Isaac Bickerstaff

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq .: Predictions for the Year 1708 (forecasts for the year 1708)

The pseudonym of Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq. (the high born Isaac Bickerstaff ) used Jonathan Swift for satirical pamphlets against astrology and the then famous astrologer John Partridge (1644-1714).

The pseudonym became so well known in the contemporary Anglo-Saxon-speaking world that it became a synonym for jokes , bad jokes and personalities. Among other things, Richard Steele later used the pseudonym with Swift's consent for articles in his magazine Tatler .

Swift's April Fool's Day

Isaac Bickerstaff, Esq. aka Jonathan Swift

The Irish writer and satirist Swift used the tradition of April Fools Day in 1708, the April Fool's joke , which has been very popular in English-speaking countries since the end of the 17th century , to frighten and drastically ridicule the astrologer John Partridge in a satirical, biting way.

Partridge published an almanac with astrological predictions at that time. This was Swift an eyesore, for he was convinced that these prophecies rendered the ruling People's superstition feed. Moreover, angered by Partridge's writing, Partridge's advice to the Protestants of England , Swift devised an elaborate plan of three pamphlets and an elegy to get revenge on Partridge.

In February 1708, the London public first became aware of a certain Isaac Bickerstaff (the surname can be translated as squabble, bone of contention ), an allegedly rival astrologer colleague Partridge, as his Predictions for the Year 1708 (prognoses for the year 1708) appeared. It was a folk calendar with astrological predictions, designed in a very similar form to the famous calendar Partridges, in which this regularly forecast important events and deaths of well-known people. For his part, Bickerstaff now predicted Partridge's death on March 29:

“My first prediction is a trifle; I mention them all alone to show how ignorant these supposed and foolish connoisseurs of astrology are in their own affairs; it refers to Partridge, the calendar maker; I have given him nativity according to my rules and I think that on the 29th March, which first arrives, he will die infallibly, namely from a heated fever at 11 o'clock in the evening.

Bickerstaff's Almanack: Vindication of the Stars. (Rehabilitation of the stars.)

Partridge was deeply indignant and persistently denied any substance to the prediction, but a letter following March 30th confirmed the arrival - Partridge was dead. That second pamphlet, a pamphlet called The Accomplishment of the First of Mr Bickerstaff's Predictions , was published by Swift as an unnamed man employed by the tax authorities and the imaginary Bickerstaff prediction could confirm.

In addition, Swift published An Elegy on Mr Partridge, the Almanack Maker, who died on the 29th of March last, 1708, an elegy on Partridge in which he not only reprimanded Partridge but also the buyers of his almanac:

On April 1st, when the spectacular forecast and its obvious arrival, i.e. the news of the passing of the famous calendar maker Partridge, had got around sufficiently in London, a sexton appeared in Partridge's house with public attention with the order to compile information for his eulogy , what this and his family plunged completely into despair.

The effect was so convincing that people were shocked to see Partridge alive. Some believed in a ghost and ran away screaming, others spoke to Partridge in surprise at his striking resemblance to a famous astrologer who had recently passed away.

Partridge responded furiously in a counter-speech. Squire Bickerstaff detected; or, the astrological impostor convicted. (The high born Bickerstaff exposed or the astrological deceiver condemned):

“It is hard, my dear compatriots of this united kingdom , yes, very hard for a freeborn Briton, a Protestant astrologer, a loyal government member and a fighter for freedom and property, that he should seek justice against a troublemaker, an enemy of everything Existing and against a wretched quack in science must raise his voice [...] Thanks be to my good stars! I am ... still alive to convict this cheeky lying prophet with my own pen so that he should regret the hour in which he insulted a scholar of steadfast character. "

For many pages, Partridge went on to explain in detail how he and his family fared with this frightening prediction: "Three months after these incidents, I could not leave my front door without receiving the bitterest offenses."

But it was too late, everyone believed in Partridge's death, the Guild of Writers, Booksellers, and Publishers, the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers , had already struck him from their stationers' register , which his colleagues satisfied as certain proof of his death. John Partridge could not shake the reputation of being a dead man all his life. In his almanac for 1709 he included the serious report that he by no means died, but was still well. With the font A famous prediction of Merlin, the British wizard. he tried his hand at further predictions by referring to the prophecies of Merlin . Swift then countered with another flyer that Partridge died of course, no matter how much he denied it. Partridge became a mockery of London:

“Soon I met someone on the street with the words: Mr. Partridge, I have not yet received my wages for your coffin. … Good God! says another, I could have sworn that this was Doctor Partridge, my old friend, but the poor man has blessed temporality ... "

His career was also ruined. Partridge had to stop publishing his calendars because people no longer believed in the seriousness of his astrological predictions, but instead suspected further parodies . The episode is considered to be indicative of the crisis into which astrology (until then recognized as a science and taught at universities ) had gotten into in the age of the Enlightenment .

Further use of the pseudonym

The Tatler
Bickerstaff's Boston Almanack from 1769

When Richard Steele published his The Tatler in 1709 , he used the pseudonym with Swift's consent and called the fictional Isaac Bickerstaff Esq. as editor of the magazine. As a result, the sheet benefited from the pseudonym's already known popularity; it was partly assumed that Richard Steele had actually initiated the hoax. As an introduction, Steele stated in the first edition of the Tatler that he was the same Sir Bickerstaff who had declared the calendar maker Patridge dead, and that he would now continue to prove to other people who believed they were still alive that they had long been dead were.

Swift himself also made some contributions to The Tatler , under his own name or under other pseudonyms , although it was mainly written by Steele and Joseph Addison .

The name Bickerstaff's Almanack was also used by Ezekiel Russell and the publisher John Mein for his Bickerstaff's Boston Almanack in the late 18th century .

Gottlieb Wilhelm Rabener , also known as the German Swift, comes back to this story in his Secret Message from D. Jonathan Swift's last will :

“My friend, Partridge, died prematurely; Otherwise I would certainly not have forgotten him in my will: But the more faithfully I want to care for his dear relatives. He left a large family. Lots of partridges, and political fools ... "

- Gottlieb Wilhelm Rabener

The real Isaac Bickerstaff

But later there was also a “real” Isaac Bickerstaff - the Irish playwright and librettist Isaac John Bickerstaffe (also Bickerstaff) (1733–1812?).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ John Partridge: Partridge's advice to the Protestants of England.
  2. ↑ 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica / Bicker - Wikisource
  3. ^ Wikisource: Predictions for the year 1708 , transcript
  4. ↑ Jonathan Swift: Predictions for the year 1708: wherein the month and day of the month are set down, the persons named, and the great actions and events of next year particularly related, as they will come to pass. Written to prevent the people of England from being further impos'd on by vulgar almanack-makers.
  5. ^ Translation by Franz Kottenkamp in: Swift's humorous works . P. 354
  6. ↑ Jonathan Swift, The Accomplishments of the First Mr. Bickerstaff's Predictions. Wikisource, transcript
  7. ↑ Jonathan Swift: An Elegy on the supposed Death of Partridge, the Almanack Maker . Wikisource, transcript
  8. ^ Johan Partridge: Squire Bickerstaff detected; or, the astrological impostor convicted. Wikisource, transcript ; Translation by Franz Kottenkamp in: Swift's humorous works. P. 355 f.
  9. ^ Translation by Franz Kottenkamp in: Swift's humorous works . P. 361
  10. ↑ http://www.stationers.org/about.html
  11. ^ Johan Partridge: A famous prediction of Merlin, the British wizard. Written above a thousand years ago, and relating to the year 1709, with explanatory notes. Wikisource, transcript
  12. ^ Translation by Franz Kottenkamp in: Swift's humorous works . P. 361
  13. ↑ Kocku von Stuckrad : History of Astrology , C. H. Beck, Munich 2003, p. 274.
  14. ^ Isaac Bickerstaff in the Gutenberg-DE project
  15. ^ A. Tasch: The dramatic cobbler: the life and works of Isaac Bickerstaff. Bucknell University Press, 1972. ISBN 0-8387-7937-9 .

literature

  • Franz Kottenkamp: Swift's humorous works: From English transl. and enriched with the story of his life and work. Verlag Scheible, 1844 [1]
  • Hermann Hettner: literary history of the eighteenth century in three parts. History of English Literature from the Restoration of Royalty to the Second Half of the Eighteenth Century, 1660–1770 . Volume 1. Vieweg, 1856. pp. 261-273. [2]

Web links