{"id":51,"date":"2013-06-21T11:59:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-21T10:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/?p=51"},"modified":"2024-04-23T10:23:06","modified_gmt":"2024-04-23T09:23:06","slug":"the-tuke-work-experience-project-who-do-you-think-you-are-kidding-mr-bonaparte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/2013\/06\/21\/the-tuke-work-experience-project-who-do-you-think-you-are-kidding-mr-bonaparte\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tuke Work Experience Project: Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Bonaparte?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This week we continue our Tuke themed blog posts with a look at some of the poetry found in the collection, written by one of our work experience students, Rebecca. You can catch up by reading Part I here.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Studying personal documents from the early nineteenth century, I inevitably found myself looking out for glimpses of major political events; the Napoleonic Wars in particular. I found there to be surprisingly little. I suppose it\u2019s one of those \u2018topical silences\u2019 \u2013 letters are going to be about the personal and the everyday, not the grand and international. It\u2019s not like I ever wrote about the Iraq war in my letters of the last decade. But I have to say that a selection of comedic poems was not somewhere I expected to find my first reference to Bonaparte (TUKE\/2\/1\/13\/1\/3). It makes sense though, and it\u2019s a really fun read. The kind of tongue-in-cheek mockery and teasing bravado reminds me of the theme song to Dad\u2019s Army; who do you think you are kidding, Mr. Bonaparte?<\/p>\n\n\n

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I understand Bonaparte, you still think to come <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To frighten Old England with the beat of your drum <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But take my advice, & never come near us, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For if you land here you\u2019ll have reason to fear us, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you ever mix with us, to eat up our bread, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will lull you to sleep with a potion of Lead <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We need stop neither Harrows nor ploughs to find men, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should we meet in the field you\u2019ll find fifty for ten, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For our Bricklayers lads & our wool-combers Boys, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With our guns can play better than yours with Toys <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes our very Thimbling tribe can all with great skill, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Use their daggers for their daggers as swords a henchman to kill, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Believe me friend Bonney you\u2019ll be left in the Lurch <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whenever you try to demolish our Church; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of your life you will find I speak truth, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And wish for the Solitude you passed in your youth, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So Huzza to old England if \u2018ere you dare come, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For we fear neither you nor the beat of your Drum <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the bells in our steeples shall merrily ring <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And our young men & maidens will joyfully sing, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fame of brave Britons to you is not new, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So we\u2019ll use no more ink but to bid you adieu.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Rebecca found other interesting poetry snippets in the collection, like these written by Favilla Copsie:<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poem (below) was written by Favilla Copsie (n\u00e9e Scott), probably in 1807, and is mentioned in letters from her sister Mary Maria Tuke (n\u00e9e Scott) (TUKE\/1\/6\/1\/6\/24) and her son James Favil Copsie (TUKE\/1\/37\/1\/9\/7, TUKE\/1\/37\/1\/9\/8). <\/p>\n\n\n

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Favilla evidently enjoyed writing poetry, and we have a selection of her other poems, which often take the form of everyday correspondence. They\u2019re wonderful to read;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2018my dearest James I use this Ink \/\/ to let you see on you I think\u2026 first I must thank you for your thimble \/\/ which make my needle run quite nimble\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018my Dear Cousin Esther do you go to the Ball \/\/ tho I hope before that you will give me a Call\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Little gems like this which seem at once so alien and so familiar made the week\u2019s work experience really absorbing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To read more about our student volunteers’ work with the Tuke archive, please see Growing Up Tuke<\/a> and Views of York<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week we continue our Tuke themed blog posts with a look at some of the poetry found in the collection, written by one of our work experience students, Rebecca. You can catch up by reading Part I here. Studying personal documents from the early nineteenth century, I inevitably found myself looking out for glimpses … Continue reading The Tuke Work Experience Project: Who do you think you are kidding, Mr Bonaparte?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[21,12,25,24,20],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-19th-century","tag-borthwick-trainees","tag-napoleonic-wars","tag-poetry","tag-tuke-family"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","custom_fields":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":[""],"_edit_lock":["1714047398:242"],"_last_editor_used_jetpack":["block-editor"],"_wp_old_date":["2024-04-22"]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.york.ac.uk\/borthwick-institute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}