The Project Gutenberg EBook of 1601, by Mark Twain

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Title: 1601
Conversation as it was by the Social Fireside in the Time of the Tudors

Author: Mark Twain

Last Updated: February 16, 2009
Release Date: August 20, 2006 [EBook #3190]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1601 ***

Produced by David Widger

1601

Conversation as it was by the Social Fireside in the Time of the Tudors

By Mark Twain

INTRODUCTION

"Born irreverent," scrawled Mark Twain on a scratch pad, "--like all
other people I have ever known or heard of--I am hoping to remain
so while there are any reverent irreverences left to make fun of."
--[Holograph manuscript of Samuel L. Clemens, in the collection of the
F. J. Meine]

Mark Twain was just as irreverent as he dared be, and 1601 reveals
his richest expression of sovereign contempt for overstuffed language,
genteel literature, and conventional idiocies. Later, when a magazine
editor apostrophized, "O that we had a Rabelais!" Mark impishly
and anonymously--submitted 1601; and that same editor, a praiser of
Rabelais, scathingly abused it and the sender. In this episode, as in
many others, Mark Twain, the "bad boy" of American literature, revealed
his huge delight in blasting the shams of contemporary hypocrisy. Too,
there was always the spirit of Tom Sawyer deviltry in Mark's make-up
that prompted him, as he himself boasted, to see how much holy
indignation he could stir up in the world.

WHO WROTE 1601?

The correct and complete title of 1601, as first issued, was: [Date,
1601.] 'Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of
the Tudors.' For many years after its anonymous first issue in 1880,
its authorship was variously conjectured and widely disputed. In Boston,
William T. Ball, one of the leading theatrical critics during the late
90's, asserted that it was originally written by an English actor (name
not divulged) who gave it to him. Ball's original, it was said, looked
like a newspaper strip in the way it was printed, and may indeed have
been a proof pulled in some newspaper office. In St. Louis, William
Marion Reedy, editor o