Hey Presto!

<div>In this book the author reveals how medicine shows both ancient and modern galvanized Jonathan Swift's imagination and inspired his wittiest satiric voices. Swift dubbed these multifaceted traveling entertainments his <i>Stage-itinerant</i> or Mountebank's Stage. In the course of arguing that the stage-itinerant formed an irresistible model for <i>A Tale of a Tub</i> Ormsby-Lennon also surmises that the mountebank's stage will disclose that missing link long sought which connects the twin objects of Swift's ire: gross corruptions in both religion and learning. In the early modern medicine show the quack doctor delivered a loquacious harangue infused with magico-mysticism and pseudoscience high-astounding promises and boastful narcissism. To help him sell his panaceas and snake-oil he employed a Merry Andrew and a motley troupe of performers. From their stages many quacks also peddled their own books almanacs and other ephemera providing Grub Street with many of its best-sellers. Hacks practiced quite literally as quacks. Merry Andrew and mountebank traded costumes whiskers and voices. Swift apes them all in the <i>Tale</i>.<br> <br> Published by University of Delaware Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.<br>  </div>