MDDM captain grant, the Admiralty Fopling & the fifer

[John Bailey]

Unchleigh is pretty conservative for an angry young sailor. And isn't he the 
fellow who tentatively told Capt. Smith of L'Grand (what's with the L'? The 
ship was Le Grand in all historical materials I can find)? Unchleigh has 
certainly changed his tone. Or maybe it's just because he's speaking to 
someone of different standing.

Then again, Wicks isn't exactly playing the pious Reverend here. It's a bit 
funny that the sailor is admonishing the man of G_d for unseemly desires.

The Admiralty Fopling. What's a Fopling? A petty fop, according to my online 
dictionary.

There is also a classic creation by the same name in the play "The Man of 
Mode; or Sir Fopling Flutter" (1676) by Sir George Etherege. I don't imagine 
the play has much bearing on the character in M&D but you can read a 
synopsis if you like, at
http://www.engl.virginia.edu/courses/enlt224/f96/1/synmm.html

Etherege's other plays include "The Comical Revenge, or Love in a Tub", 
which is a great title if ever there was one.

Sir Fopling Flutter is also referred to in Alexander Pope's The Rape of the 
Lock (in the 5th Canto). Full text at:
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/pope8.html

and Dryden's "Mac Flecknoe, or, A Satyr"
at
http://www.uoregon.edu/~rbear/dryden1.html

as well as a reference to a fopling in Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) 
's
THE LOVER: A BALLAD
at
http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/montagu2b.html

So, we have here a lusty priest, a puritan seaman, a crazy captain...Not the 
most serious of chapters, or books for that matter.


>From: Terrance <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
>
>Unchleigh doesn't like Print, books, newspapers, coffee, coffee-houses,
>Whigs.
>These, according to the Lieutenant, (the bible included) are potions and
>prints stimulating civil unrest, rebellion, immoderate desires.
>
>Wicks says he is on the a Ship of Death, his Berth (pun) a Prison. There
>is unseamenlike Behavior on the ship. ANd Wicks wonders how the trip (a
>sailing voyage being the best cure for insanity) will restore him to the
>"Ordinary World."
>
>Back to page 10
>
>Wicks says he would have preferred to sail aboard an East Indiaman (his
>reason or his desire to do so is secular, dalliance, Romantic danger,
>ladies) but those that controlled his Fate got wind of his desires and
>he was sentenced to an English Frigate (the only alternative being, not
>the Tower, but Bedlam or French Hospital--Faucault) and instructed to
>avoid coffee, Indian Hemp.
>
>Back to page 48
>
>Wick's inward lament...where are the wicked young widows...take me back
>to the Cross-Roads,/ let me choose once again, / To cruise the East
>India Lanes.
>
>But he can't go back to the Cross-Roads.
>
>Captain Grant sends up a Jolly Roger and the ships pull out of
>formation.
>I think it is play, testosterone the potion. Mason thinks it insane, but
>what does he know of seamen-like behavior.
>
>Mr. Dixon seems to know.
>
>The two are not getting along, but they don't fight and then they sing:
>
>They sing of Morton (who will be president of the RS from 1764-1768, he
>is  James, Earl of Morton--Lord Aberdour) and his henchmen (money),  And
>the King and his Benchmen (the Law),  And Free lunch (well at least we
>can be sure they are not off to free luch America just yet), Sharks and
>Slaves, fables and feasts. Provisions? Who's paying for the provisions
>now? The take on Wine and Water. And Bread too, I assume.
>
>They sail south off Lizard Point and we are introduced to captain grant,
>the Admiralty Fopling, and the fifer.
>
>Oh no, hurry up pleas it's TIME, gotta go to class....
>
>be back when the Sharks are biting...


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