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LETTER OF THE MONTH
Pirates and pen names
Sam Willis’s entertaining article about Charles Johnson’s scandalous works popularising robbers, pirates and highwaymen (Murder and Mayhem in Georgian Britain, March) reignites a long controversy about the true identity of the author.
Although the so-called “Captain” Johnson demonstrates a sound knowledge of seafarers’ speech and lifestyle in his books, no record exists of any contemporary captain or pirate of that name. Captain Johnson was therefore probably the pen name of a London writer-publisher exploiting the name of dramatist Charles Johnson, who had staged a successful play about pirates a few years earlier.
Literary scholar JR Moore suggested that Daniel Defoe was the real author of Johnson’s work, believing its style and treatment of seafaring and criminality to be similar to other works of his. Moore’s argument was convincing enough for many libraries to re-catalogue Johnson’s work under Defoe’s name, and reprints of his books are still attributed to Defoe, although there is no concrete evidence to justify this.
The author is just as likely to be the journalist Nathaniel Mist, who had been a sailor in the Caribbean and registered A General History of the Robberies and Murders of the Most Notorious Pyrates with His Majesty’s Stationery Office in his own name in 1724. He had worked closely with Charles Rivington, who first published it.
Ian MacDonald, Essex
We reward the Letter of the Month writer with a copy of a new history book. This issue, that is Magisteria: The Entangled Histories of Science and Religion by Nicholas Spencer. You can read our review HERE
Medieval magnificence
Ian Mortimer’s article on the expansion of cultural horizons in the Middle Ages (The Age of Transformation, February) was so astonishingly good that I felt moved to write in for the first time to commend him for the work, and the magazine for publishing it. It takes a rare skill and talent to take a supposedly well-known era of history and completely transform readers’ perspective on it, which Ian Mortimer does with apparent ease in a piece that was in turn provocative, delightful and deeply original.
It isn’t really the custom any more, but if I had a cap I would certainly doff it in Ian’s direction. No doubt, the number of caps in existence grew by an impressively large multiple between 1000 and 1500 – growth matched only by the quality of cap doffing which to this day still lags behind the levels that were achieved in the late Middle Ages in some quarters.
Russell Powell, Abingdon
Broader horizons
The feature on historical re-evaluation of the Middle Ages misses a key point: the comparison should not be between this European era and western eras beforehand or afterwards, but between Christian Europe and other non-Christian regions in the same era.
In China, for instance, the era of the Song dynasty witnessed the flourishing of science, philosophy and mathematics and advancements in engineering, while the succeeding Ming era saw developments in geography and unprecedented exploration. Central Asia in the Middle Ages had its heyday of enlightenment in astronomy, algebra, philosophy and medicine, among other advances, until the Mongol depredations destroyed their water resources and decimated the populations. Even under Mongol rule, Iran continued to take major strides in astronomy.
Pointedly, and closer to Christian Europe, in Iberia and Sicily the Arab rule brought in leapfrogging strides in agriculture engineering, mathematics, medicine and architecture. These regional comparisons suggest that, actually, Christian European civilisation fell substantially behind.
Safwan Afifi, Dubai
Continuity and change
I found Ian Mortimer’s article very interesting. Having read many books on the medieval era, I am always fascinated by how similar the human experience can be over time – and how different. I particularly liked the reference to Hardwick Hall, created by one of my favourite historical figures, Bess of Hardwick.
However, I take issue with the statement that the famine of 1594–97 was the last time that “large numbers of English people died from starvation”. This seems to overlook the many who died as a result of English policies around food and cash cropping in places such as India and Ireland. And, while the English may have “never been slaves” after the 11th century, many certainly profited from the slave trade for centuries afterward.
Amanda Paterson, Victoria, Australia
Nothing new under the sun
Ian Mortimer suggests that a 10th-century Andalusian “Rip Van Winkle” would have been as astounded by changes waking up during Columbus’s embarkation in the 15th century as his equivalent waking up in the 20th century. However, isn’t this greatly dependent on his ethnicity?
If a Jewish man in Andalusia would have fallen magically asleep, after surviving the Visigothic expulsions and forced conversions of the seventh century, he would have felt right at home in 11th-century “golden age” Granada, where a pogrom resulted in the death of 4,000 Jewish people.
Had he woken up after another four-century sleep, he would not have been astounded to hear that all the Jews had been compelled to leave Spain by 31 July 1492 or face being killed. Nor would he be greatly surprised, waking up 400 years later, to learn that Spain was practically “Judenrein”.
Rather than being astonished, would he not more likely have quoted Ecclesiastes 1: “There is nothing new under the sun”?
Eyal Meltzer, Holon, Israel
First course
With reference to the recent feature on British Restaurants (Eat for Victory, January), my wife of just 90 minutes and I enjoyed our first meal together with our family and friends at 1pm on Saturday 16 July 1966 at the Hayes, Middlesex Civic Restaurant (as British Restaurants were named after the war). This was 12 years after it was said that most had closed; the restaurant had stayed in operation this long to feed the many factory workers in the centre of our town. It did close shortly afterwards, as the industry shut up shop – but still opened for private bookings on Saturdays to provide staff with overtime and as a low-cost venue for such gatherings.
Stuart Hunter, Hampshire
Difficult viewing
The image of renowned explorer Richard Burton being borne by Africans in February’s Anniversaries was particularly difficult for me to see, being an African myself. I agree it’s all part of history and history may not be comfortable – but honestly, I wish that such images did not have to be reprinted. I wish not to be reminded of a time my ancestors were no more than beasts of burden!
Nonetheless, keep the very rich articles coming. I love the magazine!
Aghogho Umukoro, Durham
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