MDMD2: The Learned English Dog

[Dave Monroe]

"All at once, out of the Murk, a dozen mirror'd Lanthorns have leapt alight 
together, as into their Glare now strolls a somewhat dishevel'd Norfolk 
Terrier, with a raffish Gleam in its eye,-- whilst from some where less 
illuminate comes a sprightly Overture upon Horn, Clarinet, and Cello, in 
time to which the Dog steps back and forth in his bright Ambit." (M&D, Ch. 
3, p. 18)

To paraphrase Cocteau Twins, Portsmouth or Las Vegas here?  And cf. that 
"bright inverted Cone of Lanthorn-light" o'er the Welsh Main @ p. 24. But 
note as well ...

"Prior to 1979 the Norfolk Terrier was known as the Norwich Terrier with 
drop ears.  In 1979, it became a separate breed and known as the Norfolk 
Terrier."

http://www.akc.org/breeds/recbreeds/norfolk.cfm

Another anachronism.  A simple slip, or ... (and I did notice that note 
about Thomas Paine ...)?  And see as well, e.g. ...

http://clubs.akc.org/nntc/

http://www.norfolkterrier.org/

But note as well that there's a long history of Learned English Dogs, not to 
mention Learned English Pigs.  From one of the most interesting, most useful 
books ever publihed ....

>From Richard Altick, The Shows of London: A Panoramic History of Exibitions, 
1600-1862 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1978), Ch. 3, "Monster-Mongers and 
Other Retailers of Strange sight," pp. 34-49 ...

... the open space, through every nook
Of the wide area, twinkles, is alive
With heads; the midway region, and above,
Is thronged with staring pictures and huge scrolls,
Dumb proclamations of the Prodigies;

[...]

All moveables of wonder, from all parts,
Are here--Albinos, painted Indians, Dwarfs,
The Horse of knowledge, and the learned Pig ...

William Wordsworth, The Prelude (1805 version), VII, 689-708 (cited @ Altick 
p. 36)

http://www.bartleby.com/145/ww293.html

"Performing animals and birds, especially dancing bears, had been staples of 
the London entertainment as early as Tudor times." (p. 40)

"The variety of creatures proving amenable to instruction increased with the 
years." (ibid.)

"Of the Learned Pig, 'well versed in all Languages, perfect Arethmatician 
[sic] & Composer of Musick,' Robert Southey wrote that he was 'in his day a 
far greater object of admiration to the English nation than ever was Isaac 
Newton.'  This prodigy of erudition made his London debut [...] early in 
1785 [...].  According to his publicity, 'he reads, wries, and casts 
accounts by means of typographical cards, in the same manner that a printer 
composes and by the same method ... sets down any capital or surname; solves 
questions in the four rules of Arithmetic,' tells time, and so on, ad 
baccalaureatum.  He figues in contemprary prints, including Rowlandson's The 
Wonderful Pig of April 1785, and in Dr. Johnson's conversation.  Boswell 
records that on one of her last visits to Johnson in the preceding year, 
Anna Seward told him

of a wonderful learned pig [...] which did all that we have observed 
exhibited by dogs and horses.  The subject amused him. 'Then, (said he,) the 
pigs area a race unjustly calumnated.  Pig has, it seems, not ben wanting to 
man, but man to pig.  We do not allow time for his education, we kill him at 
a year old.'  Mr. Henry White [...] proceeded to remark, that great torture 
must have been employed, ere the indovility of the animal could have been 
subdued.--'Certainly, (said teh Doctor;) but, (turning to me,) how old is 
yor pig?'  I told him, three years old.  'Then, (said he,) the pig has no 
reason to complain; he would have been killed the first year had he not been 
educated, and protracted existence is a good recompense for very 
considerable degrees of torture.'" (pp. 40-1, citing James Boswell, The Life 
of Samuel Johnson, ed. G. Birkbeck Hill and L.F. Powell [Oxford UP, 
1934-1950], IV, pp. 373-4)

Leaving aside for the moment the Good Doctor's take on torture ...

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0109&msg=611&sort=date

Cf. not only ...

"Viz.-- Once, the only reason Men kept Dogs was for food.  Noting that among 
Men no crime was quite so abhorr'd as eating the flesh of another human, Dog 
quickly learn'd to act as human as possible,-- and to pass this Ability from 
Parents to Pups.  So we know how to evoke from you, Man, one day at a time, 
at least enough Mercy for one day more of Life." (M&D, Ch. 3, p. 22)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0109&msg=880&sort=date

But imagine as well the Samuel Johnson/Jules Winnfield debate: "Pigs: 
Unjustly Calumnated or Filthy Animals?" ...

http://pulp.linuxroot.org/pics/bacon.jpg

http://personalwebs.myriad.net/nathan/pulp/lyrics-personality.html

http://www.geocities.com/timessquare/bunker/2765/pf-swine.wav

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Bungalow/8032/Bacon.wav

http://www.discotrack.hpg.com.br/sndtrack/pulpfiction/personality_goes_a_long_way.htm

Personality goes a long way, indeed ...

Anyway, shortly after Johnson's death 13 December 1784), one wag (no puns 
where none intended ...) wrote ...

"On the Learned Pig"

Though Johnson, learned Bear, is gone,
  Let us no longer mourn our loss,
For lo, a learned Hog is come,
  And wisdom grunts at Charing Cross.

Happy for Johnson--that he died
  Before this wonder came to town,
Else it had blasted all his pride
  Another brute should gain renown

The Public Advertiser, 6 April 1785 (Altick pp. 41-2)

Altick also mentions, from an advertisement ca. 1799, "Le Chien Savant, or, 
the Learned Dog" (p. 126), but without further comment.  See also esp. p. 
311 ("dogs at Sadler's Wells") and p. 307 ("Toby, the Sapient Pig," "Signor 
Capelli's Performing Cats").  And see also, on Toby, the Sapient Pig et al. 
...

Jay, Ricky.  "Porcine Prophets and Pig-Faced Ladies."
   Learned Pigs and Fireproof Women.  New York:
   Warner Books, 1986.  1-6.

Which draws extensively on Altick, and provides much additional information, 
as well a illustrations.  And on The Faithful Monetto, a Learned English Dog 
of the early nineteenth century, see ...

Jay, Ricky.  "The Faithful Monetto & The Inimitable
   Dick."  Jay's Journal of Anomalies.  New York:
   Farrar Straus Giroux, 2001.  3-8.

Which reprints all sixteen issues of Jay's Journal of Anomalies (here, Vol. 
1, No. 1 [Spring 1984]).  My suspicion is that Pynchon himself might well 
have been a subscriber; given his alleged fondness for pig memorabilia, I 
imagine he'd at least eventually have come across RJ's LP&FW, and then, from 
Learned Pigs to Learned Dogs ...

Ricky Jay, by the way, might be better known to some as an actor, in several 
David Mamet films (inc. DM's [!] most recent, Heist), as well as in Paul 
Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights (the cameraman) and Magnolia (the game show 
producer).  In the latter, watch for a copy of Learned Pigs & Fireproof 
Women amongst all the other books (Ripley's Believe it or Not, Charles Fort, 
et al.) that the quiz kid protagonist has arrayed on that library table.  
Foreshadowing and irony (and note as well the heroin addict's collection 
when the deus ex rana hits and her bookshelves topple over: Roland Barthes' 
S/Z [!], Perelman & Olbrecht-Tyteca's The New Rhetoric, et al.) ...





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