Alexander Bendo’s Brochure and “The Establishment”

1. Alexander Bendo’s Brochure and “The Establishment” A discussion of British political performance satire in the seventeenth and twentieth centuries

2. 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”

4. The Earl of Rochester and Alexander Bendo’s Brochure Seventeenth Century English satire

5. Satire: Civil war and restoration English Civil War (1642-1651) Restoration Period (1660-1688) King Charles II and James II Explosion in satire Style influenced by French satirists Elaborate, irreverent Earl of Rochester • Pre-Civil War: strong censorship by the Crown drove satire underground • During Civil War: satire used as propaganda by both Royalists and Parliamentarians

6. 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?”

7. English Satire of the 1960s Peter cook and ‘The Establishment’ performance satire

8. England and the 1960s‘satire boom’ Historical Context Main Figures Young, male university graduates Peter Cook Cambridge Foreign Service “Private Eye” “The Establishment” • Post World War II • Beginning of the end of British Imperialism • Social unrest, change of the 1960s • Strong state censorship efforts

9. The Establishment • 1961 to 1964 • Cabaret “club” to avoid censorship laws, Lord Chamberlain • Performances targeted England’s political and social elite (“the Establishment”)

10. A Historical Comparison Similarities 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 • 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

11. Next steps… • Move beyond compare and contrast • What about the time in between? • Other forms of satire • Other areas

12. Main Sources • Bourne, Don. "'If I Appear to Anyone Like a Counterfeit': Liminality in Rochester'sAlexander Bendo'sBrochure," Restoration: Studies in English Literary Culture, 1660-1700 32 (Spring 2008): 3-17. • Combe, Kirk. "Making Monkeys of Important Men: Performance Satire and Rochester'sAlexander Bendo's Brochure," Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies32 (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, or country: Alexander Bendowisheth all health and prosperity.” London: 1676.