John Harington (writer)
Sir John Harington | |
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Born | |
Baptised | 4 August 1560 |
Died | 20 November 1612 Kelston, Somerset, England | (aged 52)
Education | Eton College |
Alma mater | King's College, Cambridge |
Occupations |
|
Known for | Modern flush toilet |
Spouse | Mary Rogers |
Parents |
|
Sir John Harington (4 August 1560 – 20 November 1612), of
Early life and family
Harington was born in
He was educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge.[4]
Harington married Mary Rogers,[2] daughter of George Rogers of Cannington (son of Sir Edward Rogers) and Jane Winter, on 6 September 1583.
Courtier under Elizabeth I
Although he had studied the law, Harington was attracted early in life to the royal court, where his free-spoken attitude and poetry gained Elizabeth's attention. Elizabeth encouraged his writing, but Harington was inclined to overstep the mark in his somewhat Rabelaisian and occasionally risqué pieces.[5]
His attempt at a translation of
One of his epigrams is widely quoted:
- Treason doth never prosper? What's the reason?
- for if it prosper, none dare call it treason.[7]
Around that time, Harington also devised England's first
In 1596, Harington, under the pseudonym Misacmos, wrote a book called A New Discourse upon a Stale Subject: The Metamorphosis of Ajax about his invention.[13][14] The book made political allusions to the Earl of Leicester, which angered Elizabeth. It was a coded attack on the stercus or excrement that was poisoning society with torture and state-sponsored "libels" against his relatives Thomas Markham and Ralph Sheldon. After its publication, he was again banished from the court. Elizabeth's mixed feelings for him may have been the only thing that saved Harington from being tried at the Star Chamber.
Campaigns in Ireland
In 1599, Elizabeth sent an
Harington, present at the truce negotiations, accompanied Essex back to court to account to Elizabeth, but met with royal wrath: "Tell my witty godson to get him home ... it is no season to fool it here!" However, his wit and charm soon secured forgiveness: despite his closeness to Essex, he survived his downfall with his own reputation more or less unsullied. During what proved to be the Queen's last Christmas, he tried to lighten her mounting moods of melancholy by reading from his comic verses. Elizabeth thanked him, but said sadly, "When thou dost feel creeping time at thy gate, these fooleries will please thee less – I am past my relish for such matters".[16]
Courtier under James I
After the Queen's death, Harington's fortunes faltered at the court of the new King,
He claimed to be unhappy at James's Court, owing specifically to the heavy drinking by both sexes, but in fact, he seems to have derived amusement from the antics of the courtiers. He left a description of a disastrous attempt by
Towards the end of his life, Harington tutored Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales. He annotated for him a copy of Francis Godwin's De praesulibus Angliae (Of the rulers of England). Harington's grandson, John Chetwind published these annotations in 1653 under the title A Briefe View of the State of the Church. While tutoring the Prince, Harington also translated from Italian to English verse Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum (Health regimen of the School of Salernum), a medieval collection of health tips. The translation was published in 1607 in London.[19]
Harington fell ill in May 1612 and died on 20 November 1612 at the age of 52, soon after Henry Frederick, who had died on 6 November. He was buried in Kelston.[20]
In popular culture
In the television series South Park, Harington appears as a ghost in the episode "Reverse Cowgirl". He explains how to use his invention, the toilet, properly.[21]
In the TV series
References
- ^ Jason Scott-Warren: "Harington, Sir John (bap. 1560, d. 1612)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004) Retrieved 17 August 2015.
- ^ a b Tate. "'Portrait of Mary Rogers, Lady Harington', Marcus Gheeraerts II, 1592". Tate. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
- ^ a b McDonald, D. (November 1956). "Sir John Harington: Queen Elizabeth's Godson". History Today. 6 (11). Archived from the original on 5 April 2014.
- ^ "Harington, John (HRNN576J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ "The Throne of Sir John Harrington". Historic UK. Archived from the original on 16 February 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
- ^ Culture UK – The invention of the indoor closet or the lavatory, toilet or loo as it is known today Archived 19 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ The most elegant and witty epigrams of Sir Iohn Harrington, Knight digested into foure bookes: three vvhereof neuer before published(1618), ed. John Budge, http://name.umdl.umich.edu/A02647.0001.001, Book IV, Epistle 5.
- ^ "The History of the Flush Toilet".
- ^ "Definition of JOHN".
- ISBN 0-86299-294-X. Kinghorn supervised a reconstruction in 1981, based on an illustrated account by Harington's assistant, Thomas Coombe, in the New Discourse.
- ^ "The Throne of Sir John Harrington". Historic UK. Archived from the original on 16 September 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
- ^ "Why is a bathroom sometimes called a "john"?". English Language and Usage. Archived from the original on 16 September 2016. Retrieved 6 September 2016.
- ^ Kinghorn (1986)
- ^ Jørgensen, Dolly. "The Metamorphosis of Ajax, jakes, and early modern urban sanitation" (PDF). University of Texas Arlington. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 August 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
- ISBN 9781316194683.
- ISBN 9780813157252.
- ^ "Sir John Harington". Just History. 27 April 2016. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
- ^ Nichols, John (1828). The Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities, of King James the First, His Royal Consort, Family, and Court. Nichols/AMS Press. p. 73.
- ^ "A Salernitan Regimen of Health". Gode Cookery. Archived from the original on 15 January 2013. Retrieved 25 January 2013.
- required.)
- ^ Nicholson, Max (15 March 2012). "South Park: "Reverse Cowgirl" Review". IGN. Retrieved 6 June 2017.
Sources
- Grimble, Ian (1957). The Harington Family. Jonathon Cape, London.
- Kilroy, Gerard. Edmund Campion: Memory and Transcription, 2005. Archived from the original on 28 September 2011. Retrieved 28 December 2005.
- Kinghorn, Jonathan (1986). "A Privvie in Perfection: Sir John Harrington's Water Closet". Bath History. 1: 173–188. ISBN 0-86299-294-X
- Thomas Park, ed., Nugae Antiquae by Sir John Harington, Knt, 3 vols, London (1804)
- Scott-Warren, Jason (2004–2007), "Harington, Sir John (bap. 1560, d. 1612)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford: Oxford University Press
External links
- Works by John Harington at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Works by John Harington at Open Library
- Works by or about John Harington at Internet Archive
- The Metamorphosis of Ajax and Nugaue Antiquae at the Ex-Classics Web Site; Readable online or can be downloaded in different formats.
- The Metamorphosis of Ajax (1814)