Thankfulness: Christopher Smart
AGE: Secondary |
THEME: Thankfulness: Christopher Smart |
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| Show the picture of Bedlam by Hogarth. The picture was engraved in 1735 by William Hogarth. Ask if anyone knows what it shows. It's Bedlam. Bedlam - the Bethlehem Hospital - was a hospital for people who were mentally ill. Nearly 300 years ago, just about the only treatment for people who were mentally disturbed was to lock and chain them up, generally in a dark room. If they still didn't 'behave', they were often denied food and beaten. In Bedlam, at the weekend, the doors were opened and people were allowed to look at all the mad people - if they could afford the entrance fee. It was a very popular tourist attraction! Many of the poor patients became quite famous, although they probably weren't aware of it. Every person in this picture has been driven insane for a different reason but you've got to look closely to work out what has caused their mania. Any ideas?
About 20 years after this picture was made, one of the greatest poets of the 18th century, a man called Christopher Smart, was locked up in a mad house. It wasn't as bad as this - he wasn't put on display - but he bitterly resented his imprisonment, which lasted just over six years. What had Christopher Smart done to be labelled a 'lunatic'? Nothing very much. His only 'symptom' was that he prayed. He didn't do it in a loud and crazy way but, if he felt like it, he would kneel down in the street, or wherever he found himself, and pray. Was that enough to make him insane? What do you think? What did Christopher Smart pray about? Mostly he praised God. Giving thanks was the main subject of his poetry. While he was imprisoned in the madhouse he was allowed to keep a cat. The cat was called Jeoffry. He wrote a long prose-poem called Jubilate Agno and the bit of it that is often reprinted is about this cat. It begins: "For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry, For he is the servant of the Living God duly and daily serving him. For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships in his way. For this is done by wreathing his body seven times round with elegant quickness..." ... and so on. His cat is pictured as a creature filled with praise for the life God has given him. And, unlike humans, this cat isn't inhibited about giving thanks. It is a bit of a bizarre poem, and very long, but Smart wrote a few lines every day. Perhaps it was how he kept his identity. Even though he was locked up for giving thanks to God, he wasn't going to stop! Even in the madhouse, he believed that the fundamental drive of all things is to be thankful. |
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| Let's be quiet for a moment and take time to consider some of the gifts which we have - and which we perhaps too often take for granted. Think of some of the people in our life who are important to us - who have given us so much - and without whom our lives would be impoverished. Think of some of the places in the world which are special to us - perhaps somewhere familiar and ordinary like our own homes or the homes of our grandparents. Perhaps somewhere exotic - a place where we have been on holiday, or where we dream to go. Think of some of the things we have - not just the consumer goods but also some of the ordinary things that are part of the furniture of our lives and which make us what we are. For all of these, give thanks. |
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