It is with some very considerable hesitation that I come to this
portion of my personal recollections, and yet I feel that I owe it to
my fellow-citizens in this delightful Stygian country, where we are
all enjoying our well-earned rest, to lay before them the exact truth
concerning certain incidents which have now passed into history, and
for participation in which a number of familiar figures are improperly
gaining all the credit, or discredit, as the case may be. It is not a
pleasant task to expose an impostor; much less is it agreeable to expose
four impostors; but to one who from the earliest times--and when I say
earliest times I speak advisedly, as you will see as you read on--to
one, I say, who from the earliest times has been actuated by no other
motive than the promulgation of truth, the task of exposing fraud
becomes a duty which cannot be ignored. Therefore, with regret I set
down this chapter of my memoirs, regardless of its consequences to
certain figures which have been of no inconsiderable importance in our
community for many years--figures which in my own favorite club, the
Associated Shades, have been most welcome, but which, as I and they
alone know, have been nothing more than impostures.
In previous volumes I have confined my attention to my memoirs as Baron
Munchausen--but, dear reader, there are others. I WAS NOT ALWAYS BARON
MUNCHAUSEN; I HAVE BEEN OTHERS! I am not aware that it has fallen to the
lot of any but myself in the whole span of universal existence to live
more than one life upon that curious, compact little ball of land
and water called the Earth, but, in any event, to me has fallen that
privilege or distinction, or whatever it may be, and upon the record
made by me in four separate existences, placed centuries apart, four
residents of this sphere are basing their claims to notice, securing
election to our clubs, and even venturing so far at times as to make
themselves personally obnoxious to me, who with a word could expose
their wicked deceit in all its naked villainy to an astounded community.
And in taking this course they have gone too far. There is a limit
beyond which no man shall dare go with me. Satisfied with the ultimate
embodiment of my virtues in the Baron Munchausen, I have been disposed
to allow the impostors to pursue their deception in peace so long as
they otherwise behave themselves, but when Adam chooses to allude to
my writings as frothy lies, when Jonah attacks my right as a literary
person to tell tales of leviathans, when Noah states that my ignorance
in yachting matters is colossal, and when William Shakespeare publicly
brands me as a person unworthy of belief who should be expelled from the
Associated Shades, then do I consider it time to speak out and expose
four of the greatest frauds that have ever been inflicted upon a
long-suffering public.
To begin at the beginning then, let me state that my first recollection
dates back to a beautiful summer morning, when in a lovely garden I
opened my eyes and became conscious of two very material facts: first, a
charming woman arranging her hair in the mirror-like waters of a silver
lake directly before me; and, second, a poignant pain in my side, as
though I had been operated upon for appendicitis, but which in reality
resulted from the loss of a rib which had in turn evoluted into the
charming and very human being I now saw before me. That woman was Eve;
that mirror-like lake was set in the midst of the Garden of Eden; I was
Adam, and not this watery-eyed antediluvian calling himself by my name,
who is a familiar figure in the Anthropological Society, an authority on
evolution, and a blot upon civilization.
I have little to say about this first existence of mine. It was full
of delights. Speech not having been invented, Eve was an attractive
companion to a man burdened as I was with responsibilities, and until
our children were born we went our way in happiness and silence. It is
not in the nature of things, however, that children should not wish to
talk, and it was through the irrepressible efforts of Cain and Abel
to be heard as well as seen that first called the attention of Eve and
myself to the desirability of expressing our thoughts in words rather
than by masonic signs.
I shall not burden my readers with further recollections of this period.
It was excessively primitive, of necessity, but before leaving it I must
ask the reader to put one or two questions to himself in this matter.
1st. How is it that this bearded patriarch, who now poses as the only
original Adam, has never been able, with any degree of positiveness, to
answer the question as to whether or not he was provided with a caudal
appendage--a question which I am prepared to answer definitely, at any
moment, if called upon by the proper authorities, and, if need be, to
produce not only the tail itself, but the fierce and untamed pterodactyl
that bit it off upon that unfortunate autumn afternoon when he and I had
our first and last conflict.
2d. Why is it that when describing a period concerning which he is
supposed to know all, he seems to have given voice to sentiments in
phrases which would have delighted Sheridan and shed added glory upon
the eloquence of Webster, AT A TIME WHEN, AS I HAVE ALREADY SHOWN, THERE
WAS NO SUCH THING AS SPEECH?
Upon these two points alone I rest my case against Adam: the first is
the reticence of guilt--he doesn't know, and he knows he doesn't know;
the second is a deliberate and offensive prevarication, which shows
again that he doesn't know, and assumes that we are all equally
ignorant.
So much for Adam. Now for the cheap and year-ridden person who has
taken unto himself my second personality, Noah; and that other strange
combination of woe and wickedness, Jonah, who has chosen to pre-empt
my third. I shall deal with both at one and the same time, for, taken
separately, they are not worthy of notice.
Noah asserts that I know nothing of yachting. I will accept the charge
with the qualification that I know a great sight more about Arking than
he does; and as for Jonah, I can give Jonah points on whaling, and I
hereby challenge them both to a Memoir Match for $2000 a side, in gold,
to see which can give to the world the most interesting reminiscences
concerning the cruises of the two craft in question, the Ark and the
Whale, upon neither of which did either of these two anachronisms ever
set foot, and of both of which I, in my two respective existences, was
commander-in-chief. The fact is that, as in the case of the fictitious
Adam, these two impersonators are frauds. The man now masquerading as
Noah was my hired man in the latter part of the antediluvian period; was
discharged three years before the flood; was left on shore at the hour
of departure, and when last seen by me was sitting on the top of an
apple-tree, begging to do two men's work for nothing if we'd only let
him out of the wet. If he will at any time submit to a cross-examination
at my hands as to the principal events of that memorable voyage, I will
show to any fair-minded judge how impossible is his claim that he was
in command, or even afloat, after the first week. I have hitherto kept
silent in this matter, in spite of many and repeated outrageous flings,
for the sake of his--or rather my--family, who have been deceived,
as have all the rest of us, barring, of course, myself. References to
portraits of leading citizens of that period will easily show how this
can be. We were all alike as two peas in the olden days, and at a
time when men reached to an advanced age which is not known now, it
frequently became almost impossible to distinguish one old man from
another. I will say, finally, in regard to this person Noah that if he
can give to the public a statement telling the essential differences
between a pterodactyl and a double spondee that will not prove utterly
absurd to an educated person, I will withdraw my accusation and resign
from the club. BUT I KNOW WELL HE CANNOT DO IT, and he does too, and
that is about the extent of his knowledge.
Now as to Jonah. I really dislike very much to tread upon this worthy's
toes, and I should not do it had he not chosen to clap an injunction
upon a volume of Tales of the Whales, which I wrote for children last
summer, claiming that I was infringing upon his copyright, and feeling
that I as a self-respecting man would never claim the discredit of
having myself been the person he claims to have been. I will candidly
confess that I am not proud of my achievements as Jonah. I was a very
oily person even before I embarked upon the seas as Lord High Admiral
of H.M.S. Leviathan. I was not a pleasant person to know. If I spent
the night with a friend, his roof would fall in or his house would burn
down. If I bet on a horse, he would lead up to the home-stretch and fall
down dead an inch from the finish. If I went into a stock speculation,
I was invariably caught on a rising or a falling market. In my youth I
spoiled every yachting-party I went on by attracting a gale. When I came
out the moon went behind a cloud, and people who began by endorsing my
paper ended up in the poor-house. Commerce wouldn't have me. Boards of
Trade everywhere repudiated me, and I gradually sank into that state of
despair which finds no solace anywhere but on the sea or in politics,
and as politics was then unknown I went to sea. The result is known
to the world. I was cast overboard, ingulfed by a whale, which, in his
defence let me be generous enough to say, swallowed me inadvertently
and with the usual result. I came back, and life went on. Finally I
came here, and when it got to the ears of the authorities that I was in
Hades, they sent me back for the fourth time to earth in the person of
William Shakespeare.
That is the whole of the Jonah story. It is a sad story, and I regret
it; and I am sorry for the impostor when I reflect that the character he
has assumed possesses attractions for him. His real life must have
been a fearful thing if he is happy in his impersonation, and for his
punishment let us leave him where he is. Having told the truth, I
have done my duty. I cheerfully resign my claim to the personality he
claims--I relinquish from this time on all right, title, and interest in
the name; but if he ever dares to interfere with me again in the use of
my personal recollections concerning the inside of whales I shall hale
him before the authorities.
And now, finally, I come to Shakespeare, whom I have kept for the last,
not because he was the last chronologically, but because I like to work
up to a climax.
Previous to my existence as Baron Munchausen I lived for a term of years
on earth as William Shakespeare, and what I have to say now is more in
the line of confession than otherwise.
In my boyhood I was wild and I poached. If I were not afraid of having
it set down as a joke, I should say that I poached everything from eggs
to deer. I was not a great joy to my parents. There was no deviltry in
Stratford in which I did not take a leading part, and finally, for the
good of Warwickshire, I was sent to London, where a person of my talents
was more likely to find congenial and appreciative surroundings. A
glance at such of my autographs as are now extant will demonstrate the
fact that I never learned to write; a glance at the first folios of the
plays attributed to me will likewise show that I never learned to spell;
and yet I walked into London with one of the most exquisite poems in the
English language in my pocket. I am still filled with merriment over it.
How was it, the critics of the years since have asked--how was it that
this untutored little savage from leafy Warwickshire, with no training
and little education, came into London with “Venus and Adonis” in
manuscript in his pocket? It is quite evident that the critic fraternity
have no Sherlock Holmes in their midst. It would not take much of an
eye, a true detective's eye, to see the milk in that cocoanut, for it
is but a simple tale after all. The way of it was this: On my way
from Stratford to London I walked through Coventry, and I remained in
Coventry overnight. I was ill-clad and hungry, and, having no money with
which to pay for my supper, I went to the Royal Arms Hotel and offered
my services as porter for the night, having noted that a rich cavalcade
from London, en route to Kenilworth, had arrived unexpectedly at the
Royal Arms. Taken by surprise, and, therefore, unprepared to accommodate
so many guests, the landlord was glad to avail himself of my services,
and I was assigned to the position of boots. Among others whom I served
was Walter Raleigh, who, noting my ragged condition and hearing what a
roisterer and roustabout I had been, immediately took pity upon me, and
gave me a plum-colored court-suit with which he was through, and which
I accepted, put upon my back, and next day wore off to London. It was
in the pocket of this that I found the poem of “Venus and Adonis.” That
poem, to keep myself from starving, I published when I reached London,
sending a complimentary copy of course to my benefactor. When Raleigh
saw it he was naturally surprised but gratified, and on his return to
London he sought me out, and suggested the publication of his sonnets.
I was the first man he'd met, he said, who was willing to publish his
stuff on his own responsibility. I immediately put out some of the
sonnets, and in time was making a comfortable living, publishing the
anonymous works of most of the young bucks about town, who paid well for
my imprint. That the public chose to think the works were mine was none
of my fault. I never claimed them, and the line on the title-page, “By
William Shakespeare,” had reference to the publisher only, and not, as
many have chosen to believe, to the author. Thus were published Lord
Bacon's “Hamlet,” Raleigh's poems, several plays of Messrs. Beaumont
and Fletcher--who were themselves among the cleverest adapters of the
times--and the rest of that glorious monument to human credulity and
memorial to an impossible, wholly apocryphal genius, known as the works
of William Shakespeare. The extent of my writing during this incarnation
was ten autographs for collectors, and one attempt at a comic opera
called “A Midsummer's Nightmare,” which was never produced, because no
one would write the music for it, and which was ultimately destroyed
with three of my quatrains and all of Bacon's evidence against my
authorship of “Hamlet,” in the fire at the Globe Theatre in the year
1613.
These, then, dear reader, are the revelations which I have to make.
In my next incarnation I was the man I am now known to be, Baron
Munchausen. As I have said, I make the exposure with regret, but the
arrogance of these impudent impersonators of my various personalities
has grown too great to be longer borne. I lay the simple story of their
villany before you for what it is worth. I have done my duty. If after
this exposure the public of Hades choose to receive them in their homes
and at their clubs, and as guests at their functions, they will do it
with a full knowledge of their duplicity.
In conclusion, fearing lest there be some doubters among the readers
of this paper, I have allowed my friend, the editor of this esteemed
journal, which is to publish this story exclusively on Sunday next, free
access to my archives, and he has selected as exhibits of evidence, to
which I earnestly call your attention, the originals of the cuts which
illustrate this chapter--viz: