1601


Book Description










Mark Twain's "1601"


Book Description




1601


Book Description

Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.







Year 1601


Book Description

Gathered in the dressing room of an elderly Queen Elizabeth I, a series of select characters, most of the elderly like her, chat to the love of the fire: Sir Walter Raleigh, the pirate; Francis Bacon, the philosopher; Ben Jonson and his young disciple, Francis Beaumonte; ladies and countesses and duchesses, and the amazing master Shakespeare. What could they be talking about? Of the past glories of the pirate, of the interpretation of the life of the philosopher, of the ingenuity of art ...? Well no, ladies and gentlemen, the conversation is more banal, irreverent, rowdy and "smelly" than might be expected in such an exalted group and in the English Golden Age.










1601


Book Description

"1601," wrote Mark Twain, "is a supposititious conversation which takes place in Queen Elizabeth's closet in that year, between the Queen, Ben Jonson, Beaumont, Sir Walter Raleigh, the Duchess of Bilgewater, and one or two others ... If there is a decent word findable in it, it is because I overlooked it." 1601 depicts a highfalutin and earthy discussion between the Queen and her court about farting and a variety of sexual peccadillos, narrated disapprovingly and sanctimoniously by the Queen's Cup-Bearer, an eyewitness at "the Social Fireside."