A D I S C U S S I O N O F B R I T I S H P O L I T I C A L P E R F O R M A N C E S A T I R E I N T H E S E V E N T E E N T H A N D T W E N T I E T H C E N T U R I E S

ALEXANDER BENDO’S BROCHURE AND “THE ESTABLISHMENT”

SATIRE

• Definitions offered by Theorizing Satire:

• Northrop Frye: “Two things… are essential to satire; one is wit or humor founded on fantasy or a sense of the grotesque or absurd, the other is an object of attack”

• Edward Rosenheim: satire is an “attack by means of a manifest fiction upon discernible historical particulars…”

• Brian A. Connery and Kirk Combe: • “…in general usage, ‘satire’ remains less an identifiable

genre than a mode”• “the study of satire necessarily blurs the boundary

between historical scholarship and literary criticism”

THE EARL OF ROCHESTER AND ALEXANDER BENDO’S BROCHURE

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY ENGLISH SATIRE

SATIRE: CIVIL WAR AND RESTORATION

English Civil War(1642-1651)

• Pre-Civil War: strong censorship by the Crown drove satire underground

• During Civil War: satire used as propaganda by both Royalists and Parliamentarians

Restoration Period(1660-1688)

• King Charles II and James II

• Explosion in satire

• Style influenced by French satirists • Elaborate, irreverent • Earl of Rochester

THE EARL OF ROCHESTER AND ALEXANDER BENDO’S BROCHURE

“If I appear to any one like a counterfeit, even for the sake of that chiefly ought I to be construed a true

man, who is the counterfeit's example, his original, and that which he employs his industry and pains to

imitate and copy. Is it therefore my fault if the cheat by his wits and endeavours makes himself so like me, that consequently I cannot avoid resembling of him?”

ENGLISH SATIRE OF THE 1960S

P E T E R C O O K A N D ‘ T H E E S TA B L I S H M E N T ’ P E R F O R M A N C E S AT I R E

ENGLAND AND THE 1960S ‘SATIRE BOOM’

Historical Context

• Post World War II

• Beginning of the end of British Imperialism

• Social unrest, change of the 1960s

• Strong state censorship efforts

Main Figures

• Young, male university graduates

• Peter Cook• Cambridge• Foreign Service• “Private Eye”• “The Establishment”

THE ESTABLISHMENT

• 1961 to 1964

• Cabaret “club” to avoid censorship laws, Lord Chamberlain

• Performances targeted England’s political and social elite (“the Establishment”)

A HISTORICAL COMPARISON

Similarities

• Used performance satire to criticize England’s elite

• Created at times when satire was a popular form of entertainment

• Multiple mediums• Loose structure to

performances• Both disrespectful

verging on profane

Differences

• Rochester• part of “the Establishment,”

himself• King = main subject of satire• More interactive with

‘audience’, more elaborate

• Cook• Not solely impersonation• Critique had more general

focus• Prolonged period of time• Transition to other forms of

media

NEXT STEPS…

• Move beyond compare and contrast

• What about the time in between?

• Other forms of satire

• Other areas

MAIN SOURCES

• Bourne, Don. "'If I Appear to Anyone Like a Counterfeit': Liminality in Rochester's Alexander Bendo's Brochure," Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660-1700 32 (Spring 2008): 3-17.

• Combe, Kirk. "Making Monkeys of Important Men: Performance Satire and Rochester's Alexander Bendo's Brochure," Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies 32 (Spring 2012): 54-76. • Connery, Brian and Combe, Kirk. Theorizing Satire: Essays in Literary

Criticism (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995), 4.

• Feron, James. “London Political Cabaret Thrives: ‘The Establishment’ is Satirizing the Establishment.” New York Times (New York, NY), Dec. 27, 1961.

 • “Peter Cook & Clives James – The Establishment Club.” 1991. Video Clip. Accessed October 7, 2013. YouTube. www.Youtube.com, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hanulk5heg.

• Wilmot, James. “To all gentlemen, ladies, and others, whether of city, town, orcountry: Alexander Bendo wisheth all health and prosperity.” London: 1676.