The most notorious of Mark Twain’s few “excursions into bawdry”
(Jones, 612) is his 1876 Elizabethan pastiche “[Date, 1601.]
Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the
Tudors”, commonly shortened to “1601”. Published anonymously in
1880, “1601” has shocked a few readers but cracked up many more,
including its hard-to-please author: “I don’t often write anything
that I laugh at myself, but I can hardly think of that thing
without laughing” (Twain, Notebooks, 303).
“1601” purports to be an extract from a conversation at the
court of Queen Elizabeth I between the following: Sir Walter
Raleigh, William Shakespeare (‘Shaxpur’), Ben Jonson, a
fifteen-year-old Francis …
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Citation:
Fachard, Alexandre. "“[Date, 1601.] Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors"". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 10 August 2016 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35789, accessed 31 October 2024.]
