Wednesday, February the 8th, 2006
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Thanks to the catechists, you now have a glimmer of insight into the history of hats. At least you have if you have bothered to read the quote of the day above. I can therefore draw your attention to a particular hat, confident that you will be better placed to appreciate it than you were when you woke up this morning, unless of course you are a hatter or hat historian or are otherwise hat-learnéd, in which case I ask that you forgive my presumption, and bear in mind that not all Hooting Yard readers are armed with the same level of hat-learning as you.
The hat to which I refer you is the hat of Hudibras, as depicted in one of William Hogarth's illustrations to Hudibras, written by Samuel Butler and published in three volumes between 1663 and 1678. Here is the hat
and here is the complete illustration, which repays close study.
Hudibras is a satire on the Puritans, written in mock-heroic tetrameter couplets (which became known as hudibrasticks). The title character and his squire Ralpho are the closest equivalents in English to Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. You may wish to hurl your copy of Celebrity Pap! on to flaming coals and read Hudibras instead, by going to the admirably straightforward Ex-Classics website.
Samuel Butler (1612-1680) is described on his tombstone as “a needy wretch”. (That will suit me splendidly when the dread day comes—undertakers please note.) The Hudibras by Ned Ward mentioned on Monday (see Custard, below) refers to his Hudibras Redivivus, of which he wrote “Tho' I have made bold to borrow a Title from one of the best poems that ever was published in the English Tongue—yet I would not have the world expect me such a wizard as to conjure up the spirit of the inimitable Butler.” Poor Ned, the world did not.
Hudibrasticks is (are?) long overdue for a revival. It seems appropriate to give you a brief quotation so that you can devise your own hudibrastick verse, and happily Butler writes of the yellow goo we were concerned with earlier in the week:
Rather than fail, they will defy / That which they love most tenderly; / Quarrel with minc'd-pies, and disparage / Their best and dearest friend, plum-porridge; / Fat pig and goose itself oppose, / And blaspheme custard through the nose.
Being of a puritanical bent, I am now going to go and blaspheme custard. You can take a closer look at the hat.