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| Mary Toft – The Pretended Rabbit Breeder |
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n As the fingers started to point, the accusationsnstarted to fly and reputations started to crumble, it is hardly unsurprisingnthat anyone and everyone involved attempted to put as much distance as wasnhumanly possible between themselves and the whole sorry business.
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nThere werenthose who claimed that if only they had been consulted, then theirnexpert eyes would have seen straight through the pretence and they would havenexposed the fraud right from the beginning.
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nThere were those that claimed thatnit was only because of their involvement that the fraud had been exposednanyway.
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nThere were those who claimed that they weren’t the only ones to havenbeen taken in, and wouldn’t it have been better if some of these so-callednexperts had said something about their suspicions in the first place.
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nTherenwere others who said nothing and hoped that if they kept their heads down andntheir mouths shut, then people would forget that they had been involved and itnall might just go away.
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nAnd then there were those who hadn’t had anything atnall to do with it, but recognised an opportunity to settle a few scores, ornjust to stir things up a little, when it presented itself to them.
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| Sir Richard Manningham – An Exact Diary – 1726 |
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nOne of thenfirst to get his retaliation in early was Sir Richard Manningham, the highlynrespected surgeon and obstetrician, who published his highly detailed AnnExact Diary not long after the storm broke.
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| Sir Richard Manningham – Artis Obstetricariae Compendium – 1754 |
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nHe makes it quite clearnthat he recognises a fraud when he sees one; he names those who had been takennin by it and those who had, like himself, believed the case to be an imposturenfrom the outset.
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| The Anatomist Dissected – 1727 |
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nNathaniel St André had gambled and lost. He had published hisnaccount early, and if the events had been genuine then he would have been anmedical sensation; as it was, when the fraud was exposed, his credulity andnlack of judgement were all too clearly exposed. He attempted to put thingsnright by publishing a retraction that, if anything, made things worse.
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| Much Ado About Nothing – 1727 |
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nIn MuchnAdo About Nothing, a supposed confession by Mary Toft herself appeared,nwritten in broken English, and satirising her alleged illiteracy. It is a cruelnconstruction, but it does not limit itself to attacking Toft, as all thenmedical men involved are presented as if from Toft’s impressions of them. So,nSt André is described as
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n“… a pritty Gentilman, hoo had a charmin rawbit,nand more thon that plaid swetly on the fiddil, and cut capors as hy as aninthink: He wood have jumpt the Lord noes ware; if he mowt hav hadhis will, andnfhakt the powdar out of his wig; but I likt him the bettar for all that.”n
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nManningham gets a pounding too –
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n“But the wurst of them all was anfine-faced, long-nofed Gentilman with a neck lik a crane; he was for purforminnan oppurafhun, as he call’d it, and tawkt of infifhuns, and Cefariums, and thenLord noes wat: but the othur Gentilman wood not let him, for which I fhallnalwas pray for um.”n
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| The Rabbit-Woman’s Confession – 1727 |
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nMuch Ado is crude, but it was by no ways thencrudest, as the subject matter was packed with the ideal fodder for the bawdynEnglish humourists. Some were anonymous; some were published anonymouslynalthough their authors are known, and some aren’t really fit to be quoted in a blog that your wife or your servant might read.
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n“Such pangs, such convulsions, suchngropings before,n
nWere never endur’d by an honest woman or whore;n
nFor sure as StnAndré was poison’d, not clapp’d,n
nThe bones of a rabbet in her uterus crack’d.”n
nSt A_d_é’s Miscarriage.n
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n“The Doctor search’d both high and low,n
nAnd found nonrabbit there,n
nBut, peeping nearer, cry’d So! Ho!n
nI’m sure I’ve found a HARE.”n
nThe Rabbit-Man Midwife.n
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| Pope and Pulteney – The Discovery: or, The Squire turn’d Ferret – 1727 |
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nOr how about this, by Alexander Pope and WilliamnPulteney,
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n“The surgeon with a rabbit came,n
nBut first in pieces cut it,n
nThennslyly thrust it up that same,n
nAs far as man could put it.”n
nThe Discovery:nor, The Squire turn’d Ferret.n
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nNor was the phenomena limited only to doggerel.nWilliam Hogarth was inspired to produce two engravings by the case of Mary Toft.
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| William Hogarth – Cunicularii – 1726 |
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nThe first,nwhich is solely dedicated to the case, is Cunicularii: or, The Wise Men ofnGodliman in Consultation (1726), which depicts Mary Toft lying on a bed,nsurrounded by physicians, including St André, Maubray, Howard and Manningham,nwith a litter of baby rabbits dashing about the chamber floor.
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| Hogarth – Credulity, Superstition and Fanaticism – 1762 |
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nIn another, Credulity,nSuperstition and Fanaticism (1762), amongst other examples of popularndelusions, Mary Toft lies on the chapel floor, with a stream of rabbits issuingnfrom beneath her dress.
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| Hogarth – Detail – Credulity, Superstition and Fanaticism – 1762 |
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nYou might be forgiven for thinking that after theninitial furore had died away, that that would be the end of the matter andneveryone went back to their gainful employment, but oh no, not by a long chalk.
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nYou might also be forgiven for thinking that the chap who took over from Isaac Newtonnas Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University would have had hisnhead screwed on properly, (then again, if you believe Isaac Newton possessednsufficient sandwiches for a proper picnic, it may be that you need to read anbiography of that crazy old scientist).
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nAnyway, when Newton stepped down, hisnchair went to one William Whiston, mathematician, historian and theologian,nwho, among other things, produced creditable translations of the works of thenJewish historian, Josephus.
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| William Whiston – Memoirs Part III – 1753 |
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nHe was also of the opinion that Noah’s flood hadnbeen caused by a comet, but was at a loss to explain where the waters of thendeluge had gone when the flood was finished and done with. Whiston was annadvocate of Arianism, a heretical doctrine that held that since Christ was thenSon of God, he must necessarily have been created after God, thus making himndistinct from, and inferior to, the Father.
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nThese beliefs were enough from himnto be relieved of his chair and professorship at Cambridge, and although hentried to form his own sect, little came of it. Whiston also believed that thenBible was a prophetic book, that an earthquake would kill 7,000 men in Londonnand that the rest would convert, and that the Millennium, with the return ofnChrist to earth, would begin in 1766.
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| Esdras II Book V Chapter 8 |
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nIn Part III of his Memoirs,npublished in 1753 (the year after his death), Whiston turns his gaze to thenprophecies in the biblical Apocrypha, particularly those in the books ofnEsdras. In Esdras II, Book V, Chapter 8, is found,
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n“There shall be anconfusion also in many places, and the fire shall be oft sent out again, andnthe wild beasts shall change their places, and menstruous Women shall bringnforth monsters.”n
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nSo where, do you imagine, that Whiston looked for evidencenof this bringing forth of monsters that was leading up to the imminentnApocalypse? Why, in amongst his others, is the case of Mary Toft, bringer forthnof monstrous rabbits.
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| William Whiston – Memoirs III – Esdras II – 1753 |
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nBut Whiston is no naive fool, he has read all thenliterature about the case, including St André, Manningham and Douglas, and evennthough he acknowledges that
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n“The story has been so long laughed out ofncountenance,”n
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nhe reviews the evidence and concludes that since Mary Toftnwas never brought to trial for her crimes, there must not have been anyncredible evidence that she was part of a fraud, and thus it all must have beenntrue, because it is proof that the prophecies in Esdras are also true. Andnanyone who says otherwise is just another in the long line of scoffers,nsceptics and unbelievers.
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nConspiracy theorists are not a recent invention.
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