“Born irreverent,” scrawled Mark Twain on a scratch pad, “--like all
other people I have ever known or heard of--I am hoping to remain
so while there are any reverent irreverences left to make fun of.”
--[Holograph manuscript of Samuel L. Clemens, in the collection of the
F. J. Meine]
Mark Twain was just as irreverent as he dared be, and 1601 reveals
his richest expression of sovereign contempt for overstuffed language,
genteel literature, and conventional idiocies. Later, when a magazine
editor apostrophized, “O that we had a Rabelais!” Mark impishly
and anonymously--submitted 1601; and that same editor, a praiser of
Rabelais, scathingly abused it and the sender. In this episode, as in
many others, Mark Twain, the “bad boy” of American literature, revealed
his huge delight in blasting the shams of contemporary hypocrisy. Too,
there was always the spirit of Tom Sawyer deviltry in Mark's make-up
that prompted him, as he himself boasted, to see how much holy
indignation he could stir up in the world.