1601: Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors
1601: Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors
Mark Twain's most scandalously playful work imagines a private gathering at Queen Elizabeth I's court in 1601, where the Queen and her most famous courtiers gather for what the narrator calls 'the Social Fireside.' What follows is a supremely irreverent conversation about farting, sexual exploits, and bodily functions, delivered with such earnest prudishness that the comedy becomes impossible to ignore. The Queen's Cup-Bearer narrates the whole affair in a tone of exaggerated disapproval, as if he's documenting something profoundly shocking, which makes every crude admission from Ben Jonson, Sir Walter Raleigh, or the Duchess of Bilgewater even funnier. Twain's genius lies in the gap between the elevated Elizabethan language and the utterly base subject matter; the satire cuts both ways, mocking both the court's hypocrisy and the preciousness of pretending such topics don't exist. Originally circulated privately because of its explicit content, 1601 remains a deliciously transgressive piece of American humor, proof that Twain could be as nasty as he was nice.
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