Ludd Gang
Lately I've been reading E.P Thompson's colossal Making of the English Working Class - as important as it ever was in reminding that our history, in another period of seeming apathy, was not one of supine, reactionary quietism but of education and agitation - and so far, the best moments (perhaps because of Thompson's rather straight-up prose) are the extracts from the frequently anonymous letters sent in seditious moments to sundry landlords, manufacturers and Princes. These are wonderful documents, partly for their fractured, weird English, full of Molesworth spelling and Biblical cadences, but also because they're very, very funny:
Addressed to Oliver Cromwell Esquire of Cheshunt Park
Whe right these lines to you who are the Combin'd of the Parish of Cheshunt in the Defence of our Parrish rights which you unlawfully are about to disinherit us of...
Resolutions is maid by the aforesaid Combind that if you intend of inclosing our Commond Commond fields Lammas Meads Marshes &c Whe Resolve before...that bloudy and unlawful act is finished to have your hearts bloud if you proceede in the aforementioned bloudy act Whe like horse leeches will cry give, give, until Whe have spilt the bloud of every one that wishes to rob the Inosent unborn. It shall not be in your power to say I am safe from the hands of my Enemy for Whe like birds of pray will prively lie in wait to spill the bloud of the aforesaid Charicters whose names and places of abode are as prutrified sores in our Nostrils. Whe declair that thou shall not say I am safe when thou goest to thy bed for beware that thou lifest not thine eyes up in the most mist of flames...
To all Croppers, Weavers &c & Public at large.
Generous Countrymen,
You are requested to come forward with Arms and help the Redressers to redress their Wrongs and throw off the hateful Yoke of a Silly Old Man, and his son more silly and their Rogueish Ministers, all Nobles and Tyrants must be brought down. (...) Above 40,000 heroes are ready to break out, to crush the old Government & establish a new one.
Apply to General Ludd Commander of the Army of Redressers.
Also, the all-purpose collective pseudonym is a fine tactic. General Ludd, Captain Swing. This sort of thing is clearly behind the better known 'I AM SPARTACUS!' although that is made less effective as, unlike Ludd and Swing, Spartacus, as incarnated by Kirk Douglas was an actual person. Nonetheless, it's good that the appropriately oblique Luther Blissett are carrying on this noble tradition, and Blissett himself apparently approves.
Addressed to Oliver Cromwell Esquire of Cheshunt Park
Whe right these lines to you who are the Combin'd of the Parish of Cheshunt in the Defence of our Parrish rights which you unlawfully are about to disinherit us of...
Resolutions is maid by the aforesaid Combind that if you intend of inclosing our Commond Commond fields Lammas Meads Marshes &c Whe Resolve before...that bloudy and unlawful act is finished to have your hearts bloud if you proceede in the aforementioned bloudy act Whe like horse leeches will cry give, give, until Whe have spilt the bloud of every one that wishes to rob the Inosent unborn. It shall not be in your power to say I am safe from the hands of my Enemy for Whe like birds of pray will prively lie in wait to spill the bloud of the aforesaid Charicters whose names and places of abode are as prutrified sores in our Nostrils. Whe declair that thou shall not say I am safe when thou goest to thy bed for beware that thou lifest not thine eyes up in the most mist of flames...
To all Croppers, Weavers &c & Public at large.
Generous Countrymen,
You are requested to come forward with Arms and help the Redressers to redress their Wrongs and throw off the hateful Yoke of a Silly Old Man, and his son more silly and their Rogueish Ministers, all Nobles and Tyrants must be brought down. (...) Above 40,000 heroes are ready to break out, to crush the old Government & establish a new one.
Apply to General Ludd Commander of the Army of Redressers.
Also, the all-purpose collective pseudonym is a fine tactic. General Ludd, Captain Swing. This sort of thing is clearly behind the better known 'I AM SPARTACUS!' although that is made less effective as, unlike Ludd and Swing, Spartacus, as incarnated by Kirk Douglas was an actual person. Nonetheless, it's good that the appropriately oblique Luther Blissett are carrying on this noble tradition, and Blissett himself apparently approves.
posted by owen hatherley at 4:12 pm
2 Comments:
"...Thompson's rather straight-up prose..."
Pshaw - Thompson writes brilliantly. (Look out, incidentally, for the footnote on the Great Cheese Riot at Nottingham's Goose Fair.)
He does what he does very well indeed; I meant more the fact that the prose carries on in this very driving, straightforward way, making it difficult to excerpt for blog consumption. Not a criticism so much as an observation...
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