Thomas Cranmer's 42 Boxes

From Henry Holiday's illustrations to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (1876)

1875: Proposal for a depicton of a Boojum turned Snark by Henry Holiday (and redrawn by me) to Lewis Carroll. However, Carroll (Dodgson) preferred to leave it to the imagination of his readers (and to the imagination of the Barrister ) how the Snark may look like. The little vanishig guy is The Baker . Does the Boojum sit on some of the Baker's 42 boxes? It is said that Carroll "suppressed" Holiday's Boojum, but I think that between these two gentlemen that is not the right term. "[...] One of the first three [illustrations] I had to do was the disappearance of the Baker , and I not unnatuarally invented a Boojum. Mr. Dodgson wrote that it was a delightful monster, but that it was inadmissible. All his descriptions of the Boojum were quite unimaginable, and he wanted the creature to remain so. I assented, of course, though reluctant to dismiss what I am still confident is an accurate representation. I hope that some future Darwin in a new Beagle will find the beast, or its remains; if he does, I know he will confirm my drawing. [...]" (Source: Henry Holiday (1898): The Snark's Significance ) Did Henry Holiday's Boojum turned Snark sit on the Baker's boxes? From a sketch by H. Holiday and a painting by J. E. Millais:

(From Lewis Carroll's and Henry Holiday's The Hunting of the Snark , 1876) · · · · 021 · · There was one who was famed for the number of things · · · · 022 · · · · He forgot when he entered the ship: · · · · 023 · · His umbrella, his watch, all his jewels and rings, · · · · 024 · · · · And the clothes he had bought for the trip. · · · · 025 · · He had forty-two boxes , all carefully packed, · · · · 026 · · · · With his name painted clearly on each: · · · · 027 · · But, since he omitted to mention the fact, · · · · 028 · · · · They were all left behind on the beach. · · · · 029 · · The loss of his clothes hardly mattered, because · · · · 030 · · · · He had seven coats on when he came, · · · · 031 · · With three pairs of boots --but the worst of it was, · · · · 032 · · · · He had wholly forgotten his name. · · · · 033 · · He would answer to "Hi!" or to any loud cry, · · · · 034 · · · · Such as " Fry me! " or " Fritter my wig! " · · · · 035 · · To "What-you-may-call-um!" or "What-was-his-name!" · · · · 036 · · · · But especially "Thing-um-a-jig!" · · · · 037 · · While, for those who preferred a more forcible word, · · · · 038 · · · · He had different names from these: · · · · 039 · · His intimate friends called him " Candle-ends ," · · · · 040 · · · · And his enemies " Toasted-cheese ." · · · · 041 · · "His form is ungainly--his intellect small--" · · · · 042 · · · · (So the Bellman would often remark) · · · · 043 · · "But his courage is perfect! And that, after all, · · · · 044 · · · · Is the thing that one needs with a Snark." · · · · 045 · · He would joke with hyenas, returning their stare · · · · 046 · · · · With an impudent wag of the head : · · · · 047 · · And he once went a walk, paw-in-paw, with a bear , · · · · 048 · · · · "Just to keep up its spirits," he said. · · · · 049 · · He came as a Baker: but owned, when too late-- · · · · 050 · · · · And it drove the poor Bellman half-mad-- · · · · 051 · · He could only bake Bridecake--for which, I may state, · · · · 052 · · · · No materials were to be had. My assumption is, that in Carroll's ballad the Baker does not stand for a single person. Rather, he represents curageous (and - once the intellect is small but the courage is perfect - often uncautious) searchers of truth. Put more simply: The baker represents an attitude (or a set of attitudes), e.g. the attitudes of a Corbinian or a Thomas Cranmer , a key figure in the history of the reformation in Europe. 2013-02-02: In Carroll's description of the Baker (see parts printed in boldface), there may be some allusions to someone who got burned . As for "Bridecake", Thomas Cranmer also was (along with Thomas Cromwell) quite a bit involved in the weddings (and divorces) of Henry VIII. The forty-two boxes carried the Baker's name as clearly, as the Anglican Forty-Two Articles are associated with Thomas Cranmer. Here both, the Baker and Cranmer, stand for quite ambivalent heroes. Carroll (Rev. Dodgson) did not subscribe to the later Thirty-Nine Articles. By the way: Lewis Carroll didn't explain what the number 42 could "mean". And Douglas Adams insisted on having chosen the number 42 arbitrarily. See also: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corbinian#Corbinian.27s_Bear

See also: www.academia.edu/9856486/Henry_Holiday_-_and_Millais_Christ_in_the_House_of_His_Parents_ . The discovery here is the allusion by Henry Holiday to the painting by J.E. Millais. Finding Millais' allusions to an anonymous painter and to Galle's print is a "bycatch" of my Snark hunt. The relation between the anonymous painting and Galle's print already has been explained by Margaret Aston in 1994. That relation brobably has been discovered even earlier by Millais. . [left]: Henry Holiday: Depiction (1876) of the Baker's visit to his uncle in Lewis Carroll's " The Hunting of the Snark " (engraved by Joseph Swain). Outside of the window are some of the Baker's 42 boxes. [right top]: John Everett Millais : Christ in the House of His Parents aka The Carpenter's Shop (1850). Location: Tate Britain (N03584) , London. Literature: * Deborah Mary Kerr (1986): John Everett Millais's Christ in the house of his parents ( circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/26546 ) * p.34 in (01) Éva Péteri (2003): Victorian Approaches to Religion as Reflected in the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites, Budapest 2003, ISBN 978-9630580380 (shortlink: www.snrk.de/EvaPeteri.htm ) * Albert Boime (2008): Art in an Age of Civil Struggle, 1848-1871 p. 225-364: The Pre-Raphaelites and the 1848 Revolution ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0226063283 ) [right middle]: Anonymous : Edward VI and the Pope , An Allegory of Reformation, mirrored view (16th century, NPG 4165 ). Iconoclasm depicted in the window. Under the "window" 3rd from left is Thomas Cranmer who wrote the 42 Articles in 1552. Edward VI and the Pope (NPG 4165) was, until 1874, the property of Thomas Green, Esq., of Ipswich and Upper Wimpole Street , a collection 'Formed by himself and his Family during the last Century and early Part of the present Century' (Roy C. Strong: Tudor and Jacobean Portraits , 1969, p.345). Thus, when Millais' Christ in the House of His Parents ('The Carpenter's Shop') was painted in 1849-1850, the 16th century painting was part of a private collection. It was sold by Christie's 20 March 1874 (lot 9) to a buyer unknown to me, that is, when Holiday started with his illustrations to The Hunting of the Snark . Location: National Portrait Gallery, London [right bottom]: Philip Galle after Maarten van Heemskerck , Redrawn print Ahasuerus consulting the records (1564). The resemblance to the image above (right middle) was shown by Dr. Margaret Aston in 1994 in The King's Bedpost: Reformation and Iconography in a Tudor Group Portrait (p. 68). She also compared the bedpost to Heemskerck's Esther Crowned by Ahasuerus . Location: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

See also: www.academia.edu/9856486/Henry_Holiday_-_and_Millais_Christ_in_the_House_of_His_Parents_ . The discovery here is the allusion by Henry Holiday to the painting by J.E. Millais. Finding Millais' allusions to an anonymous painter and to Galle's print is a "bycatch" of my Snark hunt. The relation between the anonymous painting and Galle's print already has been explained by Margaret Aston in 1994. That relation brobably has been discovered even earlier by Millais. . [left]: Henry Holiday: Depiction (1876) of the Baker 's visit to his uncle in Lewis Carroll's " The Hunting of the Snark " (engraved by Joseph Swain). Outside of the window are some of the Baker's 42 boxes. [right top]: John Everett Millais : Christ in the House of His Parents aka The Carpenter's Shop (1850). Location: Tate Britain (N03584) , London. Literature: * Deborah Mary Kerr (1986): John Everett Millais's Christ in the house of his parents ( circle.ubc.ca/handle/2429/26546 ) p.34 in (01) Éva Péteri (2003): Victorian Approaches to Religion as Reflected in the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites, Budapest 2003, ISBN 978-9630580380 (shortlink: www.snrk.de/EvaPeteri.htm ) * Albert Boime (2008): Art in an Age of Civil Struggle, 1848-1871 p. 225-364: The Pre-Raphaelites and the 1848 Revolution ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0226063283 ) [right middle]: Anonymous : Edward VI and the Pope , An Allegory of Reformation, mirrored view (16th century, NPG 4165 ). Iconoclasm depicted in the window. Under the "window" 3rd from left is Thomas Cranmer who wrote the 42 Articles in 1552. Edward VI and the Pope (NPG 4165) was, until 1874, the property of Thomas Green, Esq., of Ipswich and Upper Wimpole Street , a collection 'Formed by himself and his Family during the last Century and early Part of the present Century' (Roy C. Strong: Tudor and Jacobean Portraits , 1969, p.345). Thus, when Millais' Christ in the House of His Parents ('The Carpenter's Shop') was painted in 1849-1850, the 16th century painting was part of a private collection. It was sold by Christie's 20 March 1874 (lot 9) to a buyer unknown to me, that is, when Holiday started with his illustrations to The Hunting of the Snark . Location: National Portrait Gallery, London [right bottom]: Philip Galle after Maarten van Heemskerck , Redrawn print Ahasuerus consulting the records (1564). The resemblance to the image above (right middle) was shown by Dr. Margaret Aston in 1994 in The King's Bedpost: Reformation and Iconography in a Tudor Group Portrait (p. 68). She also compared the bedpost to Heemskerck's Esther Crowned by Ahasuerus . Location: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

"I personally don't look for secret messages hidden by Carroll in the text; rather, I look at themes and symbols as potential hints as to the sorts of things that were on Carroll's mind at the time." Darien Graham-Smith , 2005-10-05 The image: [B&W]: Upper part of Henry Holiday's illustration (1876) to The Baker's Tale in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark depicting some of the Baker's 42 boxes piled up outside the window. In 1552, shortly before the early death of Edward VI, Thoma s Cran mer wrote down 42 articles , a protestant doctrine. In Henry Holiday's depiction of the staple of some of the Baker's 42 boxes piled up outside of the window of the Baker's uncle's room also the number 42 is visible. [color]: Segment from a painting (c. 1570) by an unknown artist ( commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ed_and_pope.png ).The segment is displayed in a mirrored view. Thomas Cranmer is located on the right side in the mirrored image. (Among other persons in the painting not shown in this segment: Edward VI, Henry VIII). There is a book about this painting where Thomas Cranmer is identified: Margaret Aston, The King's Bedpost: Reformation and Iconography in a Tudor Group Portrait , 1994. · 42 and Thomas Cranmer: How could the number 42 get into anyone's mind? Douglas Adams made that number popular as an answer to everything. (But what was the question?) In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy he (similar to many other writers, e.g. Tom Stoppard) challenged his readers with allusions to the works of earlier writers. An earlier writer who had an obvious affinity to the number 42 is known as Lewis Carroll. And, as I learned from John Tufail , "before the 39 articles of Faith that Carroll [the Rev. Dodgson] declined to attest to, there were 42 articles [written by Thomas Cranmer]." Of course, like Adams, Carroll wouldn't give any good reason for his affinity (not only in the Snark ) to the number 42 either, but he surely knew, that "Forty-Two" is an important number in the history of Anglicanism: In the mind of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) the Forty-Two Articles of Thomas Cranmer surely had their place. · · · · 021 · · There was one who was famed for the number of things · · · · 022 · · · · He forgot when he entered the ship: · · · · 023 · · His umbrella, his watch, all his jewels and rings, · · · · 024 · · · · And the clothes he had bought for the trip. · · · · 025 · · He had forty-two boxes , all carefully packed, · · · · 026 · · · · With his name painted clearly on each: · · · · 027 · · But, since he omitted to mention the fact, · · · · 028 · · · · They were all left behind on the beach. · · · · 029 · · The loss of his clothes hardly mattered, because · · · · 030 · · · · He had seven coats on when he came, · · · · 031 · · With three pairs of boots --but the worst of it was, · · · · 032 · · · · He had wholly forgotten his name. · · · · 033 · · He would answer to "Hi!" or to any loud cry, · · · · 034 · · · · Such as " Fry me! " or " Fritter my wig! " · · · · 035 · · To "What-you-may-call-um!" or "What-was-his-name!" · · · · 036 · · · · But especially "Thing-um-a-jig!" · · · · 037 · · While, for those who preferred a more forcible word, · · · · 038 · · · · He had different names from these: · · · · 039 · · His intimate friends called him " Candle-ends ," · · · · 040 · · · · And his enemies " Toasted-cheese ." · · · · 041 · · "His form is ungainly--his intellect small--" · · · · 042 · · · · (So the Bellman would often remark) · · · · 043 · · "But his courage is perfect! And that, after all, · · · · 044 · · · · Is the thing that one needs with a Snark." · · · · 045 · · He would joke with hyenas, returning their stare · · · · 046 · · · · With an impudent wag of the head : · · · · 047 · · And he once went a walk, paw-in-paw, with a bear , · · · · 048 · · · · "Just to keep up its spirits," he said. · · · · 049 · · He came as a Baker: but owned, when too late-- · · · · 050 · · · · And it drove the poor Bellman half-mad-- · · · · 051 · · He could only bake Bridecake--for which, I may state, · · · · 052 · · · · No materials were to be had. · · Background: The Baker in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark has many features in common with Thomas Cramer. Many of his nick names are associated with heat or having been burnt : "Fry me!" or "Fritter my wig!", "Candle-ends" or "Toasted-cheese". Cranmer later was accused of heresy and had to leave his articles behind him before he heroically recanted his recantations: "On 14 February 1556, he was degraded from his episcopal and sacerdotal offices in preparation for execution. Following his trial, Cranmer was put under intense pressure to recant. Desperately lonely and broken, Cranmer at last signed a series of six recantations, the last of which rejected his entire theological development. Although the more traditional practice was to impose a lesser sentence on recanted heretics, Mary maintained that Cranmer should burn . On 21 March 1556, Cranmer was to recant publicly, using a speech that had been endorsed by the government before suffering his punishment. Instead, he stunned the authorities and the gathered crowd by recanting not his earlier theological positions but the recantations themselves. He then ran to the stake and steadfastly held his right hand, the hand that had signed the recantations, in the fire . His heroic end undid much of the government's planned propaganda against him and his Protestant cause and earned him an honored place in Foxe's catalog of Protestant martyrs." ( Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911 ) "Mary Tudor suppressed the 42 Articles when she returned England to the Catholic faith; however, Cranmer's work became the source of the 39 Articles which Elizabeth I established as the doctrinal foundations of the Church of England. There are two editions of the 39 Articles: those of 1563 are in Latin and those of 1571 are in English." ( Victorian Web )

[left]: Segment (devided) of Henry Holiday 's depiction of the Baker's visit to his uncle (1876) in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark (engraved by Joseph Swain). Outside of the window are some of the Baker's 42 boxes. [right]: Anonymous : Segment (two times) of Edward VI and the Pope, An Allegory of Reformation , mirrored view (16th century). Iconoclasm depicted in the window. Under the window (see below) is Thomas Cranmer who wrote the 42 Articles in 1552. In The King's Bedpost: Reformation and Iconography in a Tudor Group Portrait (1994, p. 72), the late Margaret Aston compared the iconoclastic scene to prints depicting the destruction of the Tower of Babel (Philip Galle after Maarten van Heemskerck, 1567). From Margaret Aston's book I learned that the section showing the iconoclasm scene is an inset, not a window. Actually, it may have been an inset which was meant to be perceived as a window as well.

[left]: Detail from Henry Holiday 's depiction of the Baker's 42 boxes in an illustration (engraved by Joseph Swain) to Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark . [right]: Anonymous : Detail from the painting Edward VI and the Pope, An Allegory of Reformation , mirrored view (16th century). Iconoclasm depicted in a window-like inset. Under the inset sits Thomas Cranmer (not visible in this detail) who wrote the 42 Articles in 1552. In The King's Bedpost: Reformation and Iconography in a Tudor Group Portrait (1994, p. 72), the late Margaret Aston compared the iconoclastic scene to prints depicting the destruction of the Tower of Babel (Philip Galle after Maarten van Heemskerck, 1567).

[left]: Segment from Henry Holiday's depiction of the Baker's visit to his uncle (1876) in Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark . Outside of the window are some of the Baker's 42 boxes. [center]: Segment from John Everett Millais : Christ in the House of His Parents (1850). [right]: segment from Edward VI and the Pope , An Allegory of Reformation , mirrored view (Anonymous, 16th century); depiction of iconoclasm. In The King's Bedpost: Reformation and Iconography in a Tudor Group Portrait (1994, p. 72), the late Margaret Aston compared the iconoclastic scene to prints depicting the destruction of the Tower of Babel (Philip Galle after Maarten van Heemskerck, 1567). From Margaret Aston's book I learned that the section showing the iconoclasm scene is an inset, not a window. Actually, I think, it is an inset which was meant to be perceived as a window as well. · Holiday quoted pictorial elements from both paintings [center, right]. I assume that he must have noticed, that Millais quoted from the 16th century painting.