mdmd(4) - Notes: Kit Smart

[Brian D. McCary]

Adam accidentally sent this to me, instead of the entire list, so I am 
reposting it.

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>From A.Rounce at Bristol.ac.uk Sat Jul 19 06:36 CDT 1997
From: AS Rounce <A.Rounce at bristol.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: mdmd(4) - Notes: Kit Smart

> 116.7     Christopher Smart:  I don't know the reference (see
> questions) but Maskelyne's dis comfort appears to be due to the fact
> that Mr. Smart went mad, a fate Neville might fear.  D ixon may not
> know this unhappy fact, or he may be trying to kid Maskelyne.

Christopher Smart's specific form of madness is relevant here:

     "My poor friend Smart shewed the disturbance of his mind, by falling
     upon his knees, and saying his prayers in the street, or in any other
     unusual place...I did not think he ought to be shut up. His
     infirmities were not noxious to society. He insisted on people
     praying with him; and I'd as lief pray with Kit Smart as any one
     else."    
     (Samuel Johnson, Boswell's *Life of Johnson*, Tues 24 May 1763)

Smart at Cambridge was notoriously prolifigate and dissipated, a
university "wit". (Hence Maskeylne's reference to his "soiled Napery and
gnaw'd bones", p.116). After leaving for London in 1749, he went through a
series of financial and physical worries, that resulted in his being "born
again", but with a catch; his previous worldliness had been replaced by a
religious fervour that insisted that he (and everyone around him) had to
rejoice in the Lord. His disorder thus took the form of compulsive public 
prayer, (c.f Dixon's referring to him in childhood: "Mr Kit's [errands]
being usually to or from the chapel." p.117) whereupon he was locked away.

The new "mad" Smart was also now an extraordinarily powerful poet,
whereas he had previously been a mediocre one: his whole creative mission
was to magnify the power & glory of the Lord. To this end, he attacked
contemporary rational and scientific ideas, especially those of Newton.

When, therefore, Dixon follows his query upon Smart with "Newton is my
Deity" (p.116), Maskeylne's shock is partly due to the embarrassment of
Smart as both ex-prolifigate and contemporary madman; it also, however,
shows his exasperation at Dixon's entanglement of ideas, which is where
the "Seaton Prize" comes in.

The Seatonian Prize was set up in 1750, being awarded to any Cambridge
graduate for the best poem on "the perfections or attributes of the
supreme being." Smart submitted to it for the first five years, and won
every time. His poems are unremarkable, but they show his mind working in
opposition to science: in 'On the Omniscience of the Supreme Being' he
contrasts the 'natural' navigation skills of migrating birds with man's
straining after the mysteries of longitude. The bird:

     She heav'n-taught voyager, that sails in air,
     Courts nor coy West nor East, but instant knows
     What Newton, or not sought, or sought in vain.
     (ll. 89-91)

Newton was a particular butt of Smart's evangelising mission. In his
extraordinary madhouse poem, *Jubilate Agno* (not published until 1939),
Smart claims 

     For Newton nevertheless is more of error than of truth, but I am the
     WORD of GOD. (B, l.196)

Maskelyne is therefore astonished (I think) at Dixon's uncritical mention
of Smart combined with his deification of Newton. (The mention of the
Seatonian Prize is meant to warn Dixon of what he is saying) Their
conversation is another example of the conflict in Dixon between wordly
values (his happy memory of Smart) and the more rational views of science.
Maskelyen is also revealed as being economical with the truth; Cambridge
_did_ start the destruction of Smart's faculties, despite Maskelyne's
claiming the opposite (on p.117).  As Johnson said, "before his
confinement, [Smart] used for exercise to walk to the ale-house; but he
was _carried_ back again."

Sorry to go on at length, but TRP's use of Smart's legend & work in the
passage is very subtle. It might even get "poor Kit" some new readers. I
thoroughly recommend *Jubilate Agno* to anyone who thinks 18c literature
is predictable.

Best,


Adam Rounce.
 
 

          


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