“ . . . Written on purpose, with much study to no end, plentifully stored with want of wit, learning, Judgement, Rime and Reason, and may seeme very fitly for the vnderstanding of Nobody.
“To Nobody.”
My thoughts exactly.
“Newes from no place by Sir Gregory Nonsence.”
Now, with some mild adjustment here and there, that might just apply. Nonsense as a surname would suit me down to the ground. Lady Bustles instead of Sir Gregory, though.
“UPON a Christmas Even, somewhat nigh
Easter, anon after Whitsuntide, walking in
a Coach from London to Lambeth by
water, I overtook a man that met me in the morning
before Sunset, the wind being in Capricorn, the
Sign Southwest . . .”
I never did have much sense of direction.
“ . . . with silence I demanded many
questions of him, and he with much pensiveness did
answer me merrily to the full, with such ample and
empty replications, that both our understandings
being equally satisfied, we contentiously agreed to
- finish and prosecute the narration of the Unknown
Knight Sir Gregory Nonsence,” (and here insert Lady Bustles Nonsense again, please)
“so sitting down upon our shoulders, resting uneasily on a bank of Sycamores, under a tree of Odoriferous and contagious Camomile, . .” (I always believe in sitting comfortably myself) “ . . after three sighs, smilingly uttered in the Hebrew Character, two groans from the Chaldean Dialect, five sobs from the Arabian Cinquapace, six dumps from the German Idiom, nine Moods of melancholy from the Italian tongue, With one hub bub from the Hibernian outcry. And last he laughed in the Cambrian tongue, and began to declare in the Utopian speech, what I have here with most diligent negligence Translated into the English Language . . .”
Well, I am glad that got sorted.
No, really, I am.
I don’t know how long it took Mr Taylor to translate his great work ‘Newes from no place’ through quite so many languages (I suspect Utopian to have been an invention, indeed I hardly believed that bit, as the Bishop said of Mr Gulliver’s Travels . . .) but I am happy to say I had far less trouble converting the Tales of the Great Alabaskar into readable form(http://www.wix.com/artscribe/tales). There were not nearly so many languages to get through, for a start.
I suppose I should like to know how he came to write it all down in the first place, for he must have been a very busy man, fitting it all in between the ferrying and fighting (see links below on his set-to with Coryate) as well as the travelling – Cadiz, Hamburg and even Prague. When he wasn’t doing that, he was engaged in publishing his own work.; his audience was delighted by his observant eye and wit – which helped enormously when it came to collecting subscriptions for his book.
All in all, he was an expert at social networking and creating his own brand, and wielded his pen over a wide scope of subject matter – on begging, hanging, swearing and laughter to mention but a few. His career lasted over 50 years; he produced over 150 works; he became something of a national institution and continued to travel right up to the end of his days – in addition to a third career as alehouse owner.
In the end though, after all that, I revel in his sheer silliness, in the mind that could produce ‘Newes from no place’ and devise a paper boat to sail the Thames in. A touch of Edward Lear about that, I think. . .
For more detailed discourse on the life of John Taylor, two excellent sites : http://thedabbler.co.uk/2011/08/greens-heroes-of-slang-5-john-taylor-the-water-poet/
Complete biographies :
Bernard Capp, The World of John Taylor the Water-Poet, 1578–1653 (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1994) – the first full-length biography : http://amzn.to/rorUBm
John H Chandler (ed.) Travels through Stuart Britain : the adventures of John Taylor, the water poet (Stroud, Sutton, 1999) : http://amzn.to/pdc0TZAnd on making a paper boat to sail the Thames : http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/timeteam/2006_queen_cameo.html
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