
You’re the One — Paul Simon
Young Machetes — The Blood Brothers
Your Arsenal — Morrissey
Your Favorite Weapon — Brand New
Your Majesty — The Anniversary
Yourself or Someone Like You — Matchbox Twenty
Ys — Joanna Newsom
Z
Z — My Morning Jacket
Zen Arcade — Hüsker Dü
Zenyatta Mondatta — The Police
Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! — Hellogoodbye
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Fooling Around the World: The History of the Jester
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An excerpt from
Fools Are Everywhere
The Court Jester Around the World
Beatrice K. Otto
Read an interview with the author.
Fooling Around the World:
The History of the Jester
(from Chapter 1: Facets of the Fool and Chapter 7: Stultorum Plena Sunt Omnia, or Fools Are Everywhere)
"Who Is Not a Fool?" ["Qui non stultus?"]
Horace (65-8 B.C.), Satires, 2.3.158
Then come jesters, musicians and trained dwarfs,
And singing girls from the land of Ti-ti,
To delight the ear and eye
And bring mirth to the mind.
Sima Xiangru (ca. 179-117 B.C.), Rhapsody on the Shanglin Park
The jester is an elusive character. The European words used to denote him can now seem as nebulous as they are numerous, reflecting the mercurial man behind them: fool, buffoon, clown, jongleur, jogleor, joculator, sot, stultor, scurra, fou, fol, truhan, mimus, histrio, morio. He can be any of these, while the German word Narr is not so much a stem as the sturdy trunk of a tree efflorescent with fool vocabulary. The jester's quicksilver qualities are equally difficult to pin down, but nevertheless not beyond definition.
The Chinese terms used for "jester" now seem vaguer than the European, most of them having a wider meaning of "actor" or "entertainer." In Chinese there is no direct translation of the English "jester," no single word that to the present-day Chinese conjures an image as vividly as "court jester," fou du roi, or Hofnarr would to a Westerner. In Chinese the jester element often has to be singled out according to context, although the key character you does seem to have referred specifically to jesters, originally meaning somebody who would use humor to mock and joke, who could speak without causing offense, and who also had the ability to sing or dance: "The you was also allowed a certain privilege, that is, his 'words were without offence' . . . but the you could not offer his remonstrances in earnest, he had to make use of jokes, songs and dance." The term is often combined with other characters giving differing shades to his jesterdom, an acting or a musical slant, for example: paiyou, youren, youling, changyou, lingren, linglun. All could include musical and other talents, chang suggesting music, ling, playing or fooling, and pai a humorous element to bring delight. Several of these terms are too frequently translated as "actor" regardless of where they appear on the etymological chain of evolution and even though they were used long before the advent of Chinese drama.
Perhaps the earliest antecedents of the European court jester were the comic actors of ancient Rome. Several Latin terms used in medieval references to jesters (including numerous church condemnations of them), such as scurrae, mimi, or histriones, originally referred either to amusing hangers-on or to the comic actors and entertainers of Rome. Just as there is now no clear distinction between the terms for "actor" and "jester" in Chinese, so the Latin terms could merge the two. If there was no formal professional jester in Rome, the comic actors fulfilled his functions, sometimes even bearing a striking physical resemblance to what is usually considered a medieval and Renaissance archetype. With periodic imperial purges against actors for their outspokenness, many of them took to the road and fanned out across the empire in search of new audiences and greater freedom. Successive waves of such wandering comics may well have laid the foundations for medieval and Renaissance jesterdom, possibly contributing to the rising tide of folly worship that swept across the Continent from the late Middle Ages.
An individual court jester in Europe could emerge from a wide range of backgrounds: an erudite but nonconformist university dropout, a monk thrown out of a priory for nun frolics, a jongleur with exceptional verbal or physical dexterity, or the apprentice of a village blacksmith whose fooling amused a passing nobleman. Just as a modern-day television stand-up comedian might begin his career on the pub and club circuit, so a would-be jester could make it big time in court if he was lucky enough to be spotted. In addition, a poet, musician, or scholar could also become a court jester.
The recruiting of jesters was tremendously informal and meritocratic, perhaps indicating greater mobility and fluidity in past society than is often supposed. A man with the right qualifications might be found anywhere: in Russia "they were generally selected from among the older and uglier of the serf-servants, and the older the fool or she-fool was, the droller they were supposed and expected to be. The fool had the right to sit at table with his master, and say whatever came into his head." Noblemen might keep an eye out for potential jesters, and a letter dated 26 January 1535/36 from Thomas Bedyll to Thomas Cromwell (ca. 1485-1540) recommends a possible replacement for the king's old jester:
Ye know the Kinges grace hath one old fole: Sexten as good as myght be whiche because of aige is not like to cotinew. I haue spied one yong fole at Croland whiche in myne opinion shalbe muche mor pleasaunt than euer Sexten was . . . and he is not past xv yere old.
Fuller's History of the Worthies of England (1662) gives an account of the recruiting of Tarlton, jester to Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603), that further illustrates this informality:
Here he was in the field, keeping his Father's Swine, when a Servant of Robert Earl of Leicester . . . was so highly pleased with his happy unhappy answers, that he brought him to Court, where he became the most famous Jester to Queen Elizabeth.
A dwarf-jester called Nai Teh (Mr. Little) at the court of King Mongkut of Siam (r. 1851-68), described by Anna Leonowens in Anna and the King of Siam, was similarly recruited:
He was discovered by one of the King's half-brothers on a hunting trip into the north and brought to Bangkok to be trained in athletic and gymnastic tricks. When he had learned these, he was presented to the king as a comedian and a buffoon.
A German, Paul Wüst, declined an offer of a post as jester with the sort of brazen dismissiveness that explains why he was asked. When Duke Eberhard the Bearded of Würtemburg (1445-96) invited him to be his jester he replied, "My father sired his own fool; if you want one too, then go and sire one for yourself" ("Mein Vater hat einen Narren für sich gezeugt, willst du aber einen Narren haben, so zeuge dir auch einen"). The same story is attributed to Will Somers, who uses the joke to mock Henry's predilection for chalking up wives:
His Majesty after some discourse growing into some good liking of him, said; fellow, wilt thou be my fool? who answered him again, that he had rather be his own father's still, then the king asking him why? he told him again, that his father had got him a fool for himself, (having but one wife) and no body could justly claim him from him: now you have had so many wives, and still living in hope to have more, why, of some one of them, cannot you get a fool as he did? and so you shall be sure to have a fool of your own.
The post of court jester might also appeal to somebody in need of a safe haven. The thirteenth-century French tale of Robert le Diable has him fleeing a populace baying for blood and forcing his way past the footmen to gain access to the emperor, who duly takes him under his wing as a jester, saying that nobody should be allowed to beat him. Alfred de Musset's play Fantasio (1834) is about a dandy whose job as jester allows him to escape and evade creditors, and a Scottish miscellany tells us how one of the most roguish historical jesters found his vocation:
Archie Armstrong . . . after having long distinguished himself as a most dexterous sheep-stealer, and when Eskdale at last became too hot for him, on account of his nefarious practices, he had the honour of being appointed jester to James I. of England, which office he held for several years.
Tarlton tended pigs, Archy stole sheep, and Claus Hinsse (d. 1599), jester to Duke Johann Friedrich of Pomerania (d. 1600), began his working life as a cowherd. Wamba, "son of Witless," the jester in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, was, like Tarlton, a swineherd, and Claus Narr (Fool), one of Germany's most famous and long-serving jesters, was tending geese when he was recruited. He was jester to four Saxon electors and one archbishop during the last quarter of the fifteenth century and first quarter of the sixteenth, and there are more than six hundred stories about him. One day when the first of his patrons, Elector Ernst (d. 1486), was traveling through Ranstadt with a lot of horses and wagons, Claus became curious about all the commotion and went to see what was happening. Worried that his geese would be stolen, he secured the goslings by putting their necks through his belt while he carried the older geese under his arms. When Ernst saw him he laughed at his simplicity and decided he was a born jester. He asked Claus's father's permission to take him to court:
"That would be great, Sir! I'd be relieved of a great encumbrance thereby; the youth is no good to mehe makes nothing but trouble in my house and stirs up the whole village with his pranks." ["Sehr gern, Gnädiger Herr, ich würde dadurch eines grossen Verdrusses überhoben, denn der Junge ist mir nichts nütze, in meinem Hause macht er nichts als Unruh, und durch seine Possen wiegelt er dass ganze Dorf auf."]
Ernst then gave Claus's father twenty guilders as compensation for the strangled goslings and other gifts besides. The story is an insight into the charitable element often involved in the recruiting of "naturals." To a poor family, a natural might be a heavy burden, and it could clearly be a relief to have him taken in and looked after by a wealthy family. Generally speaking there is little to suggest that this was not done in a humane and kindly manner, although in England there was a law allowing the estates of a natural to be handed over to a person offering to care for him, which could lead to their being recruited under false pretenses.
A similar story is told of Jamie Fleeman (1713-78), the Scottish jester to the laird of Udny. He complemented his jesting duties with those of a cowherd and goose guardian, and when he one day grew irritated by the geese wandering willy-nilly, he twisted some straw rope around their necks and started walking home, unaware that they were being throttled one by one. By the time he realized it was too late, and since it was a rare breed of geese, he would have been in big trouble. So he dragged the corpses into the poultry yard and stuffed their throats with food. When asked whether the geese were safe and sound, he replied cheerfully, "Safe! they're gobble, gobble, gobblin' as if they had nae seen meat for a twalmonth! Safe! Ise warran' they're safe aneuch, if they hae nae choked themsells."
In India the same entrance requirements prevailed: make me laugh and you're in. Tenali Rama, one of the three superstar jesters of India, is said to have earned his position as jester by making King Krsnadevaraya laugh. According to one story, he contrived for the king's guru to carry him around on his shoulders within sight of the king. Outraged at the humiliation of his holy man, the king sent some guards out to beat the man riding on the guru's shoulders. Tenali Rama, smelling impending danger, jumped down and begged forgiveness of the guru, insisting that to make amends he should carry him on his own shoulders. The guru agreed, and when the guards arrived the guru was duly beaten. The king found the trick amusing enough to appoint Tenali Rama his jester. In China, despite the abundance of anecdotes about jesters once they enter royal service, there is very little background information available. Nevertheless the universal jester skills displayed by the Chinese jesters suggest that their appointment was as meritocratic as in Europe.
A description of Rabelais's Panurge encompasses many of the jester's characteristics: "Irreverent, libertine, self-indulgent, witty, clever, roguish, he is the fool as court jester, the fool as companion, the fool as goad to the wise and challenge to the virtuous, the fool as critic of the world." He could be juggler, confidant, scapegoat, prophet, and counselor all in one. If we follow his family tree along its many branches we encounter musicians and actors, acrobats and poets, dwarfs, hunchbacks, tricksters, madmen, and mountebanks.
A Cavalcade of Cavorting Fools
Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun, it shines everywhere.
William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (3.1.39-40)
We have all seen how an appropriate and well-timed joke can sometimes influence even grim tyrants. . . . The most violent tyrants put up with their clowns and fools, though these often made them the butt of open insults.
Desiderius Erasmus, Praise of Folly
The court jester is a universal phenomenon. He crops up in every court worth its salt in medieval and Renaissance Europe, in China, India, Japan, Russia, America and Africa. A cavalcade of jesters tumble across centuries and continents, and one could circle the globe tracing their footsteps. But to China the laurels. China has undoubtedly the longest, richest, and most thoroughly documented history of court jesters. From Twisty Pole and Baldy Chunyu to Moving Bucket and Newly Polished Mirror, it boasts perhaps more of the brightest stars in the jester firmament than any other country, spanning a far wider segment of time. The jester's decline began with the rise of the stage actor as the Chinese theater became fully established during the Yuan dynasty. In many respects actors seem to have taken up the jester's baton not only in entertaining their patrons, but also in offering criticism and advice no less clear for being couched in wit. Perhaps only in ancient Rome did jesters and actors overlap so much.
In comparison with those of China, the numerous jesters of Europe, although flourishing for some four hundred years, are something of a dazzling display of shooting stars. Perhaps because the European court jesters were so inextricably linked with the tradition of folly that straddled the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, their time was relatively short-lived, and they died out more or less as the fashion for folly faded. But for as long as they lasted, which was no mere blip, their influence permeated court life. It is a common belief that Europe was the center of the court jester's cosmos, providing the control against which other jesters, such as they are, may be measured. Yet in a sense Europe is the exception rather than the rule, precisely because the fortunes of the European court jesters rose and fell with the tsunami-scale wave of medieval and Renaissance fool mania that engulfed the Continent. The concept of folly with all its variegated hues permeated Europe at all levels for several centuries, and it is against this backdrop of colorful and often contradictory manifestations of "folly" that the European jester must be seen. There were certainly jesters before the tidal wave began to swell, but it is on its crest that we see them come surfing in.
Although the jester died out as a court institution (if not as a function), about the sixteenth or seventeenth century in China and the early eighteenth in Europe, there have been pockets of resistance to his demise. European homes less grand than those of kings and prelates harbored jesters for a century or two longer than the courts, a domestic jester being recorded at Hilton Castle in county Durham in the eighteenth century and a Scottish jester, Shemus Anderson (d. 1833), at Murthley Castle, Perthshire. The Queen Mother's family, the Bowes-Lyons, was "the last Scottish family to maintain a full-time jester." A history of the manor of Gawsworth describes a Samuel Johnson (1691-1773) as "one of the last of the paid English jesters. . . . In addition to his being employed as jester or mirth-maker by the manorial Lord of Gawsworth, he was a welcome addition at parties given by the neighbouring country families, when he had free license to bandy his witticisms, and to utter and enact anything likely to enliven the company, and to provoke mirth and laughter."
In Persia the autocratic Shah Naseredin (r. 1848-96) had all his courtiers quaking except the jester Karim Shir'ei, whose name means "opium addict" but also implies someone of lazy or sleepy demeanor. Karim Shir'ei would ridicule the whole court, including the shah. Once the shah asked whether there was a shortage of food, and the jester said "Yes, I see Your Majesty is eating only five times a day." One member of the shah's entourage had the title Saheb Ekhtiyar ("Authorized" [by the shah]). When they were out traveling Karim Shir'ei's donkey stopped at a gate, and the jokester found a pretext to mock the courtier by addressing the ass: "If you want to stop you are Saheb Ekhtiyar [authorized], and if you want to go ahead, you are also Saheb Ekhtiyar [authorized]." Like many famous jesters before him, his name is still used as a peg for jibes and jokes.
Perhaps the most recent examples of the court jester are among the ritual clowns of African and American tribes whose mocking, corrective, and unbridled topsy-turvy antics have been documented by twentieth-century anthropologists. These are not all strictly speaking court jesters, in that they do not usually serve one master, belonging more to the whole tribe or village. Also, their license is often limited to specific periods, although during such festivals or rituals their freedoms and duties accord with those of the permanently privileged jester. However, there are some tribes that have had permanently appointed jesters, such as the African Wolof jesters and the Sioux "contrary," or heyhoka, and "jesters . . . were also attached to many African monarchs. They were frequently dwarfs, and other oddities; and their duties included besides the playing of jokes, the singing of the praises of their rulers. . . . 'But it must not be thought that these bards were mere flatterers . . . they also had licence to make sharp criticisms.'"
The court jester is universal not merely in having been at home in such diverse cultures and eras, but also in taking his pick from the same ragbag of traits and talents no matter when or where he occurs. Above all he used humor, whether in the form of wit, puns, riddles, doggerel verse, songs, capering antics, or nonsensical babble, and jesters were usually also musical or poetic or acrobatic, and sometimes all three. Some physical difference from the norm was common whether it was in being a dwarf or hunchback or in having a gawky or gangly physique or a loose-limbed agilityhis movements might be clumsy or nimble, but they should be somehow exaggerated or unusual. There is a Ming dynasty description of a jester that captures this, for besides always hitting the mark with his gilded tongue, he would "unleash his body and fling his limbs around, drumming his feet and flapping his tongue; he was steeped in wisdom." "Capering" is the word that springs to mind, perhaps a physical reflection of his verbal agility:
I have seen
Him caper upright, like a wild morisco
Shaking . . . his bells.
The Importance of Being Jest Earnest
But this Will Summers was of an easie nature, and tractable disposition, who . . . gained not only grace and favour from his Majesty, but a general love of the Nobility; for he was no carry-tale, nor whisperer, nor flattering insinuater, to breed discord and dissension, but an honest plain down-right, that would speak home without halting, and tell the truth of purpose to shame the Devil; so that his plainness mixt with a kind of facetiousness, and tartness with pleasantness made him very acceptable into the companies of all men.
A Pleasant History of the Life and Death of Will Summers (1676)
In short, the King liked him so well, that he did few Things without Archy's Advice, in so much, that he could have scarce had greater Power had he been made Regent of the Kingdom.
The Ass Race (1740)
Of at least equal importance with his entertainer's cap was the jester's function as adviser and critic. This is what distinguishes him from a pure entertainer who would juggle batons, swallow swords, or strum on a lute or a clown who would play the fool simply to amuse people. The jester everywhere employed the same techniques to carry out this delicate role, and it would take an obtuse king or emperor not to realize what he was driving at, since "other court functionaries cooked up the king's facts for him before delivery; the jester delivered them raw." An informal survey of the man in the street has shown that most people will pinpoint the jester's right to speak his mind as one of his salient characteristics. I have encountered only one person who considers this to have been more myth than reality:
There are many stories which show a jester as the only person who could counsel a stubborn king, and as such the myth of the court jester suggests that jesters could act as a check on the whimsical power of absolute monarchy. . . . I have been engaged in producing and reproducing a common myth of jesters. Even though the jesters dance right next to the power of the king, the text has been depoliticized in that it has effaced the history of the fool, and elaborated on images conjured up by Erasmus, then Shakespeare, in the task of making jesting reasonable and responsible, and thus political in modern times. . . . The respected, responsible, official jesters only functioned in small historical windows of possibility, for example: fourteenth and fifteenth century Italy and around the turn of the seventeenth century in England.
Even if the jester's famous veracity were only a myth, it would have been established long before Erasmus. And we have seen the impressive extent to which jesters everywhere were allowed and encouraged to offer counsel and to influence the whims and policies of kings, by no means being limited to "small historical windows of possibility." We have seen numerous examples of a jester advising or correcting his monarch and the recorded instances are particularly abundant in China. The Chinese records give us an idea of just how effective a jester could be in tempering the ruler's excesses, for the occasions when his words of warning were either ignored or punished are heavily outnumbered by those when he was heeded and even rewarded.
It is in the nature of jesters to speak their minds when the mood takes them, regardless of the consequences. They are neither calculating nor circumspect, and this may account for the "foolishness" often ascribed to them. Jesters are also generally of inferior social and political status and are rarely in a position (and rarely inclined) to pose a power threat. They have little to gain by caution and little to lose by candorapart from liberty, livelihood, and occasionally even life, which hardly seems to have been a deterrent. They are peripheral to the game of politics, and this can reassure a king that their words are unlikely to be geared to their own advancement. Jesters are not noted for flattery or fawning. The ruler can be isolated from his courtiers and ministers, who might conspire against him. The jester too can be an isolated and peripheral figure somehow detached from the intrigues of the court, and this enables him to act as a kind of confidant.
The jester also had humor at his disposal. He could soften the blow of a critical comment in a way that prevented a dignified personage from losing face. Humor is the great defuser of tense situations. Among the Murngin tribe of Australia it is the duty of the clown to act outrageously, ludicrously imitating a fight if men begin to quarrel. In making them laugh at him, he distracts their attention from their own fight and dispels their aggression. Quintilian (ca. 35-100) comments on the power of jesters' humor to carry the day:
Now, though laughter may be regarded as a trivial matter, and an emotion frequently awakened by buffoons, actors or fools, it has a certain imperious force of its own which it is very hard to resist. . . . It frequently turns the scale in matters of great importance. [Cum videatur autem res levis et quae ab scurris, mimis, insipientibus denique saepe moveatur, tamen habet vim nescio an imperiosissimam et cui repugnari minime potest. . . . Rerum autem saepe . . . maximarum momenta vertit.]
The foolishness of the jester, whether in his odd appearance or his levity, implies that he is not passing judgment from on high, and this may be less galling than the "holier than thou" corrective of an earnest adviser. One of the most effective techniques the jester uses to point out his master's folly is allowing him to see it for himself. Rather than contradicting the king, the jester will agree with a harebrained scheme so wholeheartedly that the suggestion is taken to a logical extreme, highlighting its stupidity. The king can then decide for himself that maybe it wasn't such a good idea after all.
The jester is in a sense on the side of the ruler. The relationship was often very close and amiable, and the jester was almost invariably a cherished rather than a tolerated presence. This leads to the kindliness of jesters: they could be biting in their attacks, but there is usually an undercurrent of good-heartedness and understanding to their words. If they talk the king out of slicing up some innocent, it is not only to save him from the king's wrath but also to save the king from himselfthey can be the only ones who will tell him he suffers from moral halitosis.
The jester is also perceived as being on the side of the people, the little man fighting oppression by the powerful. By fooling wisely ("en folastrant sagement"), the jester often won favor among the people ("gaigna de grace parmy le peuple"). In the folk perception of southern India a king was hardly considered a king without his jester, and the continuing appeal of the court jester in India, in stories and comic books, is perhaps equaled only in Europe. He may have disappeared from the courts and corridors of power, but he still has a powerful hold on the collective imagination. Yet he is no rebel or revolutionary. His detached stance allows him to take the side of the victim in order to curb the excesses of the system without ever trying to overthrow ithis purpose is not to replace one system with another, but to free us from the fetters of all systems:
Under the dissolvent influence of his personality the iron network of physical, social and moral law, which enmeshes us from the cradle to the grave, seemsfor the momentnegligible as a web of gossamer. The Fool does not lead a revolt against the Law, he lures us into a region of the spirit where, as Lamb would put it, the writ does not run.
In Europe and India the most eminent jesters were household names, as top-class comedians are today, and stories about their jokes and tricks circulated freely, as they still do in Indiathere is even a kind of lentil soup named after Birbal. The star jesters of China may also have enjoyed this celebrity status, as Ban Gu's biography of Dongfang Shuo suggests:
Shuo's jokes and sallies, his divinations and guesses, shallow and inconsequential though they are, were passed around among the ordinary run of people, and there was no stripling or cowherd who failed to be quite dazzled by them.
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"DRAG RACINGMillions of fans watched drag racing in the early twenty-first century",
"and the industry generated billions of dollars. The origins of this speed-craving sport lie in the city streets of 1930s Southern California",
"where young men exchanged glances at stop lights and then urged their vehicles down the road in a dangerous",
"thrilling competition."
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DRAG RACINGMillions of fans watched drag racing in the early twenty-first century, and the industry generated billions of dollars. The origins of this speed-craving sport lie in the city streets of 1930s Southern California, where young men exchanged glances at stop lights and then urged their vehicles down the road in a dangerous, thrilling competition. Source for information on Drag Racing: Encyclopedia of Recreation and Leisure in America dictionary.
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DRAG RACING
Millions of fans watched drag racing in the early twenty-first century, and the industry generated billions of dollars. The origins of this speed-craving sport lie in the city streets of 1930s Southern California, where young men exchanged glances at stop lights and then urged their vehicles down the road in a dangerous, thrilling competition. Police began patrolling for these law-flaunting youths, and racers moved their contests to secret locations that provided the necessary flat straightaways, such as dry lake beds in stretches of desert such as Muroc in the Mojave Desert. Aficionados formed the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) in 1937. This group organized races that focused less on rapid acceleration, as future drag races would, and more on achievable top speeds, as racers accelerated for three miles before crossing the starting line. After overuse threatened the safety of racing at the lakes, hot rodders eventually moved to airport landing strips, which conventionalized the quarter-mile course length, since that was the farthest a car could race on a landing strip while still having enough paved ground on which to decelerate. In the early 2000s, most top racers weren't able to maintain their extremely high speeds for longer than a quarter-mile without destroying their engines.
Racing largely disappeared during World War II, but as returning GIs armed with mechanical expertise gleaned from service re-entered society, the sport returned to popularity as well. This time, it overwhelmingly featured the two-car head-to-head competition that gives the sport so much of its excitement. The first organized drag race took place at a Santa Ana airstrip in 1950, and official legitimization was not far off. In 1951, the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) formed as an umbrella organization for the smaller racing clubs nationwide, and by 1955 it had created the National Championships. Its role has remained largely static: the NHRA oversees the main 18-race circuit of drag racing, makes and enforces the rules for the different classes of vehicles, and publishes Hot Rod, a periodical launched in 1948 and aimed at the enthusiast. Motorheads formed car clubs across the country in the early 1950s, and the NHRA sent its Drag Safaris or Safety Safaris across the nation to instruct these clubs in racing safety and rules.
The Race
Drag racing began with street cars, and the first true "dragsters" were basically street cars with engines modified to produce more power and bodies modified to reduce weight. In the early 2000s there were 200 classes of vehicles grouped into twelve categories sanctioned by the NHRA, of which the two fastest and most popular were Top Fuel and Funny Cars. Top fuel cars are the fastest land racing vehicles on earth, although funny cars are not far behind. Fuel cars are light, long, and skinny, leave their rails exposed, and are seldom aerodynamically engineered. Most crucially, top fuel cars use nitromethane in their engines, a powerful, volatile concoction that also propels rockets. Fuel cars look the least like stock cars, and have varied the most in design and appearance over the years. Funny cars, also called floppers, must resemble the body design of a car manufactured within the last five years, but their bodies are made of fiberglass instead of metal and "flop" down onto the chassis of the car. The sponsors' need for product identity mandates that funny cars resemble regular cars as much as possible, by, for instance, featuring door handles even if a funny car lacks doors. They have powerful engines, but must use gasoline. Even though they are more powerful than fuel cars, and use aerodynamic styling to compensate for their required weight of 2,325 pounds, they consistently perform about ten miles per hour slower than fuel cars.
No matter the class, each race features two cars (or motorcycles) battling head-to-head. The loser is eliminated, and the winner moves on to face off against another racer. The NHRA awards points for several accomplishments, including elapsed time and top speed. Thus, the winner of a championship achieves victory by having accrued the most points. Since the 1980s, commercial sponsors have awarded large sums of money to the winners. Although the NHRA itself financially rewards its victors, these prizes are dwarfed by the corporate money. Building or buying a dragster is expensive in itself, but the cost of maintaining such a vehicle is prohibitive. Very few racers actually make money from the sport; most pursue it for the love of competition, the rush of speed, and the satisfaction of combining the precision engineering and innovation of the crew with the fast reaction time, hand-eye coordination, concentration, and killer instinct of the driver.
Innovations for Speed and Safety
One of the most important parts of the drag race, the Christmas tree, debuted in 1964. A fixture of every drag race since, this tower of lights can be found at every track in America. Amber bulbs light every half-second in sequence, culminating with the green lights that signal go. The Christmas tree setup also ensures that dragsters are staged properly before the race and that they do not false-start. Known as red-lighting, a false start disqualifies the racer and immediately awards victory to the other competitor.
Other innovations, specifically safety considerations, were slow to be adopted in the 1960s. After a string of high-profile fatal top fuel crashes, Don Garlits, a highlyregarded racer, debuted a new design in 1971 that quickly caught on. Previously, the standard fuel car design, known as the slingshot, placed the engine over the rear axle and seated the driver behind it. Although this arrangement desirably centered the majority of the car's weight over the rear wheels, it left the driver exposed to extreme danger. Engine explosions were sadly common, and flying engine components or burning nitro often injured or even killed drivers. The new design, known as a mid-engine car, or middie, placed the driver in front of the engine, reducing the danger. Besides being safer, the middie was simpler to construct, lighter, more aerodynamic, and, most importantly, faster than the slingshot. The middie's success also allowed top fuel to recapture the spotlight from funny cars, which had enjoyed a vogue in the late 1960s.
Improved technology also gave drivers Nomex fireproof suits to wear, NASCAR-style fire extinguisher systems to mount in their dragsters, and improved parachutes to slow their cars. Modern parachutes can brake cars in a shorter amount of time than a race lasts. Goodyear and M&H debuted new tires in the early 1970s, which gave dragsters better traction. The NHRA eventually also sanctioned the laying of a sticky substance on the race tracks, also improving traction.
However, the NHRA does not always prize innovation, even though its official slogan is "Ingenuity in Action." In 1963, Pete Robinson returned to a technique 1950s sidewinder racers had discovered: using jacks to elevate the rear wheels above the ground, allowing them to spin before they made contact with the ground. Jacks could immediately shoot a car down the track up to five car lengths ahead of its competitor. Although such a start inhibited a car's steering capability, the gain in acceleration was tremendous. Yet the NHRA banned the use of jacks, for unclear reasons. Similarly, funny cars could eclipse records set by fuel cars if they were allowed to use canards (wings over the rear wheels that reduced air turbulence) or airfoils (similar to spoilers). However, funny cars are banned from incorporating any device that directs airflow underneath the car's body, which both these innovations do. Thus, the NHRA's very specific rules sometimes encourage and other times stifle the creativity of drivers and crews.
Female Drag Racers and the Role of Family
Women have been top drivers at NHRA events and at other drag races, even though their numbers have been fairly low. Until the early 1960s, many women competed in the separate ladies' races until the NHRA admitted them into the regular races, recognizing that the rules did not prohibit female drivers. In the late 1960s, the NHRA cited spurious safety considerations as their reason for rescinding women's licenses. Outrage followed, and eventually the NHRA realized the need for the promotional money and fans that women drivers were bringing in. Women finally got back their right to race in 1970. Of all the female racers, Shirley Muldowney is the most famous. In 1977, she became the first woman to win the fuel car NHRA points championship, and later became the first person, male or female, to win the same championship three times. Although women drivers faced a great deal of criticism and animosity from male drivers, standout racers such as Muldowney, Peggy Hart, Shirley Shahan, Paula Murphy, and Barbara Hamilton proved that they had just as much of a right to race as men.
Additionally, drag racing is for many a family sport, where couples, parents, and children all work together on teams and enjoy following the sport together. The Junior Drag Racing League, sponsored by the NHRA and featuring smaller dragsters and shorter distances for its youngest racers, features young boys and girls, any of whom may continue on to become a top name in racing.
Conclusion
Drag racing is primarily a family spectator sport. Its draw is both in applauding the engineering feats that allow these specialized vehicles to soar down the track and in basking in the spectacle of the show. One of the most prominent features a spectator notices about the race is the unbelievable noise coming up from the track, especially when nitro engines ignite. The billowing smoke from the burnouts that clean each dragster's tires also functions to entertain the fans. Drag racing is an American celebration of technology, skill, nerve, and showmanship.
See also: Auto Racing, Drag Racing, Hot Rodding, Open Wheel Racing, Sports Car Racing, Stock Car Racing
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Batchelor, Dean. The American Hot Rod. Osceola, Wis: Motorbooks International, 1995
Moorhouse, H. F. Driving Ambitions: An Analysis of the American Hot Rod Enthusiasm. New York: Manchester University Press, 1991.
Post, Robert C. High Performance: The Culture and Technology of Drag Racing 1950–1990. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.
Spohn, Terry, ed. The Fast Lane: The History of NHRA Drag Racing. New York: Regan Books, 2001.
Vincent, Peter. Hot Rod: An American Original. Osceola, Wis.: MBI Publishing Company, 2001.
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1744. The Westover Manuscripts: Containing the History of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina; A Journey to the Land of Eden, A.D. 1733; and A Progress to the Mines. Written from 172
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The Westover Manuscripts: Containing the History of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina; A Journey to the Land of Eden, A.D. 1733; and A Progress to the Mines. Written from 1728 to 1736, and Now First Published. By William Byrd, 1674-1744
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The Westover Manuscripts:
Containing the History of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina;
A Journey to the Land of Eden, A. D. 1733; and A Progress to the Mines.
Written from 1728 to 1736, and Now First Published:
Electronic Edition.
Byrd, William, 1674-1744
Ruffin, Edmund 1794-1865
Funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services
supported the electronic publication of this title.
Text transcribed by Apex Data Services, Inc.
Images scanned by Natalia Smith
Text encoded by Apex Data Services, Inc., Melissa G. Meeks and Natalia Smith
First edition, 2001
ca. 600K
Academic Affairs Library, UNC-CH
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill,
2001.
Source Description:
(title page) The Westover Manuscripts: Containing the History of the Dividing Line Betwixt Virginia and North Carolina; A Journey to the Land of Eden, A. D. 1733; and A Progress to the Mines. Written from 1728 to 1736, and Now First Published
(spine) Westover Manuscripts
William Byrd, of Westover
Edmund Ruffin
iv, 143 [1] p., ill.
PETERSBURG:
PRINTED BY EDMUND AND JULIAN C. RUFFIN.
1841.
Call number C 917 B99 c2 (North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
The electronic edition is a part of the UNC-CH digitization project, Documenting the American South.
The text has been entered using double-keying and verified against the original. The text has been encoded using the recommendations for Level 4 of the TEI in Libraries Guidelines.
Original grammar, punctuation, and spelling have been preserved. Encountered typographical errors have been preserved, and appear in red type.
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Spell-check and verification made against printed text using Author/Editor (SoftQuad) and Microsoft Word spell check programs.
Library of Congress Subject Headings, 21st edition, 1998
Languages Used:
English
French
Latin
LC Subject Headings:
Virginia -- Boundaries -- North Carolina -- Early works to 1800.
North Carolina -- Boundaries -- Virginia -- Early works to 1800.
Virginia -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800.
North Carolina -- Description and travel -- Early works to 1800.
North Carolina -- Social conditions -- 18th century.
North Carolina -- Economic conditions -- 18th century.
Dismal Swamp (N.C. and Va.).
Revision History:
2002-03-11,
Celine Noel and Wanda Gunther
revised TEIHeader and created catalog record for the electronic edition.
2001-06-28,
Natalia Smith, project manager,
finished TEI-conformant encoding and final proofing.
2001-06-05,
Melissa Meeks
finished TEI/SGML encoding
2001-01-01,
Apex Data Services, Inc.
finished transcribing the text.
THE
WESTOVER MANUSCRIPTS:
CONTAINING
THE HISTORY OF THE DIVIDING LINE
BETWIXT VIRGINIA AND NORTH CAROLINA;
A JOURNEY TO THE LAND OF EDEN, A. D. 1733;
AND
A PROGRESS TO THE MINES.
WRITTEN FROM 1728 TO 1736, AND NOW FIRST PUBLISHED.
BY
WILLIAM BYRD,
OF WESTOVER.
PETERSBURG:
PRINTED BY EDMUND AND JULIAN C. RUFFIN.
1841.
Page verso
ENTERED, according to act of congress, in the year 1841, by EDMUND RUFFIN, in the
Clerk's office of the District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia.
Page iii
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
THE manuscripts of Col. William Byrd, of Westover, the father of the last proprietor of the same name, of different dates from 1728 to 1736, are contained in a large folio volume bound in parchment, which has been carefully preserved in his family, until recently placed in the hands of the editor. The whole is in the hand-writing of a copyist, but written evidently under the immediate direction of its author, as there are numerous corrections, interlineations, and more considerable additions, in his own hand-writing. The book was doubtless copied exactly from the author's earliest draught on loose sheets, which were afterwards destroyed, as useless. At any rate, this old volume is the only copy in existence. The Historical Society of Virginia obtained the consent of the proprietor of the manuscripts to have them copied, with a view to publication. But the operations of that society ceased before the publication had been commenced, and when only one of the several manuscripts had been copied. It was one of the latest acts of the last proprietor, George E. Harrison, Esq., of Brandon, to place at our disposal this highly valued work of his distinguished and talented ancestor, with permission to publish any portion, or the whole of the contents, provided the manuscript volume itself should be preserved uninjured, and afterwards restored to the owner. The better to secure the latter object, the copy of the part made for the use of the Historical Society, has also been placed in our hands by the directors.
The manuscripts offer abundant internal evidence that they were written merely for the amusement of the author, and for the perusal of his family and friends, and not with any view to their being printed. This adds much to their other and important value. For there prevails throughout, as in the private letters of an accomplished writer, a carelessness in the mode of expression, and a manifest freedom from all restraint, which together serve to render subjects pleasing and interesting, that, however worthy of consideration, would be dry and tedious if the writer had sought for the applause, or feared the censure, of the reading public. The author was a man "too proud to be vain," and who neither cared for, nor thought of seeking, public applause for his writings. The influence of that first feeling, and its results, naturally operated on his children and later descendants, to deter them also from publishing the manuscripts; and this course, besides being in conformity with the writer's intention, was perhaps deemed the more proper, because of his great freedom of expression, and of censure, often tinctured by his strong "church and state" principles and prejudices, and which might have given offence to some of the individuals or classes who were the subjects of his free remarks. But at this late time, there no longer remains, if there existed before, any reason for withholding these interesting writings from the public. And there is no free expression of even the prejudiced and erroneous opinions of the writer, which, to an intelligent and liberal-minded reader, would now give offence. Col. Byrd was a true and worthy inheritor of the opinions and feelings of the old cavaliers of Virginia; and it is because from such a source, as well as being designed at first as private and confidential, that his writings should be now considered.
Page iv
Col. William Byrd died where he had long lived, at his then beautifully decorated and princely mansion, Westover, on the north bank of James river; and which even at this late day exhibits admirable remains of his taste, and his magnificent scale of expenditure for its gratification. His body was buried in the garden, and his grave is covered by a monument of white marble, on which is the following inscription:
[ON THE NORTH SIDE.]
Here lieth
The Honorable William Byrd, Esq.,
Being born to one of the amplest fortunes in this country,
He was sent early to England for his education;
Where, under the care and direction of Sir Robert Southwell,
And ever favoured with his particular instructions,
He made a happy proficiency in polite and various learning.
By the means of the same noble friend,
He was introduced to the acquaintance of many of the first persons of that age
For knowledge, wit, virtue, birth, or high station,
And particularly contracted a most intimate and bosom friendship
With the learned and illustrious Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrey.
He was called to the bar in the Middle Temple,
Studied for some time in the Low Countries,
Visited the court of France,
And was chosen Fellow of the Royal Society.
[ON THE SOUTH SIDE.]
Thus eminently fitted for the service and ornament of his country,
He was made receiver general of his majesty's revenues here,
Was thrice appointed public agent to the court and ministry of England,
And being thirty-seven years a member,
At last became president of the council of this colony.
To all this were added a great e legancy of taste and life,
The well-bred gentleman and polite companion,
The splendid economist and prudent father of a family,
With the constant enemy of all exorbitant power,
And hearty friend to the liberties of his country.
Nat. Mar. 28, 1674. Mort. Aug. 26, 1744. An ætat. 70.
Page 1
HISTORY
OF
THE DIVIDING LINE:
RUN IN THE YEAR 1728.
BEFORE I enter upon the journal of the line between Virginia and North Carolina, it will be necessary to clear the way to it, by showing how the other British colonies on the Main have, one after another, been carved out of Virginia, by grants from his majesty's royal predecessors. All that part of the northern American continent now under the dominion of the king of Great Britain, and stretching quite as far as the cape of Florida, went at first under the general name of Virginia.
The only distinction, in those early days, was, that all the coast to the southward of Chesapeake bay was called South Virginia, and all to the northward of it, North Virginia.
The first settlement of this fine country was owing to that great ornament of the British nation, sir Walter Raleigh, who obtained a grant thereof from queen Elizabeth of ever-glorious memory, by letters patent, dated March the 25th, 1584.
But whether that gentleman ever made a voyage thither himself is uncertain; because those who have favoured the public with an account of his life mention nothing of it. However, thus much may be depended on, that sir Walter invited sundry persons of distinction to share in his charter, and join their purses with his in the laudable project of fitting out a colony to Virginia.
Accordingly, two ships were sent away that very year, under the command of his good friends Amidas and Barlow, to take possession of the country in the name of his royal mistress, the queen of England.
These worthy commanders, for the advantage of the trade winds, shaped their course first to the Charibbe islands, thence stretching away by the gulf of Florida, dropped anchor not far from Roanoke inlet. They ventured ashore near that place upon an island now called Colleton island, where they set up the arms of England, and claimed the adjacent country in right of their sovereign lady, the queen; and this ceremony being duly performed, they kindly invited the neighbouring Indian to traffick with them.
These poor people at first approached the English with great caution, having heard much of the treachery of the Spaniards, and not knowing but these strangers might be as treacherous as they. But, at length, discovering a kind of good nature in their looks, they ventured to draw near, and barter their skins and furs for the bawbles and trinkets of the English.
These first adventurers made a very profitable voyage, raising at least a thousand per cent. upon their cargo. Amongst other Indian commodities,
Page 2
they brought over some of that bewitching vegetable, tobacco. And this being the first that ever came to England, sir Walter thought he could do no less than make a present of some of the brightest of it to his royal mistress, for her own smoking. The queen graciously accepted of it, but finding her stomach sicken after two or three whiffs, it was presently whispered by the earl of Leicester's faction, that sir Walter had certainly poisoned her. But her majesty soon recovering her disorder, obliged the countess of Nottingham and all her maids to smoke a whole pipe out amongst them.
As it happened some ages before to be the fashion to saunter to the Holy Land, and go upon other Quixote adventures, so it was now grown the humour to take a trip to America. The Spaniards had lately discovered rich mines in their part of the West Indies, which made their maritime neighbours eager to do so too. This modish frenzy being still more inflamed by the charming account given of Virginia, by the first adventurers, made many fond of removing to such a paradise.
Happy was he, and still happier she, that could get themselves transported, fondly expecting their coarsest utensils, in that happy place, would be of massy silver.
This made it easy for the company to procure as many volunteers as they wanted for their new colony; but, like most other undertakers who have no assistance from the public, they starved the design by too much frugality; for, unwilling to launch out at first into too much expense, they shipped off but few people at a time, and those but scantily provided. The adventurers were, besides, idle and extravagant, and expected they might live without work in so plentiful a country.
These wretches were set ashore not far from Roanoke inlet, but by some fatal disagreement, or laziness, were either starved or cut to pieces by the Indians.
Several repeated misadventures of this kind did, for some time, allay the itch of sailing to this new world; but the distemper broke out again about the year 1606. Then it happened that the earl of Southampton and several other persons, eminent for their quality and estates, were invited into the company, who applied themselves once more to people the then almost abandoned colony. For this purpose they embarked about a hundred men, most of them reprobates of good families, and related to some of the company, who were men of quality and fortune.
The ships that carried them made a shift to find a more direct way to Virginia, and ventured through the capes into the bay of Chesapeake. The same night they came to an anchor at the mouth of Powhatan, the same as James river, where they built a small fort at a place called Point Comfort.
This settlement stood its ground from that time forward in spite of all the blunders and disagreement of the first adventurers, and the many calamities that befel the colony afterwards.*
* The six gentlemen who were first named of the company by the crown, and who were empowered to choose an annual president from among themselves, were always engaged in factions and quarrels, while the rest detested work more than famine. At this rate the colony must have come to nothing, had it not been for the vigilance and bravery of captain Smith, who struck a terror into all the Indians round about. This gentleman took some pains to persuade the men to plant Indian corn, but they looked upon all labour as a curse. They chose rather to depend upon the musty provisions that were sent from England: and when they failed they were forced to take more pains to seek for wild fruits in the woods, than they would have taken in tilling the ground. Besides, this exposed them to be knocked on the head by the Indians, and gave them fluxes into the bargain, which thinned the plantation very much. To supply this mortality, they were reinforced the year following with a greater number of people, amongst which were fewer gentlemen and more labourers, who, however, took care not to kill themselves with work.
Page 3
These found the first adventurers in a very starving condition, but relieved their wants with the fresh supply they brought with them. From Kiquotan they extended themselves as far as James-town, where, like true Englishmen, they built a church that cost no more than fifty pounds, and a tavern that cost five hundred.
They had now made peace with the Indians, but there was one thing wanting to make that peace lasting. The natives could, by no means, persuade themselves that the English were heartily their friends, so long as they disdained to intermarry with them. And, in earnest, had the English consulted their own security and the good of the colony--had they intended either to civilize or convert these gentiles, they would have brought their stomachs to embrace this prudent alliance.
The Indians are generally tall and well-proportioned, which may make full amends for the darkness of their complexions. Add to this, that they are healthy and strong, with constitutions untainted by lewdness, and not enfeebled by luxury. Besides, morals and all considered, I cannot think the Indians were much greater heathens than the first adventurers, who, had they been good Christians, would have had the charity to take this only method of converting the natives to Christianity. For, after all that can be said, a sprightly lover is the most prevailing missionary that can be sent amongst these, or any other infidels.
Besides, the poor Indians would have had less reason to complain that the English took away their land, if they had received it by way of portion with their daughters. Had such affinities been contracted in the beginning, how much bloodshed had been prevented, and how populous would the country have been, and, consequently, how considerable? Nor would the shade of the skin have been any reproach at this day; for if a Moor may be washed white in three generations, surely an Indian might have been blanched in two.
The French, for their parts, have not been so squeamish in Canada, who upon trial find abundance of attraction in the Indians. Their late grand monarch thought it not below even the dignity of a Frenchman to become one flesh with this people, and therefore ordered 100 livres for any of his subjects, man or woman, that would intermarry with a native.
By this piece of policy we find the French interest very much strengthened amongst the savages, and their religion, such as it is, propagated just as far as their love. And I heartily wish this well-concerted scheme does not hereafter give the French an advantage over his majesty's good subjects on the northern continent of America.
About the same time New England was pared off from Virginia by letters patent, bearing date April the 10th, 1608. Several gentlemen of the town and neighborhood of Plymouth obtained this grant, with the lord chief justice Popham at their head.
Their bounds were specified to extend from 38 to 45 degrees of northern latitude, with a breadth of one hundred miles from the sea shore. The first fourteen years, this company encountered many difficulties, and lost many men, though far from being discouraged, they sent over numerous recruits of presbyterians, every year, who for all that, had much ado to stand their ground, with all their fighting and praying.
But about the year 1620, a large swarm of dissenters fled thither from the severities of their stepmother, the church. These saints conceiving the same aversion to the copper complexion of the natives, with that of the first adventurers to Virginia, would, on no terms, contract alliances with them, afraid perhaps, like the Jews of old, lest they might be drawn into idolatry by those strange women.
Page 4
Whatever disgusted them I cannot say, but this false delicacy creating in the Indians a jealousy that the English were ill affected towards them, was the cause that many of them were cut off, and the rest exposed to various distresses.
This reinforcement was landed not far from cape Cod, where, for their greater security, they built a fort, and near it a small town, which, in honour of the proprietors, was called New Plymouth. But they still had many discouragements to struggle with, though, by being well supported from home, they by degrees triumphed over them all.
Their brethren, after this, flocked over so fast, that in a few years they extended the settlement one hundred miles along the coast, including Rhode Island and Martha's Vineyard.
Thus the colony throve apace, and was thronged with large detachments of independents and presbyterians, who thought themselves persecuted at home.
Though these people may be ridiculed for some pharisaical particularities in their worship and behaviour, yet they were very useful subjects, as being frugal and industrious, giving no scandal or bad example, at least by any open and public vices. By which excellent qualities they had much the advantage of the southern colony, who thought their being members of the established church sufficient to sanctify very loose and profligate morals. For this reason New England improved much faster than Virginia, and in seven or eight years New Plymouth, like Switzerland, seemed too narrow a territory for its inhabitants.
For this reason, several gentlemen of fortune purchased of the company that canton of New England now called Massachusetts colony. And king James confirmed the purchase by his royal charter, dated March the 4th, 1628. In less than two years after, above one thousand of the puritanical sect removed thither with considerable effects, and these were followed by such crowds, that a proclamation was issued in England, forbidding any more of his majesty's subjects to be shipped off. But this had the usual effect of things forbidden, and served only to make the wilful independents flock over the faster. And about this time it was that Messrs. Hampden and Pym, and (some say) Oliver Cromwell, to show how little they valued the king's authority, took a trip to New England.
In the year 1630, the famous city of Boston was built, in a commodious situation for trade and navigation, the same being on a peninsula at the bottom of Massachusetts bay.
This town is now the most considerable of any on the British continent, containing at least 8,000 houses and 40,000 inhabitants. The trade it drives, is very great to Europe, and to every part of the West Indies, having near 1,000 ships and lesser vessels belonging to it.
Although the extent of the Massachusetts colony reached near one hundred and ten miles in length, and half as much in breadth, yet many of its inhabitants, thinking they wanted elbow room, quitted their old seats in the year 1636, and formed two new colonies: that of Connecticut and New Haven. These king Charles II. erected into one government in 1664, and gave them many valuable privileges, and among the rest, that of choosing their own governors. The extent of these united colonies may be about seventy miles long and fifty broad.
Besides these several settlements, there sprang up still another, a little more northerly, called New Hampshire. But that consisting of no more than two counties, and not being in condition to support the charge of a distinct government, was glad to be incorporated with that of Massachusetts, but upon condition, however, of being named in all public acts, for fear of being quite lost and forgotten in the coalition.
Page 5
In like manner New Plymouth joined itself to Massachusetts, except only Rhode Island, which, though of small extent, got itself erected into a separate government by a charter from king Charles II., soon after the restoration, and continues so to this day.
These governments all continued in possession of their respective rights and privileges till the year 1683, when that of Massachusetts was made void in England by a quo warranto.
In consequence of which the king was pleased to name sir Edmund Andros his first governor of that colony. This gentleman, it seems, ruled them with a rod of iron till the revolution, when they laid unhallowed hands upon him, and sent him prisoner to England.
This undutiful proceeding met with an easy forgiveness at that happy juncture. King William and his royal consort were not only pleased to overlook this indignity offered to their governor, but being made sensible how unfairly their charter had been taken away, most graciously granted them a new one.
By this some new franchises were given them, as an equivalent for those of coining money and electing a governor, which were taken away. However, the other colonies of Connecticut and Rhode Island had the luck to remain in possession of their original charters, which to this day have never been called in question.
The next country dismembered from Virginia was New Scotland, claimed by the crown of England in virtue of the first discovery by Sebastian Cabot. By colour of this title, king James I. granted it to sir William Alexander by patent, dated September the 10th, 1621.
But this patentee never sending any colony thither, and the French believing it very convenient for them, obtained a surrender of it from their good friend and ally, king Charles II., by the treaty of Breda. And, to show their gratitude, they stirred up the Indians soon after to annoy their neighbours of New England. Murders happened continually to his majesty's subjects by their means, till sir William Phipps took their town of Port Royal, in the year 1690. But as the English are better at taking than keeping strong places, the French retook it soon, and remained masters of it till 1710, when general Nicholson wrested it, once more, out of their hands.
Afterwards the queen of Great Britain's right to it was recognized and confirmed by the treaty of Utrecht.
Another limb lopped off from Virginia was New York, which the Dutch seized very unfairly, on pretence of having purchased it from captain Hudson, the first discoverer. Nor was their way of taking possession of it a whit more justifiable than their pretended title. Their West India company tampered with some worthy English skippers (who had contracted with a swarm of English dissenters to transport them to Hudson river) by no means to land them there, but to carry them some leagues more northerly.
This Dutch finesse took exactly, and gave the company time soon after to seize Hudson river for themselves. But sir Samuel Argall, then governor of Virginia, understanding how the king's subjects had been abused by these republicans, marched thither with a good force, and obliged them to renounce all pretensions to that country. The worst of it was, the knight depended on their parole to ship themselves for Brazil, but took no measures to make this slippery people as good as their word.
No sooner was the good governor retired, but the honest Dutch began to build forts and strengthen themselves in their ill-gotten possessions; nor did any of the king's liege people take the trouble to drive these intruders thence. The civil war in England, and the confusions it brought forth, allowed no leisure for such distant considerations. Though it is strange that the protector,
Page 6
who neglected no occasion to mortify the Dutch, did not afterwards call them to account for this breach of faith. However, after the restoration, the king sent a squadron of his ships of war, under the command of sir Robert Carr, and reduced that province to his obedience.
Some time after, his majesty was pleased to grant that country to his royal highness, the duke of York, by letters patent, dated March the 12th, 1664. But to show the modesty of the Dutch to the life, though they had no shadow of right to New York, yet they demanded Surinam, a more valuable country, as an equivalent for it, and our able ministers at that time had the generosity to give it them.
But what wounded Virginia deepest was the cutting off Maryland from it, by charter from king Charles I. to sir George Calvert, afterwards lord Baltimore, bearing date the 20th of June, 1632. The truth of it is, it begat much speculation in those days, how it came about that a good protestant king should bestow so bountiful a grant upon a zealous Roman catholic. But it is probable it was one fatal instance amongst many other of his majesty's complaisance to the queen.
However that happened, it is certain this province afterwards proved a commodious retreat for persons of that communion. The memory of the gunpowder treason-plot was still fresh in every body's mind, and made England too hot for papists to live in, without danger of being burnt with the pope, every 5th of November; for which reason legions of them transplanted themselves to Maryland in order to be safe, as well from the insolence of the populace as the rigour of the government.
Not only the gunpowder treason, but every other plot, both pretended and real, that has been trumped up in England ever since, has helped to people his lordship's propriety. But what has proved most serviceable to it was the grand rebellion against king Charles I., when every thing that bore the least tokens of popery was sure to be demolished, and every man that professed it was in jeopardy of suffering the same kind of martyrdom the Romish priests do in Sweden.
Soon after the reduction of New York, the duke was pleased to grant out of it all that tract of land included between Hudson and Delaware rivers, to the lord Berkley and sir George Carteret, by deed dated June the 24th, 1664. And when these grantees came to make partition of this territory, his lordship's moiety was called West Jersey, and that to sir George, East Jersey.
But before the date of this grant, the Swedes began to gain footing in part of that country; though, after they saw the fate of New York, they were glad to submit to the king of England, on the easy terms of remaining in their possessions, and rendering a moderate quit-rent. Their posterity continue there to this day, and think their lot cast in a much fairer land than Dalicarlia.
The proprietors of New Jersey, finding more trouble than profit in their new dominions, made over their right to several other persons, who obtained a fresh grant from his royal highness, dated March the 14th, 1682.
Several of the grantees, being quakers and anabaptists, failed not to encourage many of their own persuasion to remove to this peaceful region. Amongst them were a swarm of Scots quakers, who were not tolerated to exercise the gifts of the spirit in their own country.
Besides the hopes of being safe from persecution in this retreat, the new proprietors inveigled many over by this tempting account of the country: that it was a place free from those three great scourges of mankind, priests, lawyers, and physicians. Nor did they tell them a word of a lie, for the people were yet too poor to maintain these learned gentlemen, who, every where, love to be well paid for what they do; and, like the Jews, cannot breathe in a climate where nothing is to be gotten.
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The Jerseys continued under the government of these proprietors till the year 1702, when they made a formal surrender of the dominion to the queen, reserving however the property of the soil to themselves. So soon as the bounds of New Jersey came to be distinctly laid off, it appeared there was still a narrow slip of land, lying betwixt that colony and Maryland. Of this, William Penn, a man of much worldly wisdom, and some eminence among the quakers, got early notice, and, by the credit he had with the duke of York, obtained a patent for it, dated March the 4th, 1680.
It was a little surprising to some people how a quaker should be so much in the good graces of a popish prince; though, after all, it may be pretty well accounted for. This ingenious person had not been bred a quaker; but, in his earlier days, had been a man of pleasure about the town. He had a beautiful form and very taking address, which made him successful with the ladies, and particularly with a mistress of the duke of Monmouth. By this gentlewoman he had a daughter, who had beauty enough to raise her to be a dutchess, and continued to be a toast full 30 years. But this amour had like to have brought our fine gentleman in danger of a duel, had he not discreetly sheltered himself under this peaceable persuasion. Besides, his father having been a flag-officer in the navy, while the duke of York was lord high admiral, might recommend the son to his favour. This piece of secret history I thought proper to mention, to wipe off the suspicion of his having been popishly inclined.
This gentleman's first grant confined him within pretty narrow bounds, giving him only that portion of land which contains Buckingham, Philadelphia and Chester counties. But to get these bounds a little extended, he pushed his interest still further with his royal highness, and obtained a fresh grant of the three lower counties, called Newcastle, Kent and Sussex, which still remained within the New York patent, and had been luckily left out of the grant of New Jersey. The six counties being thus incorporated, the proprietor dignified the whole with the name of Pennsylvania.
The quakers flocked over to this country in shoals, being averse to go to heaven the same way with the bishops. Amongst them were not a few of good substance, who went vigorously upon every kind of improvement; and thus much I may truly say in their praise, that by diligence and frugality, for which this harmless sect is remarkable, and by having no vices but such as are private, they have in a few years made Pennsylvania a very fine country. The truth is, they have observed exact justice with all the natives that border upon them; they have purchased all their lands from the Indians; and though they paid but a trifle for them, it has procured them the credit of being more righteous than their neighbours. They have likewise had the prudence to treat them kindly upon all occasions, which has saved them from many wars and massacres wherein the other colonies have been indiscreetly involved. The truth of it is, a people whose principles forbid them to draw the carnal sword, were in the right to give no provocation.
Both the French and Spaniards had, in the name of their respective monarchs, long ago taken possession of that part of the northern continent that now goes by the name of Carolina; but finding it produced neither gold nor silver, as they greedily expected, and meeting such returns from the Indians as their own cruelty and treachery deserved, they totally abandoned it. In this deserted condition that country lay for the space of ninety years, till king Charles II., finding it a derelict, granted it away to the earl of Clarendon and others, by his royal charter, dated March the 24th, 1663. The boundary of that grant towards Virginia was a due west line from Luck island, (the same as Colleton island,) lying in 36 degrees of north latitude, quite to the South sea.
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But afterwards sir William Berkley, who was one of the grantees and at that time governor of Virginia, finding a territory of 31 miles in breadth between the inhabited part of Virginia and the above-mentioned boundary of Carolina, advised the lord Clarendon of it. And his lordship had interest enough with the king to obtain a second patent to include it, dated June the 30th, 1665.
This last grant describes the bounds between Virginia and Carolina in these words: "To run from the north end of Coratuck inlet, due west to Weyanoke creek, lying within or about the degree of thirty-six and thirty minutes of northern latitude, and from thence west, in a direct line, as far as the South sea." Without question, this boundary was well known at the time the charter was granted, but in a long course of years Weyanoke creek lost its name, so that it became a controversy where it lay. Some ancient persons in Virginia affirmed it was the same with Wicocon, and others again in Carolina were as positive it was Nottoway river.
In the mean time, the people on the frontiers entered for land, and took out patents by guess, either from the king or the lords proprietors. But the crown was like to be the loser by this uncertainty, because the terms both of taking up and seating land were easier much in Carolina. The yearly taxes to the public were likewise there less burthensome, which laid Virginia under a plain disadvantage.
This consideration put that government upon entering into measures with North Carolina, to terminate the dispute, and settle a certain boundary between the two colonies. All the difficulty was, to find out which was truly Weyanoke creek. The difference was too considerable to be given up by either side, there being a territory of fifteen miles betwixt the two streams in controversy.
However, till that matter could be adjusted, it was agreed on both sides, that no lands at all should be granted within the disputed bounds. Virginia observed this agreement punctually, but I am sorry I cannot say the same of North Carolina. The great officers of that province were loath to lose the fees accruing from the grants of land, and so private interest got the better of public spirit; and I wish that were the only place in the world where such politics are fashionable.
All the steps that were taken afterwards in that affair, will best appear by the report of the Virginia commissioners, recited in the order of council given at St. James', March the 1st, 1710, set down in the appendix.
It must be owned, the report of those gentlemen was severe upon the then commissioners of North Carolina, and particularly upon Mr. Moseley. I will not take it upon me to say with how much justice they said so many hard things, though it had been fairer play to have given the parties accused a copy of such representation, that they might have answered what they could for themselves.
But since that was not done, I must beg leave to say thus much in behalf of Mr. Moseley, that he was not much in the wrong to find fault with the quadrant produced by the surveyors of Virginia, because that instrument placed the mouth of Nottoway river in the latitude of 37 degrees; whereas, by an accurate observation made since, it appears to lie in 36° 30' 30'', so that there was an error of near 30 minutes, either in the instrument or in those who made use of it.
Besides, it is evident the mouth of Nottoway river agrees much better with the latitude, wherein the Carolina charter supposed Weyanoke creek, (namely, in or about 36° 30',) than it does with Wicocon creek, which is about fifteen miles more southerly.
This being manifest, the intention of the king's grant will be pretty exactly
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answered, by a due west line drawn from Coratuck inlet to the mouth of Nottoway river, for which reason it is probable that was formerly called Weyanoke creek, and might change its name when the Nottoway Indians came to live upon it, which was since the date of the last Carolina charter.
The lieutenant governor of Virginia, at that time colonel Spotswood, searching into the bottom of this affair, made very equitable proposals to Mr. Eden, at that time governor of North Carolina, in order to put an end to this controversy. These, being formed into preliminaries, were signed by both governors, and transmitted to England, where they had the honour to be ratified by his late majesty and assented to by the lords proprietors of Carolina.
Accordingly an order was sent by the late king to Mr. Gooch, afterwards lieutenant governor of Virginia, to pursue those preliminaries exactly. In obedience thereunto, he was pleased to appoint three of the council of that colony to be commissioners on the part of Virginia, who, in conjunction with others to be named by the governor of North Carolina, were to settle the boundary between the two governments, upon the plan of the above-mentioned articles.
February, 1728. Two experienced surveyors were at the same time directed to wait upon the commissioners, Mr. Mayo, who made the accurate map of Barbadoes, and Mr. Irvin, the mathematic professor of William and Mary College. And because a good number of men were to go upon this expedition, a chaplain was appointed to attend them, and the rather because the people on the frontiers of North Carolina, who have no minister near them, might have an opportunity to get themselves and their children baptized.
Of these proceedings on our part, immediate notice was sent to sir Richard Everard, governor of North Carolina, who was desired to name commissioners for that province, to meet those of Virginia at Coratuck inlet the spring following. Accordingly he appointed four members of the council of that province to take care of the interests of the lords proprietors. Of these, Mr. Moseley was to serve in a double capacity, both as commissioner and surveyor. For that reason there was but one other surveyor from thence, Mr. Swan. All the persons being thus agreed upon, they settled the time of meeting to be at Coratuck, March the 5th, 1728.
In the mean time, the requisite preparations were made for so long and tiresome a journey; and because there was much work to be done and some danger from the Indians, in the uninhabited part of the country, it was necessary to provide a competent number of men. Accordingly, seventeen able hands were listed on the part of Virginia, who were most of them Indian traders and expert woodsmen.
Feb. 27th. These good men were ordered to come armed with a musket and a tomahawk, or large hatchet, and provided with a sufficient quantity of ammunition. They likewise brought provisions of their own for ten days, after which time they were to be furnished by the government. Their march was appointed to be on the 27th of February, on which day one of the commissioners met them at their rendezvous, and proceeded with them as far as colonel Allen's. This gentleman is a great economist, and skilled in all the arts of living well at an easy expense.
28th. They proceeded in good order through Surry county, as far as the widow Allen's, who had copied Solomon's complete housewife exactly. At this gentlewoman's house, the other two commissioners had appointed to join them, but were detained by some accident at Williamsburg, longer than their appointment.
29th. They pursued their march through the Isle of Wight, and observed a most dreadful havoc made by a late hurricane, which happened in August, 1726. The violence of it had not reached above a quarter of a mile in
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breadth, but within that compass had levelled all before it. Both trees and houses were laid flat on the ground, and several things hurled to an incredible distance. It is happy such violent gusts are confined to so narrow a channel, because they carry desolation wherever they go. In the evening they reached Mr. Godwin's, on the south branch of Nansemond river, where they were treated with abundance of primitive hospitality.
March 1st. This gentleman was so kind as to shorten their journey, by setting them over the river. They coasted the north-east side of the Dismal for several miles together, and found all the grounds bordering upon it very full of sloughs. The trees that grew near it looked very reverend, with the long moss that hung dangling from their branches. Both cattle and horses eat this moss greedily in winter when other provender is scarce, though it is apt to scour them at first. In that moist soil too grew abundance of that kind of myrtle which bears the candle-berries. There was likewise, here and there, a gall bush, which is a beautiful evergreen, and may be cut into any shape. It derives its name from its berries turning water black, like the galls of an oak. When this shrub is transplanted into gardens, it will not thrive without frequent watering.
The two other commissioners came up with them just at their journey's end, and that evening they arrived all together at Mr. Craford's, who lives on the south branch of Elizabeth river, over against Norfolk. Here the commissioners left the men with all the horses and heavy baggage, and crossed the river with their servants only, for fear of making a famine in the town.
Norfolk has most the air of a town of any in Virginia. There were then near 20 brigantines and sloops riding at the wharves, and oftentimes they have more. It has all the advantages of situation requisite for trade and navigation. There is a secure harbour for a good number of ships of any burthen. Their river divides itself into three several branches, which are all navigable. The town is so near the sea, that its vessels may sail in and out in a few hours. Their trade is chiefly to the West Indies, whither they export abundance of beef, pork, flour and lumber. The worst of it is, they contribute much towards debauching the country by importing abundance of rum, which, like gin in Great Britain, breaks the constitutions, vitiates the morals, and ruins the industry of most of the poor people of this country. This place is the mart for most of the commodities produced in the adjacent parts of North Carolina. They have a pretty deal of lumber from the borderers on the Dismal, who make bold with the king's land thereabouts, without the least ceremony. They not only maintain their stocks upon it, but get boards, shingles and other lumber out of it in great abundance.
The town is built on a level spot of ground upon Elizabeth river, the banks whereof are neither so high as to make the landing of goods troublesome, or so low as to be in danger of overflowing. The streets are straight, and adorned with several good houses, which increase every day. It is not a town of ordinaries and public houses, like most others in this country, but the inhabitants consist of merchants, ship-carpenters and other useful artisans, with sailors enough to manage their navigation. With all these conveniences, it lies under the two great disadvantages that most of the towns in Holland do, by having neither good air nor good water. The two cardinal virtues that make a place thrive, industry and frugality, are seen here in perfection; and so long as they can banish luxury and idleness, the town will remain in a happy and flourishing condition.
The method of building wharves here is after the following manner. They lay down long pine logs, that reach from the shore to the edge of the channel. These are bound fast together by cross pieces notched into them, according to the architecture of the log-houses in North Carolina. A wharf built thus
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will stand several years, in spite of the worm, which bites here very much, but may be soon repaired in a place where so many pines grow in the neighbourhood.
The commissioners endeavoured, in this town, to list three more men to serve as guides in that dirty part of the country, but found that these people knew just enough of that frightful place to avoid it. They had been told that those Netherlands were full of bogs, of marshes and swamps, not fit for human creatures to engage in, and this was reason enough for them not to hazard their persons. So they told us, flat and plain, that we might even daggle through the mire by ourselves for them.
The worst of it was, we could not learn from any body in this town, what route to take to Coratuck inlet; till at last we had the fortune to meet with a borderer upon North Carolina, who made us a rough sketch of that part of the country. Thus, upon seeing how the land lay, we determined to march directly to Prescot landing upon North-west river, and proceed thence by water to the place where our line was to begin.
4th. In pursuance of this resolution we crossed the river this morning to Powder point, where we all took horse; and the grandees of the town, with great courtesy, conducted us ten miles on our way, as far as the long bridge built over the south branch of the river. The parson of the parish, Mr. Marston, a painful apostle from the society, made one in this ceremonious cavalcade.
At the bridge, these gentlemen, wishing us a good deliverance, returned, and then a troop of light horse escorted us as far as Prescot landing, upon North-west river. Care had been taken beforehand to provide two periaugas to lie ready at that place to transport us to Coratuck inlet. Our zeal was so great to get thither at the time appointed, that we hardly allowed ourselves leisure to eat, which in truth we had the less stomach to, by reason the dinner was served up by the landlord, whose nose stood on such ticklish terms, that it was in danger of falling into the dish. We therefore made our repast very short, and then embarked with only the surveyors and nine chosen men, leaving the rest at Mr. W----n's to take care of the horses and baggage. There we also left our chaplain, with the charitable intent, that the gentiles round about might have time and opportunity, if they pleased, of getting themselves and their children baptized.
We rowed down North-west river about 18 miles, as far as the mouth of it, where it empties itself into Albemarle sound. It was really a delightful sight, all the way, to see the banks of the river adorned with myrtle, laurel and bay trees, which preserve their verdure the year round, though it must be owned that these beautiful plants, sacred to Venus and Apollo, grow commonly in a very dirty soil. The river is, in most places, fifty or sixty yards wide, without spreading much wider at the mouth. It is remarkable it was never known to ebb and flow till the year 1713, when a violent storm opened a new inlet, about five miles south of the old one; since which convulsion, the old inlet is almost choked up by the shifting of the sand, and grows both narrower and shoaler every day.
It was dark before we could reach the mouth of the river, where our wayward stars directed us to a miserable cottage. The landlord was lately removed, bag and baggage, from Maryland, through a strong antipathy he had to work and paying his debts. For want of our tent, we were obliged to shelter ourselves in this wretched hovel, where we were almost devoured by vermin of various kinds. However, we were above complaining, being all philosophers enough to improve such slender distresses into mirth and good humour.
5th. The day being now come, on which we had agreed to meet the commissioners
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of North Carolina, we embarked very early, which we could the easier do, having no temptation to stay where we were. We shaped our course along the south end of Knot's island, there being no passage open on the north. Further still to the southward of us, we discovered two smaller islands, that go by the names of Bell's and Church's isles. We also saw a small New England sloop riding in the sound, a little to the south of our course. She had come in at the new inlet, as all other vessels have done since the opening of it. This navigation is a little difficult, and fit only for vessels that draw no more than ten feet water. The trade hither is engrossed by the saints of New England, who carry off a great deal of tobacco, without troubling themselves with paying that impertinent duty of a penny a pound.
It was just noon before we arrived at Coratuck inlet, which is now so shallow that the breakers fly over it with a horrible sound, and at the same time afford a very wild prospect. On the north side of the inlet, the high land terminated in a bluff point, from which a spit of land extended itself towards the south-east, full half a mile. The inlet lies between that spit and another on the south of it, leaving an opening of not quite a mile, which at this day is not practicable for any vessel whatsoever. And as shallow as it now is, it continues to fill up more and more, both the wind and waves rolling in the sands from the eastern shoals.
About two o'clock in the afternoon we were joined by two of the Carolina commissioners, attended by Mr. Swan, their surveyor. The other two were not quite so punctual, which was the more unlucky for us, because there could be no sport till they came. These gentlemen, it seems, had the Carolina commission in their keeping, not withstanding which, they could not forbear paying too much regard to a proverb--fashionable in their country--not to make more haste than good speed.
However, that we who were punctual might not spend our precious time unprofitably, we took the several bearings of the coast. We also surveyed part of the adjacent high land, which had scarcely any trees growing upon it, but cedars. Among the shrubs, we were showed here and there a bush of Carolina tea called Japon, which is one species of the Phylarrea. This is an evergreen, the leaves whereof have some resemblance to tea, but differ very widely both in taste and flavour. We also found some few plants of the spired leaf silk grass, which is likewise an evergreen, bearing on a lofty stem a large cluster of flowers of a pale yellow. Of the leaves of this plant the people thereabouts twist very strong cordage.
A virtuoso might divert himself here very well, in picking up shells of various hue and figure, and amongst the rest, that species of conch shell which the Indian peak is made of. The extremities of these shells are blue and the rest white, so that peak of both these colours are drilled out of one and the same shell, serving the natives both for ornament and money, and are esteemed by them far beyond gold and silver.
The cedars were of singular use to us in the absence of our tent, which we had left with the rest of the baggage for fear of overloading the periaugas. We made a circular hedge of the branches of this tree, wrought so close together as to fence us against the cold winds. We then kindled a rousing fire in the centre of it, and lay round it, like so many knights templars. But, as comfortable as this lodging was, the surveyors turned out about two in the morning to try the variation by a meridian taken from the north star, and found it to be somewhat less than three degrees west.
The commissioners of the neighbouring colony came better provided for the belly than the business. They brought not above two men along with them that would put their hands to any thing but the kettle and the fryingpan. These spent so much of their industry that way, that they had as little spirit as inclination for work.
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6th. At noon, having a perfect observation, we found the latitude of Coratuck inlet to be 36 degrees and 31 minutes.
Whilst we were busied about these necessary matters, our skipper rowed to an oyster bank just by, and loaded his periauga with oysters as savoury and well-tasted as those from Colchester or Walfleet, and had the advantage of them, too, by being much larger and fatter.
About three in the afternoon the two lag commissioners arrived, and after a few decent excuses for making us wait, told us they were ready to enter upon business as soon as we pleased. The first step was to produce our respective powers, and the commission from each governor was distinctly read, and copies of them interchangeably delivered.
It was observed by our Carolina friends, that the latter part of the Virginia commission had something in it a little too lordly and positive. In answer to which we told them it was necessary to make it thus peremptory, lest the present commissioners might go upon as fruitless an errand as their predecessors. The former commissioners were tied down to act in exact conjunction with those of Carolina, and so could not advance one step farther, or one jot faster, than they were pleased to permit them. The memory of that disappointment, therefore, induced the government of Virginia to give fuller powers to the present commissioners, by authorizing them to go on with the work by themselves, in case those of Carolina should prove unreasonable, and refuse to join with them in carrying the business to execution. And all this was done lest his majesty's gracious intention should be frustrated a second time.
After both commissions were considered, the first question was, where the dividing line was to begin. This begat a warm debate; the Virginia commissioners contending, with a great deal of reason, to begin at the end of the spit of sand; which was undoubtedly the north shore of Coratuck inlet. But those of Carolina insisted strenuously, that the point of high land ought rather to be the place of beginning, because that was fixed and certain, whereas the spit of sand was ever shifting, and did actually run out farther now than formerly. The contest lasted some hours, with great vehemence, neither party receding from their opinion that night. But next morning, Mr. Moseley, to convince us he was not that obstinate person he had been represented, yielded to our reasons, and found means to bring over his colleagues.
Here we began already to reap the benefit of those peremptory words in our commission, which in truth added some weight to our reasons. Nevertheless, because positive proof was made by the oaths of two credible witnesses, that the spit of sand had advanced 200 yards towards the inlet since the controversy first began, we were willing for peace' sake to make them that allowance. Accordingly we fixed our beginning about that distance north of the inlet, and there ordered a cedar post to be driven deep into the sand for our beginning. While we continued here, we were told that on the south shore, not far from the inlet, dwelt a marooner, that modestly called himself a hermit, though he forfeited that name by suffering a wanton female to cohabit with him. His habitation was a bower, covered with bark after the Indian fashion, which in that mild situation protected him pretty well from the weather. Like the ravens, he neither ploughed nor sowed, but subsisted chiefly upon oysters, which his handmaid made a shift to gather from the adjacent rocks. Sometimes, too, for change of diet, he sent her to drive up the neighbour's cows, to moisten their mouths with a little milk. But as for raiment, he depended mostly upon his length of beard, and she upon her length of hair, part of which she brought decently forward, and the rest dangled behind quite down to her rump, like one of Herodotus' East Indian pigmies.
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Thus did these wretches live in a dirty state of nature, and were mere Adamites, innocence only excepted.
7th. This morning the surveyors began to run the dividing line from the cedar post we had driven into the sand, allowing near three degrees for the variation. Without making this just allowance, we should not have obeyed his majesty's order in running a due west line. It seems the former commissioners had not been so exact, which gave our friends of Carolina but too just an exception to their proceedings. The line cut Dosier's island, consisting only of a flat sand, with here and there an humble shrub growing upon it. From thence it crossed over a narrow arm of the sound into Knot's island, and there split a plantation belonging to William Harding.
The day being far spent, we encamped in this man's pasture, though it lay very low, and the season now inclined people to aguish distempers. He suffered us to cut cedar branches for our enclosure, and other wood for firing, to correct the moist air and drive away the damps. Our landlady, in the days of her youth, it seems, had been a laundress in the Temple, and talked over her adventures in that station, with as much pleasure as an old soldier talks over his battles and distempers, and I believe with as many additions to the truth. The soil is good in many places of this island, and the extent of it pretty large. It lies in the form of a wedge: the south end of it is several miles over, but towards the north it sharpens into a point. It is a plentiful place for stock, by reason of the wide marshes adjacent to it, and because of its warm situation. But the inhabitants pay a little dear for this convenience, by losing as much blood in the summer season by the infinite number of mosquitoes, as all their beef and pork can recruit in the winter.
The sheep are as large as in Lincolnshire, because they are never pinched by cold or hunger. The whole island was hitherto reckoned to lie in Virginia, but now our line has given the greater part of it to Carolina. The principal freeholder here is Mr. White, who keeps open house for all travellers, that either debt or shipwreck happens to cast in his way.
8th. By break of day we sent away our largest periauga, with the baggage, round the south end of Knot's island, with orders to the men to wait for us in the mouth of North river. Soon after, we embarked ourselves on board the smaller vessel, with intent, if possible, to find a passage round the north end of the island.
We found this navigation very difficult, by reason of the continued shoals, and often stuck fast aground; for though the sound spreads many miles, yet it is in most places extremely shallow, and requires a skilful pilot to steer even a canoe safe over it. It was almost as hard to keep our temper, as to keep the channel, in this provoking situation. But the most impatient amongst us stroked down their choler, and swallowed their curses, lest, if they suffered them to break out, they might sound like complaining, which was expressly forbidden, as the first step to sedition.
At a distance we described several islands to the northward of us, the largest of which goes by the name of Cedar island. Our periadga stuck so often that we had a fair chance to be benighted in this wide water, which must certainly have been our fate, had we not luckily spied a canoe that was giving a fortune-teller a cast from Princess Anne county over to North Carolina. But, as conjurers are sometimes mistaken, the man mistrusted we were officers of justice in pursuit of a young wench he had carried off along with him. We gave the canoe chase for more than an hour, and when we came up with her, threatened to make them all prisoners unless they would direct us into the right channel. By the pilotage of these people we rowed up an arm of the sound, called the Back bay, till we came to the head of it. There
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we were stopped by a miry pocoson full half a mile in breadth, through which we were obliged to daggle on foot, plunging now and then, though we picked our way, up to the knees in mud. At the end of this charming walk we gained the terra firma of Princess Anne county. In that dirty condition we were afterwards obliged to foot it two miles, as far as John Heath's plantation, where we expected to meet the surveyors and the men who waited upon them.
While we were performing this tedious voyage, they had carried the line through the firm land of Knot's island, where it was no more than half a mile wide. After that they traversed a large marsh, that was exceedingly miry, and extended to an arm of the Back bay. They crossed that water in a canoe, which we had ordered round for that purpose, and then waded over another marsh, that reached quite to the high land of Princess Anne. Both these marshes together make a breadth of five miles, in which the men frequently sank up to the middle, without muttering the least complaint. On the contrary, they turned all these disasters into merriment.
It was discovered, by this day's work, that Knot's island was improperly so called, being in truth no more than a peninsula. The north-west side of it is only divided from the main by the great marsh above-mentioned, which is seldom totally overflowed. Instead of that, it might, by the labour of a few trenches, be drained into firm meadow, capable of grazing as many cattle as Job, in his best estate, was master of. In the miry condition in which it now lies, it feeds great numbers in the winter, though, when the weather grows warm, they are driven thence by the mighty armies of mosquitoes, which are the plague of the lower part of Carolina, as much as the flies were formerly of Egypt, and some rabbins think those flies were no other than mosquitoes.
All the people in the neighbourhood flocked to John Heath's, to behold such rarities as they fancied us to be. The men left their beloved chimney corners, the good women their spinning wheels, and some, of more curiosity than ordinary, rose out of their sick beds, to come and stare at us. They looked upon us as a troop of knights errant, who were running this great risk of our lives, as they imagined, for the public weal; and some of the gravest of them questioned much whether we were not all criminals, condemned to this dirty work for offences against the state. What puzzled them most was, what could make our men so very light-hearted under such intolerable drudgery. "Ye have little reason to be merry, my masters," said one of them, with a very solemn face, "I fancy the pocoson you must struggle with to-morrow will make you change your note, and try what metal you are made of. Ye are, to be sure, the first of human race that ever had the boldness to attempt it, and I dare say will be the last. If, therefore, you have any worldly goods to dispose of, my advice is that you make your wills this very night, for fear you die intestate to-morrow." But, alas! these frightful tales were so far from disheartening the men, that they served only to whet their resolution.
9th. The surveyors entered early upon their business this morning, and ran the line through Mr. Eyland's plantation, as far as the banks of North river. They passed over it in the periauga, and landed in Gibbs' marsh, which was a mile in breadth, and tolerably firm. They trudged through this marsh without much difficulty as far as the high land, which promised more fertility than any they had seen in these lower parts. But this firm land lasted not long before they came upon the dreadful pocoson they had been threatened with. Nor did they find it one jot better than it had been painted to them. The beavers and otters had rendered it quite impassable for any creature but themselves.
Our poor fellows had much ado to drag their legs after them in this quagmire,
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but disdaining to be balked, they could hardly be persuaded from pressing forward by the surveyors, who found it absolutely necessary to make a traverse in the deepest place, to prevent their sticking fast in the mire, and becoming a certain prey to the turkey buzzards.
This horrible day's work ended two miles to the northward of Mr. Merchant's plantation, divided from North-west river by a narrow swamp, which is causewayed over. We took up our quarters in the open field, not far from the house, correcting, by a fire as large as a Roman funeral pile, the aguish exhalations arising from the sunken grounds that surrounded us.
The neck of land included betwixt North river and North-west river, with the adjacent marsh, belonged formerly to Governor Gibbs, but since his decease to Colonel Bladen, in right of his first lady, who was Mr. Gibbs' daughter. It would be a valuable tract of land in any country but North Carolina, where, for want of navigation and commerce, the best estate affords little more than a coarse subsistence.
10th. The sabbath happened very opportunely to give some ease to our jaded people, who rested religiously from every work, but that of cooking the kettle. We observed very few corn-fields in our walks, and those very small, which seemed the stranger to us, because we could see no other tokens of husbandry or improvement. But, upon further inquiry, we were given to understand people only made corn for themselves and not for their stocks, which know very well how to get their own living. Both cattle and hogs ramble into the neighbouring marshes and swamps, where they maintain themselves the whole winter long, and are not fetched home till the spring. Thus these indolent wretches, during one half of the year, lose the advantage of the milk of their cattle, as well as their dung, and many of the poor creatures perish in the mire, into the bargain, by this ill management. Some, who pique themselves more upon industry than their neighbours, will, now and then, in compliment to their cattle, cut down a tree whose limbs are loaded with the moss afore-mentioned. The trouble would be too great to climb the tree in order to gather this provender, but the shortest way (which in this country is always counted the best) is to fell it, just like the lazy Indians, who do the same by such trees as bear fruit, and so make one harvest for all. By this bad husbandry milk is so scarce, in the winter season, that were a big-bellied woman to long for it, she would lose her longing. And, in truth, I believe this is often the case, and at the same time a very good reason why so many people in this province are marked with a custard complexion.
The only business here is raising of hogs, which is managed with the least trouble, and affords the diet they are most fond of. The truth of it is, the inhabitants of North Carolina devour so much swine's flesh, that it fills them full of gross humours. For want too of a constant supply of salt, they are commonly obliged to eat it fresh, and that begets the highest taint of scurvy. Thus, whenever a severe cold happens to constitutions thus vitiated, it is apt to improve into the yaws, called there very justly the country distemper. This has all the symptoms of syphilis, with this aggravation, that no preparation of mercury will touch it. First it seizes the throat, next the palate, and lastly shows its spite to the poor nose, of which it is apt in a small time treacherously to undermine the foundation. This calamity is so common and familiar here, that it ceases to be a scandal, and in the disputes that happen about beauty, the noses have in some companies much ado to carry it. Nay, it is said that once, after three good pork years, a motion had like to have been made in the house of burgesses, that a man with a nose should be incapable of holding any place of profit in the province; which extraordinary motion could never have been intended without some hopes of a majority.
Thus, considering the foul and pernicious effects of eating swine's flesh in
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a hot country, it was wisely forbidden and made an abomination to the Jews, who lived much in the same latitude with Carolina.
11th. We ordered the surveyors early to their business, who were blessed with pretty dry grounds for three miles together. But they paid dear for it in the next two, consisting of one continued frightful pocoson, which no creatures but those of the amphibious kind ever had ventured into before. This filthy quagmire did in earnest put the men's courage to a trial, and though I cannot say it made them lose their patience, yet they lost their humour for joking. They kept their gravity like so many Spaniards, so that a man might then have taken his opportunity to plunge up to the chin, without danger of being laughed at. However, this unusual composure of countenance could not fairly be called complaining. Their day's work ended at the mouth of Northern's creek, which empties itself into North-west river; though we chose to quarter a little higher up the river, near Mossy point. This we did for the convenience of an old house to shelter our persons and baggage from the rain, which threatened us hard. We judged the thing right, for there fell a heavy shower in the night, that drove the most hardy of us into the house. Though, indeed, our case was not much mended by retreating thither, because that tenement having not long before been used as a pork store, the moisture of the air dissolved the salt that lay scattered on the floor, and made it as wet within doors as without. However, the swamps and marshes we were lately accustomed to had made such beavers and otters of us that nobody caught the least cold. We had encamped so early, that we found time in the evening to walk near half a mile into the woods. There we came upon a family of mulattoes that called themselves free, though by the shyness of the master of the house, who took care to keep least in sight, their freedom seemed a little doubtful. It is certain many slaves shelter themselves in this obscure part of the world, nor will any of their righteous neighbours discover them. On the contrary, they find their account in settling such fugitives on some out-of-the-way corner of their land, to raise stocks for a mean and inconsiderable share, well knowing their condition makes it necessary for them to submit to any terms. Nor were these worthy borderers content to shelter runaway slaves, but debtors and criminals have often met with the like indulgence. But if the government of North Carolina has encouraged this unneighbourly policy in order to increase their people, it is no more than what ancient Rome did before them, which was made a city of refuge for all debtors and fugitives, and from that wretched beginning grew up in time to be mistress of a great part of the world. And, considering how fortune delights in bringing great things out of small, who knows but Carolina may, one time or other, come to be the seat of some other great empire?
12th. Every thing had been so soaked with the rain, that we were obliged to lie by a good part of the morning and dry them. However, that time was not lost, because it gave the surveyors an opportunity of platting off their work and taking the course of the river. It likewise helped to recruit the spirits of the men, who had been a little harassed with yesterday's march. Notwithstanding all this, we crossed the river before noon, and advanced our line three miles. It was not possible to make more of it, by reason good part of the way was either marsh or pocoson. The line cut two or three plantations, leaving part of them in Virginia, and part of them in Carolina. This was a case that happened frequently, to the great inconvenience of the owners, who were therefore obliged to take out two patents and pay for a new survey in each government. In the evening, we took up our quarters in Mr. Ballance's pasture, a little above the bridge built over North-west river. There we discharged the two periaugas, which in truth had been
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very serviceable in transporting us over the many waters in that dirty and difficult part of our business. Our landlord had a tolerable good house and clean furniture, and yet we could not be tempted to lodge in it. We chose rather to lie in the open field, for fear of growing too tender. A clear sky, spangled with stars, was our canopy, which being the last thing we saw before we fell asleep, gave us magnificent dreams. The truth of it is, we took so much pleasure in that natural kind of lodging, that I think at the foot of the account mankind are great losers by the luxury of feather beds and warm apartments.
The curiosity of beholding so new and withal so sweet a method of encamping, brought one of the senators of North Carolina to make us a midnight visit. But he was so very clamorous in his commendations of it, that the sentinel, not seeing his quality, either through his habit or behaviour, had like to have treated him roughly. After excusing the unseasonableness of his visit, and letting us know he was a parliament man, he swore he was so taken with our lodging, that he would set fire to his house as soon as he got home, and teach his wife and children to lie, like us, in the open field.
13th. Early this morning our chaplain repaired to us with the men we had left at Mr. Wilson's. We had sent for them the evening before to relieve those who had the labour-oar from Coratuck inlet. But to our great surprise, they petitioned not to be relieved, hoping to gain immortal reputation by being the first of mankind that ventured through the great Dismal. But the rest being equally ambitious of the same honour, it was but fair to decide their pretensions by lot. After fortune had declared herself, those which she had excluded offered money to the happy persons to go in their stead. But Hercules would have as soon sold the glory of cleansing the Augean stables, which was pretty near the same sort of work. No sooner was the controversy at an end, but we sent those unfortunate fellows back to their quarters, whom chance had condemned to remain upon firm land and sleep in a whole skin. In the mean while the surveyors carried the line three miles, which was no contemptible day's work, considering how cruelly they were entangled with briers and gall bushes. The leaf of this last shrub bespeaks it to be of the alaternus family.
Our work ended within a quarter of a mile of the Dismal above-mentioned, where the ground began to be already full of sunken holes and slashes, which had, here and there, some few reeds growing in them. It is hardly credible how little the bordering inhabitants were acquainted with this mighty swamp, notwithstanding they had lived their whole lives within smell of it. Yet, as great strangers as they were to it, they pretended to be very exact in their account of its dimensions, and were positive it could not be above seven or eight miles wide, but knew no more of the matter than star-gazers know of the distance of the fixed stars. At the same time, they were simple enough to amuse our men with idle stories of the lions, panthers and alligators, they were like to encounter in that dreadful place. In short, we saw plainly there was no intelligence of this terra incognita to be got, but from our own experience. For that reason it was resolved to make the requisite dispositions to enter it next morning. We allotted every one of the surveyors for this painful enterprise, with twelve men to attend them. Fewer than that could not be employed in clearing the way, carrying the chain, marking the trees, and bearing the necessary bedding and provisions. Nor would the commissioners themselves have spared their persons on this occasion, but for fear of adding to the poor men's burthen, while they were certain they could add nothing to their resolution.
We quartered with our friend and fellow traveller, William Wilkins, who had been our faithful pilot to Coratuck, and lived about a mile from the place
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where the line ended. Every thing looked so very clean, and the furniture so neat, that we were tempted to lodge within doors. But the novelty of being shut up so close quite spoiled our rest, nor did we breathe so free by abundance, as when we lay in the open air.
14th. Before nine of the clock this morning, the provisions, bedding and other necessaries were made up into packs for the men to carry on their shoulders into the Dismal. They were victualled for eight days at full allowance, nobody doubting but that would be abundantly sufficient to carry them through that inhospitable place; nor indeed was it possible for the poor fellows to stagger under more. As it was, their loads weighed from 60 to 70 pounds, in just proportion to the strength of those who were to bear them. It would have been unconscionable to have saddled them with burthens heavier than that, when they were to lug them through a filthy bog, which was hardly practicable with no burthen at all. Besides this luggage at their backs, they were obliged to measure the distance, mark the trees, and clear the way for the surveyors every step they went. It was really a pleasure to see with how much cheerfulness they undertook, and with how much spirit they went through all this drudgery. For their greater safety, the commissioners took care to furnish them with Peruvian bark, rhubarb and hipocoacanah, in case they might happen, in that wet journey, to be taken with fevers or fluxes. Although there was no need of example to inflame persons already so cheerful, yet to enter the people with the better grace, the author and two more of the commissioners accompanied them half a mile into the Dismal. The skirts of it were thinly planted with dwarf reeds and gall bushes, but when we got into the Dismal itself, we found the reeds grew there much taller and closer, and, to mend the matter, were so interlaced with bamboo-briers, that there was no scuffling through them without the help of pioneers. At the same time, we found the ground moist and trembling under our feet like a quagmire, insomuch that it was an easy matter to run a tenfoot pole up to the head in it, without exerting any uncommon strength to do it. Two of the men, whose burthens were the least cumbersome, had orders to march before, with their tomahawks, and clear the way, in order to make an opening for the surveyors. By their assistance we made a shift to push the line half a mile in three hours, and then reached a small piece of firm land, about 100 yards wide, standing up above the rest like an island. Here the people were glad to lay down their loads and take a little refreshment, while the happy man, whose lot it was to carry the jug of rum, began already like Æsop's bread-carriers, to find it grow a good deal lighter.
After reposing about an hour, the commissioners recommended vigour and constancy to their fellow-travellers, by whom they were answered with three cheerful huzzas, in token of obedience. This ceremony was no sooner over but they took up their burthens and attended the motion of the surveyors, who, though they worked with all their might, could reach but one mile farther, the same obstacles still attending them which they had met with in the morning. However small this distance may seem to such as are used to travel at their ease, yet our poor men, who were obliged to work with an unwieldy load at their backs, had reason to think it a long way; especially in a bog where they had no firm footing, but every step made a deep impression, which was instantly filled with water. At the same time they were labouring with their hands to cut down the reeds, which were ten feet high, their legs were hampered with the briers. Besides, the weather happened to be warm, and the tallness of the reeds kept off every friendly breeze from coming to refresh them. And, indeed, it was a little provoking to hear the wind whistling among the branches of the white cedars, which grew here and there amongst the reeds, and at the same time not to have the comfort to feel the least breath of it.
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In the mean time the three commissioners returned out of the Dismal the same way they went in, and, having joined their brethren, proceeded that night as far as Mr. Wilson's. This worthy person lives within sight of the Dismal, in the skirts whereof his stocks range and maintain themselves all the winter, and yet he knew as little of it as he did of Terra Australis Incognita. He told us a Canterbury tale of a North Briton, whose curiosity spurred him a long way into this great desert, as he called it, near twenty years ago, but he having no compass, nor seeing the sun for several days together, wandered about till he was almost famished; but at last he bethought himself of a secret his countrymen make use of to pilot themselves in a dark day. He took a fat louse out of his collar, and exposed it to the open day on a piece of white paper, which he brought along with him for his journal. The poor insect, having no eye-lids, turned himself about till he found the darkest part of the heavens, and so made the best of his way towards the north. By this direction he steered himself safe out, and gave such a frightful account of the monsters he saw, and the distresses he underwent, that no mortal since has been hardy enough to go upon the like dangerous discovery.
15th. The surveyors pursued their work with all diligence, but still found the soil of the Dismal so spongy that the water oozed up into every footstep they took. To their sorrow, too, they found the reeds and briers more firmly interwoven than they did the day before. But the greatest grievance was from large cypresses, which the wind had blown down and heaped upon one another. On the limbs of most of them grew sharp snags, pointing every way like so many pikes, that required much pains and caution to avoid. These trees being evergreens, and shooting their large tops very high, are easily overset by every gust of wind, because there is no firm earth to steady their roots. Thus many of them were laid prostrate, to the great encumbrance of the way. Such variety of difficulties made the business go on heavily, insomuch that, from morning till night, the line could advance no farther than one mile and thirty-one poles. Never was rum, that cordial of life, found more necessary than it was in this dirty place. It did not only recruit the people's spirits, now almost jaded with fatigue, but served to correct the badness of the water, and at the same time to resist the malignity of the air. Whenever the men wanted to drink, which was very often, they had nothing more to do but to make a hole, and the water bubbled up in a moment. But it was far from being either clear or well tasted, and had besides a physical effect, from the tincture it received from the roots of the shrubs and trees that grew in the neighbourhood.
While the surveyors were thus painfully employed, the commissioners discharged the long score they had with Mr. Wilson, for the men and horses which had been quartered upon him during our expedition to Coratuck. From thence we marched in good order along the east side of the Dismal, and passed the long bridge that lies over the south branch of Elizabeth river. At the end of 18 miles we reached Timothy Ivy's plantation, where we pitched our tent for the first time, and were furnished with every thing the place afforded. We perceived the happy effects of industry in this family, in which every one looked tidy and clean, and carried in their countenances the cheerful marks of plenty. We saw no drones there, which are but too common, alas, in that part of the world. Though, in truth, the distemper of laziness seizes the men oftener much than the women. These last spin, weave and knit, all with their own hands, while their husbands, depending on the bounty of the climate, are slothful in every thing but getting of children, and in that only instance make themselves useful members of an infant colony.
There is but little wool in that province, though cotton grows very kindly, and, so far south, is seldom nipped by the frost. The good women mix this
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with their wool for their outer garments; though, for want of fulling, that kind of manufacture is open and sleazy. Flax likewise thrives there extremely, being perhaps as fine as any in the world, and I question not might, with a little care, be brought to rival that of Egypt; and yet the men are here so intolerably lazy, they seldom take the trouble to propagate it.
16th. The line was this day carried one mile and a half and sixteen poles. The soil continued soft and miry, but fuller of trees, especially white cedars. Many of these too were thrown down and piled in heaps, high enough for a good Muscovite fortification. The worst of it was, the poor fellows began now to be troubled with fluxes, occasioned by bad water and moist lodging: but chewing of rhubarb kept that malady within bounds.
In the mean time the commissioners decamped early in the morning, and made a march of twenty-five miles, as far as Mr. Andrew Mead's, who lives upon Nansemond river. They were no sooner got under the shelter of that hospitable roof, but it began to rain hard, and continued so to do great part of the night. This gave them much pain for their friends in the Dismal, whose sufferings spoiled their taste for the good cheer, wherewith they were entertained themselves. However, late that evening, these poor men had the fortune to come upon another terra firma, which was the luckier for them, because the lower ground, by the rain that fell, was made a fitter lodging for tadpoles than men. In our journey we remarked that the north side of this great swamp lies higher than either the east or the west, nor were the approaches to it so full of sunken grounds. We passed by no less than two quaker meeting houses, one of which had an awkward ornament on the west end of it, that seemed to ape a steeple. I must own I expected no such piece of foppery from a sect of so much outside simplicity. That persuasion prevails much in the lower end of Nansemond county, for want of ministers to pilot the people a decenter way to heaven. The ill reputation of tobacco planted in those lower parishes makes the clergy unwilling to accept of them, unless it be such whose abilities are as mean as their pay. Thus, whether the churches be quite void or but indifferently filled, the quakers will have an opportunity of gaining proselytes. It is a wonder no popish missionaries are sent from Maryland to labour in this neglected vineyard, who we know have zeal enough to traverse sea and land on the meritorious errand of making converts. Nor is it less strange that some wolf in sheep's clothing arrives not from New England to lead astray a flock that has no shepherd. People uninstructed in any religion are ready to embrace the first that offers. It is natural for helpless man to adore his Maker in some form or other, and were there any exception to this rule, I should suspect it to be among the Hottentots of the cape of Good Hope and of North Carolina.
There fell a great deal of rain in the night, accompanied with a strong wind. The fellow-feeling we had for the poor Dismalites, on account of this unkind weather, rendered the down we laid upon uneasy. We fancied them half-drowned in their wet lodging, with the trees blowing down about their ears. These were the gloomy images our fears suggested; though it was so much uneasiness clear gain. They happened to come off much better, by being luckily encamped on the dry piece of ground afore-mentioned.
17th. They were, however, forced to keep the sabbath in spite of their teeth, contrary to the dispensation our good chaplain had given them. Indeed, their short allowance of provision would have justified their making the best of their way, without distinction of days. It was certainly a work both of necessity and self-preservation, to save themselves from starving. Nevertheless, the hard rain had made every thing so thoroughly wet, that it was quite impossible to do any business. They therefore made a virtue of what they could not help, and contentedly rested in their dry situation.
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Since the surveyors had entered the Dismal, they had laid eyes on no living creature: neither bird nor beast, insect nor reptile came in view. Doubtless, the eternal shade that broods over this mighty bog, and hinders the sunbeams from blessing the ground, makes it an uncomfortable habitation for any thing that has life. Not so much as a Zealand frog could endure so aguish a situation. It had one beauty, however, that delighted the eye, though at the expense of all the other senses: the moisture of the soil preserves a continual verdure, and makes every plant an evergreen but at the same time the foul damps ascend without ceasing, corrupt the air, and render it unfit for respiration. Not even a turkey buzzard will venture to fly over it, no more than the Italian vultures will over the filthy lake Avernus, or the birds in the Holy Land, over the Salt sea, where Sodom and Gomorrah formerly stood.
In these sad circumstances, the kindest thing we could do for our suffering friends was to give them a place in the Litany. Our chaplain, for his part, did his office, and rubbed us up with a seasonable sermon. This was quite a new thing to our brethren of North Carolina, who live in a climate where no clergyman can breathe, any more than spiders in Ireland.
For want of men in holy orders, both the members of the council and justices of the peace are empowered by the laws of that country to marry all those who will not take one another's word; but for the ceremony of christening their children, they trust that to chance. If a parson come in their way, they will crave a cast of his office, as they call it, else they are content their offspring should remain as arrant pagans as themselves. They account it among their greatest advantages that they are not priest-ridden, not remembering that the clergy is rarely guilty of bestriding such as have the misfortune to be poor. One thing may be said for the inhabitants of that province, that they are not troubled with any religious fumes, and have the least superstition of any people living. They do not know Sunday from any other day, any more than Robinson Crusoe did, which would give them a great advantage were they given to be industrious. But they keep so many sabbaths every week, that their disregard of the seventh day has no manner of cruelty in it, either to servants or cattle. It was with some difficulty we could make our people quit the good cheer they met with at this house, so it was late before we took our departure; but to make us amends, our landlord was so good as to conduct us ten miles on our way, as far as the Cypress swamp, which drains itself into the Dismal. Eight miles beyond that we forded the waters of the Coropeak, which tend the same way as do many others on that side. In six miles more we reached the plantation of Mr. Thomas Spight, a grandee of North Carolina. We found the good man upon his crutches, being crippled with the gout in both his knees. Here we flattered ourselves we should by this time meet with good tidings of the surveyors, but had reckoned, alas! without our host: on the contrary, we were told the Dismal was at least thirty miles wide in that place. However, as nobody could say this on his own knowledge, we ordered guns to be fired and a drum to be beaten, but received no answer, unless it was from that prating nymph Echo, who, like a loquacious wife, will always have the last word, and sometimes return three for one. It was indeed no wonder our signal was not heard at that time, by the people in the Dismal, because, in truth, they had not then penetrated one third of their way. They had that morning fallen to work with great vigour; and, finding the ground better than ordinary, drove on the line two miles and thirty-eight poles. This was reckoned an Herculean day's work, and yet they would not have stopped there, had not an impenetrable cedar thicket checked their industry. Our landlord had seated himself on the borders of this Dismal, for the advantage of the green
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food his cattle find there all winter, and for the rooting that supports his hogs. This, I own, is some convenience to his purse, for which his whole family pay dear in their persons, for they are devoured by mosquitoes all the summer, and have agues every spring and fall, which corrupt all the juices of their bodies, give them a cadaverous complexion, and besides a lazy, creeping habit, which they never get rid of.
We ordered several men to patrol on the edge of the Dismal, both towards the north and towards the south, and to fire guns at proper distances. This they performed very punctually, but could hear nothing in return, nor gain any sort of intelligence. In the mean time whole flocks of women and children flew hither to stare at us, with as much curiosity as if we had lately landed from Bantam or Morocco. Some borderers, too, had a great mind to know where the line would come out, being for the most part apprehensive lest their lands should be taken into Virginia. In that case they must have submitted to some sort of order and government; whereas, in North Carolina, every one does what seems best in his own eyes. There were some good women that brought their children to be baptized, but brought no capons along with them to make the solemnity cheerful. In the mean time it was strange that none came to be married in such a multitude, if it had only been for the novelty of having their hands joined by one in holy orders. Yet so it was, that though our chaplain christened above a hundred, he did not marry so much as one couple during the whole expedition. But marriage is reckoned a lay contract in Carolina, as I said before, and a country justice can tie the fatal knot there, as fast as an archbishop. None of our visiters could, however, tell us any news of the surveyors, nor indeed was it possible any of them should at that time, they being still laboring in the midst of the Dismal. It seems they were able to carry the link this day no further than one mile and sixty-one poles, and that whole distance was through a miry cedar bog, where the ground trembled under their feet most frightfully. In many places too their passage was retarded by a great number of fallen trees, that lay horsing upon one another. Though many circumstances concurred to make this an unwholesome situation, yet the poor men had no time to be sick, nor can one conceive a more calamitous case than it would have been to be laid up in that uncomfortable quagmire. Never were patients more tractable, or willing to take physic, than these honest fellows; but it was from a dread of laying their bones in a bog that would soon spew them up again. That consideration also put them upon more caution about their lodging. They first covered the ground with square pieces of cypress bark, which now, in the spring, they could easily slip off the tree for that purpose. On this they spread their bedding; but unhappily the weight and warmth of their bodies made the water rise up betwixt the joints of the bark, to their great inconvenience. Thus they lay not only moist, but also exceedingly cold, because their fires were continually going out. For no sooner was the trash upon the surface burnt away, but immediately the fire was extinguished by the moisture of the soil, insomuch that it was great part of the sentinel's business to rekindle it again in a fresh place, every quarter of an hour. Nor could they indeed do their duty better, because cold was the only enemy they had to guard against in a miserable morass, where nothing can inhabit.
20th. We could get no tidings yet of our brave adventurers, notwithstanding we despatched men to the likeliest stations to inquire after them. They were still scuffling in the mire, and could not possibly forward the line this whole day more than one mile and sixty-four chains. Every step of this day's work was through a cedar bog, where the trees were somewhat smaller and grew more into a thicket. It was now a great misfortune to the men to find their provisions grow less as their labour grew greater; they were all forced
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to come to short allowance, and consequently to work hard without filling their bellies. Though this was very severe upon English stomachs, yet the people were so far from being discomfited at it, that they still kept up their good humour, and merrily told a young fellow in the company, who looked very plump and wholesome, that he must expect to go first to pot, if matters should come to extremity. This was only said by way of jest, yet it made him thoughtful in earnest. However, for the present he returned them a very civil answer, letting them know that, dead or alive, he should be glad to be useful to such worthy good friends. But, after all, this humorous saying had one very good effect, for that younker, who before was a little inclined by his constitution to be lazy, grew on a sudden extremely industrious, that so there might be less occasion to carbonade him for the good of his fellow travellers. While our friends were thus embarrassed in the Dismal, the commissioners began to lie under great uneasiness for them. They knew very well their provisions must by this time begin to fall short, nor could they conceive any likely means of a supply. At this time of the year both the cattle and hogs had forsaken the skirts of the Dismal, invited by the springing grass on the firm land. All our hopes were that Providence would cause some wild game to fall in their way, or else direct them to a wholesome vegetable for their subsistence. In short they were haunted with so many frights on this occasion, that they were in truth more uneasy than the persons whose case they lamented. We had several visiters from Edenton, in the afternoon, that came with Mr. Gale, who had prudently left us at Coratuck, to scuffle through that dirty country by ourselves. These gentlemen, having good noses
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https://photius.com/countries/laos/government/laos_government_party_structure.html
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en
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Flags, Maps, Economy, History, Climate, Natural Resources, Current Issues, International Agreements, Population, Social Statistics, Political System
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<< Back to Laos Government
The LPP steadily grew from its initial 300 to 400 members ("25 delegates representing 300 to 400 members" were said to have attended the founding congress of the party). By 1965 there were 11,000 members; by 1972, as it prepared to enter into the final coalition with the RLG, it had grown to some 21,000 members; by 1975, when the party seized full power, it claimed a membership of 25,000; and by 1991, at the convening of the Fifth Party Congress, the LPRP claimed its membership had increased to 60,000.
The LPRP has been organized in a manner common to other ruling communist parties, with greatest similarity to the Vietnamese Communist Party. As in other such parties, the highest authority is the party congress, a gathering of party cadres from throughout the country that meets on an intermittent schedule for several days to listen to speeches, learn the plans for future party strategy, and ratify decisions already taken by the party leadership.
Next in the party hierarchy--since the elimination of the Secretariat in 1991--is the Central Committee, the party elite who fill key political positions throughout the country (see fig. 8). The Central Committee is charged with leading the party between congresses. In addition to members of the Politburo and former members of the Secretariat, the committee includes key government ministers, leading generals of the army, secretaries of provincial party committees, and chairpersons of mass organizations.
When the LPRP first revealed itself to the public in 1975, the Central Committee comprised twenty-one members and six alternates. By the Fourth Party Congress, its size had expanded to fifty-one members and nine alternates. The average age of a Central Committee member in 1986 was fifty-two, with the oldest seventy-seven and the youngest thirty-three. The number of women on the Central Committee rose from three to five, including Thongvin Phomvihan, then Secretary General Kaysone's wife, who was chair of the LPRP's People's Revolutionary Youth Union and, in 1982, the first woman appointed to the Central Committee.
At the Fifth Party Congress, the Central Committee stabilized in size at fifty-nine members and took on a few younger, more educated men to replace deceased or retired members. At the time, the oldest member was seventy-seven, the youngest thirty-five, with 22 percent over sixty, 30 percent between fifty and fifty-nine, and 40 percent under forty-nine. Only two women are full members of the Central Committee, and two continue as alternates. Thongvin Phomvihan--who had ranked thirty-fifth in 1986--was removed, accompanied by rumors of excessive political influence in her business activities. Notwithstanding this setback to Kaysone's family fortune, their son, Saisompheng Phomvihan, was appointed to the Central Committee, ranking forty-fifth, and was named governor of Savannakhét Province in 1993. This appointment inspired some private muttering about the emerging "princelings," referring as well to Souphanouvong's son, Khamsai Souphanouvong, number thirtyfour on the Central Committee, who became minister of finance.
Despite the party's rhetoric asserting ethnic equality, the Central Committee has been dominated by lowland Lao. Upland minorities remain sparsely represented at the highest levels of party leadership. Only four members of ethnic minority groups were reported on the Central Committee elected at the Fifth Party Congress.
The Central Committee is served by a number of subordinate committees. These committees include, most importantly, the Office of the Central Committee, and five other offices: Organization Committee; Propaganda and Training Committee; Party and State Control Committee; Administrative Committee of the Party and State School for Political Theory; and Committee for the Propagation of Party Policies.
Since 1972 the genuine center of political power, as in other communist parties, has resided in the Politburo. Membership of the Politburo, and formerly that of the Secretariat, is drawn from the Central Committee. A small group of men--seven in 1972 and eleven by 1993--have provided the critical leadership of the communist movement in Laos. A signal attribute of this group has been its remarkable cohesion and continuity. The Politburo has been dominated for more than fifteen years communist rule by the same stalwart band of revolutionary veterans. The twenty-five Laotian former members of the ICP who founded the LPP in 1955, and from whom the Politburo was drawn, remained in almost identical rank until illness and age began to take their toll in the 1980s. Kaysone was named secretary general of the then secret LPP upon its establishment, a post he retained until his death in 1992. Nouhak retained his number-two position on the Politburo into 1993. It was not until the Fifth Party Congress that Souphanouvong, Phoumi Vongvichit, and Sisomphone Lovansai (ranking third, fourth, and seventh, respectively) were retired with honorific titles as counselors to the Central Committee. Prime Minister Khamtai Siphandon was promoted to succeed Kaysone as chief of the party, and Phoun Sipaseut advanced a notch in rank. In 1991 the Politburo numbered ten, including only two new members.
Although the exact manner of Politburo decision making has never been revealed, a collegiality, based on long years of common experience, appears to have developed. In addition to their powerful position on the Politburo, members exercise additional political power--perhaps even more than in most other communist systems--through important posts within the governmental structure. In fact, for many years, five Politburo members also held seats on the Secretariat.
At the Fifth Party Congress, the party abolished the nineperson Secretariat of the Central Committee and changed the designation of the head of the party (Kaysone) from secretary general to chairman. Until it was abolished, the Secretariat wielded influence second only to that of the Politburo. The Secretariat issued party directives and acted on behalf of the Central Committee when it was not in session, in effect managing the day-to-day business of the party. Khamtai Siphandon became party chairman in November 1992, but it is not certain whether he will accrue the same power and influence as his predecessor.
Each of the sixteen provinces (khoueng--see Glossary) is directed by a party committee, chaired by a party secretary who is the dominant political figure in the province. At a lower level are 112 districts (muang--see Glossary), further divided into subdistricts (tasseng--see Glossary), each with their own party committees. Administratively, subdistricts have been abolished in principle since around 1993, but implementation has been uneven across provinces. It is unknown whether subdistrictlevel party committees have also been abolished. At the base of the country's administrative structure are more than 11,000 villages (ban--see Glossary), only some of which have party branches.
Data as of July 1994
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https://insidestory.org.au/family-problems/
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Family problems • Inside Story
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2011-01-19T06:04:00+00:00
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In the wake of the resignation of prime minister Bouasone Bouphavanh, Martin Stuart-Fox looks at politics and corruption in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic
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Inside Story
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https://insidestory.org.au/family-problems/
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THE surprise resignation of the Lao prime minister, Bouasone Bouphavanh, two days before Christmas brought about a transfer of power in Laos every bit as efficiently as the replacement of Kevin Rudd by Julia Gillard – but with none of the accompanying press speculation and commentary.
The Lao News Agency, KPL, simply reported that Bouasone had resigned in a statement to the National Assembly, which then unanimously endorsed the assembly president, Thongsing Thammavong, as his successor. The English-language Vientiane Times added that Bouasone had resigned because of “family problems,” but provided no other information. Thongsing, for his part, said only that his appointment would improve “implementation of the state’s roles and duties,” thereby ensuring continuing “political stability and basic social security.”
The mention of “family problems” was a reference to Bouasone’s recent divorce and growing resentment that his mistress had used her position to enrich herself and her family. The fact that no previous Lao leader has been forced to resign for such peccadilloes has generated alternative explanations – that Bouasone had failed to assert control over his cabinet, for example, or that he had allowed the budget deficit to blow out, or that he had failed to act promptly to deal with the “security problems” during last year’s celebrations of the 450th anniversary of the founding of the national capital, Vientiane. Some optimists even suggested that pressure for a change of leadership had come from the “democratically elected” National Assembly, which wanted more competent government.
None of these suggestions is convincing. Revenue has never been sufficient to cover more than recurrent expenditure in Laos, which has long relied on foreign aid to fund development projects. And to suggest that the National Assembly brought pressure to bear disregards the fact that all but two deputies are members of the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, or LPRP. Power within the party resides with the Central Committee, and specifically with the eleven top-ranking members who constitute the Politburo. So one thing is certain: Bouasone was replaced because powerful figures in the party hierarchy wanted him out.
But why? One clue lies in the timing of his ousting, three or four months before the Ninth Party Congress (for which no firm date has yet been announced). The five-yearly congresses do two things: they determine membership of the all-powerful Politiburo and Central Committee, and they endorse the next five-year plan. But position trumps policy. Intense politicking to decide the membership of the Politburo and rankings in the Central Committee goes on for months within the highly secretive LPRP; at the congress itself, these decisions are simply rubber-stamped. There is little doubt that Bouasone’s replacement is part of the jockeying for position prior to the congress.
Bouasone owed his own elevation at the previous congress in 2006 to support from outgoing party and state president Khamtai Siphandone. Bouasone was Khamtai’s long-time personal secretary, and rose in the party on his patron’s coattails. Both men are southerners, and Khamtai wanted his man in a position of power to protect his fiefdom in southern Laos. This Bouasone did, but once in power he also needed to develop his own patronage network of support within the party. Had he been able to do so it is unlikely he would have lost his job.
Who wanted Bouasone out? Given the inscrutability of Lao politics, this is more difficult to determine. The current party and state president is Choummaly Sayasone, a former general and close comrade of Khamtai, who is also a southerner. Choummaly may have agreed to get rid of Bouasone as the price for retaining his position at the Ninth Congress. Two other generals in their eighties – including Samane Vignakhet, who ranks number two in the Politburo – are expected to step down. The third-ranking member, Thongsing, is a northerner and a one-time mayor of Vientiane who has built a powerful support base within the party: for years he headed the committee responsible for managing internal party affairs. He may well have resented the appointment of Bouasone, whom he outranks, as prime minister.
Thongsing’s appointment is likely to have had the support of state vice-president Boungnang Vorachit, a former prime minister and another one-time mayor of Vientiane, who was closely associated, like Thongsing, with the veteran revolutionary Nouhak Phoumsavan. Support may also have come from the minister of foreign affairs, Thongloun Sisoulith, a northerner who was also passed over as prime minister in 2006.
Personal antagonism and resentment within the upper echelons of the leadership usually get put aside for the good of the party. Competition between regional interests carries more weight, and it may be that Bouasone’s replacement is indicative of a shift in the balance of advantage between southern and northern interests. Such competition becomes more intense before party congresses for the simple reason that who gets into the Politburo, or jumps up in the rankings in the Central Committee, influences opportunities to build political patronage and gain a greater share of the spoils of office.
Foreign observers frequently cite another factor at play in Lao politics: the competition between China and Vietnam for political influence. The LPRP depends on support from the communist parties of its far more powerful neighbours, both of which have significant economic interests in Laos. Traditionally, Vietnam has enjoyed closer party-to-party ties, but China has greater economic power and has invested heavily in infrastructure in Laos; the investments are part of Beijing’s involvement in the Greater Mekong Subregion project, which will link southern China with the states of mainland Southeast Asia (including roads and a proposed rail link between China and Thailand to run through Laos).
The Lao political leadership has been proficient in balancing friendly relationships with both China and Vietnam, and there is broad agreement that this balance must be maintained – just as there is general agreement that Laos should also maintain friendly relations with other ASEAN states, notably Thailand; with Japan, still the principal donor of foreign aid; and with the West. For a while the former foreign minister Somsavat Lengsavad, himself an ethnic Chinese from Luang Phrabang, was suspected of favouring Beijing over Hanoi. Somsavat, a northerner, may well have thrown his support behind Thongsing, but we should be wary of seeing this as reflecting Chinese involvement.
In the intense jockeying for places in the Politburo, Bouasone might not even retain his place. Among those ambitious for entry are three members of the Central Committee who jumped several places in the rankings at the 2006 Congress, among them the current security minister. They too may have reasons to back Thongsing, as may the woman who stepped into his shoes as president of the National Assembly, Pany Yathotu, the only Hmong in the Politburo.
BUT one issue more than any other is likely to have solidified opposition to Bouasone, and that is the threat of reduced opportunities for gain, both personal and for the extended family and patronage networks of powerful party leaders. Bouasone had promised to crack down on these “negative phenomena,” as he euphemistically put it. He maintained the embargo on exporting whole logs from Laos’s disappearing forests, though the military took little notice. And he followed this up with an embargo on land concessions, and another on new mining concessions.
Bouasone was under intense pressure from foreign aid donors and financial institutions to announce these embargoes. Though there was little rigorous enforcement, they did limit lucrative sources of graft for senior party members, threatening the interests of all those determined to exploit their positions in the way others had done before them. Significantly, Thongsing has said nothing about limiting corruption, though he has vowed to improve government efficiency in order “to ensure state activities are timely, transparent, united and harmonious” – whatever that might mean.
Corruption is the ogre in the woodpile of Lao politics. It extends throughout the bureaucracy and the police and security forces. Much of this is at a petty level, but much is harmful – and not just to the reputation of the party. Environmental laws are flouted as officials are paid to turn a blind eye to the smuggling of timber (mostly to Vietnam by the military) and endangered wildlife (mostly to China). Taxes and customs dues are “negotiated” – reduced in return for a consideration paid to officials – to the detriment of state revenues. In Transparency International’s corruption index for 2010, Laos came in at number 154 out of 178 countries.
The pervasiveness of corruption is due in large part to the example set by political leaders. Members of the Politburo and their families have become excessively rich. They have built vast villas, drive luxury cars, and hold lavish parties. Marriages between children of the political elite are occasions for the display of wealth, with political favours paid off in the form of envelopes stuffed with cash. Children of the elite are immune to the law in a country where legal disputes are often decided on the basis of who pays the judge the biggest bribe.
Businesses pay bribes for government contracts and for political protection (obtained by placing prominent party members on their boards). Foreign-owned businesses pay off party officials and tax assessors. Chinese mining companies reportedly pay to avoid undertaking environmental impact assessments. Probably the worst corruption, however, occurs over land. Large areas in Laos have been given over to foreign, mainly Chinese, companies on long leases for plantation forestry and agriculture. As land outside the urban areas legally belongs to the state, even where it has traditionally been used by villagers for collection of forest products or slash-and-burn farming, local and central government officials can and do accept substantial payments to sign off on leases and forcibly remove anyone who objects.
In a country where expenditure on social services is abysmally low, corruption chronically depletes revenue. Yet the government proclaims its intention to lift the country out of the UN’s least-developed category by 2020. Tourism is a major industry, but the principal resource industries capable of topping up government coffers are mining and hydropower. Mines pay dues and royalties, and hydropower is sold to neighbouring countries. The huge US$1.45 billion Nam Theun II hydro dam in central Laos, officially inaugurated in December, generates 1070 megawatts of electricity, over 90 per cent of which will be sold to Thailand, netting the government around US$80 million a year. Several other dams are under construction on tributaries of the Mekong, while others – including on the main channel of the upper Mekong – are on the drawing board. Warnings about possible environmental damage go unheeded.
Given the “leakage” that occurs through corruption in every government program and foreign aid project, from building a school to maintaining an irrigation system, it remains to be seen whether income from resource industries will be sufficient to cover the increased expenditure required to meet the government’s development plans. Laos does have an anti-corruption law, but unlike China and Vietnam, no senior official has ever been indicted. Nor is this likely to change, Laos’s patrimonial political culture needs to be constantly oiled through the disbursement of wealth and favours, and corruption provides the means. Changing prime ministers in the lead-up to the Ninth Party Congress is not going to change that. •
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https://uca.edu/politicalscience/home/research-projects/dadm-project/asiapacific-region/laos-1954-present/
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37. Laos (1954-present)
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Crisis Phase (December 29, 1954-July 27, 1959): Laos formally achieved its independence from France on December 29, 1954. The International Commission on Supervision and Control (ICSC-Laos I) chaired by India, which was established on August 11, 1954, continued to oversee and report on the implementation of the Geneva Accords. The ICSC-Laos I consisted of 96 military and civilian personnel from Canada (32), Poland (32), and India (32). Legislative elections were held in December 1955, and the Laotian Progressive Party (LPP) won 22 out of 39 seats in the National Assembly. The Laotian Independent Party (LIP) headed by Phoui Sananikone won seven seats in the National Assembly. The Pathet Lao (Lao Homeland) claimed election fraud. The French government provided military assistance (military advisors and training) to the government beginning in January 1955. The U.S. provided economic and military assistance to the government beginning in January 1955. The Lao People’s Party (LPP), later renamed the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP), was established with Kaysone Phomvihane as General-Secretary on March 22, 1955. Prince Souvanna Phouma was selected as prime minister by the National Assembly on August 25, 1957. The Neo Lao Hak Sat was established in 1957. Legislative elections were held on May 4, 1958, and the Rally of the Lao People (Lao Luam Lao), which was formed as a result of a merger of the Laotian Nationalist Party (LNP) and the LIP, won 36 out of 59 seats in the National Assembly. The ICSC-Laos I was disbanded on July 20, 1958. The Neo Lao Hak Sat won nine seats in the National Assembly. Prime Minister Phouma resigned on July 23, 1958, and Phoui Sananikone formed a government as prime minister on August 19, 1958. North Vietnamese government troops intervened in support of the Pathet Lao in December 1958. The U.S. government provided military assistance (military technicians) to the government beginning in January 1959.
Conflict Phase (July 28, 1959-June 12, 1962): Pathet Lao rebels and North Vietnamese troops launched a military offensive against government troops (Royal Lao Army – RLA) in northern Laos beginning on July 28, 1959. The government declared a state-of-emergency in Sam Neua and Phong Saly provinces on August 4, 1959. On September 3, 1959, the Laotian government accused North Vietnam of aggression after Pathet Lao rebels and North Vietnamese troops captured several villages in northern Laos. The Laotian government referred the matter to the United Nations (UN) Security Council on September 4, 1959. The UN Security Council established a four-member commission of inquiry (Argentina, Italy, Japan, Tunisia) headed by Shinichi Shibusawa of Japan on September 7, 1959. King Sisavang Phoulivong (Sisavang Vong) died on October 29, 1959, and Crown Prince Savang Vatthana was formally proclaimed King on November 4, 1959. The UN commission of inquiry issued a report on November 6, 1959, which suggested that it could not find evidence that North Vietnamese troops had crossed the border into Laos. UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold appointed Sakari Tuomioja of Finland as special envoy to the country on November 15, 1959. Prime Minister Phoui Sananikone resigned on December 31, 1959, and Kou Abhay formed a government as prime minister on January 7, 1960. Edouard Zellweger of Switzerland replaced Sakari Tuomioja as the UN special envoy on March 1, 1960. Legislative elections were held on April 24 and May 8, 1960, and right-wing candidates won 59 out of 59 seats in the National Assembly. Prime Minister Kou Abhay resigned on May 30, 1960, and Prince Tiao Somsanith formed a coalition government as prime minister on June 2, 1960. Prime Minister Nosavan was overthrown in a military rebellion led by Captain Kong Le on August 9, 1960. In opposition to the military rebellion, General Phoumi Nosavan declared martial law on August 10, 1960. UN Special Envoy Edouard Zellweger mediated an agreement among the political factions on August 31, 1960, which resulted in the formation of a government headed by Prince Souvanna Phouma on September 2, 1960. Government troops and right-wing rebels commanded by General Phoumi Nosavan clashed near Paksane on September 20-22, 1960, resulting in the deaths of 30 rebels and one government soldier. General Phoumi Nosavan’s troops bombarded the capital of Vientiane on December 13-15, 1960, resulting in the deaths of some 500 civilians and 17 soldiers under the command of Captain Kong Le. Captain Kong Le’s troops withdrew from Vientiane on December 16, 1960. The Soviet Union provided military assistance (44 transport aircraft and military supplies) to Captain Kong Le’s faction in December 1960. A coalition consisting of Captain Kong Le’s neutralist troops and Pathet Lao rebels launched a military offensive against government troops in northern Laos on January 1, 1961. The government of Thailand provided military assistance (T-6 military aircraft) to the government beginning on January 3, 1961. Prince Boun Oum formed a government as prime minister on January 4, 1961. The Chinese government provided military assistance (weapons and ammunition) to Pathet Lao rebels beginning in 1961. The U.S. government provided additional military assistance (T-6 observation planes and helicopters) to the government on January 9, 1961. Pathet Lao rebels captured Ta Viang on January 14, 1961, and government troops captured Vang Vieng on January 16-17, 1961. President John Kennedy of the US appealed for a ceasefire on January 22, 1961. Pathet Lao rebels launched a military offensive against the government on March 9, 1961. Britain and the Soviet Union jointly appealed for a ceasefire on April 24, 1961. The US provided additional military assistance (emergency airlift of weapons) in support of the government on April 26, 1961. On May 1, 1961 the International Commission for Supervision and Control (ICSC – Laos II) was established to monitor a potential ceasefire agreement and the withdrawal of foreign troops from Laos. ICSC – Laos II consisted of 22 military personnel from Canada, India, and Poland. The Laotian government and Pathet Lao agreed to a cessation of military hostilities on May 13, 1961. U.S. President John Kennedy mobilized naval ships in a display of military force in the Gulf of Siam, and mobilized some 5,000 troops in Thailand on May 12, 1962. The Swiss government facilitated negotiations involving 14 countries (Britain, France, Soviet Union, US, China, Cambodia, Laos, North Vietnam, South Vietnam, Burma, India, Thailand, Canada, and Poland) chaired by Britain and the Soviet Union in Geneva, Switzerland beginning on May 16, 1962. Government and Pathet Lao representatives signed a peace agreement in Khang Khay on June 12, 1962, which provided for the formation of a coalition government headed by Souvanna Phouma as prime minister. Some 5,000 individuals were killed during the conflict.
Post-Conflict Phase (June 13, 1962-April 26, 1964): The Declaration and Protocol on the Neutrality of Laos was signed by the participants of the 14-nation conference on July 23, 1962, which provided for the neutrality of Laos and the withdrawal of troops from Laos to be monitored by the ICSC-Laos II. U.S. troops began withdrawing from Laos on September 17, 1962, and some 800 U.S. military advisors and technicians completed their withdrawal from the country on October 7, 1962. Prince Souvanna Phouma formed a provisional government as prime minister in 1962. Neutralist troops commanded by General Kong Le and Pathet Lao rebels clashed in the Plaine des Jarres region on March 30-April 13, 1963, resulting in the deaths of 200 individuals. The British, Soviet, and U.S. governments appealed for a ceasefire in April 1963. Pathet Lao rebels captured Ban Kosi on April 16, 1963. Pathet Lao rebels and right-wing troops clashed in Savannakhet province on April 25, 1963, resulting in the deaths of 20 rebels. The North Vietnamese government provided military assistance (weapons and military advisors), and deployed some 67,000 troops in support of the Pathet Lao beginning in January 1964. Pathet Lao rebels and right-wing troops clashed in north-central Laos on January 3, 1964, resulting in the deaths of 128 government soldiers. Pathet Lao rebels and North Vietnamese troops captured Na Kay from neutralist troops on January 23-31, 1964. The coalition government headed by Prince Souvanna Phouma was overthrown in a right-wing military rebellion led by General Kouprasith Abhay on April 19, 1964, resulting in the deaths of two individuals. The British, French, and U.S. governments expressed opposition to the military rebellion on April 19, 1964, and the Soviet government condemned the military rebellion on April 20, 1964. Some 500 individuals were killed in political violence between May 1961 and April 1964.
Conflict Phase (April 27, 1964-February 22, 1973): Pathet Lao rebels resumed military hostilities against the government on April 27, 1964. The governments of the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union appealed for a ceasefire on April 29, 1964. The governments of the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union jointly condemned the military rebellion on May 1, 1964. Prince Souvanna Phouma was restored as prime minister on May 2, 1964. The US deployed military aircraft against Pathet Lao rebels beginning in May 1964, and some 1,000 US military advisors were deployed in support of the government in May 1964. The Chinese government provided some 70,000 logistical and construction troops in support of the Pathet Lao from 1964 to 1975, and some 21,000 Chinese troops (anti-aircraft artillery forces) were deployed in support of the Pathet Lao from August 1969 to November 1973. South Vietnam provided military assistance and troops in support of the Laotian government. The government of Thailand provided military assistance in support of the Laotian government, and deployed some 15,000 troops in support of the Laotian government. France facilitated negotiations between government and Pathet Lao representatives in Paris in 1964, and the parties ended negotiations in Paris in October 1964. Government troops and Pathet Lao rebels resumed military hostilities on October 15, 1964. Government troops suppressed a right-wing military rebellion led by Colonel Bounleuth Sykosy on January 31-February 16, 1965, resulting in the deaths of 79 individuals. The U.S. government expressed support for the government of Prime Minister Souvanna Phouma on February 7, 1965. The government of Indonesia provided military assistance to the Laotian neutralist troops led by General Kong Le beginning on August 11, 1965. Legislative elections were held on July 18, 1965, and the National Assembly convened on August 16, 1965. The National Assembly was dissolved on October 7, 1966. The Laotian government suppressed a military rebellion led by Brigadier-General Thao Ma on October 21-22, 1966, resulting in the deaths of some 30 individuals. Government troops, supported by U.S. Air Force planes, attacked Pathet Lao troops in the Plaine des Jarres and Xieng Khoang regions. Some 200 U.S. military personnel were killed in Laos between January 1959 and December 1969, and some 270 Chinese soldiers were killed in Laos from 1964 to 1975. Pathet Lao rebels and North Vietnamese troops launched a military offensive against government troops in the Plaine des Jarres region on February 11, 1970. Laotian government troops and U.S. military aircraft launched a military offensive against Pathet Lao rebels in the Plaine des Jarres region on January 7, 1972. Laotian government and Pathet Lao representatives held negotiations beginning on October 17, 1972. Laotian government and Pathet Lao representatives signed a ceasefire agreement in Vientiane on February 21, 1973, and the ceasefire went into effect on February 22, 1973. Some 25,000 individuals were killed, and some 400,000 individuals were internally-displaced during the conflict.
Post-Conflict Phase (February 23, 1973-December 31, 1975): Government troops suppressed a military rebellion led by Brig.-General Thao Ma on August 20-21, 1973, resulting in the deaths of some 20 individuals. The 12-member Provisional Government of National Union (PGNU) headed by Prime Souvanna Phouma and the 42-member Joint National Political Council (JNPC) headed by Prince Souphanouvong were established on April 5, 1974. Thai troops completed their withdrawal from the country on June 1, 1974. U.S. government military advisors completed their withdrawal from the country on June 3, 1974. ICSC-Laos II was disbanded on June 30, 1974. The government decided to dissolve the National Assembly on July 10, 1974, but the National Assembly was not dissolved until April 13, 1975. King Savang Vatthana abdicated on November 29, 1975. The Kingdom of Laos was abolished, and the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos (PDRL) was proclaimed with Prince Souphanouvong as president on December 2, 1975. Kaysone Phomvihan, secretary-general of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP), formed a government as prime minister on December 4, 1975. The U.S. government imposed economic sanctions (trade embargo) against the government in December 1975. Some 200,000 Hmong tribesmen fled as refugees to Thailand.
Conflict Phase (January 1, 1976-January 31, 1992): Hmong tribesmen launched an insurgency against the government beginning in January 1976. Government troops, supported by some 40,000 Vietnamese troops, launched military offensives against Hmong tribesmen in Xieng Khouang province from October 1977 to November 18, 1978, resulting in the deaths of some 5,000 individuals. The World Bank provided reconstruction assistance to the government between December 27, 1977 and June 30, 1997. Former Prime Minister Phoui Sananikone and other right-wing exiles established the Royal Government of Free Laos in Perpignan, France on October 14, 1978. Some 350,000 Laotians fled as refugees to Thailand and other countries between 1975 and 1982. The Chinese government provided military assistance (arms and military training) to the Hmong tribesmen in 1979 and 1980. The London-based human rights non-governmental organization, Amnesty International, condemned the Laotian government on April 16, 1980. General Vang Pao, a member of the Hmong tribe, established the Lao National Liberation Front (LNLF) in 1981. The UNLF headed by General Phoumi Nosavan formed the Royal Lao Democratic Government in Bangkok, Thailand on August 18, 1982. Hmong insurgents attacked and killed some 40 Vietnamese and government soldiers in Saravane province in southern Laos on May 14, 1984. President Souphanouvong stepped down due to ill health, and Phoumi Vongvichit was appointed as Acting President on October 31, 1986. Elections for district councils were held on June 26, 1988, and elections for provincial councils were held on November 20, 1988. Legislative elections were held on March 26, 1989, and the LPRP won 55 out of 79 seats in the Supreme People’s Assembly. Some Vietnamese troops were withdrawn from the country in 1988. The National Assembly adopted a new constitution, and elected Kaysone Phomvihan as president on August 14, 1991. Laotian government troops and Hmong insurgents clashed near Vientiane in January 1992. Some 100,000 Hmong tribesmen died as a result of government policies between 1975 and 1992.
Post-Conflict Phase (February 1, 1992-present): President Phomvihan died on November 21, 1992, and Nouhak Phoumsavan was elected president by the National Assembly on November 25, 1992. Legislative elections were held on December 20, 1992, and the LPRP won 85 out of 85 seats in the National Assembly. A new constitution went into effect in 1994. Former president, Prince Souphanouvong, died on January 9, 1995. The U.S. government lifted economic sanctions (trade embargo) against the Laotian government in 1995. Legislative elections were held on December 21, 1997, and the LPRP won 99 out of 99 seats in the National Assembly. General Khamtai Siphandon of the LPRP was elected president by the National Assembly on February 24, 1998, and Sisavath Keobounphanh was approved as prime minister on February 24, 1998. Hmong tribesmen killed three individuals in Paxai district in Xieng Khouang province in October 1998. On July 3, 2000, Hmong insurgents attacked a government customs office in Vang Tao, resulting in the deaths of six insurgents. Legislative elections were held on February 24, 2002, and the LPRP won 108 out of 109 seats in the National Assembly. Hmong tribesmen killed ten individuals south of Vientiane on February 6, 2003. Hmong tribesmen killed twelve individuals on the border of Luang Prabang province and Viengchan province on April 20, 2003. Hmong tribesmen killed six individuals in northern Laos on June 7, 2003. Legislative elections were held on April 30, 2006, and the LPRP won 113 out of 115 seats in the National Assembly. The National Assembly elected Choummaly Sayasone as president on June 8, 2006. President Choummaly Sayasone appointed Bouasone Bouphavanh as prime minister on June 8, 2006.
[Sources: Associated Press (AP), March 27, 2000, July 3, 2000, August 7, 2000, June 27, 2003; Banks and Muller, 1998, 520-524; Bercovitch and Jackson, 1997, 93; Brecher and Wilkenfeld, 1997, 183-185; British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), July 2, 2003; Butterworth, 1976, 240-246, 345-348; Clodfelter, 1992, 1127-1131; Degenhardt, 1988, 207-208; Donelan and Grieve, 1973, 106-111; Facts on File, January 1-11, 1961, January 12-18, 1961, April 27-May 3, 1961, June 7-13, 1962, October 11-17, 1962, April 4-10, 1963, April 11-17, 1963, January 9-15, 1964, January 30-February 5, 1964, April 16-22, 1964, April 23-29, 1964, May 14-20, 1964, January 28-February 3, 1965, February 4-10, 1965, August 26-September 1, 1965, October 20-26, 1966, February 18-24, 1973, August 19-25, 1973; Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER), January 1, 1970; Jessup, 1998, 416-418; Keesing’s Record of World Events, July 25-August 1, 1959, September 12-19, 1959, December 5-12, 1959, December 26, 1959-January 2, 1960, February 6-13, 1960, June 11-18, 1960, October 29-November 5, 1960, August 24-31, 1963, December 3-10, 1966, July 18-25, 1970, May 29-June 5, 1971, April 16-22, 1973, April 22-28, 1974, August 18-24, 1975, January 30, 1976, November 20, 1981, March 1989, August 1991, November 1992, December 1992, December 1997, February 1998; Langer, 1972, 1332-1334; LeBar and Suddard 1960; New York Times, May 27, 1984; San Francisco Chronicle, June 14, 2003; Rovine, 1970, 305-309; Time Magazine, April 28, 2003; Wainhouse, 1966, 390-393, 501-512; Weisburd, 1997, 179-182; Zhang, 2002, 1141-1166.]
Selected Bibliography
Adams, Nina S. 1970. “Patrons, Clients, and Revolutionaries: The Lao Search for Independence, 1945-1954,” In Nina S.
Adams and Alfred W. McCoy, editors. Laos: War and Revolution. New York and London: Harper & Row, Publishers.
LeBar, Frank M. and Adrienne Suddard, editors. 1960. Laos: Its People, Its Society, Its Culture. New Haven, CT: Hraf Press.
Zasloff, Joseph J. and Leonard Unger. 1991. Laos: Beyond the Revolution. New York: St. Martin’s Press.
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Lazy, hazy, crazy Laos
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OK, how many unreconstructed communist one-party states are there left from the old eastern bloc days? It's easy to name four: China, because it's huge; Vietnam, because it's resonant; Cuba, because it spooks the Americans; North Korea, because it spooks everyone. But there's a fifth, of which we hear almost nothing.
That's partly because it's small, obscure and distant, and partly because its leaders have skilfully kept the place out of the limelight. There are no journalists in the country, excluding the poor saps whose job is to regurgitate what the party tells them.
This, however, is a big month in the Lao People's Democratic Republic, otherwise known as Laos, the country tucked away inland from Vietnam. Tomorrow is National Day and there will be a huge parade to mark the 25th anniversary of the communist takeover on December 2 1975. Nine days later the foreign ministers of Europe (or underlings like Britain's John Battle) will meet their south-east Asian counterparts at a summit in the capital, Vientiane.
From their hotel and limousine windows, they will glimpse somewhere wholly at odds with the conventional notion of any Asian capital, still less a communist one. Vientiane is a strange and dreamy place. English villages have more traffic. There are thousands of dogs, but one rarely summons enough vigour to bark. The city bakes in the sun and the Mekong River drifts by, between sandbars, as lazy in the dry season as everything else. And this is the bustling heart of Laos. The lovely former capital of Luang Prabang apart, the rest is mostly mountains and tropical forest. No one has had the energy to chop it all down yet.
Laos was always like this, apparently. "The Vietnamese plant rice," went a French colonialist saying, "the Lao listen to it grow." And the torpor affects everyone. "Europeans who come here to live soon acquire a certain, recognisable manner," wrote Norman Lewis in 1951. "They develop quiet voices and strange, rapt expressions."
Vientiane feels like one of those small South American towns where Butch and Sundance might ride in to rob a bank. Not that they would find much worth stealing: the currency is almost worthless. It is called the kip (which ought to be divided into 40 winks). The national monument is called the Great Stupa, which sums up the mood. Except when a bomb goes off. Which happens frequently.
In the past seven months, 12 devices have exploded round the city, at places where tourists and ordinary Laos congregate: a backpackers' cafe, the morning market, the airport. There have certainly been serious injuries. Estimates of deaths range from zero to 10. Nobody knows. Nobody even knows who is planting the bombs or why.
By the end of my third day in the country, I have heard nine separate explanations and am working on a 10th myself. A senior minister, asked who did it, replies: "Bad people." The randomness of the attacks makes it hard to argue.
But nobody knows anything in Laos. Not a thing. For instance, there is no consensus among observers on who wields the power inside the politburo: the president, Khamtay Siphandone, or someone else. It is like the Moscow of 30 years ago, when outsiders only got a clue that a leader had been ousted when he failed to show up on May Day. But even in the Soviet Union it was possible to agree on a few fundamentals.
"Let's get this right," I say to one analyst. "Laos is a country of five million people . . ."
"Well, maybe," he replies. "Something like that. They've never been counted properly. So how would anyone know?"
"OK," I say. "And it's about the size of Britain . . ."
He looks pained.
"Surely we know how big Laos is . . ."
"Not necessarily. They're just starting on the demarcation of the Chinese border. The Vietnamese border goes through deep jungle and it's completely unclear where the line might be. And then there's the Mekong, which keeps shifting."
Those borders have been the country's damnation for ever. Everyone has come in and rained on the gentle Lao: the Chinese, the Burmese, the Siamese, the French (who invested nothing), the Lao royal family ("degenerate" is the kindest description I hear), the Americans (from a great height) and finally the communists and their Vietnamese patrons. It was said that the US dropped more bombs on Laos when the Vietnam war spilled over than were dropped in the whole of the second world war. They made no difference.
The governing creed behind American involvement was the domino theory: if Vietnam went communist, neighbouring countries would topple; even Japan and Australia might soon be threatened.
And this was proved partially right. Laos fell, not as brutally as Cambodia, but brutally enough. The royal family was taken away and never reappeared. At least 30,000 others - maybe many more - were sent away for re-education. For 10 years, stern neo-Stalinism was enforced. On National Day 1985 the masses were instructed to be on the parade ground at 4am to hear hour-long speeches starting at six, followed by a march-past by men and women in boiler suits.
But those permeable borders had advantages. East European dissidents had to risk their lives trying to breach the iron curtain; Cubans and Vietnamese died en masse while trying to escape in small boats. But it is impossible to patrol the Mekong. At very low water, there are places you can paddle across. Anyone who really wanted to go could be in Thailand in no time. Many left at once, including the fighters from the Hmong minority in the north, who had thought they were playing safe by throwing in their lot with the CIA. The Mekong has been a major smuggling route since the middle ages: spices, opium, slaves, escapees, whatever. No system could change that.
And eventually the ancient traditions began to dilute the ideology. Most urban Laos are followers of Theravada Buddhism, a stoical branch of a stoical religion, which helped them endure the early years. The leadership then gave up persecuting Buddhism (though Christian missionaries are still barred), and appropriated Buddhist symbolism for the state. Laos become a unique flower, a red-and-saffron hybrid. And for a time it looked like flourishing.
"In the early 90s, inch by inch, this place really was coming out of the dark ages," one Vientiane-based businessman tells me. "We thought we might even have free elections." He was spectacularly wrong, which is why he (and everyone else who speaks to me) cannot be named.
Politically, Laos remains almost a client state of Vietnam, the exact state of dependence - like everything else - being unclear. Its leaders are elderly and anonymous. They do not terrorise the people, but they permit no argument. And, as in Vietnam, the economy nosedived in the late 90s. Officially, this was because of the Asian economic crisis. According to critics, it was because the government insisted on fuelling inflation at the worst possible moment. Now the kip is mainly good for wallpaper: the largest note, a 5,000, is worth just over 40p. Government salaries did not go up to compensate, so Buddhism and Leninism had to be replaced by a new official state religion: kickbackism.
"We're being squeezed all the time," says the businessman. "It's not tax, it's bribes. You don't just bribe at the top. You bribe everybody from the cleaner upwards or you don't get anything at all. If you want a licence for something, you need $40,000, or in every office there'll be a problem. So if you're a foreign investor, you say, 'Here's a market of 5m people, 3m of whom are lost in the forest. Is it worth it?' You think 10 times about coming here."
There is a charitable way of regarding the bribery. Laos could be described as a functioning kleptocracy. The collapse of the kip means a mid-ranking civil servant now earns about £15 a month. Even ministers might earn only double that. That's if the pay actually turns up. Since the government cannot afford to increase the salaries, Laos has absorbed the canker into its system and developed a pay-as-you-go civil service. Since life for the peasantry goes on as ever, and the private sector operates in dollars or Thai bahts, the only people really being screwed are those, such as teachers, who are not considered worth bribing.
Tourist dollars are welcome, too, and numbers are slowly increasing - perhaps up to 5,000 Britons will visit this year. Indeed, backpackers now dominate the centre of Vientiane, and the gaudy Buddhist temples are being outnumbered by the tourists' own shrines, the internet cafes. There they worship for hours, seeking answers from their own god, all-knowing, even of the third-division football results.
These are more innocent diversions than used to be the norm. Poppies are a major cash crop. Before the US embassy got heavy and threatened the aid programme, Vientiane was perhaps the easiest capital in the world to get an opium hit. The Vang Vieng area, north of Vientiane, is reputedly still full of opium dens, though I suspect they are run by police to entrap tourists who then have to bribe their way out.
But who needs drugs here? Breathe the air and you fall into a trance. And when the breeze blows along the Mekong it feels very close to heaven. After an hour at a forest temple, I have mentally composed my letter to the editor ("As you will have expected for some time, I am resigning from the Guardian to become a Buddhist monk"). I defer posting it after talking to one of my prospective colleagues, who mentions the 4am starts and the absence of food after midday. But the monks, I feel, are the most enviably spirited people in Laos. "I hate the communists," says my friend, "but they leave us alone."
Life for an expatriate does seem rather terrifying. The English-language paper suggests nothing except a Sunday game of "Touch Ruby", which sounds most exciting until I realise there is a g missing. Norman Lewis said the chief diversion in 1950 was a trip to the slaughterhouse. Even now, there is a semi-official midnight curfew. The handful of discos and bars are shut by 11.30 and there is nothing else to do except snog on the riverbank, an enchanting prospect, especially at full moon (a time of great propitiousness in Lao culture), at least until a policeman shows up. Extramarital sex between foreigners and Laos is illegal; marriage requires years of bribing officials.
But through it all, the shadows of the bombers. Who and why? The following are named to me as possible perpetrators:
1. Disaffected Hmong.
2. Royalists.
3. The Chinese, bent on conquest.
4. A business dispute.
5. An internal dispute between governmental factions.
6. The CIA.
7. The army - to get at the police.
8. Vice versa.
9. A lovers' tiff.
We have gone beyond the point where the lovers' tiff explanation is credible. I offer instead my own thought that the incidence of bombings went down as the river levels went up in the wet season - suggesting that the perpetrators might be Lao exiles coming over from Thailand.
Between attacks, life drifts on. There is none of the furious ambition that drives China or Vietnam. The people are not starving, as in North Korea. The regime seems to have the same air of gentle, drifting futility as the people. Perhaps this will be the last communist state, because no one will feel motivated enough to topple it. Or maybe one huge bomb at tomorrow's parade will blast the whole government apart. You cannot begin to guess.
The businessman still has flashes of optimism. Mountains, forest, a history of trade . . . "This place could be the Switzerland of Asia," he says.
"Be careful," I warn. "They used to talk about the Switzerland of Africa. That was Rwanda."
"No, that would never happen here," he says. "Even the military's got no money and no arms. They'd have to ask the Vietnamese to do the fighting."
|
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https://kids.kiddle.co/Choummaly_Sayasone
|
en
|
Choummaly Sayasone facts for kids
|
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Learn Choummaly Sayasone facts for kids
|
en
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/images/wk/favicon-16x16.png
|
https://kids.kiddle.co/Choummaly_Sayasone
|
Lieutenant General Choummaly Sayasone (Lao: ຈູມມະລີ ໄຊຍະສອນ; born 6 March 1936) is a Laotian politician who was General Secretary (supreme leader) of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and President of Laos (head of state) from 2006 to 2016.
History
Choummaly Sayasone was born in Attapeu. He joined the Party's Politburo in 1991 and was Minister of Defence from 1991 to 2001. Subsequently he was the third Vice President of Laos from 2001 to 2006.
He was elected as the LPRP's General Secretary on 21 March 2006, in the aftermath of the Party's 8th Congress, by the first plenum of the eighth Central Committee, succeeding Khamtai Siphandone as de facto leader of Laos. He subsequently succeeded Siphandon as the 6th President of Laos on 8 June 2006.
In March 2011, he was reelected to his position as the LPRP's General Secretary at the 9th LPRP Congress. In June 2011, he was re-elected as President of Laos at the seventh National Assembly. He did not seek re-election to the LPRP Central Committee at the 10th LPRP Congress in January 2016, indicating his retirement. Bounnhang Vorachit was elected to succeed him as General Secretary on 22 January 2016.
On 4 April 2021, Sayasone and his family were on a yacht in Nam Ngum Lake, when there was a storm and the vessel capsized. Although initially feared dead, Sayasone survived, but nine people died, including his wife, Keosaychay Sayasone, and his son.
Awards and honors
Cuba:
Order of José Martí (2015)
Vietnam:
Gold Star Order (2006)
See also
|
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2
| 37
|
https://pantheon.world/profile/occupation/politician/country/laos
|
en
|
Greatest Laotian Politicians
|
http://localhost:3000/api/screenshot/occupation-country?occupation=politician&country=lao
|
http://localhost:3000/api/screenshot/occupation-country?occupation=politician&country=lao
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1. Thongloun Sisoulith (b. 1946 )
With an HPI of 65.39 , Thongloun Sisoulith is the most famous Laotian Politician . His biography has been translated into 41 different languages on wikipedia.
Thongloun Sisoulith (Lao: ທອງລຸນ ສີສຸລິດ; born 10 November 1945) is a Lao historian and politician serving as General Secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party since 15 January 2021 and President of Laos since 22 March 2021. Thongloun was born and educated in Houaphan province, before receiving education in Leningrad and Moscow in the Soviet Union. During the Laotian Civil War, he supported the Pathet Lao as a teacher. He then became the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1987 which lasted to 1992, where he then served in numerous other posts in government. In 2001, he became the Deputy Prime Minister of Laos before becoming the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2006. Described as a 'moderate' by the U.S embassy in Vientiane, Thongloun helped improve Laos-United States relations, which was welcomed in 2009 by Senator Jim Webb and in 2010 by Hillary Clinton; while also improving Laos' relationship with China and Vietnam. In 2016, he became the Prime-minister of Laos where he undertook anti-corruption campaigns. He then became the General Secretary of the LPRP and the President in 2021.
2 . Souphanouvong ( 1909 - 1995 )
With an HPI of 64.12 , Souphanouvong is the 2nd most famous Laotian Politician . His biography has been translated into 40 different languages.
Prince Souphanouvong (13 July 1909 – 9 January 1995; Lao: ສຸພານຸວົງ Lao pronunciation: [ˌsupʰaːˈnuʋoŋ]), nicknamed the Red Prince, was along with his half-brother Prince Souvanna Phouma and Prince Boun Oum of Champasak, one of the "Three Princes" who represented respectively the communist (pro-Vietnam), neutralist and royalist political factions in Laos. He was the President of Laos from December 1975 to October 1986.
6 . Sisavang Vatthana ( 1907 - 1978 )
With an HPI of 59.14 , Sisavang Vatthana is the 6th most famous Laotian Politician . His biography has been translated into 31 different languages.
Sisavang Vatthana (Lao: ພຣະບາທສົມເດັຈພຣະເຈົ້າມະຫາຊີວິຕສີສວ່າງວັດທະນາ) or sometimes Savang Vatthana (full title: Samdach Brhat Chao Mavattaha Sri Vitha Lan Xang Hom Khao Phra Rajanachakra Lao Phengdara Parama Sidha Khattiya Suriya Varman Brhat Maha Sri Savangsa Vadhana; 13 November 1907 – 13 May 1978) was the last king of the Kingdom of Laos and the 6th Prime Minister of Laos serving from 29 October to 21 November 1951. He ruled from 1959 after his father's death until his forced abdication in 1975. His rule ended with the takeover by the Pathet Lao in 1975, after which he and his family were sent to a re-education camp by the new government.
7 . Sisavang Vong ( 1885 - 1959 )
With an HPI of 58.46 , Sisavang Vong is the 7th most famous Laotian Politician . His biography has been translated into 28 different languages.
King Sisavangvong (Lao: ພຣະບາທສົມເດັຈພຣະເຈົ້າມະຫາຊີວິຕສີສວ່າງວົງສ໌; born Prince Khao (ຂາວ) 14 July 1885 – 29 October 1959), known by his courtesy name Sisavangvong, was the last ruler of the Lao Kingdom of Luang Prabang and the founding king of the Kingdom of Laos. Born Prince Khao on 14 July 1885, he ascended the throne at the age of 18 following the death of his father. In keeping with Lao tradition, he took the courtesy name Sisavangvong. Born in the Golden Palace of Luang Prabang during his father's reign under French colonial authority, Prince Khao extended his rule over other Lao kingdoms and built a new royal palace during his reign over Luang Prabang. He briefly ruled as king of the Japanese puppet state of Luang Prabang in late 1945, but was dethroned by the Lao Issara for his pro-French stance. He was later reinstated as monarch by the French in 1946, marking the first time in almost 250 years that a Lao monarch ruled the whole of Laos.
9 . Khamtai Siphandon (b. 1924 )
With an HPI of 56.87 , Khamtai Siphandon is the 9th most famous Laotian Politician . His biography has been translated into 33 different languages.
General Khamtai Siphandone (Lao: ຄຳໄຕ ສີພັນດອນ; born 8 February 1924) is a Laotian politician who was Chairman of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party from 24 November 1992 to 21 March 2006 and President of Laos from 24 February 1998 to 8 June 2006, when he was replaced by Choummaly Sayasone. He was a member of the Communist Party of Indochina in 1954 and a member of the Central Committee of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party in 1956.
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https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Abdullah_Ahmad_Badawi
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en
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Abdullah Ahmad Badawi
|
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Tun Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi is a Malaysian retired politician who served as the fifth Prime Minister of Malaysia from 2003 to 2009. He was also the sixth president of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the largest political party in Malaysia, and led the governing Barisan Nasional (BN) parliamentary coalition. He is informally known as Pak Lah, Pak meaning 'Uncle' or 'Sir', while Lah is taken from his name 'Abdullah'. He was also a Member of Parliament (MP) for Kepala Batas for eight consecutive terms, from 1978 to 2013. During the later part of Abdullah's administration, his government faced criticism for economic policies and performance, including concerns about inflation and the rising cost of living.
|
en
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Wikiwand
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https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Abdullah_Ahmad_Badawi
|
Prime Minister of Malaysia from 2003 to 2009 / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Abdullah Ahmad Badawi?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
SHOW ALL QUESTIONS
Tun Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi (Jawi: عبد الله بن احمد بدوي, Malay pronunciation: [abdullah]; born 26 November 1939) is a Malaysian retired politician who served as the fifth Prime Minister of Malaysia from 2003 to 2009. He was also the sixth president of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the largest political party (at the time) in Malaysia, and led the governing Barisan Nasional (BN) parliamentary coalition. He is informally known as Pak Lah, Pak meaning 'Uncle' or 'Sir', while Lah is taken from his name 'Abdullah'. He was also a Member of Parliament (MP) for Kepala Batas for eight consecutive terms, from 1978 to 2013. During the later part of Abdullah's administration, his government faced criticism for economic policies and performance, including concerns about inflation and the rising cost of living.
In this Malay name, there is no surname or family name. The name Ahmad Badawi is a patronymic, and the person should be referred to by their given name, Abdullah. The word "bin" or "binti"/"binte" means 'son of' or 'daughter of', respectively.
Quick Facts 5th Prime Minister of Malaysia, Monarchs ...
Close
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https://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/Lao-People-s-Democratic-Republic-GOVERNMENT.html
|
en
|
Lao People's Democratic Republic
|
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Under the constitution of 1947 (as subsequently amended), Laos was a parliamentary democracy with a king as the nominal chief executive. The monarch was assisted by a prime minister (or president of the Council of Ministers), who was the executive and legislative leader in fact. The prime minister and cabinet were responsible to the national assembly, the main repository of legislative authority, whose 59 members were elected every five years by universal adult suffrage. With the establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic in December 1975, governmental authority passed to a national congress made up of 264 delegates elected by newly appointed local authorities. The congress in turn appointed a 45-member Supreme People's Council to draw up a new constitution. Pending the completion of this task effective power rested with Kaysone Phomvihan, a longtime Pathet Lao leader who headed the government as chairman of the Council of Ministers and was also secretary-general of the Lao People's Revolutionary (Communist) Party.
Prince Souphanouvong, the head of state and president of the Supreme People's Council since 1975, left office in October 1986 because of poor health. He was replaced first by Phoumi Vongvichit, a former vice-chairman of the Council of Ministers, and later by Sisomphon Lovansay, a former vice president of the Supreme People's Council. The Lao national legislature, the Supreme People's Assembly (SPA), adopted new election laws in 1988, and the first national elections under the current government took place in March 1989 (local elections were held in 1988). Kaysone Phomvihan was elected president and Khamtai Siphandon was named prime minister. The newly elected SPA set out to draft a constitution, which was finished in mid-1990, and adopted on 14 August 1991 by the SPA. Khamtai Siphandon was elected president in 1998, and reelected in 2001. The executive branch consists of the president, prime minister and two deputy prime ministers, and the Council of Ministers (cabinet) which are appointed by the president with the approval of the National Assembly. The legislative branch is the 109-member National Assembly which is elected by universal suffrage for a period of five years. The judicial branch is the Supreme People's Court Leaders. The constitution calls for a strong legislature elected by secret ballot, but most political power continues to rest with the party-dominated council of ministers, who are much aligned with the military.
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https://kids.kiddle.co/Choummaly_Sayasone
|
en
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Choummaly Sayasone facts for kids
|
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Learn Choummaly Sayasone facts for kids
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/images/wk/favicon-16x16.png
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https://kids.kiddle.co/Choummaly_Sayasone
|
Lieutenant General Choummaly Sayasone (Lao: ຈູມມະລີ ໄຊຍະສອນ; born 6 March 1936) is a Laotian politician who was General Secretary (supreme leader) of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and President of Laos (head of state) from 2006 to 2016.
History
Choummaly Sayasone was born in Attapeu. He joined the Party's Politburo in 1991 and was Minister of Defence from 1991 to 2001. Subsequently he was the third Vice President of Laos from 2001 to 2006.
He was elected as the LPRP's General Secretary on 21 March 2006, in the aftermath of the Party's 8th Congress, by the first plenum of the eighth Central Committee, succeeding Khamtai Siphandone as de facto leader of Laos. He subsequently succeeded Siphandon as the 6th President of Laos on 8 June 2006.
In March 2011, he was reelected to his position as the LPRP's General Secretary at the 9th LPRP Congress. In June 2011, he was re-elected as President of Laos at the seventh National Assembly. He did not seek re-election to the LPRP Central Committee at the 10th LPRP Congress in January 2016, indicating his retirement. Bounnhang Vorachit was elected to succeed him as General Secretary on 22 January 2016.
On 4 April 2021, Sayasone and his family were on a yacht in Nam Ngum Lake, when there was a storm and the vessel capsized. Although initially feared dead, Sayasone survived, but nine people died, including his wife, Keosaychay Sayasone, and his son.
Awards and honors
Cuba:
Order of José Martí (2015)
Vietnam:
Gold Star Order (2006)
See also
|
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| 76
|
https://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsFarEast/SouthEastLaos.htm
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en
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South East Asia
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Coverage of the various historical cultures, rulers, and states of the Far East
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../favicon.ico
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The History Files
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The History Files still needs your help. As a non-profit site, it is only able to support such a vast and ever-growing collection of information with your help, and this year your help is needed more than ever. Please make a donation so that we can continue to provide highly detailed historical research on a fully secure site. Your help really is appreciated.
|
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correct_leader_00141
|
FactBench
|
1
| 0
|
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Khamtai-Siphandon
|
en
|
Khamtai Siphandon | president of Laos
|
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Other articles where Khamtai Siphandon is discussed: Laos: The Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Khamtai Siphandon, a veteran revolutionary and (from 1991) prime minister, then moved from the premiership to the presidency. Although Khamtai oversaw further economic liberalization, he resisted political reforms. The LPRP continued to control the National Assembly, allowing few independents to contest elections. At the same…
|
en
|
/favicon.png
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Encyclopedia Britannica
|
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Khamtai-Siphandon
|
In Laos: The Lao People’s Democratic Republic
Khamtai Siphandon, a veteran revolutionary and (from 1991) prime minister, then moved from the premiership to the presidency. Although Khamtai oversaw further economic liberalization, he resisted political reforms. The LPRP continued to control the National Assembly, allowing few independents to contest elections. At the same…
Read More
|
||||
correct_leader_00141
|
FactBench
|
2
| 40
|
https://user.iiasa.ac.at/~marek/fbook/01/geos/la.html
|
en
|
The World Factbook
|
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Executive branch: chief of state: President Gen. KHAMTAI Siphandon (since 26 February 1998) and Vice President Lt. Gen. CHOUMMALI Saignason (since NA March 2001)
head of government: Prime Minister BOUNGNANG Volachit (since NA March 2001); Deputy Prime Ministers THONGLOUN Sisolit (since NA March 2001), SOMSAVAT Lengsavat (since 26 February 1998)
cabinet: Council of Ministers appointed by the president, approved by the National Assembly
elections: president elected by the National Assembly for a five-year term; election last held 21 December 1997 (next to be held NA 2002); prime minister appointed by the president with the approval of the National Assembly for a five-year term
election results: KHAMTAI Siphandon elected president; percent of National Assembly vote - NA% Economy - overview: The government of Laos - one of the few remaining official communist states - began decentralizing control and encouraging private enterprise in 1986. The results, starting from an extremely low base, were striking - growth averaged 7% during 1988-97. Reform efforts subsequently slowed, and GDP growth dropped an average of 3 percentage points. Because Laos depends heavily on its trade with Thailand, it was damaged by the regional financial crisis beginning in 1997. Government mismanagement deepened the crisis, and from June 1997 to June 1999 the Lao kip lost 87% of its value. Laos' foreign exchange problems peaked in September 1999 when the kip fell from 3,500 kip to the dollar to 9,000 kip to the dollar in a matter of weeks. Now that the currency has stabilized, however, the government seems content to let the current situation persist, despite limited government revenue and foreign exchange reserves. A landlocked country with a primitive infrastructure, Laos has no railroads, a rudimentary road system, and limited external and internal telecommunications. Electricity is available in only a few urban areas. Subsistence agriculture accounts for half of GDP and provides 80% of total employment. For the foreseeable future the economy will continue to depend on aid from the IMF and other international sources; Japan is currently the largest bilateral aid donor; aid from the former USSR/Eastern Europe has been cut sharply.
|
||||||||
correct_leader_00141
|
FactBench
|
1
| 15
|
https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2006-03-21-voa23/322136.html
|
en
|
Laos President Steps Down at End of Party Congress
|
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2006-03-21T00:00:00
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He has been replaced by Vice President Choummali Saignasone who is likely to become the next president after elections next month
|
en
|
/Content/responsive/VOA/img/webApp/favicon.svg
|
Voice of America
|
https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2006-03-21-voa23/322136.html
|
The president of Laos, Khamtai Siphandone has stepped down as head of the ruling Communist Party and been replaced by Vice President Choummali Saignasone who is likely to become the next president after elections next month.
The Lao Communist Party announced the transfer of power Tuesday at the end of its regular, five-year congress in the capital, Vientiane.
Government spokesman Yong Chantalangsy said Lao President Khamtai Siphandone asked to retire as head of the party. Vice President Choummali Saignasone was chosen to replace him as the party's leader.
"In the first meeting of the Central Committee, Mr. Choummali Saignasone has been elected as the new general-secretary of the party," said spokesman Yong.
A new National Assembly that is to be elected on April 30 will choose a new government and historically, the party general-secretary becomes president.
Yong said two new members were elected to the powerful Political Bureau, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Somsavat Lengsavat, and Phani Yathothou, vice-president of the National Assembly and the Bureau's first female member.
Yong said that in an effort to rejuvenate the party's aging leadership, one-third of the Central Committee members are new.
Retiring President Khamtai, 82, was one of the last remaining communist leaders who took power in 1975 at the end of the Vietnam-War era.
A former civil servant during the French colonial era, Mr. Khamtai joined the communist insurgency following World War II and rose through the ranks to become the military leader of the Pathet Lao.
He was defense minister and deputy prime minister during the early years of the government. He became prime minister in 1991 upon the death of his predecessor, Kaysone Phomivan, and president seven years later.
His successor, Vice President Choummali, also was defense minister and deputy prime minister until being named vice president at the previous party congress in 2001.
The Lao government has been gradually opening up to the outside world since the collapse of its communist benefactor, the Soviet Union, in 1991.
Milton Osborne, an expert in Southeast Asia politics at Australia's Lowy Institute for International Policy, says that despite the changes, Laos' leaders continue to exert tight controls on political life and the news media.
"They are very secretive still," he noted. "But we do have a sense that in relation to the changes taking place in the world they are looking to find some way to open up and try and do something to boost their economic prospects."
|
||||
correct_leader_00141
|
FactBench
|
1
| 42
|
en
|
File:The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh meeting with the President of Laos, Mr. Khamtay Siphandone at Vientiane in Laos on November 29, 2004 (cropped).jpg
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2004-07-22T00:00:00
|
en
|
/static/apple-touch/commons.png
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This file is a copyrighted work of the Government of India, licensed under the Government Open Data License - India (GODL).
Authorization Method & Scope
Following the mandate of the National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP) of the Government of India that applies to all shareable non-sensitive data available either in digital or analog forms but generated using public funds by various agencies of the Government of India, all users are provided a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive license to use, adapt, publish (either in original, or in adapted and/or derivative forms), translate, display, add value, and create derivative works (including products and services), for all lawful commercial and non-commercial purposes, and for the duration of existence of such rights over the data or information.
Information on Related Items:
The user must acknowledge the provider, source, and license of data by explicitly publishing the attribution statement, including the DOI (Digital Object Identifier), or the URL (Uniform Resource Locator), or the URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) of the data concerned.
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The data provider(s) are not liable for any errors or omissions, and will not under any circumstances be liable for any loss, injury or damage caused by its use.
The data provider(s) do not guarantee the continued supply of updated or up-to-date versions of the data, and will not be held liable in case the continued supply of updated data is not provided.
Exemptions: The license does not cover the following kinds of data: a. personal information; b. data that is non-shareable and/or sensitive; c. names, crests, logos and other official symbols of the data provider(s); d. data subject to other intellectual property rights, including patents, trade-marks and official marks; e. military insignia; f. identity documents; and g. any data that should not have been publicly disclosed for the grounds provided under section 8 of the Right to Information Act, 2005.
https://data.gov.in/sites/default/files/Gazette_Notification_OGDL.pdf GODL-India Government Open Data License – India true
true
|
||||||||
correct_leader_00141
|
FactBench
|
0
| 9
|
https://thediplomat.com/2022/12/is-laos-prime-minister-on-his-way-out/
|
en
|
Is Laos’ Prime Minister On His Way Out?
|
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[] |
[] |
[
"Politics",
"Southeast Asia",
"Laos",
"Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP)",
"Laos",
"Laos economy",
"Laos politics",
"Phankham Viphavanh"
] | null |
[
"David Hutt"
] |
2022-12-28T23:10:00+00:00
|
Phankham Viphavanh, who took office in early 2021, may be on the way out — hounded by scandal and a bad year for Laos’ economy.
|
en
|
https://thediplomat.com/2022/12/is-laos-prime-minister-on-his-way-out/
|
On December 30, the Lao National Assembly wraps up its current session. The country’s prime minister, Phankham Viphavanh, could be out of a job by then. Your columnist is hearing rumors from Vientiane that Phankham’s fate has already been sealed. Since becoming prime minister in early 2021, Phankham has overseen a woeful pandemic year; Laos officially recorded just 41 cases in the whole of 2020 (before Phankham), but more than 110,000 by the end of 2021. The Nikkei COVID-19 Recovery Index ranked Laos as the worst performer among more than 120 countries. 2022 has been even more dire. Inflation reached 38.4 percent year on year in November, one of the highest in all of Asia. The local currency, the kip, crashed in value by as much as 68 percent against the U.S. dollar, as of October. The economy is likely to grow at just 2.5 percent, says the World Bank.
Worse, Phankham has been associated with scandal. In September, Thai authorities found the remains of a woman washed up on the Mekong. She had bullet holes in her head and was found stuffed in a suitcase. She was later identified as a Laotian millionaire, the chief executive of one of the biggest construction companies. Theories abounded. One has gained traction: She was Phankham’s mistress. Sources tell me that everyone in the capital has heard this accusation. Some aren’t dismissing it all too quickly. On top of that, there are rumors that the murdered woman’s young daughter is missing and, some say, she is Phankham’s illegitimate daughter. Added to that, there are also claims that the Chinese mafia had something to do with it, an angle that might be expected given how saturated Laos is with Chinese money (and not always legitimate Chinese money). It may be nothing, but Phankham was the former president of the Lao-Vietnam Friendship Association and isn’t considered the most pro-Beijing voice amongst Laotian politicians.
None of this, of course, can be confirmed. It probably never will be. But the scandal seems to have stuck to Phankham and it’s difficult to see how the rather awkward but serious apparatchik can wash his image. Senior leaders have been “retired” in the past because they lost the trust of party grandees and bureaucrats. And it certainly doesn’t look good that whilst the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP), the communist party, is touting its ability to crack down on corruption and organized crime, the prime minister is being publicly linked to such a scandal.
There are also personal disputes at hand. Phankham, previously a state vice president, standing secretariat member and propagandist, leapfrogged several rivals to become the new number two (up from fifth) in the Politburo at the party’s National Congress in January 2021. One apparent loser from that congress was Sonexay Siphandone, a deputy prime minister and the son of still-influential powerbroker Khamtay Siphandone. Sonexay was rumored before the congress to be the frontrunner for prime minister. Instead, he was named only number nine in the Politburo. His fortunes have improved since. Earlier this year, he was appointed chair of an emergency task force on economic matters. He delivered the main economic report to the National Assembly last week. Dynasties remain important in Lao politics. Sonexay’s father, the 98-year-old Khamtay still retains influence within the party. Sonexay’s sister, Viengthong, rose rapidly at the 2021 party congress and is now head of the Supreme Court, a powerful position over the party-led judiciary.
Analysts tell me that Sonexay, 56, is assured to become prime minister at some point. Even if Phankham survives into 2023, it’s by no means clear he’ll last the year. Laotian politicians tend to last their five-year mandates, although there is precedent for a prime minister resigning beforehand. Bouasone Bouphavanh resigned in December 2010 after four years in the job, ostensibly due to “family problems.” At the time, the analyst Martin Stuart-Fox noted that this was shorthand for “Bouasone’s recent divorce and growing resentment that his mistress had used her position to enrich herself and her family.” Many pundits speculated that Bouasone was forced out because of internal divisions within the party over policy. But, Stuart-Fox added, it was likely to do with personal rivalries. Thongsing Thammavong, who replaced Bouasone as prime minister, may have found the alliances needed to boot Bouasone out. (Perhaps, in kind, Sonexay has now found the allies needed to remove Phankham.) At the 2011 party National Congress, when the biggest decisions are made, Bouasone was also kicked out of the Politburo and Central Committee. Thongsing was bumped up to number two in the Politburo, second only to the reelected party General Secretary, Choummaly Sayasone. With some irony, Bouasone rose through the ranks thanks to patronage from Khamtay Siphandone, Sonexay’s father.
|
||||||
correct_leader_00141
|
FactBench
|
3
| 20
|
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/two-logics-of-autocratic-rule/systematic-test/F266DD35933076B02BF88E5D0DAEEE93
|
en
|
The Two Logics of Autocratic Rule
|
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[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Johannes Gerschewski",
"Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung"
] | null |
The Two Logics of Autocratic Rule - April 2023
|
en
|
/core/cambridge-core/public/images/favicon.ico
|
Cambridge Core
|
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/two-logics-of-autocratic-rule/systematic-test/F266DD35933076B02BF88E5D0DAEEE93
|
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
|
||||
correct_leader_00141
|
FactBench
|
3
| 77
|
https://forums.deathlist.net/topic/2251-people-i-was-surprised-to-find-are-still-alive/%3Fpage%3D28
|
en
|
People I Was Surprised To Find Are Still Alive
|
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] |
[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[
"Catherine"
] |
2004-08-25T13:17:11+00:00
|
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0942039/board/flat/8014790
|
en
|
https://forums.deathlist.net/uploads/monthly_2018_05/favicon.ico.708e6f34842b47258d83e1bed2308a2b.ico
|
DeathList Forum
|
https://forums.deathlist.net/topic/2251-people-i-was-surprised-to-find-are-still-alive/
| |||||
correct_leader_00141
|
FactBench
|
1
| 81
|
https://wikipedia.nucleos.com/viewer/wikipedia_en_all/A/Saysomphone_Phomvihane
|
en
|
Saysomphone Phomvihane
|
[
"https://wikipedia.nucleos.com/viewer/skin/caret.png",
"https://wikipedia.nucleos.com/viewer/wikipedia_en_all/I/Symbol_category_class.svg.png.webp"
] |
[] |
[] |
[
""
] | null |
[] | null |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saysomphone_Phomvihane
|
Saysomphone Phomvihane (Lao: à»àºâສົມâàºàºàº àºàº»àº¡àº§àº´àº«àº²àº; born 14 December 1956 in Houaphanh Province) is a Laotian politician and member of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP). He is the son of former LPRP General Secretary Kaysone Phomvihane and Thongvin Phomvihane. He served as Chairman of the Central Committee of the Lao Front for National Construction. He currently serves as President of the National Assembly.
He was elected to the LPRP Central Committee at the 5th National Congress, and to the LPRP Politburo at the 10th National Congress.
|
||||||||
correct_leader_00141
|
FactBench
|
1
| 78
|
https://www.howtopronounce.com/khamtai-siphandon
|
en
|
How to pronounce Khamtai Siphandon
|
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[
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[
"Zena Champlin"
] |
2020-10-08T20:08:45
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How to say Khamtai Siphandon in English? Pronunciation of Khamtai Siphandon with 1 audio pronunciation and more for Khamtai Siphandon.
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https://www.howtopronounce.com/khamtai-siphandon
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Learn how to pronounce Khamtai Siphandon
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https://wikipedia.nucleos.com/viewer/wikipedia_en_all/A/Saysomphone_Phomvihane
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Saysomphone Phomvihane
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saysomphone_Phomvihane
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Saysomphone Phomvihane (Lao: à»àºâສົມâàºàºàº àºàº»àº¡àº§àº´àº«àº²àº; born 14 December 1956 in Houaphanh Province) is a Laotian politician and member of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP). He is the son of former LPRP General Secretary Kaysone Phomvihane and Thongvin Phomvihane. He served as Chairman of the Central Committee of the Lao Front for National Construction. He currently serves as President of the National Assembly.
He was elected to the LPRP Central Committee at the 5th National Congress, and to the LPRP Politburo at the 10th National Congress.
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https://kids.kiddle.co/Choummaly_Sayasone
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Choummaly Sayasone facts for kids
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Learn Choummaly Sayasone facts for kids
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https://kids.kiddle.co/Choummaly_Sayasone
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Lieutenant General Choummaly Sayasone (Lao: ຈູມມະລີ ໄຊຍະສອນ; born 6 March 1936) is a Laotian politician who was General Secretary (supreme leader) of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) and President of Laos (head of state) from 2006 to 2016.
History
Choummaly Sayasone was born in Attapeu. He joined the Party's Politburo in 1991 and was Minister of Defence from 1991 to 2001. Subsequently he was the third Vice President of Laos from 2001 to 2006.
He was elected as the LPRP's General Secretary on 21 March 2006, in the aftermath of the Party's 8th Congress, by the first plenum of the eighth Central Committee, succeeding Khamtai Siphandone as de facto leader of Laos. He subsequently succeeded Siphandon as the 6th President of Laos on 8 June 2006.
In March 2011, he was reelected to his position as the LPRP's General Secretary at the 9th LPRP Congress. In June 2011, he was re-elected as President of Laos at the seventh National Assembly. He did not seek re-election to the LPRP Central Committee at the 10th LPRP Congress in January 2016, indicating his retirement. Bounnhang Vorachit was elected to succeed him as General Secretary on 22 January 2016.
On 4 April 2021, Sayasone and his family were on a yacht in Nam Ngum Lake, when there was a storm and the vessel capsized. Although initially feared dead, Sayasone survived, but nine people died, including his wife, Keosaychay Sayasone, and his son.
Awards and honors
Cuba:
Order of José Martí (2015)
Vietnam:
Gold Star Order (2006)
See also
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https://www.academia.edu/107958316/Historical_and_Cultural_Constraints_on_Development_in_the_Mekong_Region
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Historical and Cultural Constraints on Development in the Mekong Region
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[
"Martin Stuart-Fox",
"independent.academia.edu",
"Stuart-Fox"
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2023-10-10T00:00:00
|
Historical and Cultural Constraints on Development in the Mekong Region
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https://www.academia.edu/107958316/Historical_and_Cultural_Constraints_on_Development_in_the_Mekong_Region
|
Editorial information Executive Editor: Dr. Chalermchai Wongrak Associate Editors: Mairenallen Joy M. Basilio Kitiya Prompa Seth Phiriyawiwatwong Editorial Board: Associate Professor Dr. Kanokwan Manorom Associate Professor Sommai Chinnak Assistant Professor Dr. Watcharee Srikham Assistant Professor Dr. Pinwadee Srisupan Assistant Professor Dr. Ram Prasansak Assistant Professor Ananthana Methanont Dr. Jiraporn Smyth Dr. Saowanee T. Alexander Dr. Surasom Krisnachuta Introduction The Third MSSRC International Conference on the Mekong Region and ASEAN in Transition: People and Transborder Issues, organised from 11-12 September 2014 brought scholars from different disciplines within the humanities and social sciences to share their research findings. Focusing on three themes—the changing shape of ASEAN countries, closer social and economic cooperation between member countries, and people and transborder issues—this international conference was crucial and timely. The papers in this collection of proceedings is a frozen-in-time record of the socio-economic situations of the different, yet connected, contexts of the ten ASEAN countries before the ASEAN economic integration in 2016. We have reviewed over 30 interesting articles from the conference, and we regret that we are not able to include all the articles in these special proceedings. Nevertheless, the set we include here consists of a wide range of studies, both in terms of research focus as well as methodology. Like many studies in the humanities and social sciences these days, we found our selections criss-crossed each other in nature, each incorporating theories and methodologies from more than one discipline. We have native specialists of many member countries as well as outsiders who have examined the socio-economic events in the Mekong Region. We hope that, apart from the inherently interesting focus of their research, this combination of researchers will also make these proceedings a good read. Diverse as they are, it is hard to group the articles into unified themes. In trying to do so, we decided to leave the differences in methods apart and instead group articles according to their issues of focus. As a result, three main groups of issues emerged: development programs, economies, and identities. We must admit, however, that there are some overlaps. To facilitate the reader, we have provided an introduction for each of the three sections with a short description of the theme as well as summaries of the studies. It is important to note, although it is probably not necessary, that the views expressed in this volume represent the views of the specific authors. Despite the fact that all articles passed our review process, neither reviewers nor members of the editorial team are responsible for any shortcomings or inaccuracies.
One of the most striking features of the economic development that has occurred in the East Asian region has been the influential role of the state in directing its course. Vietnam is also following this well-worn path of state-led developmentalism. The principal contribution of this paper is two-fold. First, we place the Vietnamese experience in comparative historical and conceptual perspective. It is suggested that the structure of the Vietnamese state itself and the distinctive nature of the policies it has undertaken are reflections of the country’s traumatic recent history and the fact that its leadership is notionally ‘‘communist.’’ Our second contribution is to detail some of the more important aspects of this process. We provide two case studies which focus on the role of state-owned enterprises and decentralisation initiatives which demonstrate that, despite the frequently ad hoc and contingent nature of the developmental project and an absence of the sort of state capacity that distinguished the likes of Japan in its heyday, the Vietnamese government is overseeing economic development in creative and surprisingly effective ways.
This article argues that power politics and the contending institutional contestation are key to understanding Mekong’s complex dynamics. It is structured in four main parts. The first discusses China’s struggle for predominance in the Mekong, known as Lancang in Chinese. The second part examines the parallel and competing subregional institutional architectures. The penultimate part explores how the US and other extra-regional development partners have responded to the changing configuration of power in Mekong. The last part concludes with the ways forward, by addressing how to transcend the geopolitical trap in the Mekong Basin. It calls for the riparian states to search for a sustained and robust regional architecture through a political construction of security community. Within the subregional security community, every Mekong actor should be seen as an equal partner and winner.
This report seeks to challenge the “success story” narrative of development in the Mekong region by considering rural people’s actual experiences of economic change in the “transition” economies of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Under the Asian Development Bank’s ambitious multibillion dollar program for regional development, the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) framework, fastpaced economic growth – underpinned by large-scale infrastructure development, economic integration and resource extraction – has been heavily promoted as the solution to entrenched poverty in the region. However, the livelihoods, culture and environment of too many have been seriously compromised by economic change in the Mekong. Although the claimed mandate of development has been to help poor people and improve their livelihoods, difficulties for many, most notably the multitudinous ethnic minorities of the Mekong, have been exacerbated. This is borne out in the literature reviewed for this report, which includes academic journal articles, research institute studies and reports by donors and non-government organisations published since 2001. In particular, the report draws on a number of key, localised, empirical studies which give detailed accounts of the circumstances, changes and implications for people living in Laos, Cambodia and the uplands of Vietnam. Specialised studies in aquatic resources, resource governance and health are also referenced which contribute important areas for consideration. The three main sections of this report reflect the critical themes that feature consistently across the studies. The first documents the changing experience of access to natural resources – gricultural land, forests and rivers – which forms the foundation of rural livelihoods in the Mekong. Changes in ownership of and access to these resources has been one of the fundamental components of GMS economic change, and it is in this area which the poor have experienced the greatest vulnerability. The second section examines experiences of the new economy, in particular those associated with agricultural transformation and new opportunities for commerce and trade, and considers some of the unintended consequences. The third section explores some of the impacts of economic change on cultures and their implications for people’s experience of poverty and wellbeing. Culture is one of the least considered aspects of development and poverty alleviation yet it is central to all that defines our humanity and therefore to the meaning of a concept such as poverty.
Today, the Mekong Region (or the Greater Sub-region Mekong) 1is attracting the most attention in Asian International Development. The Mekong Region means transnational region that includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and Yunnan Province in China. There are roughly two major reasons of attention. Firstly, the Mekong Region is underdeveloped area because of the Southeast Asia’s Cold War. Secondly, this region attracted attention owing to the chance of international development in post-cold war scenario. In the early 1990s, transportation network was underdeveloped, but the east-west corridor and, the north-south corridor have been completed in 20 years. This means the awakening of the regional economic development and the regional economic integration. However, this development causes bad influences in social as well as environmental aspects. For example, Large-scale undocumented migrant workers, abuse of workers by multinational companies, trans-boundary environmental destruction by international development, problem of resource use of an international river, and so on. In this trend, efforts have begun towards the problem through regional cooperation. On the other hand, the cross-border civil society networks against these issues are emerging. Image of traditional Asian regional integration2 was centrism of politicians, bureaucrats and low institutional integration, in comparison to the EU. But, I would suggest that the qualitative changes were caused to Asian regional integration by the spread of regional economic integration and social integration. This paper attempts to show changes of Asian regional integration and new model. I'd consider important issues such as large dam issue and undocumented migrant workers in the transnational development in the Mekong region. This study purposes the making idea from empirical facts rather than theoretical examinations.
At its apex, the Khmer empire was Southeast Asia’s largest and most influential civilization: its civilizational reach stretched across several of today’s nation-states, and its core contained one of the world’s largest pre-industrial urban complexes. The roots of 9th-14th century Angkorian civilization appeared in the Mekong delta more than a millennium before Jayavarman II declared himself the universal Khmer monarch in 802 CE. At the start and to the south was the early polity that 3rd century Chinese emissaries called Funan, and that contained urban centers, walled palaces, libraries, and rulers. The earliest Khmer writing appears in the 7th century in this region, or nearly four centuries after the Han Chinese reports of Funan. By the 7th century, Khmer elite inscribed their legitimacy onto brick shrines and temples they commissioned to honor Indic gods across the delta’s landscape. Elite sponsorship of the construction and maintenance of ritual spaces required wealth; so did their support for ritual practices at these places, which materialized order that structured pre-Angkorian society. The rise of the pre-Angkorian Khmer state occurred during a period of fluctuating international trade in goods and ideas, and previous models have emphasized international trade as the catalyst for early state formation. This chapter studies early state formation instead through the development of the Mekong Delta’s 6th-8th century monumental art and architecture. Brick constructions, their dedicatory inscriptions, and the statuary they housed created symbols of cultural commonality that linked formerly autonomous communities into coherent regional systems. The Lower Mekong Archaeological Project survey area includes the early urban center of Angkor Borei. Research described here emphasizes archaeological patterning in social power to offer Southeast Asian perspectives on the articulation between ideology and social order in early states.
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