MDDM23: The Eponym in Dispute

[Dave Monroe]

   "'Stop it,' admonishes the Revd, 'both of you,--
not all the Sensibilities here are grown as coarsen'd
as your own.  The Eponym in dispute,' he continues to
point out to the Macaroni, 'better known these Days as
Jemmy Twitcher, withal, is a vile-mouthed drunkard, a
foolish gambler, and a Sodomitical rake, who betrayed
his dear friend for the sake of,-- let us say, a
certain Caress, from the feeble hand of Georgie, Jack
Bute's pathetic creature.'
   "'By Heaven, a Wilkesite!' cries Mr. Edgewise,
'right here among us, imagine it, my Crown of
Thorns!'" (M&D, Ch. 36, p. 367)

Main Entry: ep·onym 
Pronunciation: 'e-p&-"nim
Function: noun
Etymology: Greek epOnymos, from epOnymos eponymous,
from epi- + onyma name -- more at NAME
Date: 1846
1 : one for whom or which something is or is believed
to be named
2 : a name (as of a drug or a disease) based on or
derived from an eponym

Main Entry: mac·a·ro·ni 
Pronunciation: "ma-k&-'rO-nE
Function: noun
Etymology: Italian maccheroni, plural of maccherone,
from Italian dialect maccarone dumpling, macaroni
Date: 1599
1 : pasta made from semolina and shaped in the form of
slender tubes
2 plural macaronis or macaronies a : a member of a
class of traveled young Englishmen of the late 18th
and early 19th centuries who affected foreign ways b :
an affected young man : FOP

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

"Jemmy Twitcher. A name given to John, Lord Sandwich
(1718–1792), noted for his liaison with Miss Ray, who
was shot by the Rev. 'Captain' Hackman out of
jealousy. His lordship’s shambling gait is
memorialised in the Heroic Epistle. 
   "'See Jemmy Twitcher shambles—stop, stop thief!'"

http://www.bartleby.com/81/16882.html

>From The Cambridge History of English and American
Literature in 18 Volumes (1907–21), Vol. X: The Age of
Johnson, Ch. XVII, "Political Literature," § 14,
"Churchill’s Later Satires" ...

"The rest of {Charles] Churchill’s [1731-64] poems are
of less interest....  We may allow The Candidate
[1764], directed against Lord Sandwich, to have
deserved its share of praise for the defeat of 'Jemmy
Twitcher,' (5)  as he was nick-named, in the election
for the high stewardship of Cambridge university; but
its appeal was merely temporary."

"Note 5. 'That Jemmy Twitcher should peach, I own
surprises me.' Sandwich, the completest rake of the
day, had brought Wilkes’s obscene Essay on Woman
before the House of Lords in a speech of extraordinary
hypocrisy."

http://www.bartleby.com/220/1714.html

And here's a bonus quote ...

http://www.bartleby.com/66/46/12346.html

"a Sodomitical rake"

Main Entry: rake
Function: noun
Etymology: short for rakehell
Date: 1653
: a dissolute person : LIBERTINE

http://m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

See "Medmenham Circle," M&D, Ch.   , p. 418 ...

http://www.montaguemillennium.com/research/monks.htm

And cf. as well M&D, Ch. 29, p. 290 ...

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0201&msg=64470&sort=date

Bute, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of (1713-92)
367; Bute, a Scotsman, had tutored young George since
childhood, and was appointed secretary of state in
1761 when George [III] ascended to the throne. He was
George's confidant and constant companion until he was
essentially cut off from the king in 1765 by those who
did not approve of the consequences of his influence

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/mason-dixon/alpha/b.html

Wilkes, John (1727-97)

"367; Wilkes was an English politician who was a man
of fashion as well as profligate. He was a member of
the Hell-fire Club which held orgies at Medmenham
Abbey. He entered parliament in 1757, but was kicked
out and imprisoned in 1768 for being involved in a
duel resulting from readings of his supposedly obscene
Essay on Women in the House of Lords; 489"

http://www.hyperarts.com/pynchon/mason-dixon/alpha/w.html

And see also ...

http://www.clements.umich.edu/Webguides/Arlenes/UZ/WilkesJ.html

http://koolaid.slc409.wilkes.edu/WilkesDocs/JWStatue/statue.html

And see as well ...

Martelli, George Ansley.  Jemmy Twitcher: 
  A Life of the Fourth Earl of Sandwich, 1718-1792.
  London: Jonathan Cape, 1962.

Rodger, N.A.M.  The Insatiable Earl:
   A Life of John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich,
   1718-1792.  London: HarperCollins, 1993.

Will try to do so myself ...

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