IBSEN BRIEFS AND THE OUTLAW

Some stuff for the 19th January.

On the 19^th January 1893, Henrik Ibsen’s play The Master Builder received its premiere performance in Berlin. Henrik Ibsen was a major 19^th century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre.

The Master Builder (Norwegian: Byggmester Solness) was first published in December  1892 and is regarded as one of Ibsen's most significant and revealing works. The play was first performed on 19 January 1893 at the Lessing Theatre, Berlin, with Emanuel Reicher as Solness.

Like The Lady from the Sea the play revolves around past fantasies. I cannot say that I’ve ever really taken to Ibsen. There is something of the laborious in his depictions of older men and younger women. Perhaps that is what is meant by modernism.

Briefs were first sold on 19^th January, 1935 by Coopers Inc.., in Chicago, Illinois. They dubbed the new undergarment the "Jockey" because it offered a similar degree of support as the jockstrap (one style of which is also called Jock brief or Support briefs). Thirty-thousand pairs were sold within three months of their introduction. In North America, "Jockey shorts" or "Jockeys" is often used as a generic term for men's briefs. A nice bit of performance writing - to become a generic term. 

John Wilkes, English radical, journalist and politician, was declared an outlaw on 19^th  January 1764 and expelled from the House of Commons for obscene libel and seditious libel. Wilkes was a pretty extraordinary character. I would urge you to spend some time checking him out. Here is some of the Wikipedia entry:

"He was first elected Member of Parliament in 1757. In the Middlesex election dispute, he fought for the right of voters—rather than the House of Commons—to determine their representatives. In 1771 he was instrumental in obliging the government to concede the right of printers to publish verbatim accounts of parliamentary debates. In 1776 he introduced the first Bill for parliamentary reform in the British Parliament. During the American War of Independence he was a supporter of the American rebels adding further to his popularity with American Whigs. In 1780, however, he commanded militia forces which helped put down the Gordon Riots damaging his popularity with many radicals.

Wilkes's increasing conservatism as he grew older caused dissatisfaction among radicals and was instrumental in the loss of his Middlesex seat at the 1790 general election. At the age of 65, Wilkes retired from politics and took no part in the growth of radicalism in the 1790s following the French Revolution. During his life he earned a reputation as a libertine.

Wilkes started a radical weekly publication, The North Briton, to attack him, using an anti-Scots tone. Typical of Wilkes, the title was a satirical take on the Earl's newspaper, The Briton, with North Briton referring to Scotland. He was particularly incensed by what he regarded as Bute's betrayal in agreeing to overly generous peace terms with France to end the war.

Wilkes was charged with seditious libel over attacks on George III's speech endorsing the Paris Peace Treaty of 1763 at the opening of Parliament on 23 April 1763. Wilkes was highly critical of the King's speech, which was recognised as having been written by Bute. He attacked it in an article of issue 45 of The North Briton. The issue number in which Wilkes published his critical editorial was appropriate because the number 45 was synonymous with the Jacobite Rising of 1745, commonly known as "The '45". Bute, Scottish and politically controversial as an adviser to the King, was associated popularly with Jacobitism, a perception which Wilkes played on.

The King felt personally insulted and ordered general warrants to be issued for the arrest of Wilkes and the publishers on 30 April 1763. Forty-nine people, including Wilkes, were arrested under the warrants. Wilkes, however, gained considerable popular support as he asserted the unconstitutionality of general warrants. At his court hearing the Lord Chief Justice ruled that as an MP, Wilkes was protected by privilege from arrest on a charge of libel. He was soon restored to his seat, as he cited parliamentary privilege for his editorial. Wilkes sued his arresters for trespass. As a result of this episode, people were chanting, "Wilkes, Liberty and Number 45", referring to the newspaper.

Bute had by now resigned, but Wilkes was equally opposed to his successor, George Grenville. Wilkes resumed attacking the King when on 16 November 1763, Samuel Martin, a supporter of George III, challenged Wilkes to a duel. Wilkes was shot and wounded in the stomach. Parliament was quick to vote on a measure that did not protect MP's from arrest for the writing and publishing of seditious libel.

Wilkes and Thomas Potter wrote a pornographic poem entitled "An Essay on Woman" as a parody of Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Man". Wilkes's political enemies obtained this, foremost among them John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, who was also a member of the Hellfire Club, who introduced it in the House of Lords. Sandwich had a personal vendetta against Wilkes that stemmed in large part from embarrassment caused by a prank of Wilkes involving the Earl at one of the Hellfire Club's meetings; he was delighted at the chance for revenge. Sandwich read the poem to the House of Lords in an effort to denounce Wilkes's moral behaviour, despite the hypocrisy of his action. The Lords declared the poem obscene and blasphemous, and it caused a great scandal. The House of Lords moved to expel Wilkes again; he fled to Paris before any expulsion or trial. He was tried and found guilty in absentia of obscene libel and seditious libel, and was declared an outlaw on 19 January 1764."

That has got to make you want to read more.