Brother Jonathan
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN PEOPLE MENTIONED OR ALMOST MENTIONED IN WALDEN: BROTHER JONATHAN WALDEN: I do not say that John or Jonathan will realize all this; PEOPLE OF but such is the character of that morrow which mere lapse of time WALDEN can never make to dawn. The light which puts out our eyes is darkness to us. Only that day dawns to which we are awake. There is more day to dawn. The sun is but a morning star. “JOHN” (BULL) “JONATHAN” “Mere facts & names & dates communicate more than we suspect –” — Henry Thoreau, January 27, 1852 HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: BROTHER JONATHAN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN 1647 The Rural Wit tradition of New England began with Nathanael Ward’s satire “The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America.” HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: BROTHER JONATHAN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN 1708 The Rural Wit tradition of New England continued with Ebenezer Cook’s THE SOT-WEED FACTOR. HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: BROTHER JONATHAN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN 1732 December 19, Tuesday (Old Style): Benjamin Franklin, AKA “Richard Saunders,” AKA “Poor Richard,” began publication of POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK. This continued the Rural Wit tradition of New England, with annual publication to the year 1757. Continuing for twenty-five years to contain these supposedly anonymous witty, worldly-wise sayings, the almanac would play a considerable part in bringing together and molding a white American character out of what had been at that time merely a collection of diverse immigrant European types. At about this time, presuming all of morality to consist of mere selfish prudence (a move most typical of this man, characterizable by his marginal jotting of 1741 “Nothing so likely to make a man's fortune as virtue”), Franklin undertook a characteristically simplistic plan for “self-improvement”: Ben Franklin’s “Autobiography” In this piece it was my design to explain and enforce this doctrine, that vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful, the nature of man alone considered; that it was, therefore, every one’s interest to be virtuous who wish’d to be happy even in this world; and I should, from this circumstance (there being always in the world a number of rich merchants, nobility, states, and princes, who have need of honest instruments for the management of their affairs, and such being so rare), have endeavored to convince young persons that no qualities were so likely to make a poor man’s fortune as those of probity and integrity. Indeed Franklin determined in this to imitate the humility not only of Jesus but also of Socrates: Ben Franklin’s “Autobiography” My list of virtues contain’d at first but twelve; but a Quaker friend having kindly informed me that I was generally thought proud; that my pride show’d itself frequently in conversation; that I was not content with being in the right when discussing any point, but was overbearing, and rather insolent, of which he convinc’d me by mentioning several instances; I determined endeavouring to cure myself, if I could, of this vice or folly among the rest, and I added Humility to my list) giving an extensive meaning to the word. Of course, in Franklin’s book there was no great difference to be noted between humility and the appearance of humility, since either could produce the desired rewards, true humility being only slightly more bothersome to produce than its ersatz. How utterly different this mere prudence is from any real morality! HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: BROTHER JONATHAN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN PROTOTRACTATUS (1921) 6.422 Die Ethik ist transzendental. Ethics is transcendental. TRACTATUS LOGICO-PHILOSOPHICUS, 6.421 Es ist klar, daß sich die Ethik It is clear that ethics nicht aussprechen läßt. cannot be put into words. Die Ethik ist transzendental. Ethics is transcendental. (Ethik und Ästhetik sind Eins.) (Ethics and aesthetics are one and the same.) — Ludwig Wittgenstein TRANSCENDENTALISM The most pertinent of the recycled worldly-wise proverbs Franklin had put in the mouth of Saunders would be re-collected in 1758 as “The Way to Wealth,” in which the literary persona would be a “Father Abraham” — an elderly person who was induced, in order to kill some time for some people who were waiting for the commencement of a public auction, to make a speech. WALDEN: I am not sure that I ever heard the sound of cock-crowing PEOPLE OF from my clearing, and I thought that it might be worth the while WALDEN to keep a cockerel for his music merely, as a singing bird. The note of this once wild Indian pheasant is certainly the most remarkable of any bird’s, and if they could be naturalized without being domesticated, it would soon become the most famous sound in our woods, surpassing the clangor of the goose and the hooting of the owl; and then imagine the cackling of the hens to fill the pauses when their lords’ clarions rested! No wonder that man added this bird to his tame stock, –to say nothing of the eggs and drumsticks. To walk in a winter morning in a wood where these birds abounded, their native woods, and hear the wild cockerels crow on the trees, clear and shrill for miles over the resounding earth, drowning the feebler notes of other birds, –think of it! It would put nations on the alert. Who would not be early to rise, and rise earlier and earlier every successive day of his life, till he became unspeakably healthy, wealthy, and wise? This foreign bird’s note is celebrated by the poets of all countries along with the notes of their native songsters. All climates agree with brave Chanticleer. He is more indigenous even than the natives. His health is ever good, his lungs are sound, his spirits never flag. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: BROTHER JONATHAN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN 1760 During the 1760s, John Adams would be creating the persona of Humphrey Ploughjogger, the down-country farmer, in the Rural Wit tradition of New England which would eventually produce the American type known on stage and in cartoons and humorous tales as Brother Jonathan. HDT WHAT? INDEX THE PEOPLE OF WALDEN: BROTHER JONATHAN PEOPLE MENTIONED IN WALDEN 1787 April 16, Monday: Boston playwright Royall Tyler’s “The Contrast”1 was performed at New-York’s John Street Theatre, the first professional performance of a comedy in America. With this staging, the “Yankee” began to make his appearance. Under cover of naivete, startling things could be suggested. This “Brother Jonathan” persona would become a stock part of amusements by Royall Tyler, William Biglow, and Thomas Green Fessenden.2 Enter JONATHAN. JESSAMY: Votre tres-humble serviteur, Monsieur. I understand Colonel Manly, the Yankee officer, has the honour of your services. JONATHAN: Sir! — JESSAMY: I say, Sir, I understand that Colonel Manly has the honour of having you for a servant. JONATHAN: Servant! Sir, do you take me for a neger, — I am Colonel Manly’s waiter. JESSAMY: A true Yankee distinction, egad, without a difference. Why, Sir, do you not perform all the offices of a servant? do you not even blacken his boots? JONATHAN: Yes; I do grease them a bit sometimes; but I am a true blue son of liberty, for all that. Father said I should come as Colonel Manly’s waiter, to see the world, and all that; but no man shall master me. My father has as good a farm as the colonel. JESSAMY: Well, Sir, we will not quarrel about terms upon the eve of an acquaintance from which I promise myself so much satisfaction; — therefore, sans ceremonie — JONATHAN: What? — JESSAMY: I say I am extremely happy to see Colonel Manly’s waiter. JONATHAN: Well, and I vow, too, I am pretty considerably glad to see you; but what the dogs need of all this outlandish lingo? Who may you be, Sir, if I may be so bold? JESSAMY: I have the honour to be Mr. Dimple’s servant, or, if you please, waiter. We lodge under the same roof, and should be glad of the honour of your acquaintance. JONATHAN: You a waiter! by the living jingo, you look so topping, I took you for one of the agents to Congress. JESSAMY: The brute has discernment, notwithstanding his appearance. — Give me leave to say I wonder then at your familiarity. JONATHAN: Why, as to the matter of that, Mr. — ; pray, what’s your name? JESSAMY: Jessamy, at your service. JONATHAN: Why, I swear we don’t make any great matter of distinction in our state between quality and other folks. JESSAMY: This is, indeed, a levelling principle. — I hope, Mr. Jonathan, you have not taken part with the insurgents. 1. Philadelphia PA: Pritchard & Hall, 1790, as reprinted in New-York by The Dunlap Society in 1887. 2. According to a report in the newspaper the day after the opening, this “Jonathan’ character had been “very well drawn.” Actually, a similar American character named “Jonathan” had already made his appearance in a less popular play in the previous year: Joseph Atkinson’s “Match for a Widow.” At first the attire for a stage “Jonathan” would be what was used for the Brit northcountryman stock character known as “Hodge,” but gradually during the 1820s-1840s he would begin to be attired in the long Yankee coat, the striped trousers and vest, the long lank hair, and the top hat with which we are now familiar in “Uncle Sam” cartoons.