Notes: A Tale of a Tub
(Identifying the Jokes)
Section
Jokes
Title
Subtitle
List
Pretentious and disorienting language;
topics suggesting relevance
Apology
Unstable position of speaker. Explanation of the structure
(religion and learning); excuse of youth.
Dedication (Somers)
Detur Dignissimo.
Bookseller--Reader
Parody of excuse for apparently unauthorized printing.
Epistle Dedicatory
Posterity hampered by his governor (time) from knowing the works of the
modern age, imperfectly commemorated by the present work.
Preface
The meaning of the title; plans for a modern academy; the author's study of
prefaces; his avoidance of satire (because no-one applies it to himself);
future works.
1 (Introduction)
The pulpit, the ladder, the stage; the stage stands for works of Grub
Street--described. The rivalry of Gresham's and Will's. The presence of
wisdom in common stories. The author as hack. Grub-Street titles and
dedications.
2 (Tale)
The will and inheritance. The brothers' desire to be fashionable. The
world as clothes. Peter's suggests for non-literal interpretations of the will.
3 (Digression concerning Critics)
Critics as rule-givers, as editors, as fault-finders (the modern sense);
criticism as a Herculean labor; critics as natural predators, observed by the
ancients (a modern discourse).
4 (Tale)
The superiority of Peter; his various allegorical discoveries, leading to
madness (transubstantiation, celibacy, miracles); the brothers find the will;
Peter kicks them out.
5 (A Digression in the Modern Kind)
Recipe for universal learning; the deficiencies of Homer; the importance
of authorial self-praise.
6 (Tale)
Martin's careful efforts at removing artifice without destroying the coat is
contrasted to Jack's zeal, which tears his coat to rags.
7 (A Digression in Praise of Digressions)
The value of digressions in filling a book, in the absence of substance, for
learning is not infinite. The value of indices to readers (and writers) who
do not have to read what they discuss. The usefulness of images,
especially sexual. Commonplace books can replace minds.
8 (Tale)
The Aeolists hold that wind is the essence of life; hence preaching =
belching; inspiration; pulpit as barrel of wind. Aeolist rites. Female priests
with better orifices for wind. The devil as windmill.
9 (A Digression concerning the Original, the Use, and Improvement of Madness in a
Commonwealth)
Original: madness is caused by a vapor in the lower regions rising to the
brain as instanced by madness in conquest (Henri IV, Louis XIV), in
philosophy (reducing the world to a system), and religion. Use: madness
assures happiness (the perpetual possession of being well-deceived) by not
looking at the true nature of things. Improvement: the various inhabitants
of Bedlam should be employed in the capacities that resemble outside.
The author himself is mad.
10.(A Further Digression)
The happiness of authors and readers. The author will continue until his
vein is exhausted. Ignorant, superficial, and learned readers. The latter,
who spend years writing critical treatises, assure fame. The author has
included many secret references.
11. (Tale)
Writing like horse-riding at the end and the outset. More adventures of
Jack (useful for readers of types): his misuse of the will; inner light;
predestination (sample of his discourse); personal characteristics and
practices--baptism, courting persecution. Similarities of Jack and Peter.
Ears and sex. The author has the reader's curiosity, but has lost the end of
his manuscript, which the reader must imagine.
12. Conclusion
The problem of knowing when to conclude. The author and bookseller
agree to allow the book to be credited to any popular playwright. Profound
writers are thought deep because dark. Writing on nothing for the repose
of mankind, following invention rather than method and reason. The
author writes because nonsense in talk may pass for sense in print.