Genre:

Extract, Drollery

Publications extracted:

New Monthly Magazine

Subjects:

Religion, Disease, Medical Treatment

    The author discusses the religious sects to which various actors are supposed to belong. It is suggested that Joseph Grimaldi, 'after being long a Jumper, has lately fallen into some whimsical theories respecting the Fall of Man; which he understands, not of an allegorical, but a real tumble, by which the whole body of humanity became, as it were, lame to the performance of good works'. He uses various medical tropes to describe the different aspects of religion; these, the author notes, are 'a fanciful mode of illustration derived from the accidents and habits of his past calling spiritualized, rather than from any accurate acquaintance with the Hebrew text'. (255)