mdmd(4) - Notes: Kit Smart

[David Casseres]

Adam Rounce, after a very valuable explanation of what Maskelyne sez 
about Chirstopher Smart, sez

>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.

Indeed, Smart is full of unexpected amazements.  There is also the 
wonderful poem about his cat: "For I shall consider my cat Geoffrey...."

Also, Adam, thanx for the quotation from Dr. Johnson (via Boswell):

>     ...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."    

which I've long held as one of my favorite gems of literary criticism.

Now, if the school-prayer people could write poetry like Smart's, I might 
be more willing to listen to them....


Cheers,
David