Tim Cassedy - Figures of Speech: Six Histories of Language and Identity in the Age of Revolutions

Figures of Speech UIP_CassedyFirstPages.indd 1 8/3/18 11:31 AM IMPRESSIONS | Studies in the Art, Culture, & Future of Books Matthew P. Brown, series editor UIP_CassedyFirstPages.indd 2 8/3/18 11:31 AM Figures of Speech Six Histories of Language & Identityin the Age of Revolutions Tim Cassedy University of Iowa Press a Iowa City UIP_CassedyFirstPages.indd 3 8/3/18 11:31 AM University of Iowa Press, Iowa City 52242 Copyright 2018 by the University of Iowa Press www.uipress.uiowa.edu Printed in the United States of America Design by Sara T. Sauers No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. All reasonable steps have been taken to contact copyright holders of material used in this book. The publisher would be pleased to make suitable arrangements with any whom it has not been possible to reach. The University of Iowa Press is a member of Green Press Initiative and is committed to preserving natural resources.

Printed on acid-free paper CIP data to come UIP_CassedyFirstPages.indd 4 8/3/18 11:31 AM to Hannah UIP_CassedyFirstPages.indd 5 8/3/18 11:31 AM UIP_CassedyFirstPages.indd 6 8/3/18 11:31 AM a contents List of Illustrations... ix Acknowledgments... xi Introduction... 1 Language Makes the Difference between Man and Man Chapter One... 37 Linguistic Salves for Political Wounds Chapter Two... 117 The Abecedarian Clock Recording Speech before Recorded Sound Chapter Four... 145 How to Read the World Pantographia, Print Specimens, and Linguistic Identity Chapter Five... 175 Mary Willcockss Caraboo Tongue Coda... 217 Language Makes the hifence between Now and Then Notes... 227 Bibliography... 271 Index... 303 UIP_CassedyFirstPages.indd 7 8/3/18 11:31 AM UIP_CassedyFirstPages.indd 8 8/3/18 11:31 AM a list of illustrations Grandan specimen in Pantographia... frontispiece Hey, what language is this?... 1 The pump room, Bath... 2 Words from Caraboos vocabulary... 3 Mackintoshs phonetic printing system... 7 Pantless Scots rain down on London... 13 Carraboo Eerf dna yzae xaoh CLUB... 32 Language makes the difference between man and man... 42 Ill force you to obedience you rebellious slut... 44 Nantes waterfront, ca. 1776... 46 Emigrants and their Prussian allies in retreat... 48 Dufief at twenty-five or twenty-six... 53 Dufief in his mid-thirties... 57 Mother Britain and daughter America kiss and make up... 67 Cleste Bulkeley in battle, 1793... 68 Dedication pages, Chamberss Elements of Orthography... 72 Pronunciations from fifteen English dictionaries... 77 Franklins phonetic alphabet... 79 Pitchpipe of simple vowel sounds... 81 Kommon Manz izzikkal Inukt-ter... 84 Noah Webster, the linguistic radical... 102 Noah Webster, the lexicographical eminence... 102 American spellings of six words... 114 Long-necked guglet... 118 Phonography in 1840... 123 Phonography in 1889... 123 Gilchrists Dictionary, English and Hindoostanee... 126 Gilchrists abecedarian clock... 129 Gilchrists universal character: German and Gaelic... 133 ix UIP_CassedyFirstPages.indd 9 8/3/18 11:31 AM Gilchrists universal character: Chinese... 135 Inside the cuckoo clock... 139 Inside the talking machine... 139 Gilchrist in his sixties... 142 Pantographias linguistic specimens... 146 Talenga (Telugu) specimen in Pantographia... 149 Paragon (20-pt.) type from Caslons 1785 specimen book... 151 Georgian specimens in Pantographia... 151 Sumatran and Tartaric specimens in Pantographia... 153 New and worn type in Pantographia... 157 Caslon, Baskerville, and Fry typefaces... 159 Remains of an old magical alphabet... 160 Steel punch for numeral 1... 160 Casting type... 161 Fry at about seventy years old... 163 Bali (Balinese) specimen in Pantographia... 164 The best alphabet and method of printing for... the blind... 171 Frys winning entry... 172 Star of the show... 176 Willcockss Caraboo handwriting... 181 Newspaper coverage of Caraboos written language... 187 Typographic parodies of Caraboos script... 188 Magdalen Hospital for the Reception of Penitent Prostitutes... 193 Magdalen uniform... 196 Mary Willcocks in full Caraboo regalia... 196 Female Robber Mary Willcocks, 1817... 198 Mary Willcocks engraving by Nathan Cooper Branwhite... 202 Haranai and Oach Patch at Lake Javasu... 218 x a list of illustrations UIP_CassedyFirstPages.indd 10 8/3/18 11:31 AM a acknowledgments I could not have written this book without the generous support I received from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Antiquarian Society, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society, the Lewis Walpole Library, the Andrew W. 218 x a list of illustrations UIP_CassedyFirstPages.indd 10 8/3/18 11:31 AM a acknowledgments I could not have written this book without the generous support I received from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Antiquarian Society, the Library Company of Philadelphia, the American Philosophical Society, the Lewis Walpole Library, the Andrew W.

Mellon Foundation, and the United Methodist General Board of Higher Education and Ministry. At Southern Methodist University, I also benefited from funding from Dedman College, the University Research Council, and the Department of English. I am grateful for their support. For assistance gathering the materials that make this book come alive, I thank David Fry, Deirdre Fry, Chelsea Grogan, John Overholt, Kate Petsche, Andrew Wilson, and the Interlibrary Loan staff at SMU. I also wish to thank Matt Brown and the anonymous readers for the University of Iowa Press for their generous and generative readings. I further thank the editors and reviewers at journals where I developed this books ideas and voice: Chris Castiglia, Lauren Coats, Catriona MacLeod, Sarah Mesle, Dana Nelson, and Eric Slauter.

An earlier version of part of chapter 1 was previously published in A Dictionary Which We Do Not Want: Defining America Against Noah Webster, 17831810, William and Mary Quarterly 71 (2014). An earlier version of chapter 5 was published in Types of Reading, Types of Pleasure: Pantographia and the Specimens of Globalization, Word & Image 34 (2018). I am grateful to my colleagues at SMU who have made my work more joyful and creative, including Greg Brownderville, Darryl Dickson-Carr, Irina Dumitrescu, Dennis Foster, Dan Moss, Jayson Sae-Saue, Nina Schwartz, Lisa Siraganian, and Rajani Sudan. I owe a special debt to Ezra Greenspan. My song forever shall record my gratitude to the curators and li brarians at the Library Company and American Antiquarian Society xi UIP_CassedyFirstPages.indd 11 8/3/18 11:31 AM who made my hours in their reading rooms so joyful and transformative: Linda August, Vince Golden, Jim Green, Connie King, and Elizabeth Pope. I also thank the colleagues, collaborators, and friends I met in ar chives, libraries, and reading groups, whose feedback and intellectual curiosities helped me understand the kind of scholarship I wanted to write: Kelly Bezio, Hester Blum, Michelle Burnham, Ryan Cordell, Lindsay DiCuirci, Paul Erickson, Glenda Goodman, Melissa Gniadek, Molly Hardy, Lucia Hodgson, Toni Jaudon, Jason M.

Payton, Joe Rezek, Danielle Skeehan, Jordan Stein, Dan Walden, and Kelly Wisecup. I am also deeply grateful to Laura Fisher and Shirley Wong, comrades; and to Pat Crain, Bryan Waterman, and Tom Augst, mentors. Most of all and with inexpressible gratitude, I thank Hannah Cassedy. xii a acknowledgments UIP_CassedyFirstPages.indd 12 8/3/18 11:31 AM Figures of Speech UIP_CassedyFirstPages.indd 13 8/3/18 11:31 AM UIP_CassedyFirstPages.indd 14 8/3/18 11:31 AM Introduction Language Makes the Difference between Man and Man The Character She Represents Herself to Be